Snap back to reality

While reading this amazing article in the Deseret News about the impact of the fight on Utah's Capitol Hill over Medicaid expansion, this portion of Eminem's "Loose Yourself" starting playing in my head:

All the pain inside amplified by the fact
That I can't get by with my 9 to 5
And I can't provide the right type of life for my family
Cuz man, these *** damn food stamps don't buy diapers
And it's no movie, there's no Mekhi Phifer, this is my life

There are 130,000 Utahns who cannot afford healthcare who could see a doctor and get real treatment if the powers that be step up and do the right thing. Sadly, there are those in the legislature that would rather pass a message bill. Who are they trying to speak to? Caucus goers who select delegates to the GOP convention. But the message they send to those 130,000 people is that they are mere pawns in a political game.

"It's not hypothetical for me," said Stacy Davis-Stanford, a 28-year-old who was on top of her game in a social work career before a car accident in 2010 triggered a life-changing neurological disorder. She now spends most of her time either in bed from intense pain or in a wheelchair because she doesn't have the strength to stand.
Davis-Stanford believes the right doctors could help her walk, but she can't afford to pay a visit and only gets medical care in an emergency. "I went from being at the top of my career . . . to being fed and bathed," she said. "I still offer a lot to the world, but that is a big difference."
The Salt Lake Community College student and small-business owner is disgruntled with how long it has taken Utah lawmakers to make a decision that envelops her physical, emotional and mental well-being.
. . . .
"When they do not recognize how gravely important this is, it makes me sick," Davis-Stanford said. She's accumulated more than $200,000 in medical bills she cannot pay and is putting off tests that could lead to a firm diagnosis and possible treatment that could potentially restore her once-vibrant life.

It is not Stacy's fault that she got in a car crash. She is not to blame for being unable to afford it. So why do those seeing to become Govenor want to deny this social worker from being able to contribute to society? Why should communities have told bake sales so that someone can get an organ transplant or chemotherapy?

It is immoral and wrong, especially when our federal tax dollars are already paying for these 130,000 to get healthcare, so long as the legislature stopping trying to cut off its nose to spite it's face.

Reflexes

Several prominent Republicans, such as Ari Fleicher (president Bush's Bagdad Bob) and Sen. John Cornyn (TX) immediately presumed that Obama had practically given the Iranians a warhead when they learned a tentative peace deal had been reached in negotiations Iran had with Russia, China, GB, France, Germany and the US. Perhaps this was because Obama had caved so often to negotiations with Republicans, but was the most likely reason was they believe Obama is not quite a "true American" and it not looking out for our national interests. This extreme rhetoric is not borne from differing views of foreign policy and negotiations, but rather the true genesis of the birther movement. 

The perceived otherness of Obama by these Republicans vying for Tea Party approval is the same otherness these white conservatives see all around them: billboards, radio stations, and tv stations in Spanish, interracial and gay marriage, salsa outselling ketchup for a decade, and more. Soon, the will have to share their place in the sun with these others and this loss of privilege is frightening. And apparently maddening. 

It wasn't a ruse

As a follow up to a post I wrote this summer, it is mine to admit I was wrong. My theory that Obama was using Summers and Yellen was shot down by the Summers trial balloon being burst by Democratic Senators on the Finance Committee and Yellen's nomination shows that Larry was always their first choice and Janet was always their backup. 

Makes one wonder whether Susan Rice was their first choice for Secretary of State and John Kerry was their second choice also. And it also leads me to question other times a seemingly big loss was couched up to Obama's skills at 3-D chess. Sometimes I wonder if administration is playing the wrong game. 

The Grinch who stole Congress

To me, the ultra conservatives who are hell-bent on defunding and repealing Obamacare are akin to the Grinch who couldn't stand the thought of Christmas arriving. Both essentially said "I must find some way to keep this coming."

Except while the Grinch was worried about the noise you hear from all the children playing with their toys, Tea Partiers worry that the American people will actually like the Affordable Care Act and as a result the welfare state be irrevocably expanded. 

But just like in Dr. Suess's story, Sen. Cruz and his allies did not stop Obamacare from coming yesterday. It came without national parks or cancer research, or Headstart, any host of things that have been stooped or closed thanks to their intransigence.

Sadly I don't see the last part of the story being the same. I don't think the Tea Party's hearts will grow to size two sizes some day. 

It's a ruse

Part of me thinks all of this talk about Larry Summers versus Janet Yellen for Federal Reserve Chair is sham debate. The more Obama talks up Summers and liberal Congressional Democrats attack the former President of Harvard, the more I think some one else is Obama's real choice. <A href="http://feeds.voices.washingtonpost.com/c/34656/f/646276/s/2f65313a/sc/7/l/0L0Swashingtonpost0N0Cblogs0Cwonkblog0Cwp0C20A130C0A70C310Ceight0Ethings0Eyou0Eneed0Eto0Eknow0Eabout0Edon0Ekohn0Ewho0Ejust0Emight0Ebe0Ethe0Enext0Efed0Echair0C/story01.htm">Maybe it is this guy</a>. 

A good example of what I am talking about is the nomination of Richard Cordray instead of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Or how John Kerry was nominated for Secretary of State and Susan Rice was left to take the heat for Republican crazed attacks about Benghazi. Except this time, he hopes liberal Democrats, not Republicans are the targets for the bait and switch.  

But the constant theme has been that Obama has thrown Women to the wolves. This time, my theory is that a woman still won't get the job, but neither will Obama's alleged first choice. We will find out if I am right in September.

Behind

How come Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid always seems to have missed the longer strategic view, and is out maneuvered by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell? Even back when Reid was running circles around Bill Frist, McConnell was happy because that made the day he was in charge come sooner. 

Now Reid is going to go "Nuclear" and the Senate Parliamentarian rule the fillibuster unconstituitonal. Too bad it is about four years too late for it to matter for dozens of important issues. And yet I cannot help but thinking this is exactly what McConnell wants him to do: get regular appointees in, but lose the war over judges. 

Not that President Obama has helped Reid much. The President has been so slow to nominate that even if the Senate were to confirm all his nominees tomorrow (and that won't happen), there would still be dozens of vacancies in his administration and the judiciary to fill. Obama has already been in office for four years, it is pretty inexcusable. Almost as if he were a little....behind. 

One small step

When I finally got a chance to sit down and ready the DOMA and Prop 8 decisions, I was actually pretty underwhelmed. Justice Kennedy's Opinion in Lawrence was far more compelling than in Windsor. And reading Windsor with Perry, the Supreme Court has instructed Governors, Presidents, and AGs to enforce laws they believe to be unconstitutional so that they can maintain standing to enable the Supreme Court to reach the merits of the case.  

DOMA is not dead yet either. Article 3, which is equally unconstitutional, still enables one state to refuse to recognize a same sex marriage performed in another state, never-mind the privileges and immunities clause or the equal protection clause. 

We will have to wait a few more years for another model plaintiff with bottomless pockets to be found and then a few more years to wind their way through the trial and appeals courts before a state like Utah will have gay marriage. Although I still hope that I am proven wrong.  

There was a multiple day trial on Prop 8, and every single possible reason against gay marriage had its day in court and lost miserably. The evidence was overwhelming in favor of equality. Now perhaps the Prop 8 proponents did not have the best attorneys, unlike the plaintiffs, but what their real problem was they had the worst facts. 

Ask yourself if you are entitled to deny someone you know and respect love and happiness because what they do in the bedroom makes you feel icky. And then you realize the problem is not gay marriage, it is you. 

If you can make that realization, then we are one step closer to true equality. Then maybe it is not such a small step after all. 

Subject lines matter

I, like millions of other people, got an email from Elizabeth Warren the other day. The subject of the email was "Just too big." At first, I thought it was porn spam. Perhaps that one focus-group tested well like the ones the Obama team sent out raise big bucks. I hope not though.

Clueless

What is going through Utah Attorney General John Swallow's head these days? Does he seriously think this will all blow over? Let's assume for a moment that his version of events are true and the FBI takes the unusual step and reports after their investigation that no federal crimes were coming by the state's now chief law enforcement official. The man has still revealed that he completely lacks a moral compass. That he even agreed to assist in the lobbying of a senator to make a federal investigation go away is bad.

When Enid Greene is giving you ethics advice, you know you are screwed. When no one in the Utah County GOP wants to sit at your table, you are done. When State Senators are asking how the impeachment process works, the end is neigh. When Mark Shurtleff, the guy who hand picked you to be the next AG and is now a lobbyist in DC is claiming credit for reporting you to the FBI, it is over.

If even the best case scenario looks bad and you are only two months into the job, what are you thinking in staying on? I guess he realizes that he is unemployable now and pretending everything is fine is better than quitting and being banished. But seriously, who would hire a guy whose name is mud NOW before we learn worse information? What happens when the Feds get ahold of his emails? And phone records? And the grand jury starts calling everyone to testify? What is they find other dirt during the investigation ? Swallow is either hanging on as long as he can, or has no clue and no plan.

Down in the muck

Today I had occasion to get out of the valley and up into the sunshine. The weather up there was glorious, especially compared to last week's sub arctic temperatures. Part of me did not want to back into that polluted mess, and dreamed of staying above the gunk forever. But the other part of me knew I played my part in making that filth, and I had to live with the consequences of my conspicuous consumption of energy. Either that or take myself off the grid and start some of the tons of carbon I put in the atmosphere over my lifetime. Since I lack the technical skills, I drove back into my sty.

New town

Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, "may the Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

-Governor John Winthrop, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630, A Model of Christian Charity.

This country, it has been said, was founded on a great experiment. It wasn't just enshrining certain political science theories into a constitution, it was the idea that this was a "New World." America was to be more than a "land of opportunity" it was to become a place to give yourself a second chance because anything was possible. It was also a place where grand social and religious experiments would take place repeatedly, flourishing in the new found freedom of religion and the dream of creating a ideal, a utopia, or as John Winthrop put it a City on a Hill.

I have no idea of the geographical layout of Newtown, Connecticut, but the eyes of world are upon it. We marvel at the horror and how a small New England town is coping with such devastating events. Even those who survived must relive the nightmare, hearing the school PA system cruelly broadcast the entire shooting throughout the school in their heads night after night. The twin sister who was spared because she was assigned to a different class than her brother that year.

We can and we must begin again. Otherwise, their sacrifice will have been wasted. The American Experiment is a constantly evolving, dynamo that turn on a dime when great leaders lead. Will Obama lead us to truly change our ways? Can we make Newtown a new town and renew other cities and towns across this country?

If we work together we can make this a beacon of hope once more rather than cower in fear when we drop our children off at school. "For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities." Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and atheists alike must band together in order to tackle not only the might of the NRA, but also the troubling culture of violence that is all around us and our prior unwillingness to address tough problems, including mental heath. Since we all believe in the Idea of America, we should be able to accomplish this tasks if we set our minds and hearts to it.

You won already

The battle over gun control ended many years ago, I would say in 1994 when Democrats lost control of Congress for 12 years for what some blamed on the adult rifle ban in 1993. The NRA has been an incredibly successful interest group both in legislative bodies across the country and with DC v. Heller in the federal courts as well, overturning lost standing precedent.

In the past few years we have a Congresswoman shot in the head at a grocery store, people massacred at a movie theater, at a Seikh temple, at a shopping mall and now an elementary school. And yet the words "gun control" does not pass the re-elected President's lips. Oh and I almost forgot the NFL player who gunned down his baby daughter's mother, the drove to the practice facility, thanked the coaches for letting him have the chance to make it in the pros, and then shot himself in the head. That was only a week or two ago.

News alert: No one is going to take your guns away, hunters and gun rights activists, so stop trying to scare people into believing otherwise. The NRA and its allies need to sit back and pat themselves on the back. Instead, they work themselves into a frenzy because you cannot bring guns into college campuses or bars or courts or to work or people cannot get concealed gun permits at the drop of a hat. Even Scalia, Dick Cheney's hunting buddy who authored Heller, thinks there should be some reasonable restrictions on the right to bear arms. With rights comes responsibility. You should have to prove you know how to handle a gun safely and lock it up safely before you can take it home with you. So your kid doesn't accidentally kill himself or you don't set it off and kill him (it is always a boy by the way). People with mental health issues shouldn't get a weapon. Even passing mental health issues should count Like if you just got fired, you shouldn't be able to buy a gun.

And yet the conversation turns to enforcing existing laws and criminals and crazy people cannot be stopped. Don't we want to at least make it hard for the crazy, the criminal, and the jihadist to kill lots of people?

Scalp hunting

Susan Rice apparently decided that she was sick of being subject to silly conspiracy theories because someone at the CIA gave her misleading talking points about what had happened in Libya. Of course, it never had anything to do with Rice or Libya or Terrorism, it had to do with weakening Obama.

So the Kabuki dance went on and on, Obama defending her but pretending he had not decided who he wanted for the Secretary of State position since Hilary Clinton said no thanks to another 4 years. Of course he wanted Rice.

This is the reason no one wants to go into public service. There lives get put on hold while some fools in Congress, their staffers and idiots on cable TV nitpick everything the person ever did as well as what they didn't do.

The whole art of scalp hunting, as the racist term is know as, has become a sport in Washington. Democrats did it to George W. Bush because Republicans did it to Clinton, so Republicans did it to Obama (see Tom Daschle and Bill Richardson).

If the nominee were unqualified (see Harriet Myers) unethical (see Tom Daschle and Bill Richardson) or antithetical to the position the president nominates the person to (see John Bolton) or just plain way too radical (see Bork, John Ashcroft, John Yoo) that is one thing, but if there is really do good reason to make someone's life miserable (see Peter Diamond, Goodwin Lieu, and Susan Rice) then scalp hunting serves no other purpose other than partisanship and actually does a disservice to the job a Senator is supposed to do in hearings and deciding how to vote on a nominee. Not to mention the country, which deprived of that person's service.

In the case of judges, justice delayed is often times justice denied. People accused of crimes will sit in Jail longer waiting for their case to be heard, civil litigants will have to wait even longer to get their hearing, in the meantime their lives can be ruined. There must be an end to this quest to weaken a president through sullying a nominee's reputation forever. It is doubtful most Americans even knew who our UN Ambassador was until Fox News accused her of a cover up. A few nominees, like Alberto Gonzales, deserve this treatment, most do not.

The never ending brinksmanship must end

So the election was a month ago, but somehow it is not over yet. It won't end until 1-1-13 12:00:01 when we either begin the plunge into a rescission thanks to the need to create leverage, or the Republicans cry uncle.

My prediction, which I guess is worth something since I won my office election pool, is that this will be like the TARP vote in the fall of 2008. We will pass the deadline without a deal bing passed. Maybe the House will even vote down an 11th hour deal. But then, the makers will panic, the bond civilian ties and SuperPAC patrons will call, and a remote will pass a deal.

The question is, will Obama cave as usual, will everyone agree to punt again,or will a minor deal happen with the promise of a bigger deal next spring? This time, Obama and his aides are giving off a much different vibe. As are the Congressional Republicans, who are acting like a cornered animal. Does the President have them? Or are we playing nine demential chess in our imaginations again?

More important than the tax rates in my view is taking away the debt waking as a fake crisis lever irresponsible Republicans think they should pull again and again to get what they want from Democratic presidents. That, and changing the cost of the filibuster. Now I am certain a new tool will be found, but in the meantime maybe some adults can do their jobs: running the county and those ideologs can return to what they are good at, yelling on TV harmlessly.

Honestly honesty counts

If conservatives have such great ideas on how to fix this country, how come they have disguise what their true intentions are to the American people? Romney won the first debate because he gave short answers that were intended to mislead people into thinking his policies were more moderate than they really were.

While I don't doubt that Mitt believes He is the right man for the job, why does he believe deceit is an acceptable means to an end? If Romney wins he will have a Republican House and maybe even a Republican Senate. Even if he wanted to be a moderate Republican, congress critters wouldn't let him. This is why not many conservatives care what he says in the closing days, so long as he wins. It will be tax cuts for the rich, military spending increases and funds cut for the poor women and minorities. And two conservatives justices will be put on the bench to roll back the 1960s.

And really, this guy campaigned as a moderate and governed as a conservative in Massachusetts. He compromised with democrats because they comprised a super majority and he lost a great many battles, even giving on some before the fight began.

By contrast, Obama knows it is unlikely that he will have a Speaker Pelosi to work with and can only hope that the democrats trim the power of the filibuster, having pounded their heads against the wall for 4 years straight. Only a handful of things will get done if Barack wins another term. Of all the prior pledges that might resurface, I would bet the DREAM act would pass if it only takes 51 votes to pass. Obama foolishly believes the fear will break if he wins. But this condition has been getting worse since 1992, not better. At 20 years, only a trouncing has a chance of correcting an era of error.

Poll dance

The only pollster in Utah I trust, Dan Jones, has a poll out tonight with a surprising conclusion: Jim Matheson might not be re-elected to a seventh term.

It looks like this race, like the senate races in Massachusetts and Nevada has nationalized. Utah is one of the few states where your entire campaign can be about latching onto the top of the ticket.

An interesting aspect of the poll also shows Matheson's approval rating is slightly higher than Love's, at 56 percent to 54 percent. But Matheson's unfavorable rating is also higher than Love's, at 38 percent to 31 percent.

Just like Scott Brown in the Bay State, Utahns still like Jim Matheson. Jim has not made as many mistakes as Brown has. He has not made silly personal attacks like whether Mia Love was an "anchor baby"but the policy based attacks have not stuck either it appears.

I would be curious to learn what people who are neutral thought of the performances of both candidates.

Mia Love is by far the best candidate Jim Matheson has gone up against. I am looking at you too John Swallow.

The student loans and Israel funding attack lines are the best ones Matheson has got. Disparaging Saratoga Springs does not seem to be a winning plan to me. My free advice, which is worth every penny, is to personalize what Mia Love's more extreme positions would mean for a real life college on student loans, a real life senior in a nursing home who is dual eligible and at risk under theRyan budget that Romney and Love endorsed. A regular Utahn, rather than Jim talking at a press event or another debate will be the most effective in my view.

But really giving people a reason to turnout for you and an organization to get the vote out is the most important at this stage. Democrats in Utah are not going to be all that jazzed to turnout this year, unlike 2008. Even worse, the other side will be very excited to vote for Mitt Romney in huge numbers.

Are there Romney-Matheson voters? Sure but who knows how many there are and what buttons are the right ones to push? Certainly not this highly paid consultant.

Bottom line, Matheson is a hole that he is going to have to dig out of but he still could pull out a victory. I am already having déjà vu of election night 2012 when Jim Matheson's campaign manager and my dad called me to find out what the latest returns were because the Internet was down in their hotel room. Back then, I calculated that John Swallow would have to run the table on the remaining precincts in order to capture the lead and make up the difference in the lead. I predicted that Jim would barely pull it out. I fear it will be another long night for Jim this year again.

Ten Years

This year was my tenth college reunion. So I have been feeling more nostalgic than usual lately. Then I learned last night that in a decade, every cell in your body is different than the ones that were there ten years ago. So we are literally nothing like the people we were in college. My deep thought of the week.

Grading the speeches

So I have to admit, I could bear to watch the Republican convention but did manage to watch most of the headline speeches for the Democratic Convention. A day after it all ended, I still think Michelle Obama's was the best one I heard. And from what I gather, it was the best one of all the conventions. Joe Biden's was the second best.

Perhaps I am grading on a curve, but my expectations for Joe the Biden were pretty low and Obama's was pretty high. Perhaps the president knew the jobs report would suck, so he blamed the weather and moved his speech indoors, then toned down his speech. One doesn't want have soaring rhetoric if reality doesn't match. Still Biden did a good job talking loud and soft, and talking like Joe Six Pack.

Honestly I don't get what the fuss was about Bill Clinton's speech. It was same old off the program too long speech that he always gives. there were some good moments but overall I remembered why I grew tired of Bill towered the end. Still I also remembered the two times I have seen him speak in person. You could feel his charisma from all the way up on the nose bleed section where I was.

Another sign that the end is nigh

More people watched “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” reality TV show about a child beauty pageant contestant, than watched the Republican National Convention last week.

Something tells me these are the so-called undecided voters that make their choice based on stupid whims, if they vote at all.

Watching Mia Love's TV ad with the sound off

Last night I was riding the stationary bike at the gym, a rarity or me, and watching news coverage of the GOP convention. Right after the local news did a story on Mia Love's speech at the convention, it cut to commercial. And guess whose ad was on first at the break? You guessed it.

Since it was the gym, I could not have listened to the ad if I wanted to. At any event, I think it was a good test to see what was conveyed to this who were not wanting to pay attention to her commercial, the median voter she and Jim Matheson are trying to woo.

The images were her face and Mitt Romney's mug over and over, some times side by side. The text was even less subtle, with the words "Love stands with Romney on" and then issue after issue scrolling by. Message received loud and clear. Interestingly, she couldn't get Mitt to spare a few minutes to walk side by side with Mia Love for her commercials.

Still, the message also plays into Jim Matheson's argument as well. "She is all about party, and I am all about Utah," said Matheson at an event today when asked about Love's upcoming not even four minute long speech at the Republican convention. Her ad says I will be President Romney's rubber stamp, but what is the point of that? And who does she vote in lockstep with if Obama wins reelection?