Reason has Left the Building

Posted on December 16, 2011 by

Ron Paul admirers complain that he doesn’t get enough respect or attention from the media. I agree with the attention part. Unfortunately too many people admire Paul because he “sticks to his guns” even if the gun is pointed at our collective heads. Sane people call that suicide.

Some Democrats like Paul because he’s against the wars and wants to cut military spending. This is the political equivalent of putting a group of monkeys in a room with a typewriter. When someone is against government in all its manifestations, eventually you’re bound to find something you can agree on. That doesn’t mean the man isn’t a lunatic. Or that the novel the monkeys eventually write is readable.

Some Democrats liked John McCain because, in the years before he became a presidential candidate, he wasn’t afraid to vote contrary to the party line. That didn’t make him moderate; it just indicated that he was, in his own words, a maverick. Others might say he was simply contrary.

We shouldn’t be voting for personality traits. We’re not electing a prom king or queen. “Likeability” – the trait that George W. Bush had in spades – is important in a brother-in-law, but it’s not top of the list of what one looks for in the leader of the free world. I can forgive the President of the United States if he has a prickly side. In fact, I’d welcome another LBJ about now. We should be voting for leadership qualities such as intelligence, thoughtfulness and shared values as demonstrated by a candidate’s past behavior and the ability to act in the best interests of the country as a whole.

That’s what makes it hard for Republicans. Of their two top candidates, one has no core values and the other has values straight out of Dickens. Even his name, Newt Gingrich, sounds Dickensian. Or is it Seussian? Who can forget Mr. Murdstone? Or the Grinch?

The only reasonable Republican candidate, Jon Huntsman, just can’t get a date to the dance. In the Republicans’ house, reason has left the room and along with it, the ability to be reasonable. Republicans aren’t the loyal opposition – they’re just the opposition. In my book – one that wasn’t written by monkeys – that makes them unqualified to govern.

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Millionaires on Food Stamps?

Posted on December 15, 2011 by

A December 12 article in the New York Times noted that Republicans, in their latest take on the Cadillac-driving Welfare Queen theme, are working to make sure that unemployed millionaires aren’t allowed to collect unemployment benefits or food stamps.

Every lottery-playing chump knows a million dollars isn’t what it used to be back in the day when the fictional John Beresford Tipton pulled up to the curb and delivered a check in that amount to some deserving individual.

In the world that isn’t trapped in the fifties, you could easily be a “millionaire” if you’ve paid off your mortgage and been saving for retirement for thirty years. But if you lose your job, what are you supposed to eat? Bricks and Mortar?

No bank is going to refinance your mortgage and fork over equity if you don’t have income. That leaves you the option of selling the house in a terrible housing market or dipping into your retirement account and paying the penalties.

Having a million dollars in assets – retirement accounts, your home, your wedding ring and all your worldly goods — doesn’t put you in the top 1%. Far from it. This is just the latest ploy by Republicans to try to appear fair and balanced. They’re not.

They’d rather see you on the street than pay you the unemployment benefits that you and your employer have paid for.

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“White Man Speak With Forked Tongue” – Tonto

Posted on December 9, 2011 by

More proof that Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Refusing to approve President Obama’s nomination of Caitlin Halligan to be a federal appeals court judge, the New York Times reported this week that Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, led the Republican Party’s opposition saying “Ms. Halligan’s record demonstrated that she viewed the court as a means of advancing a social agenda instead of as a forum for even-handedly deciding legal questions.”

“We shouldn’t be putting activists on the bench,” Mr. McConnell said. “I think she would use the court to put her activist judicial philosophy into practices, and for that reason alone she shouldn’t be confirmed.”

After all, Republicans never do that. Except when they want to anoint a President (see Bush v. Gore) or declare corporations to be “persons” who can make unlimited political contributions (Citizens United), or deprive a woman of the right to control her own body (stay tuned), or decide who can marry…

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Parsing Chancellor Birgeneau

Posted on November 20, 2011 by

So here’s my take on Cal Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s incredibly lame email to the “extended Berkeley Community” explaining the police brutality that took place on the campus where the free speech movement was born.  His words are in quotes.

“We regret that, in spite of forewarnings, we encountered a situation where, to uphold our policy, we were required to forcibly remove tents and arrest people.”

Translation:  You made us do it.  It’s your fault.  And policy is always more important than people.

“It is unfortunate that some protesters chose to obstruct the police by linking arms and forming a human chain to prevent the police from gaining access to the tents.  This is not non-violent civil disobedience. “

Translation:  Linking arms is violent.  (Who knew?)

“By contrast, some of the protesters chose to be arrested peacefully; they were told to leave their tents, informed that they would be arrested if they did not, and indicated their intention to be arrested.  They did not resist arrest or try physically to obstruct the police officers’ efforts to remove the tent.  These protesters were acting in the tradition of peaceful civil disobedience, and we honor them.”

Translation:  A pat on the head to the good little boys and girls who followed directions.

Note to Chancellor Birgeneau: The key word in the phrase “civil disobedience” is “disobedience”  meaning the opposite of obedience.  Protestors who refused to leave their tents are no less legitimate than those who agreed.  (Forgive the double negative.  Just following the chancellor’s lead.)

“We regret that, given the instruction to take down tents and prevent encampment, the police were forced to use their batons to enforce the policy.  We regret all injuries, to protesters and police, that resulted from this effort.  The campus’s Police Review Board will ultimately determine whether police used excessive force under the circumstances.”

Translation:  Again, your fault.  And we really, really regret that everyone who owns a smart phone has a video camera in his or her pocket.  But don’t worry, we’ll leave it up to the police to decide if they misbehaved and we all know the police never do anything bad … unless they’re forced to.

“We call on the protesters to observe campus policy or, if they choose to defy the policy, to engage in truly non-violent civil disobedience and to accept the consequences of their decisions.”

Translation:  Don’t come whining to us if you get your ribs broken or your hair pulled.

“We ask supporters of the Occupy movement to consider the interests of the broader community—the tens of thousands who elected not to participate in yesterday’s events. We urge you to consider the fact that there are so many time-tested ways to have your voices heard without violating the one condition we have asked you to abide by.”

Translation:  The tens of thousands who were working at their crappy minimum-wage jobs and were thus unable to join you.

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Best Definitions of a Corporation

Posted on November 20, 2011 by

The most quotable words I’ve heard this week come from Stephen Colbert and Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor.

Secretary Reich: “I will believe that corporations are people when Georgia and Texas execute them.”

Stephen Colbert: “[Corporations are] Born in a lawyer’s office, exist only on paper, have no soul and can never die.”

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Pepper Spray at UC Davis

Posted on November 19, 2011 by

Remember Kent State

This morning I received an email from UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, attempting to explain why student protestors there were casually assaulted by police with pepper spray.  Here is my response:

Chancellor Katehi:

I do not accept your explanation that the actions the police took against peaceful protesters at UC Davis was necessary to protect the health and safety of the students.  In fact, I find the statement offensive, disingenuous and reeking, like three-day-old fish in the trash can, of the public relations office.

As a parent of a UC Davis student, I fully support him and all students, to peacefully engage in their right to free speech and assembly.  As Henry David Thoreau said in his essay, “Civil Disobedience:” All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.

Frankly, I do not care what “regulations” the students were violating.  UC Davis occupies public land and students have a right to assemble there – in tents, in cardboard boxes, or in university buildings.  There is absolutely no excuse for the police to use pepper spray on students who are doing nothing but sitting on public property and justly protesting a political system that has been corrupted by money and corporate interests.

The University should be a place that welcomes dissent and discussion.  I was a college student during the time of the Kent State shooting.   It would be a tragic mistake to continue to allow police to treat students like criminals: it will only escalate the violence.

The police presence at protests should be no different than it is at an Independence Day parade:  visible, yet benign.

I expect better from you and the University of California.

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Occupy a Hostile Work Environment

Posted on November 5, 2011 by

My first job out of college was waiting tables (and yes, college-educated Baby Boomers had a hard time finding jobs, too).  An older, more experienced waitress told me that the owner/manager often made crude sexual comments but he was “just kidding.”  So when he said to me,  “Go to the back room and  wait for me with your panties off,”  I wasn’t supposed to take offense.  Ha, ha, boss – you’re so funny.

And when a customer asked me if I’d “warm up the rolls between my legs,” who was I supposed to complain to?  Yeah.  Nobody.  I hated that job and quit after a month.  I was able to quit because: 1) I was living with my parents and 2) I’d found another part-time job as a substitute teacher.

If you have even two brain cells firing in your head, you understand what I’m getting at.  Everybody can’t quit.   It shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone that Republicans, especially Tea Partiers and Evangelicals, regardless of gender, don’t think that sexual harassment charges against Herman Cain are a serious issue.  These are the same folks who cheer for the death penalty and think a 30-year-old man should be allowed to die because he doesn’t have health insurance.  And they call themselves Christians.

After my brief stint as a waitress, one of my many jobs was in sexual assault prevention.  We identified three types of harassers:

1. The ones who don’t realize their behavior is offensive and will stop when told it is.
2. The ones who don’t realize their behavior is offensive and don’t stop when told it is.
3. The ones who know their behavior is offensive and don’t care and won’t stop.

Regardless of the type of harassment a woman faces, the onus is on her to do something about it.  Men often insist they were “just flirting.”  They’re sure their behavior wasn’t offensive because their target didn’t tell them it was.

Anita Hill taught us what happens when a woman accuses a powerful man.

So here’s my advice to men:  when in doubt, don’t.  You don’t get a pass because of your age, your race your party affiliation or anything else.  If you go ahead and “flirt” with that woman at work, you’re harassing her.  No matter what you tell yourself.

 

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An Economic Bill of Rights for Occupy Wall Street

Posted on October 7, 2011 by

There is no need for demonstrators to reinvent the wheel when it comes to articulating a manifesto.  Franklin D. Roosevelt said it beautifully in his 1944 State of the Union Address, excerpted here:

“The Economic Bill of Rights”

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

  1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
  2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
  3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
  4. The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
  5. The right of every family to a decent home;
  6. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
  7. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
  8. The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

source: The Public Papers & Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Samuel Rosenman, ed.), Vol XIII (NY: Harper, 1950), 40-42

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Look Out 19th Century: Here We Come

Posted on August 31, 2011 by

 

Our next move to the suburbs?

When Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House he suggested that we should build more orphanages to warehouse children whose families couldn’t  care for them properly.  Never mind the documented abuses from time immemorial (think Oliver Twist, Catholic orphanages in Australia during WWII where children were regularly sexually abused by their caretakers, Eastern Europe during the Communist era where children were so neglected they were unable to form attachments with adoptive families.)   But Newt’s  idea  looks downright compassionate compared to the current crop of Republican brainstorms.

Now, Republican leaders like Eric “Empty Suit” Cantor are saying we can’t afford to provide aid to the victims of Hurricane Irene because we “don’t have the money” and will have to cut elsewhere.   And they keep using that tired and invalid comparison to your family’s budget.  (Let me remind you that your family cannot print money.)

Funny how the Republicans always seem to find money for the things that are important to them:  war, corporate welfare and tax breaks for the rich.  But their mean-spiritedness is sinking to new lows.  I’m just waiting for the candidate who’s going to suggest that we overturn child labor laws and bring back debtors’ prisons and poor houses for the old and destitute. But perhaps I’m giving them too much credit.  More likely they’d rather see the old, the sick and the poor out on the street.   (See my previous post “I Have a Nightmare”).

Most ironic is that these Republicans call themselves Christians. But hey, we’re number one!

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Shape Up or Ship Out! (I’m talking to you, Tea Partiers.)

Posted on July 30, 2011 by

The Republican chickens have come home to roost.

I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot lately.  He was a lifelong Republican except for the time he voted for FDR.  I wonder what Dad would think about what’s going on in Washington, D.C. these days.

When his kids got out of line, Dad said things like “Settle down before I knock some heads together.”  Would he give us pizza and then wheedle and cajole us to get in line?  No.  Hell no.

If we didn’t like what was on the table, we went to bed without.  He grew up during the Depression.  That’s why he voted for FDR.  Things were so bad, people started to wonder whether capitalism was really the best economic system.  (Insert pregnant pause.)

Now we have a bunch of Crackpot freshman Republicans who not only don’t understand basic economics; they’re ignorant of history and the constitution as well.   Republicans embraced the far right wing of their party in order to win an election and now the chickens have come home to roost.

Any seasoned politician will tell you that you can’t govern from the margins.   You need reasonable people from both parties in order to compromise.  Yet reason has flown from the Republican Party and Mr. Speaker Boehner seems unacquainted with the concept of tough love.

The Crackpots’ most recent demand is for a balanced budget amendment in order to raise the debt ceiling limit.  (Pssst!  Ahem.  Excuse me, Mr. and Ms. Crackpot.   Did you know that three-quarters of the states – yes that’s 38 states – must ratify an amendment before it can become law? That can take years!)

If we had to balance our budget every year, we could not borrow money to pay unemployment benefits when the economy is bad, or to repair broken levies after hurricanes, or provide emergency assistance to people whose houses are underwater (in the literal sense) because of the increasing number of violent weather events.  (Events like tornadoes, floods, high winds, droughts, extreme temperatures and forest fires that will only keep increasing because the Crackpots also don’t believe in climate change.)

People, the economy is stagnant.  In the crapper.  GDP numbers released last week show that the economy is still .4% smaller than its pre-recession peak.  Probably not a surprise if you’re one of the 14 million people who’s still out of work.  Over a million government employees – mostly state and local – have been laid off.  That’s 7% of all the people out of work and a million more people trying to get the same job you’re trying to get.  But according to Republicans, government doesn’t create jobs.

If the Federal government defaults on its bills, thousands of private contractors – including non-profits that provide essential services and construction companies that repair collapsed bridges – will not get paid.  Guess what that means?  More layoffs.

Due to Congressional dysfunction, 4,000 workers at the FAA are currently on furlough because Congress can’t pass a simple funding resolution without inserting politics.  They want to cut $16.5 million in aid to small airports.  Meanwhile, the FAA is unable to collect airport taxes and has already lost $200 million in revenue.   This isn’t just bad governance, it’s stupid.  Add another subject to the list of things the Crackpots don’t understand: simple arithmetic.

If you’re one of the people who voted for these Crackpots, you and your Representative should be sent to your room with no pizza, no (Fox) TV and a history book.  Preferably one that has not been revised by the Texas Board of Education.  And while you’re there, brush up on your spelling.

Do you know how to spell banana?  Because that’s what we’re becoming; a Banana Republic.

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