All countries eventaully decline. It is the natural order of things. Leadership is not easy. Nations, by their nature, like people, are ever in competition. Some find their greatness in being second, third or 33rd. The nations that make up the top 20 in the world, are in their respective positions pretty much because that is where they want to be.
Some are in flux, certainly. Russia is always either rising or declining, depending on the price of oil and some other things. China is rising. Some in Eastern Europe are rising but there is not so much room for these smaller, less powerful nations so they will jostle and fight for their places somewhere between 40 and 20 and be happy.
The United States of America is arguably still number one. Then again, how do we define this? Is it GDP, GNP, level of education, level of health care, percentage of GDP spent on health care, level of deficits, miles of road, number of infant deaths per thousand, number of deaths by hand guns each year, etc.?
Or, is it the amazingly unmeasurable notion of "freedom" that makes us number one? Is it the amazing system of balances that our government still flaunts so many years after its inception? Truly, this is one of the greatest contributions to modern governing. Our ability to always find a way to recalibrate the scales so that no one branch ever becomes too powerful is simply mystifying to the world. It prevents something like Nazi Germany from ever happening in America.
It is a Constitution
Foreigners just don't believe that this system exists; they can't because it suggests that there is a certain selflessness amongst the leaders of these three branches. It suggests that the leaders of the three branches are devoted to something even grander than their own tenuous grips on power: they are all beholden to a Constitution.
The Bush II people, and Cheney still, made the most aggressive assault on that system and really, we should thank them. What good is a system that is never tested every now and again? The system worked wonderfully and even despite the manipulation of fear by W to get us to forget about our rights and the balance that ought be, all found its original equilibrium. And, we are once again, America, for better or worse.
As America teeters in its role as the world leader, however, we have found a new voice and commitment to excellence. President Obama is our president and he is leading all Americans, whether you voted for him or not, to a place that will certainly be better for all. He is determined to make us a good as we can be and by all of us becoming better, America becomes greater. This is a worthy goal and one that should be supported.
Yet, the hate has once again commenced. An abortion doctor is shot to death in church by a man who undoubtedly voted republican in the last election and who most certainly is a fan of Rush Limbaugh. A WWII vet slaughtered a black guard at the Holocaust museum solely for the reason that he was black. This man too, 88 years old, is no doubt a conservative and probably hates Obama.
The Department for Homeland security has said that the "chatter" on the airwaves is similar to what it was like when Timothy McVeigh was getting ready to blow up that daycare center in Oklahoma. They say that the chatter is of American origin and is against blacks, Jews, gays, the government, etc. Why do we permit this nonsense? Why is our nation so afraid of change?
Why do the conservatives have this monopoly on the US flag and patriotism and soaring eagles and apple pie? Yet, at the end of the day, it is these same conservatives who hate so many of their fellow Americans. Why isn't someone like Limbaugh called what he is by the national press, by the President, by the FBI, "a revolution-espousing fascist" who will only rest when this nation has been brought to its knees? (Oh, and he is a drug addict, as well.)
The conservatives and their more radical kin, the "people haters" (the brownshirts), manipulate our system in ways similar to how the Muslim terrorists use it. And, like those terrorists, they use this system not to make our nation greater, but to destroy it.
Just Once
Just once, I wish someone would have the balls to go to one of their NRA rallies, one of their conventions where they praise the Lord and quote Limbaugh, and I wish this person would...but then again, that would make us no better than they are. I refuse to live with the hate that unites them.
As Obama makes us better, heals us, they will tear us down still and yes, we will decline into the cauldron of failed powers, consumed by our own idiocy and backwardness. Jesus would not tolerate them for who they are, so then why do we? Oh, I remember why, because they are our fellow citizens and there is that document, parched and probably enclosed in glass.
This document legally permits them to "hate", to "blather endlessly, mindlessly" yet always in the hope that just once, a word, an idea, a proclomation might prove worthy of national notice. That document, ratified in 1789, is our playbook for governing right. It is the US Constitution and it belongs to all of us, so be it.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Many used to think the streets in America were paved with gold. Of course, we know that this was never the case. Yet, for the millions of immigrants seeking a better life, seeking an escape from the poverty and the oppression, this simple, glittering fact lulled them asleep night after night until they arrived to our shores.
Arrival did not guarantee success or an easier life. Those willing to work, to struggle and to even fight for that new chance at life were in varying degrees rewarded. Obviously, not each person can succeed. The resources which make wealth are not endless and they cannot be granted to all. Some were lucky and the streets, although not gold, certainly seemed so in comparison to the dirty, stone pathes of the
Here We Go Again
As gas prices rise across America, journalists are making the rounds to service stations. "We just filled up our SUV and it cost $89." Shocked and awed, they ponder about the effects of another season of lost sales earnings caused by frugal Americans: our adolescent recovery, may not make it out of puberty, they threaten.
Yes, it does hurt when you drop a $50 into the tank and it still isn't full. However, the picture is still wrong. Many being interviewed at the gas stations are still driving the wrong cars. Last summer, when gas was sky high, I recall seeing Hummer's and other such monstrous and failed business ideas of the now extinct car companies, sitting in driveways collecting bird droppings.
Then, around New Years, when gas prices were bottoming out again, those lunch-box like cars with their racing strips and tinted windows could be seen idling at lights with tiny mothers chatting gleefully away on cellphones while the kiddies in the back watched movies and ate chips. America's heroin was again cheap.
Lost earnings as a result of less travel this summer caused by high gas prices may slow our recovery but in the long term, it will speed up our national transition from a nation held hostage to 50 years of good, old-fashioned bad American business practices. The whims of the board room and the scavenger hunts for profit at any cost are now considered by many as the causes for our decline. The era of make bigger and worse and less competitive cars has come to an end.
As the end of that era settles, bankruptcy for GM drying in the books, "il Chryler" soon to become part of Fiat, the Obama people have made it a national priority to force big business to actually produce things that can compete in a world economy; and, the main priority of whether to produce or not will no longer be, "by how much will it increase our bonuses at the end of the year?"
Greed
It was the greed of big business which led us to where we are; and, it was the idiocy of government, usually republican led congresses and administrations, that permitted big business to turn our manufacturing core into something that is barely more efficient than Russia's.
Conservative disingenuousness sold the mantra to the masses that government intervention in the market was bad: it was "communist, socialist...liberal even." Yes, democratic presidents have also chosen to believe that the market is self-correcting and usually right. This philosophy may have held some water back when there were some regulations still in place.
But, from the "government is the problem" speech of Reagan to W's dismantling of our government so that there simply were no resources left to properly regulate anything, the profits being made by big business and Wall Street were simply so amazing that really it is hard to blame them for stealing our nation's wealth, our future. Owning islands and box seats for every team would be kind of cool, right?
President Obama, being accussed by those same wealthy patrons of the last 30 years of republican-led theft, is forcing big business to recall that the nation in which they are located, and whose interests they should also consider when they have their board meetings, is America. Islands belong to countries and not corporate "barons." The new Yankee Stadium is farcical in its catering to the corporate world. Whoever heard of paying $2000 for one seat at one game?
These companies, Wall Street, are not "island-companies" inhabiting a world of other "island companies" abusing the world's resources, human and natural, all for the sake of wealth, more wealth and still more wealth. They are corporate entities obligated to give to the national foundation which permits them to exist.
Business, in America, is now being forced to be people, nation-friendly. Perhaps, I am naive to believe such a thing, but, I know one thing for sure, virtually everything President Obama has done since becoming president is a step toward this end goal.
Unless, however, the republicans/conservatives regain some power and then, they will continue to dismantle our national wealth and then it will be too late--the global warming which doesn't exist, they say, will have done its deed and by then Denver will be under water.
Yes, rising gas prices make today difficult, but they remind us of our dependence on foreign oil and on really, really bad business decisions of the past half-century. Business cannot again be allowed to run free without rules and without the interest of the nation at the heart of its mission statement.
Good luck, President Obama!
Yes, it does hurt when you drop a $50 into the tank and it still isn't full. However, the picture is still wrong. Many being interviewed at the gas stations are still driving the wrong cars. Last summer, when gas was sky high, I recall seeing Hummer's and other such monstrous and failed business ideas of the now extinct car companies, sitting in driveways collecting bird droppings.
Then, around New Years, when gas prices were bottoming out again, those lunch-box like cars with their racing strips and tinted windows could be seen idling at lights with tiny mothers chatting gleefully away on cellphones while the kiddies in the back watched movies and ate chips. America's heroin was again cheap.
Lost earnings as a result of less travel this summer caused by high gas prices may slow our recovery but in the long term, it will speed up our national transition from a nation held hostage to 50 years of good, old-fashioned bad American business practices. The whims of the board room and the scavenger hunts for profit at any cost are now considered by many as the causes for our decline. The era of make bigger and worse and less competitive cars has come to an end.
As the end of that era settles, bankruptcy for GM drying in the books, "il Chryler" soon to become part of Fiat, the Obama people have made it a national priority to force big business to actually produce things that can compete in a world economy; and, the main priority of whether to produce or not will no longer be, "by how much will it increase our bonuses at the end of the year?"
Greed
It was the greed of big business which led us to where we are; and, it was the idiocy of government, usually republican led congresses and administrations, that permitted big business to turn our manufacturing core into something that is barely more efficient than Russia's.
Conservative disingenuousness sold the mantra to the masses that government intervention in the market was bad: it was "communist, socialist...liberal even." Yes, democratic presidents have also chosen to believe that the market is self-correcting and usually right. This philosophy may have held some water back when there were some regulations still in place.
But, from the "government is the problem" speech of Reagan to W's dismantling of our government so that there simply were no resources left to properly regulate anything, the profits being made by big business and Wall Street were simply so amazing that really it is hard to blame them for stealing our nation's wealth, our future. Owning islands and box seats for every team would be kind of cool, right?
President Obama, being accussed by those same wealthy patrons of the last 30 years of republican-led theft, is forcing big business to recall that the nation in which they are located, and whose interests they should also consider when they have their board meetings, is America. Islands belong to countries and not corporate "barons." The new Yankee Stadium is farcical in its catering to the corporate world. Whoever heard of paying $2000 for one seat at one game?
These companies, Wall Street, are not "island-companies" inhabiting a world of other "island companies" abusing the world's resources, human and natural, all for the sake of wealth, more wealth and still more wealth. They are corporate entities obligated to give to the national foundation which permits them to exist.
Business, in America, is now being forced to be people, nation-friendly. Perhaps, I am naive to believe such a thing, but, I know one thing for sure, virtually everything President Obama has done since becoming president is a step toward this end goal.
Unless, however, the republicans/conservatives regain some power and then, they will continue to dismantle our national wealth and then it will be too late--the global warming which doesn't exist, they say, will have done its deed and by then Denver will be under water.
Yes, rising gas prices make today difficult, but they remind us of our dependence on foreign oil and on really, really bad business decisions of the past half-century. Business cannot again be allowed to run free without rules and without the interest of the nation at the heart of its mission statement.
Good luck, President Obama!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
$5, the Key to Happiness
For the price of a Starbuck's breakfast, with change back ($1), happiness, new beginnings, a sound night's sleep and maybe even the next Nobel price winner in economics, can be had. Isn't America great?
$5 can get you a Sunday New York Times, although I am not sure. It will certainly get you a 7/11 20-oz coffee, a daily Times and leave some change jingling about in your pocket. Imagine that with the flick of a wrist by our president (although, probably not his wrist but some mid-level bureaucrat), America has managed to chip away at the patina of incompetence that led the world to wonder: "so, it is true, they do all of those good things around the world only in the hope of opening more markets."
Katrina came and went and in the wake lives were lost and lives were ruined. And, after the news vans pulled out, what remained was devastation. America's cultural gem, a city that so many snobs throughout the world label "America's only contribution to world culture" (they are refering to jazz), was decimated and fell into Gomorra-like destitution.
Oddly, a person like Brad Pitt, and I am sure so many other amazing Americans, started to do something to help these people, the city. The government was completely absent during all of this (I will not recall that photo of our "hands on" President sitting in Airforce One looking down at the misery). It is simply too easy to say that nothing was done because most of the sufferers were black and poor. But, really, a) what contributions were the sufferers making to the tax base? And, b) how many of them had voted republican (or had voted) in the last election?
Had a beach been eroded in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, you can be rest assured that the government would have had the Army of Engineers out there rebuilding that lost property value for the republican faithful. But, New Orleans is only relevant when crime sprees prove that "well, look at them, they're animals." Or, when we need a Super Bowl to be played there as if this shows that America is uniting to help this lost city.
Really, this $5 is not for New Orleans, but for the victims. It truly boggles the mind when I read recently that the homeless there, those who had lost their homes during and after the hurricane, were about to be evicted from their trailers. Imagine? I cannot imagine this and I am certain that W., living in that swank neighborhood in Dallas and enjoying bbqs with neighbors where a wink and a tug on the elbow are silent signs of "haha, they go theirs, uh?" has no idea that this was going to happen. I am even more sure that his only response would be: "well, uh, the goodness of Americans and our tradition of giving will certainly help these folks." Said, whilst the sheriff has pad-locked these homes and the bulldozer is shifting gears.
W. and Mr. Potter's responses would have played out perfectly with the conservative lumpen, for they believe that charity from the rich to the poor is the real way to run a nation. And, if there isn't any "charity" left, then this is because the government is taking too much from them in taxes and so, well, we know the story. The bottom-line is that such thinking makes it impossible to sell homes for $5 because really, the barrel has found it's bottom, we are a broke nation, and yes, "$5 here and $5 there all adds up." Here I agree with the conservatives!
Yet, for a mere $5 the homeless, who had been stuffed like sardines into tin trailers, which are only a little better than a sweltering subway car in August heat, were about to be evicted and President Obama said: "no, this will not happen while I am president." So, for a mere 500 pennies, these people bought their "new homes" and with this they bought security, a sound night's sleep; they bought tomorrow in the place where they went to bed at yesterday and the day-before.
Stability and knowing where my favorite shirt is hanging, where my cat is sleeping at this moment of the day, knowing the smell of the breeze as it makes it's way through the neighborhood, pulling along with it smells of frying fish, a cigarette, some freshly-washed strawberries and then finding you, sitting in a chair sipping on a tea, cooling you and reminding you that "for better or worse, this your home and tonight you will sleep under this roof," is a very powerful commodity. For these people, however, it is a "luxury" and that is not right.
We are better than this. President Obama has again shown us that we, all of us, are truly better than what Bush and Cheney had made us out to be. And, once again, we are a safer nation thanks to our President and a government that is governing. To this I say, and I will borrow shamelessly from the conservatives, "thank you sweet Jesus!"
$5 can get you a Sunday New York Times, although I am not sure. It will certainly get you a 7/11 20-oz coffee, a daily Times and leave some change jingling about in your pocket. Imagine that with the flick of a wrist by our president (although, probably not his wrist but some mid-level bureaucrat), America has managed to chip away at the patina of incompetence that led the world to wonder: "so, it is true, they do all of those good things around the world only in the hope of opening more markets."
Katrina came and went and in the wake lives were lost and lives were ruined. And, after the news vans pulled out, what remained was devastation. America's cultural gem, a city that so many snobs throughout the world label "America's only contribution to world culture" (they are refering to jazz), was decimated and fell into Gomorra-like destitution.
Oddly, a person like Brad Pitt, and I am sure so many other amazing Americans, started to do something to help these people, the city. The government was completely absent during all of this (I will not recall that photo of our "hands on" President sitting in Airforce One looking down at the misery). It is simply too easy to say that nothing was done because most of the sufferers were black and poor. But, really, a) what contributions were the sufferers making to the tax base? And, b) how many of them had voted republican (or had voted) in the last election?
Had a beach been eroded in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, you can be rest assured that the government would have had the Army of Engineers out there rebuilding that lost property value for the republican faithful. But, New Orleans is only relevant when crime sprees prove that "well, look at them, they're animals." Or, when we need a Super Bowl to be played there as if this shows that America is uniting to help this lost city.
Really, this $5 is not for New Orleans, but for the victims. It truly boggles the mind when I read recently that the homeless there, those who had lost their homes during and after the hurricane, were about to be evicted from their trailers. Imagine? I cannot imagine this and I am certain that W., living in that swank neighborhood in Dallas and enjoying bbqs with neighbors where a wink and a tug on the elbow are silent signs of "haha, they go theirs, uh?" has no idea that this was going to happen. I am even more sure that his only response would be: "well, uh, the goodness of Americans and our tradition of giving will certainly help these folks." Said, whilst the sheriff has pad-locked these homes and the bulldozer is shifting gears.
W. and Mr. Potter's responses would have played out perfectly with the conservative lumpen, for they believe that charity from the rich to the poor is the real way to run a nation. And, if there isn't any "charity" left, then this is because the government is taking too much from them in taxes and so, well, we know the story. The bottom-line is that such thinking makes it impossible to sell homes for $5 because really, the barrel has found it's bottom, we are a broke nation, and yes, "$5 here and $5 there all adds up." Here I agree with the conservatives!
Yet, for a mere $5 the homeless, who had been stuffed like sardines into tin trailers, which are only a little better than a sweltering subway car in August heat, were about to be evicted and President Obama said: "no, this will not happen while I am president." So, for a mere 500 pennies, these people bought their "new homes" and with this they bought security, a sound night's sleep; they bought tomorrow in the place where they went to bed at yesterday and the day-before.
Stability and knowing where my favorite shirt is hanging, where my cat is sleeping at this moment of the day, knowing the smell of the breeze as it makes it's way through the neighborhood, pulling along with it smells of frying fish, a cigarette, some freshly-washed strawberries and then finding you, sitting in a chair sipping on a tea, cooling you and reminding you that "for better or worse, this your home and tonight you will sleep under this roof," is a very powerful commodity. For these people, however, it is a "luxury" and that is not right.
We are better than this. President Obama has again shown us that we, all of us, are truly better than what Bush and Cheney had made us out to be. And, once again, we are a safer nation thanks to our President and a government that is governing. To this I say, and I will borrow shamelessly from the conservatives, "thank you sweet Jesus!"
Friday, May 29, 2009
I'm gonna kick your ass, man!
In 1870, the Prussian King Wilhelm I met, with great courtesy, the French ambassador at Ems. This ambassador then sent off a telegram (the infamous telegram from Ems) to Paris. An ambitious Prussian politician by the name of Otto von Bismarck intercepted the telegram and had it reworded to sound more arrogant; to make it truly offensive. And then, he had the telegram published in Prussian newspapers so everyone could see how the Prussians had disrespected the French.
Upon hitting the streets in Parisian papers, it was gobbled up and the brave Parisians were outraged at what they thought was a very arrogant Prussian attitude. Knowing Germans as well as I do, I don’t doubt that the letter was spiced with that very typically German “I am better than thou, you foreign monkey,” (it was precisely this inherent disdain for everything foreign which permitted them with such apparent glee to slaughter 50 million foreigners during the WWII) and so the Parisians were probably right in being upset.
The outrage, however, was not worth going to war over. Prussia had tried to bribe the Spanish Parliament into choosing Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern to become the next King of Spain. The French didn’t like this idea.
In those days, however, when smoke signals tended to get confused with puffing locomotives and pigeons with messages of peaces tended to lose their way, a “your momma”, “uh-uh, your momma” contest kicked off. Mobilization in those days was a thing that once launched was difficult to stop.
War was inevitable. War happened and once again, the Germans kicked French ass.
Disgruntled by this loss, the next generation of French and their leaders happily sought an entry into another war with Germany. When that young Serb assassinated an archduke who nobody really missed, the gloves were off and WWI occurred. Then, after the horrific reparations brought down upon Germany at Versailles by the bitter French and the petty and trite English, WWII was just a matter of time.
I’ll Kick Your Ass, Man
When W. and Mr. Potter (Cheney) started the name-calling, recall “axis of evil” (Iraq, Iran and North Korea), all of the lessons learned over the last century were, in oh-so-Republican fashion, disregarded and once again, the Republicans showed the world that they know better than the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, Hoover, FDR, Churchill, Truman, LBJ, Gandhi, etc.
What was accomplished with this spate of name-calling? 10 years ago, North Korea wasn’t anywhere near capable of testing nuclear missiles but today, they are doing it on a regular basis. Iran was isolated and suffering and near economic collapse. Iraq was Iraq and some 250,000 Iraqis were still alive and well, not to mention over 4000 American men and women who were living their lives quietly with their families.
In the time that we became the big, dumb and somewhat emotional bully, China has not only challenged our economic hegemony but it is now we who are seeking to stem the tide of their lead; Russia has regained significant regional power and even has the energy power to force Europe to turn a blind-eye to their human right’s abuses; Chavez mocks us; North Korea knows we are overstretched in our Iraqi and Afghani quagmires so they too act as they see fit.
Mexico is on the brink of becoming a failed state thanks to our insatiable hunger for drugs and our failure to understand that US-made weapons are only exasperating the situation. And, whilst we were becoming a less relevant and a weaker nation outside of our boarders, internally, we were abandoning the working class Americans. We were selling our future greatness so that already really-really-really rich people could enjoy ever more fruits at the ever-increasing labors of the working poor in America.
Dialogue
When President Obama opened up dialogue with Iran and even Al Qaeda, he was paying honor and respect to the statesmen of the last 100 years. When he shook the hand of the President Chavez, he was demonstrating to the world that sticks and stones may hurt but names are just words that can always be called back and forgotten.
Each time President Obama seeks dialogue as opposed to war and what now is obvious to the world, empty threats about how we will invade here or attack there, he is paying respect to the men and women who have “made the ultimate sacrifice.”
He is saying: “Your death was not in vain. We will resolve this ‘conflict’ and we will prevent others from losing what you have, my friend, the one life that was granted to you by a God who is all forgiving and who couldn’t be upset by mere name-calling.”
And, when we resolve our differences with Iran and Venezuela and North Korea, boys and girls in America will not have to look to a folded-flag for words of wisdom from a dearly, departed mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, friend…And, we will be made ever safer.
Upon hitting the streets in Parisian papers, it was gobbled up and the brave Parisians were outraged at what they thought was a very arrogant Prussian attitude. Knowing Germans as well as I do, I don’t doubt that the letter was spiced with that very typically German “I am better than thou, you foreign monkey,” (it was precisely this inherent disdain for everything foreign which permitted them with such apparent glee to slaughter 50 million foreigners during the WWII) and so the Parisians were probably right in being upset.
The outrage, however, was not worth going to war over. Prussia had tried to bribe the Spanish Parliament into choosing Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern to become the next King of Spain. The French didn’t like this idea.
In those days, however, when smoke signals tended to get confused with puffing locomotives and pigeons with messages of peaces tended to lose their way, a “your momma”, “uh-uh, your momma” contest kicked off. Mobilization in those days was a thing that once launched was difficult to stop.
War was inevitable. War happened and once again, the Germans kicked French ass.
Disgruntled by this loss, the next generation of French and their leaders happily sought an entry into another war with Germany. When that young Serb assassinated an archduke who nobody really missed, the gloves were off and WWI occurred. Then, after the horrific reparations brought down upon Germany at Versailles by the bitter French and the petty and trite English, WWII was just a matter of time.
I’ll Kick Your Ass, Man
When W. and Mr. Potter (Cheney) started the name-calling, recall “axis of evil” (Iraq, Iran and North Korea), all of the lessons learned over the last century were, in oh-so-Republican fashion, disregarded and once again, the Republicans showed the world that they know better than the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, Hoover, FDR, Churchill, Truman, LBJ, Gandhi, etc.
What was accomplished with this spate of name-calling? 10 years ago, North Korea wasn’t anywhere near capable of testing nuclear missiles but today, they are doing it on a regular basis. Iran was isolated and suffering and near economic collapse. Iraq was Iraq and some 250,000 Iraqis were still alive and well, not to mention over 4000 American men and women who were living their lives quietly with their families.
In the time that we became the big, dumb and somewhat emotional bully, China has not only challenged our economic hegemony but it is now we who are seeking to stem the tide of their lead; Russia has regained significant regional power and even has the energy power to force Europe to turn a blind-eye to their human right’s abuses; Chavez mocks us; North Korea knows we are overstretched in our Iraqi and Afghani quagmires so they too act as they see fit.
Mexico is on the brink of becoming a failed state thanks to our insatiable hunger for drugs and our failure to understand that US-made weapons are only exasperating the situation. And, whilst we were becoming a less relevant and a weaker nation outside of our boarders, internally, we were abandoning the working class Americans. We were selling our future greatness so that already really-really-really rich people could enjoy ever more fruits at the ever-increasing labors of the working poor in America.
Dialogue
When President Obama opened up dialogue with Iran and even Al Qaeda, he was paying honor and respect to the statesmen of the last 100 years. When he shook the hand of the President Chavez, he was demonstrating to the world that sticks and stones may hurt but names are just words that can always be called back and forgotten.
Each time President Obama seeks dialogue as opposed to war and what now is obvious to the world, empty threats about how we will invade here or attack there, he is paying respect to the men and women who have “made the ultimate sacrifice.”
He is saying: “Your death was not in vain. We will resolve this ‘conflict’ and we will prevent others from losing what you have, my friend, the one life that was granted to you by a God who is all forgiving and who couldn’t be upset by mere name-calling.”
And, when we resolve our differences with Iran and Venezuela and North Korea, boys and girls in America will not have to look to a folded-flag for words of wisdom from a dearly, departed mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, friend…And, we will be made ever safer.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Safer, yet--Part Two
Of all the industrialized nations, of which we are one, we are the only country where today's high school graduates are less likely to go onto college than their parents; the trend of each generation growing up to be smarter, or at least better educated, than their parents has ended.
Those of us who graduated in the aftermath of Reagan-Bush, and who started families under the Clinton-era boom, are today the last of a national trend that was commenced shortly after the signing of the peace treaty in Ghent, Belgium--1814, it officially ended the War of 1812. America moved forward at varying rates of speed, always improving itself, despite mistakes and a Civil War, etc.
Excesses from unbridled capitalism ultimately led us to a world-wide depression that devestated many parts of our nation; but, thankfully, led us to a new era of government activity from which many Americans, workers, unemployed ones, etc. still benefit today. A national infrastructure, schools, roads, bridges, hospitals, dams, an army, air traffic control, the internet, electricity for all and so many other great achievements were attained.
Yet, the sad irony in all of this is that although so few Americans would want to live without the things listed above, many of the same people today hating Obama and screaming "socialism" would not give up any one of those things. And usually, it was a Democratic government, be it president or congress, that fought to obtain these things for the masses. It was usually the Republicans fighting to get rid of them by labeling them as "communist", "socialist", "tax and spend liberalism", "theft from future generations," blah, blah, blah.
Theft
Soon, we will celebrate the success of D-Day yet again; boys between the ages of 17 and 30 assualted the beaches and lept from airplanes for the future of our national well-good. With bullets spraying sand around their feet until the mark was met and they crumpled to the ground, so few of these men really doubted why they were there.
Thanks to the government progressivism of FDR and so many Democrats after him, Bill Clinton being the last until the election of Obama, our nation had invested today for the better of tomorrow. How can the Hoover Dam, how can the nation's road networks, how can public schools, how can the internet be "theft" from future generations as it is being labeled by Republicans and Conservatives (a "conservative" is republican so embarassed by the excesses of the GOP that they choose this Suess-esque euphemism). All they do is stand in the way of progress and prevent our nation from advancing logically forward like any living organism is supposed to do according to the laws of nature.
Jesus a Democrat
As Spock said when he was dying, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one or the few; and yet, they have governed over the past century as if the opposite were true: tax cuts for a tiny percentage of already sickly rich people; more guns in the hands of anyone for the sake of ever larger profits for the gun and bullet makers; fewer abortions for the poor and even less money for these kids born into poverty; no family planning education to perhaps help these people to make better decisions and no condoms and no jobs because the wealthy, conservative owners have shipped them all to China.
No strict standards for auto-makers to make cars better so that the air might be made a tab bit cleaner. Why? Because it is always more politically expedient to do nothing and sit back and count the money. Al Gore's impact on the battle against global warming could prove to be the turning point, if it is not already too late. 9 years were lost in this battle because they simply hid the truth, lied to us all about the effects of global warming and today the world is hotter and further from concensus than ever before.
Now, 16 years after they successfully destroyed a chance at healthcare for all Americans via lies sold as public service announcements, today they pull out their same tired slogans and again will do everything they can to prevent Joe and Mary Middle-America from obtaining affordable healthcare.
When our president, finally, went after the credit card companies, what did they do? They attached a rider onto the bill that would permit Americans to carry concealed weapons into parks. How will that help our nation tomorrow, 10 years from now, 50 years from now? How many of us will be killed by one of those weapons at a bbq gone bad in a public park?
The conservatives have stolen the one thing from us which government was supposed to have guaranteed its citizens: the right to be safe, to which they say, "arm yourself." Jesus didn't carry a gun.
The republicans, the conservatives with their so-called fiscal conservatism handed out trillions of dollars of surplus created by Clinton's truly austere governing and today, we are a weaker, a poorer and a less safe nation.
If anyone is against the policies of President Obama, then I say to them: "Go to the next sale of slaves at your local auction and complain about it to people who care." Oh, there won't be an auction because government action did away with that peculiar thing supported by...yes, the South. And for those who will say Lincoln was a Republican, yes, he was and if he were in office today he would be a Democrat. If you know American history, you know when the parties changed their core policies. It was after the war.
Our nation should be better and I don't understand why conservatives want us to be so weak and so hated and so broke and so stupid, fat, unhealthy, unemployed, violent and so backward.
Obesity is big money. Guess who supports this industry and guess who was against telling Americans just how many calories are in a Big Mac? Why do they fear knowledge and truth?
"Praise Jesus, Amen blah-blah-blah." My Jesus is a Democrat.
Those of us who graduated in the aftermath of Reagan-Bush, and who started families under the Clinton-era boom, are today the last of a national trend that was commenced shortly after the signing of the peace treaty in Ghent, Belgium--1814, it officially ended the War of 1812. America moved forward at varying rates of speed, always improving itself, despite mistakes and a Civil War, etc.
Excesses from unbridled capitalism ultimately led us to a world-wide depression that devestated many parts of our nation; but, thankfully, led us to a new era of government activity from which many Americans, workers, unemployed ones, etc. still benefit today. A national infrastructure, schools, roads, bridges, hospitals, dams, an army, air traffic control, the internet, electricity for all and so many other great achievements were attained.
Yet, the sad irony in all of this is that although so few Americans would want to live without the things listed above, many of the same people today hating Obama and screaming "socialism" would not give up any one of those things. And usually, it was a Democratic government, be it president or congress, that fought to obtain these things for the masses. It was usually the Republicans fighting to get rid of them by labeling them as "communist", "socialist", "tax and spend liberalism", "theft from future generations," blah, blah, blah.
Theft
Soon, we will celebrate the success of D-Day yet again; boys between the ages of 17 and 30 assualted the beaches and lept from airplanes for the future of our national well-good. With bullets spraying sand around their feet until the mark was met and they crumpled to the ground, so few of these men really doubted why they were there.
Thanks to the government progressivism of FDR and so many Democrats after him, Bill Clinton being the last until the election of Obama, our nation had invested today for the better of tomorrow. How can the Hoover Dam, how can the nation's road networks, how can public schools, how can the internet be "theft" from future generations as it is being labeled by Republicans and Conservatives (a "conservative" is republican so embarassed by the excesses of the GOP that they choose this Suess-esque euphemism). All they do is stand in the way of progress and prevent our nation from advancing logically forward like any living organism is supposed to do according to the laws of nature.
Jesus a Democrat
As Spock said when he was dying, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one or the few; and yet, they have governed over the past century as if the opposite were true: tax cuts for a tiny percentage of already sickly rich people; more guns in the hands of anyone for the sake of ever larger profits for the gun and bullet makers; fewer abortions for the poor and even less money for these kids born into poverty; no family planning education to perhaps help these people to make better decisions and no condoms and no jobs because the wealthy, conservative owners have shipped them all to China.
No strict standards for auto-makers to make cars better so that the air might be made a tab bit cleaner. Why? Because it is always more politically expedient to do nothing and sit back and count the money. Al Gore's impact on the battle against global warming could prove to be the turning point, if it is not already too late. 9 years were lost in this battle because they simply hid the truth, lied to us all about the effects of global warming and today the world is hotter and further from concensus than ever before.
Now, 16 years after they successfully destroyed a chance at healthcare for all Americans via lies sold as public service announcements, today they pull out their same tired slogans and again will do everything they can to prevent Joe and Mary Middle-America from obtaining affordable healthcare.
When our president, finally, went after the credit card companies, what did they do? They attached a rider onto the bill that would permit Americans to carry concealed weapons into parks. How will that help our nation tomorrow, 10 years from now, 50 years from now? How many of us will be killed by one of those weapons at a bbq gone bad in a public park?
The conservatives have stolen the one thing from us which government was supposed to have guaranteed its citizens: the right to be safe, to which they say, "arm yourself." Jesus didn't carry a gun.
The republicans, the conservatives with their so-called fiscal conservatism handed out trillions of dollars of surplus created by Clinton's truly austere governing and today, we are a weaker, a poorer and a less safe nation.
If anyone is against the policies of President Obama, then I say to them: "Go to the next sale of slaves at your local auction and complain about it to people who care." Oh, there won't be an auction because government action did away with that peculiar thing supported by...yes, the South. And for those who will say Lincoln was a Republican, yes, he was and if he were in office today he would be a Democrat. If you know American history, you know when the parties changed their core policies. It was after the war.
Our nation should be better and I don't understand why conservatives want us to be so weak and so hated and so broke and so stupid, fat, unhealthy, unemployed, violent and so backward.
Obesity is big money. Guess who supports this industry and guess who was against telling Americans just how many calories are in a Big Mac? Why do they fear knowledge and truth?
"Praise Jesus, Amen blah-blah-blah." My Jesus is a Democrat.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
We are Safer--Part One
After the recent reincarnation of Mr. Potter (DICK Cheney), the dish "he is making the nation less safe" has been on the menu.
"Less-safe"...uhmmm...let's see, if you were living in New Orleans; if you went to work in the towers on 9/11; if you are young, under-educated and were unemployed so you joined the Guard and now find yourself in the Iraqi-quagmire for tour number 4; if you happened to be sitting on a porch, in church, in a store, etc. when a recently unemployed, gun-toting neighbor lost it and unloaded round after round until many were left dead, then yes, our nation has become "unsafe".
We should consider the fact that not once in the last 100 years--and really many more--had world opinion been so against us, the American nation and our grand experiment. On 9/12, the entire world, except for a handful of fanatics in caves and ghettoes in some Muslim nations--mostly nations that had been at war or been victimized by Israel--was so sympathetic toward our suffering--suffering which really was miniscule compared to what our government has supported in military dictatorships in Latin and South America.
The world wanted us/needed us and prayed for us to succeed, to recover. Learning I was an American, a woman cried in a hotel in Italy. A bouncer in Belgium beat up an Irish drunk for yelling how grateful he had been that 9/11 had happened. In Munich, the walking street near the City Administration building overflowed with candles, flowers and posters of support such that it was unpassable in spots.
Very quickly, however, the myopic, the arrogant, the prejudiced, the overly-religious and the Republicans started to abuse our nation, our good-will, the good-will of the world by "treading" on the rights of the world; by wiping the bloodied faces of the tortured with our Constitution--a masterpiece on par with anything Michaelangelo had ever done!
Foolishly, ignorantly, like a group of kids raiding the liquor cabinet while the parents are at Bingo and mixing things like Anisette and vodka, bourbon with rum, our nation, the world woke up with a screaming hangover; and even worse, the fun of the drunk was never appreciated because it was as if the concoction had been funneled into us.
Less safe: our infrastructure is in a shambles and we have no money to pay for it so we must go deeper and deeper into debt to the Chinese. Our wealth has been frittered away in the desert fighting a nation that had nothing to do with whether the average American was living more or less safely, happily.
The surpluses created by President Clinton through aggressive budget balancing were handed out to the wealthy in scenes of corporate and rich-people welfare (massive, unjustified tax cuts) never before realized; the welfare given to the rich in the past 10 years has proven to be more costly to our nation's future than the welfare that has been given to the poor since 1965. At least those poor people reinvested a lot of that money back into their communities via purchases; in some way or another these poor Americans educated and raised sons and daughter.
From the moment the Republicans took control of our nation, government stopped governing and it started preaching; those in charge started forcing upon us their personal views of how we should live our lives; a bunch of southern hypocrites who, through manipulation of their built-in excuse that they are "weak sinners", allow themselves to commit any act of treachery against anyone and usually against the interests of our national good and usually wholly in line with the interests of their groups of white friends at the country club, have wasted our national wealth; but, so long as they pray, go to church and drop "Lord Jesus" into every third sentence, they are always righteous.
And, while government wasn't governing things were happening. Storms were brewing, natural and financial, bolts were weaking, rails were rusting, troops were being shorted their body armor, the skies were being polluted, parks were being drilled, fanatics were training in Iraq, Russia was manipulating it's gas power, China was buying the world and our nation was heading for a fall; and, it fell and guess who was in charge of our nation? Yes, the Republicans, Bush, Dick, Rummy and others.
Are we safer today than we were one year ago? With W. out of the White House and Cheney not a heart beat away anymore, yes, we are.
"Less-safe"...uhmmm...let's see, if you were living in New Orleans; if you went to work in the towers on 9/11; if you are young, under-educated and were unemployed so you joined the Guard and now find yourself in the Iraqi-quagmire for tour number 4; if you happened to be sitting on a porch, in church, in a store, etc. when a recently unemployed, gun-toting neighbor lost it and unloaded round after round until many were left dead, then yes, our nation has become "unsafe".
We should consider the fact that not once in the last 100 years--and really many more--had world opinion been so against us, the American nation and our grand experiment. On 9/12, the entire world, except for a handful of fanatics in caves and ghettoes in some Muslim nations--mostly nations that had been at war or been victimized by Israel--was so sympathetic toward our suffering--suffering which really was miniscule compared to what our government has supported in military dictatorships in Latin and South America.
The world wanted us/needed us and prayed for us to succeed, to recover. Learning I was an American, a woman cried in a hotel in Italy. A bouncer in Belgium beat up an Irish drunk for yelling how grateful he had been that 9/11 had happened. In Munich, the walking street near the City Administration building overflowed with candles, flowers and posters of support such that it was unpassable in spots.
Very quickly, however, the myopic, the arrogant, the prejudiced, the overly-religious and the Republicans started to abuse our nation, our good-will, the good-will of the world by "treading" on the rights of the world; by wiping the bloodied faces of the tortured with our Constitution--a masterpiece on par with anything Michaelangelo had ever done!
Foolishly, ignorantly, like a group of kids raiding the liquor cabinet while the parents are at Bingo and mixing things like Anisette and vodka, bourbon with rum, our nation, the world woke up with a screaming hangover; and even worse, the fun of the drunk was never appreciated because it was as if the concoction had been funneled into us.
Less safe: our infrastructure is in a shambles and we have no money to pay for it so we must go deeper and deeper into debt to the Chinese. Our wealth has been frittered away in the desert fighting a nation that had nothing to do with whether the average American was living more or less safely, happily.
The surpluses created by President Clinton through aggressive budget balancing were handed out to the wealthy in scenes of corporate and rich-people welfare (massive, unjustified tax cuts) never before realized; the welfare given to the rich in the past 10 years has proven to be more costly to our nation's future than the welfare that has been given to the poor since 1965. At least those poor people reinvested a lot of that money back into their communities via purchases; in some way or another these poor Americans educated and raised sons and daughter.
From the moment the Republicans took control of our nation, government stopped governing and it started preaching; those in charge started forcing upon us their personal views of how we should live our lives; a bunch of southern hypocrites who, through manipulation of their built-in excuse that they are "weak sinners", allow themselves to commit any act of treachery against anyone and usually against the interests of our national good and usually wholly in line with the interests of their groups of white friends at the country club, have wasted our national wealth; but, so long as they pray, go to church and drop "Lord Jesus" into every third sentence, they are always righteous.
And, while government wasn't governing things were happening. Storms were brewing, natural and financial, bolts were weaking, rails were rusting, troops were being shorted their body armor, the skies were being polluted, parks were being drilled, fanatics were training in Iraq, Russia was manipulating it's gas power, China was buying the world and our nation was heading for a fall; and, it fell and guess who was in charge of our nation? Yes, the Republicans, Bush, Dick, Rummy and others.
Are we safer today than we were one year ago? With W. out of the White House and Cheney not a heart beat away anymore, yes, we are.
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