More kvetching on Heath Care Reform

The situation is discouraging. "Our side," for complicated reasons, isn't getting out there in significant numbers. Hasn't really, since many thousands of Obama's supporters rejoiced on The Mall in DC on election night 2008. And the MILLIONS who showed up for his inauguration the following January. I think it has to do partially with what a friend of mine recently said - "Among Amerikans, hope has been mostly killed." There's also very much plain old complacency on the part of a lot of progressives now that Barack Obama is President.

The only thing I would admire the "Tea Baggers" for would be the impressive turnout for their rallies last year, despite the fact their movement is filled to the brim with imbeciles. But I know better. Fact is, it's a lot easier to produce massive rallies when you have Dick Armey's "Freedom Works" providing literally millions of dollars. For buses, for telephone lines, for all sorts of costs incurred when you organize masses of idiots who can't even coherently express their "views."

Obama tries to speak sensibly to the Republicans

Saw a bit of today's White House Health Summit on the PBS News Hour. I wish I had CSPAN so I could have spent the whole day watching. Not really, it was enough to hear John McCain whining about who said what during the 2008 election. Also annoying to hear John Boehner go off into the deep end, into his usual bullshit talking points. Was pleased, though, that Obama was in fine form, and didn't miss a beat. I think the Dems are starting to get it at last; if they don't obtain a political brain, if they don't serve their constituency, they stand to lose the loyalty of their base. You know, people like me. Hell, I'm not reflexively loyal to the Donkeys, but I sure voted for Obie, and today I finally know why. He's good when he's at his best. As he was today, when he took on the Elephants with one brain tied behind his back.

But getting back on track, let's take note of a well known fact. When pollsters ask the right questions, they elicit interesting answers. Such as the fact that a majority in the United States actually favors a government-run health-care system, more or less along the lines of Medicare.

http://www.healthcare-now.org/another-poll-shows-majority-support-for-single-payer/

Common Cause

It's interesting to consider some of the "Tea-baggers'" grievances. I share some of the outrage. It's difficult for me as well to accept the $180 billion A.I.G. bail-out. Of course the public was scared silly that if they didn't go along, they wouldn't get along. But when the question arises as to what should be done to remedy the ills of "Capital," that is where I part company with the extreme Free-Marketeers. Maybe there is some grounds for common cause in the midst of the present "polarization?" After all, 80% of the American pubic weighed in recently against the Supreme Court's "Citizens United V. FEC" decision. Turns out most Americans, across a wide spectrum, still don't want the largest corporations to run EVERYTHING.

Abraham Linkster

Hard for me to believe Abe Lincoln existed long ago and far away in a dark dingy past that impresses me the same way all 19th century events do - odd, dreary, impossibly recent/ancient happenings in a dull-imagined black & white daguerreotype delusion...

Impeach John Roberts

John Roberts should be impeached. We cannot tolerate a Chief Justice who “validates” the absurd, self-serving, pathological and destructive notion of “Corporate Personhood.” A Supreme Corporate Court that eliminates the minimal existing limitations on corporate campaign donations is an abomination. This despicable ruling allows massive, obscenely wealthy institutions like Exxon-Mobil or Microsoft to exercise unlimited influence in Congress. Or the Executive. Or any other aspect of the American political process.

Any “reasoning,” to the effect that these often monstrous entities are simply composed of numerous individuals is transparently specious. Sure, a few individuals, like New York Mayor and media mogul Bloomberg, Microsoft honcho Bill Gates, and currency-trader/political activist/”philanthropist” George Soros have the kind of megabucks it takes to game the system. But financial behemoths who can assume the role of big-time players are the exception, not the rule. I haven’t that kind of money, power and influence; neither do most of you reading this, unless you’re a lot wealthier than anyone ever imagined.

Thanks to this Court’s disgusting ruling, which conservatives salivate over, the impending mid-term congressional elections promise to be more compromised than ever. We can expect the airwaves to become absolutely flooded with advertisements, bought by the highest bidders. This socio-economic arrangement, which neocons label “Freedom” is really the economic analog of a political philosophy known as Fascism. It’s corporate hegemony at its worst, where one can have just as much “democracy” as one can purchase! The situation here in the United States is now doomed to become yet more pyramidal, more hierarchical, with the huge money interests running ever more rampant in their insatiable quest to control EVERYTHING. To OWN people, places and things. To patent living creatures. To destroy the environment to an extent that will make the Exxon Valdez spill or the Three Mile Island Meltdown look like minor glitches.

In general, it’s time to ABOLISH once and for all the absurd and twisted notion that corporations are persons! If that were true, and they ARE homo-sapiens, when can we “arrest” Goldman-Sachs for embezzlement or jaywalking? Better yet, when can we sentence AIG to death for massive fraud and for “his” role in bringing on the current global recession?

Relative Costs

I love all the complaints about Wisconsin Governor Doyle, President Obama and other Democrats getting us into debt. Not surprising there is no mention about the debt resulting from the Iraq war. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist has calculated that Bush's disastrous and illegal aggression will end up costing US taxpayers between 3-4 TRILLION dollars. The neocons hid a lot of the real cost by funding that war "off the books." Where were all the Tea Baggers when they had a chance to oppose that colossal expenditure back in 2002-2003? Notably silent, that's where. By the way, the deficit during George W. Bush's last year in office was just a little less than the $1.6 trillion deficit for this fiscal year. Barack Obama's administration has actually inherited some of this red tape from the catastrophic "Bush Administration." But I digress. And I don't excuse Obama from charges of reckless spending; this years Penatgon budget weighs in at a whopping $708 billion. What a waste! What a travesty!

As far as the high-speed rail project is concerned, the projected cost will be a little more than $800 million. About a third of the cost of the 894/Zoo Freeway reconstruction in Milwaukee. The price tag for that boondoggle, to use the language of the high speed naysayers, is projected to be $2.3 billion, according to a 2009 report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. But I suppose endless subsidies for the construction and oil industries don't count as a waste of the taxpayers' money, eh? Even though all these freeways will have to be rebuilt in what, 15 years?

At least the high speed rail project is intended to serve a useful purpose and will create some jobs. In that respect, it's quite different from massively exorbitant wars waged endlessly by Republicans and Democrats. And if some of the automobile-addicted public in this region would have the decency to ride the train instead of drive themselves to distraction every time they travel to Milwaukee or Chicago, there would be a lot less need for subsidies of any kind.

What's worse?

Now you tell me, folks - what was worse, Clinton getting a blow job or Clinton illegally bombing Serbia and Kosovo? I suppose I shouldn't even bother to mention that unmentionable murderer, George W Bush. What about all the unprovoked Burning Down the World he enjoyed doing in your name and using $3-4 trillion of your (our) tax dollars? I tried to STOP the Gulf War, The "drive-by wars" of Bill Clinton, and the "Shock & Awe" of Herr W. Don't like Obama's recent escalation in Afghanistan, either. Our government has (borrowed from foreign banks and) spent a mere $100 million on emergency relief for Haiti in the wake of the quake. That's less than 1% of the cost of sending the latest 30,000 cannon-fodder troops to Afghanistan, at a cost of one million dollars annually per soldier. At least 60% of all discretionary spending in the US is devoted to the Pentagon!

It's the "system," man. Woman. Read Dwight D. Eisenhower's January 17, 1961 Farewell Speech, warning the US and the world of the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex. Watch and listen to it online if you prefer; it's remarkable. Watch Errol Morris' "The Fog of War," where Morris interviews JFK's and LBJ's War Secretary Robert McNamara, who, throughout the course of the film, expounds upon 11 lessons about war he learned (too late) during his sordid career. McNamara says, "The human race needs to think more about killing." Amen, Robert.

A wise man once said - don't remember if it was Jesus, Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr. - that "we need to find a better way to settle differences between peoples than war." Now I am not a total pacifist; I believe Hitler, for example, could only be defeated by force of arms. But this nation hasn't DECLARED war since December 1941. That should be a required precondition of the United States before it attacks another country. The spineless Congress, to whom the Constitution assigns the responsibility for initiating armed intervention, has left this to a series of increasingly aggressive and opportunistic "Executive Presidents."We have so much work to do yet before our empire collapses, just like Imperial Rome, and for pretty much exactly the same reasons.