Racism in America

Posted on January 13, 2010 by 40andover

Harry Reid is an ass for saying what he said but, unfortunately, I can’t imagine that he is alone in thinking this way.

And we should talk about it.

President Obama is a transformative figure in so many ways but right now, most minority candidates don’t have a credible chance at national elective office. Not even a wise Latina.

And we should talk about it.

But let’s not confuse Harry Reid with Trent Lott. Trent Lott, when toasting segregationalist and white supremacist Strom Thurmond, told an admiring crowd that life would have been a lot different if Thurmond were elected president in the 40s and 50s when he ran for the office. Harry Reid was talking about Barack Obama’s appeal to the electorate; Trent Lott was talking about the continuation of Jim Crow. The comparison is made only for political gain.

Weave these threads into your reality

Posted on December 17, 2009 by 40andover

In one city, Costco takes tomatoes off its shelves because Sarah Palin is scheduled to appear. I am sure that Costco wanted to protect the tomatoes from an ignoble end.

In Copenhagen, 193 nations are trying to agree on something — anything. When was the last time you got consensus in a family of three members?

Did you know that the food industry is responsible for 1/3 of all of the world’s carbon emissions? Give up grapes in winter and the save the world.

We are trying to agree with China on important things — North Korea, carbon emissions, sanctions for Iran. How about we start with something small, like, “it’s a lovely day, isn’t it?”

Now, no one likes the health care reform bill. The Congress behaved so badly, but of course it is Obama’s fault.

A Republican senator wanted to run out the clock on health care by requiring the reading of a laborious and largely symbolic amendment to the health care legislation. Debate, I get. Screaming and yelling, sure. Stonewalling? Outrageous. That senator ought to be in the penalty box for the rest of his term.

I can drive my Hummer, but Obama, Obama, needs to save us from Waterworld (I really can’t handle that horrible 1980s/90s movie turning out to be prophetic).

If Obama doesn’t fix health care, lower carbon emissions, balance the budget, reduce the deficit and increase jobs, ALL IN ONE YEAR, he will have failed. If I remember my anniversary, I am golden for 12 months. Wow, his job really sucks.

Being a pundit or a talking head must be great. Sanctimony with no responsibility.

Afghanistan

Posted on December 2, 2009 by 40andover

WAR. We are a nation at war. We forget that because, since September 11, 2001, no bombs have fallen on our cities. WAR.

WAR. Everyday some of our children go to war and die for our collective safety. WAR.

WAR. Our representatives in Congress voted for two wars. So, these are our wars. We own them. Don’t look away because it is too ugly to watch. WAR.

WAR. You cannot turn it off like the TV. It keeps on even when you cannot stand to hear another word about it. WAR.

WAR. The real enemies are not as easily vanquished as are TV villains. The real enemies want to kill our soldiers and defeat us. WAR.

WAR. And they and we have more and better weapons to inflict wounds than doctors have resources to heal them. WAR.

WAR. Even if soldiers come back in one physical piece, they have sacrificed their minds and happiness to the memories of war that time cannot erase. WAR.

WAR. We didn’t think long enough when we sent young people to die in Iraq. President Obama thought long and hard about Afghanistan, as he should, because this is WAR.

WAR. If my son goes, then I go, too. If there is a cause for which he should risk his life, then it is a cause worth risking mine. WAR.

WAR. I pray that lives lost in Afghanistan are not lost in vain, as they were in Iraq. Let us never be so easy about sacrificing lives again. WAR.

WAR. It is a small word. It is a great tragedy. WAR.

Arrogant

Posted on November 23, 2009 by 40andover

That is the buzz word that Republicans are using to describe the Democrats’ attempting to reform health care in this country.

Arrogant is how the Republicans have behaved. “No” is not a reform plan. What is arrogant (and unconscionable) is that Republicans dare to use the word “arrogant” when referring to the Democrats.

The Democrats are struggling to reform a broken system and keep costs down (or at least tax those who can best afford it). The Republicans (save two senators and one representative) have done nothing.

Mitch McConnell, you should be ashamed.

Democrats are imploding

Posted on November 20, 2009 by 40andover

The GOP can just buy popcorn, sit back and reeeeeelax. The Democrats are snatching defeat out of the mouth of victory.

We have Democrats who won’t let the health bill out of committee for a debate. Not a vote. A debate. Joe Lieberman, Mr. GOP in an IND’s clothes is also squelching debate. And to think he was almost a DEMOCRATIC Vice President.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH DEBATE?? Yes, if it goes to debate and most people vote on party lines, it will pass, so those opposed definitely want to kill it in committee where it takes a super-majority to open debate (a little ODD if you ask me) but that is the risk with democratically elected representatives.

Also, will the Democrats PUH-LEEEEEEZE stop spending TARP money. Everyone wants to claim a couple billion here and there to fund projects.

Before we spend more, let’s see if it is necessary. In the meantime, reduce our daily interest costs by paying down the deficit. Do you like paying half a billion a day to service our enormous debt?If my father thought that I ever carried a balance on my credit cards, he would wonder if he raised me right. (For a year or so in law school, I did.)

All this does is make it impossible for our President to succeed. And, if he fails, America fails. We cannot stand still and survive as a prosperous nation and a superpower.

(As much as I disagreed with George Bush, I always hoped he was right because he was (at least once) the democratically elected President of the United States.)

Enough Polling, Please

Posted on November 18, 2009 by 40andover

What I have learned by being sick at home watching news shows in between naps and flu-induced coma like behavior:

There is a “just released” poll for everything nowadays. There are instant polls and twitter polls. There are online polls and telephone polls. While the actual number crunching may be scientific, there is nothing scientific about the responses.

Let’s say my commute took twice as long as normal and my boss was angry that I was late to a meeting and all of a sudden because of the economy I am a little more nervous about job security than I might have been two years ago. Now someone calls me tonight and asks, how am I feeling about the economy. My answer may be “lousy”. The day before I might have said, “stabilizing”. The poll measures how you feel at that moment which isn’t right or wrong — it just isn’t the whole picture.

Also the way the question is asked often leads to a more optimistic or pessimistic answer. “Do you feel the country is on the wrong course?” “Do you think that President Obama is indecisive on Afghanistan?”

Or if you use a measure of 100 days or 1000 days or 5 minutes, it gives immediate legitimacy to the notion that these are relevant time measures for progress on incredibly complicated and pervasive issues. Go figure.

Maybe a better poll would ask, “over the past 6 months, has your outlook changed on [insert crisis du jour]? And how has your outlook changed?” And even that can be corrupted if you use a benchmark date. “Since Labor Day, how have you been feeling about [insert crisis du jour]?” Chances are that that question will elicit a negative response because end of summer is bittersweet. Ask people on Thanksgiving Day and the answers may be more philosophical.

I am of course exaggerating, and I must confess that I am unencumbered by fact, information and background in poll taking. But I can’t imagine that these things don’t have an effect.

The biggest danger is that instant polling, first 100-day polling and second 100-day polling cement these arbitrary time frames and in a time where instant gratification and diminishing attention spans are prevailing social disorders, this is frightening indeed.

Funny how soon they forget . . .

Posted on November 2, 2009 by 40andover

Dick Cheney is laser sharp in his criticism of the current Administration and in his trumpeting of his initiatives during his 8-year Reign of Terror. His memory for his accomplishments is uncanny.

Oh, wait, there is that inconvenient incident in which he outed an intelligence officer because her husband was critical of Cheney’s intelligence gathering and evidence supporting the Iraq War. What was her name again? He couldn’t remember anything when pressed by federal prosecutors. He couldn’t “recall” 72 times.

Dick, let me help you.

Her name is Valerie Plame. She worked for the CIA defending and protecting this country.

But, her husband doubted on your fabricated evidence for war, so you exposed a patriotic American, a defender of our safety and way of life and, by extension, you put in harm’s way ALL OF THOSE AGENTS WITH WHOM SHE WORKED.

And, you can’t remember. Is it because you did it so often?

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By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer Pete Yost, Associated Press Writer – Mon Nov 2, 6:34 am ET

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that “there is a cloud over the vice president.” Last week’s release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney’s answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way.

On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy.

The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks of Plame’s CIA identity were orchestrated at the highest level of the White House and carried out by, among others, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff.

Among the most basic questions for Cheney in the Plame probe: How did Libby find out that the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson worked at the CIA?

Libby’s own handwritten notes suggest Libby found out from Cheney. When Libby discovered Cheney’s reference to Plame and the CIA in his notes — notes that Libby knew he would soon have to turn over to the FBI — the chief of staff went to the vice president, probably in late September or early October 2003.

Sharing the information with Cheney was in itself an unusual step at the outset of a criminal investigation in which potential White House witnesses were being ordered by their superiors not to talk to each other about the Plame matter.

[rest of article omitted]

Finally, a Hate Crime Bill Goes to the White House

Posted on October 22, 2009 by 40andover

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/10/senate_approves_hate_crimes_me.html?referrer=email

It is great that there is a federal hate crimes bill that will protect gays and lesbians. Unfortunately, it had to appended to a bill authorizing pay increases for our troops in order to pass. And, there is some pork barrel spending that Obama opposes in the bill and he will get tagged with perpetuating wasteful spending.

It is sad that there couldn’t be three separate bills: “clean” appropriations bill for our troops, a clean hate crimes bill, and a clean bill on the controversial spending item. They have nothing in common.

It is uncomfortable sometimes to look too closely into how we are governed. But look, we must.

Hey, Blue Dog Democrats, it is time to decide

Posted on October 22, 2009 by 40andover

http://www.whorunsgov.com/Projects/Reform_Tracker/Bluedogs

Some Blue Dog Democrats are undecided about any or all of the following options: public option, cooperatives, free market, individual mandatory coverage.

It is no longer ok for you all to stay undecided. You need to take a stand, one way or another, on each of these options. If you take a principled stand, you will be respected even if people disagree.

But if you wait to see which way the winds of public opinion blow, you might experience a blow-out in the next election cycle.

Times a’wastin’.

FOOTBALL — Orrin Hatch’s Legislative Priority

Posted on October 21, 2009 by 40andover

You can’t make this stuff up.

We are fighting for economic recovery, we are fighting two wars, we are fighting multiple insurgents in the health care industry, we are trying to save the planet from our carbon emissions, we are trying to prevent nuclear proliferation and SENATOR ORRIN HATCH WANTS THE PRESIDENT TO INTERVENE ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL CHAMPIONSHIPS?

Sen. Hatch says there is some antitrust violation involved in the way the championships are decided. Senator, there may be another antitrust violation, too. It involves health care. Maybe you read about it.

Orrin, Orrin, Orrin. Do we live on the same planet? Don’t you have pressing matters of state in the Senate that require your UNDIVIDED focus? Are our national problems a joke to you? If you were a senator from New York, I would start a campaign to recall you.

By the way, in No-Where-istan, we have no organized sports leagues. Since No-Where-istan lives in my head, cleats would be painful.

********************************************************************************************

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 9 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Shortly after winning last year’s presidential election, Barack Obama said he was going to “to throw my weight around a little bit” to nudge college football’s Bowl Championship Series to move to a playoff system.

On Wednesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch took him up on that.

Hatch asked the president to launch a Justice Department investigation into the way the BCS — a complex system of computer rankings and polls that often draws criticism — crowns its national champion.

“Mr. President, as you have publicly stated on multiple occasions, the BCS system is in dire need of reform,” Hatch, R-Utah, wrote in a 10-page letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

Hatch, who held a hearing on the BCS in July, told Obama that a “strong case” can be made that the BCS violates antitrust laws.