Monthly Archives: November 2008

Spending Cuts Imply Pink Slips

And I’m all for them.

For the first time in recollection, I APPLAUD the words of Barack Obama.  Yes, yes, ABSOLUTELY…slash unwarranted, inefficient, wasteful, capricious AND discriminatory spending.

HOWEVER, comma, all that spending is associated with agencies and programs that are STAFFED.  With the cuts in spending, logically, come layoffs of federal employees.

The federal workforce is bloated?  The Federal Workforce is its own CITIZENRY.  Let us lighten the load by jettisoning complacent Paper Pushers before we start ADDING jobs.  Or are these among the Saved portion of Obama’s two-and-a-half million jobs that deflated from “new” to “saved or created”?

I applaud us turning our attention and resources to our own infrastructure instead of infrastructures that we blow up in far off lands and re-build to our own market specifications.  HOWEVER, comma, AGAIN, these are taxes that have ALREADY been levied and bonds that have ALREADY been issued.  Agencies and programs ALREADY exist, presumably with personnel.  It sounds to me very much as though Barack Obama proposes to hire people to do jobs that people already on the payroll aren’t doing.

For similarity, I draw attention to an Only Under Villagairossa espisode in Los Angeles, where EXTRA funds are being diverted to pick up trash that otherwise accumulates in…how shall I put it?…high-risk neighborhoods.  Someone is paid to pick up trash in those neighborhoods and…understandably, I suppose, if they fear for their safety…certain portions of assigned routes are simply skipped.  The trash accumulates. Also, Big Guys dump illicitly.  Finally, in the spirit of the fantasy that more money can dispel the appearance of discrimination, the City resolves to spend more money to do the job that someone else is being paid for not doing.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/01/local/me-dumping1

I urge us to become acquainted with our True Unemployment before we launch a bunch of ad-hoc, stop-gap, finger-in-dike, duct-tape-and-heavy-administration programs that treat symptoms rather than ills.

President Elect and Attorney Barack Obama, married to an attorney, will want to have a care about advocating methodologies that are apt to lavish MORE billable hours upon Big Law.

Timothy Franz Geithner At Treasury

I have just finished listening to Fox pundits extoll the virtues of Timothy F. Geithner…President of The Fed in New York, where Wall Street is situated…applauding ostensible Man Of Change PEBO’s appointment of another familiar face, this time to the coveted post of Secretary of the Treasury.

I heard, “He KNOWS crises…he was THERE for the Asian crisis.”

I heard, “He’s been at the heart of this whole thing from the start.”

I heard, “He is Henry Paulson’s protege.”

I would ask the obvious question…how does any of that inspire confidence?  

I refer to my post of October 10th at PeaceandCarats.com:
 A Confidence Crisis, Not A Credit Crisis.

New World Order

I woke up this morning and knelt to pray
What is this New World Order, you say?
It’s Shylocks and Shysters and field days
While corrupted officials look other ways.

What must come from such a state
Wealth and power gathering to sate
Insatiable desires of those who bait
Each with nothing the other to hate?

A fractured union oozing resentment
Privileged only knowing contentment
Have Nots resolving to seize their powers
And forage for food in their Ivory Towers.

Steadily, steadily but not abundantly
Ruling Elite pays their private security
They’ll find when millions storm the few
That underling loyalty is scant their due.

So Far, So Same

From where I sit, the principal change since our historic election of Barack Change Obama is that I am not assaulted by his image all day on TV.  I appreciate the reprieve, I do.  But he seems to me to be hiding.

He’s already been elected, right?  Alls he has to do is produce that birth certificate, and he’s in, right?  Why is he playing his cards so close to the vest, like a man who is still campaigning?  I know, I know…we can only have one president at a time.  Fine time for the American Idol President Elect to assume a low profile.

For me, because I have objected from the get-go that his off-the-cuff remarks do NOT support claims of his brilliance, the silence is conspicuous.  Does he HAVE any fresh ideas?  WHAT IS HE SAVING THEM FOR?  A Grand Entrance…Camelot AND Cavalry?

Perhaps while the country is in free-fall, we could have some overlapping of brainpower…that’d be somethin’ different. 

Certainly Change is not made manifest by his cabinet appointments, one Suit more familiar than the other. MORE of the people under whose stewardship the country has gone pretty much to hell.  Tom Daschle’s wife being a registered Lobbyist is a nice in-your-face touch.

Roll the tape from a Roundtable on November 9th to hear Cynthia Tucker say that Obama “owes the Latinos a great deal” and suggest that a cabinet post for Bill Richardson would be an appropriate settling of favors. 

Yep.  I remember when Bill Richardson threw his support to Obama.  Biden, too.  Iowa…where “wheeling, dealing, haggling and horse trading” resulted in a big big bounce for Obama.  So many of them put their own careers ahead of the good of the nation…and they’re so obvious about it, not even a pretense of propriety anymore…that it is very dispiriting indeed.

Has there not also been talk of a possible appointment for former Congressman Jim Leach, Iowa Republican who surprised his party by lining up with Obama?  Yes, there has.  

Baggage with Eric Holder?  Full matching set.

It is as though he never gave one moment’s thought to who he would put in which position…or like he’s stringing out the announcements to keep the media percolating.

Bailouts right, left and center, with discrimination suits galore on their heels.  Nope, no change there. Fresh faces in office?  Nope, shot that wad on Obama apparently.  Doing the same thing expecting different results constitutes a brand of insanity…Obama RAN on that.  And Change.  

WHAT’S CHANGED?

We’re doing the same thing with the bailouts.  Who in their right mind proposes to dig companies out by giving money to the same executives who drove the companies into the ground?  No one in their right mind.  

But people in their LEFT mind would thusly give away money…other people’s, natch.  They can’t give ENOUGH of it…NO! to $700 billion, YES! to $850 billion.  The not-Right right will certainly REQUEST such money…why not?  No harm in asking.  Too much ventured, nothing lost…it is human nature to take advantage wherever and whenever possible. 

It is practical punishment that deters the dark side of human nature, not lofty rhetoric.  Prison sentences for corrupt executives and corrupt public officials…THAT would be change I could believe in.

Who proposes to do THAT with the same old people?  It is incestuous, with loyalty inbred among nincompoops and carpetbaggers…think Governmental Deliverance.

Piracy = Extreme Corruption

How did it come to pass, I wonder, that English-speaking people apologize and/or request pardon for cussing by calling it French. Surely a Frenchman doesn’t preface or conclude ‘FOR FUCK’S SAKE’ with ‘pardon my English.’

FOR FUCK’S SAKE. WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE THAT PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS IS ALARMINGLY ON THE RISE?

MY GUESS WOULD BE BECAUSE IMPOVERISHED AND DISENFRANCHISED PEOPLE SEE THE WORLD’S TOP BANANAS BEHAVING LIKE ASSHOLES AND CRIMINALS. THE PRECEDENT HAS BEEN SET THAT CRIME PAYS. WE WILL PUT SOME CORRUPT OFFICIALS AND ROBBER BARONS IN PRISON, AND SEIZE THEIR ILL-GOTTEN GAINS, OR PEOPLE THE WORLD OVER WILL INCREASINGLY SAY…

WHY SHOULDN’T I STEAL WHATEVER I NEED? BIG SHOTS STEAL WHATEVER THEY WANT, SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT…AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS STEAL WHATEVER THEY WANT, SUPPORTED BY BIG SHOTS.

Top down, top down.

What is Piracy but theatrical theft, eh? Force of arms or force of law…doesn’t much matter to the person getting ripped off HOW they get ripped off. Do Gooders and Big Business may say the difference is that pirates kill people. Corporate and government pirates kill spirits. A body without a spirit is what? Canon fodder?

Piracy on the high seas is the working man’s version of piracy in the corner office.

Oh, now that the frequency and ransom demand sums are up, Big Bad Business Executives are gonna get tough on pirates? They’re concerned about the costs of piracy being passed on to us, are they?

I advise Big Bad Business Executives that I feel the exact same way about them.

Just Say No

Car people are nothing, if not salesmen.

NO. It stands alone as a complete sentence.

Salesmen know how to take NO for an answer.

The three Super Salesmen who flew into Washington on private jets to cajole Congress for billions of dollars Gimme Money for Detroit should be told in no uncertain terms NO, NO and NO.

Roll the tape to hear Senator Corker (R-TN) ask about their overseas EXPANSION.

Yeah, well, that’s ’cause we’re making money overseas. Duh, explain the Automakers Extraordinaire.

Can’t you transfer the needed funds from your overseas Money Makers to your stateside Losers?

Yeah, well, we’re expecting those operations to be affected as the crisis Goes Global.

Ah, so they want ANTICIPATORY protection?

Us, too.

Many of our personal financial woes are expected to worsen in 2009.

By Detroit Logic, for those of us whose portfolios have already taken a 40% hit and who apprehend additional setbacks in 2009, the Government should either waive our tax bills or bail us out. We are gratified that Hank the Bank has learned what we already knew, that it will not much help us if he buys stock in our devalued assets. We, too, prefer straight cash infusions.

What the hell kind of way is this to run a business OR a country? If THIS is our Change, if THIS is our new direction then, by all means, run the country like Detroit…it practically guarantees Gridlock. Gridlock is hell, as a rule. But if the options that lie ahead are a multi-car pile-up or driving off a cliff, Gridlock is Grace.

It defies Reason that the only people in Washington who know what they’re doing are up to no good, but it also defies Reason to ignore evidence.

Defiers R Us.

Theocracy Schmeocracy

My country ‘tis of theocracy
Swift land of hypocrisy, of thee we shout;
Land where our fathers died
Land where our mothers cried
From every mountainside, resistance mounts.

My native country, gone
Land where once freedom won, thee I lament
I loved thy rock and roll
And thy Rasmussen poll
My heart with terror fills, per their intent.

Let anger swell the breeze
Get thee up off your knees, in freedom’s name;
Let mortal tongues awake
Let all that breathe partake
Let rocks their silence break, get in the game.

Our father’s God, to Thee
A vast apology, Thy name in vain
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light
Raise us up for the fight, and freedom gain.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

My Country Was of Thee:

My country,’ tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims’ pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
land of the noble free, thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
thy woods and templed hills;
my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees sweet freedom’s song;
let mortal tongues awake;
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our fathers’ God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom’s holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

Free Thoughts For the Grand Old Party

More like, the Grandad Oldster Party.  At the Republican National Convention, when everyone held still for the “class photo”?  The party leadership gathered on the stage was a pitchfork and a pair of overalls shy of a Grant Wood painting.

Sometimes you just have to laugh though, y’know?  To be sure, the comedy lies in absurdity rather than hilarity but, even so, there is a level of absurdity that makes you laugh despite your determination NOT to confer legitimacy by laughing.  I was never a fan of The Three Stooges or America’s Funniest Home Videos but sometimes…in the manner of it’s only funny til someone gets hurt, then it’s hilarious…preposterous slapstick stuff, I dunno, you just have to laugh. 

The likes of Rush Limbaugh calling out for Change in the Republican party is either too absurd for words, or it is ripe for paragraphs upon pages.

Bemoaning the need to Rebuild The Party, there’s Laura Ingraham lamenting on TV, “Who needs to go?”

You, Ms. Ingraham.  And Rush Limbaugh.

In the home stretch of arguably the worst Administration in American history, who steered Maverick John McCain and the Straight Talk Express into Old Guard Standard Bearer and the Repetitive Circle?  The Old Guard, that’s who. 

Re-visit Greta Van Susteran’s tour of Jack Kemp’s football trophies to appreciate the ridiculousness of Glory Day Governance.

John McCain shot himself in the foot by catering to Hardright.  Hardright is not a majority.  Hardright is not Right.  For all the Evangelism, many of them aren’t even Christian, if we will gauge people by their verifiable actions rather than by their commendable words. 

Talk is cheap. 

Lies are profitable.

There are Moneychangers in the temple.

Those on the Far Right who really ARE Christian, believe me, I feel for you.  I can’t see how a bona fide Christian can even sleep at night, with all the iniquity and injustice and murder and mayhem.

But your punitive moralizing is outta line, setting aside whether YOU even live up to your Fanaticism.  God would not have imparted unto us Free Will if He did not intend that we should use it.  It is our use of Free Will that will determine our favor in God’s eyes, yes?  It is ‘let them come unto Me,’ not ‘haul their asses in here.’  To God what glory, if you have coerced adherence to His word?  None.

“A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

BE GLAD AND REJOICE that fewer will make it through the Pearly Gates…less traffic, easy parking.  No, that is NOT blasphemous…that is humor.  Litgo/James Belushi in About Last Night, “Don’t EVER lose your sense of humor.”  It’s pretty obvious that God has a sense of humor.

The rest of the Hardright is not Hardright, just Hard.  They are an extreme, inflexible Fringe.  Look to the Middle East to confirm that Extremism in governance is a bad thing. 

Not to say that our Made in the U.S.A. Extremists don’t warrant representation in our government.  If whichever They exist in a democracy, and they are not criminals, they warrant representation, do they not?  Representation is one thing, running the show is quite another.  If Fringe will continue to run the show, it seems unlikely that the Republican Party will gain the numbers necessary to mitigate our present slide into a weirdo hybrid Socialism-slash-I’m-not-sure-what.

Are you kidding me?  With the many many many more people who will receive assistance or employment from the Obama Administration…which is to say from the Moneyed Class, the majority of whom are Republican…the GOP doesn’t have a PRAYER of soon reasserting unless it shucks hypocritical and counterproductive religiosity in favor calm, cool, collected, profitable Reason.

Eighty or so percent of the people agreeing that we were headed in the wrong direction does NOT translate to eighty or so people agreeing that our new trajectory is well set.

Holy Rollers out.  Honorable Realists in.

Speaking of fiscal conservativism, there is NOTHING conservative about corruption and there is NOTHING conservative about turning a blind eye to it.  Likewise, there is NOTHING Christian about corruption and there is NOTHING Christian about turning a blind eye to it.  There is NOTHING conservative or Christian about obscene, gluttonous salaries and profits.  There is NOTHING conservative or Christian about our quote-unquote Public Servants leading high-profile, high-flying lifestyles on Other People’s Money.   

In BOTH parties and throughout government, there are Bad Guys wheeling and dealing with impunity.  We need to put ‘em in prison.  Otherwise, more Bad Guys will concoct more bullshit.  Y’know why?  Because crime pays in America.  And that which turns a profit attracts more action.  That’s the way a Market works.

I have been a registered Republican for more than 30 years, and I am effing repulsed.

Not repulsed enough to vote for Barack Obama, but I’d have voted for a couple other of the Democrats.  The Republican party DID deserve a spanking.  SHAME on Republican Brass.  SHAME on Neoconservative Powermongers and Faux Christians.  I sense that spoiled, unrealistic, cowardly Americans made a big mistake flocking to the Mystery Man Uber Express, but I’d be happy to be wrong.  Y’know why?  I can’t hold Democrats so accountable for their stupidity…they truly believe their pie-in-the-sky crapola…what can you do?  They mean well, God bless ‘em.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

But Republicans know better.  That means they’re behaving worse.

Congressional Weenies

I have been watching Congressional hearings on C-SPAN, notably Kucinich’s on hedge fund regulation and Dodd’s on ANOTHER bailout for Detroit.

Senator Bob Corker, Republican out of Tennessee is on the right track. Then he apologized for being harsh.

Senator Jon Tester, Democrat out of Montana, is further along the right track.  Man oh man, he NAILED ‘em, and he DIDN’T apologize.  Good on him.

But Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat out of Connecticut…who has some ‘splaining to do about his OWN perks from naughty naughty Countrwide…he was full of THANKS to the Three Caballeros, “You’ve been very very patient.”  Something about four hours.

Big Shots Wagoner at GM, Nardelli at Chrysler and Mullaly at Ford have been very very patient with US?

Perhaps Senator Chris Dodd is extra gracious to the Begging Billionaires BECAUSE of the personal benefits that he enjoyed as a member of smarmy Anthony Mozilo’s V.I.P. club over at Countrywide…the predatory lender (except to Congressmen, then a BENEFICENT lender) that fell so early in this Market Mayhem as to have nearly been forgotten in all the excitement.

The brief 30 or so minutes that I just watched will provide fodder for the next dozen posts, at least.

Big Three Bullshit ABOUNDS.  As to Gettelfinger, please.

Senator Corker: “How long do automakers pay autoworkers roughly 95% of their salary if a plant is idle?”

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger: “I don’t know.”

‘Nuf said. 

It seems to me that it is only a matter of sorting out which politicians and executives are incompetent, and which are complicit.

Hank The Bank

Hank the Bank is less than frank
But Kashkari’s name is earnest
Economies tank, bullshit is rank
But Congress spies an Earn Fest.

Hank the Bank foists public funds
even on those banks not wanting
disguising those without dividends
public ignorance he is flaunting.