You can fool some of the people…

Posted on October 30, 2010

Are you watching the US political scene in these last days before the 2010 midterm elections? I see so many comments and quotes from people expecting a Republican takeover of both houses of Congress to “revolutionize” America.

Even if their platform made (logical) sense, and of course it doesn’t, the Republican candidates have no intention of actually following through. Okay, except for Rand Paul but he’s a nut job.

The real power behind these politicians are the billionaire Koch brothers, who make their money from oil and gas. Not surprisingly they’re also backing California’s Prop 23 attempt to repeal state pollution control laws.

Politicians and lobbyists feeding off their Citizens United teat are hardly likely to vote to reduce the spending that mostly goes to contractors, to keep our lands and waters safe from predatory oil, gas and coal extraction or to hold investors and corporate executives to standards of decency that might avoid another Wall St. fiasco.

No. The Koch brothers and their cronies are using their money very shrewdly, from their perspective. Far too many Americans are flailing emotionally from the trials of the last decade; they just can’t find the energy to look closely enough at their new heroes.

Wait until they ‘win’ the elections. Just look for the exploding heads as the reality of their choice becomes clear to them.

Posted in America, Republicans | Comments Off

Tea Parties: Wealthy, educated and willfully ignorant

Posted on April 15, 2010

Some research came out earlier this week showing that the average Tea Party member is college educated, white, male and earns above the national median. I mention this as background for the post.

Today being tax day, some of the Tea Party groups organized rallies in Washington, DC, and around the country. Most were pretty modest turnouts, 500 to 3,000 or so from the news reports I’ve seen. According to @TexasObserver, for instance, only 10 people showed up in the capital for the Texas rally but 3,00 showed up in Jacksonville, FL.

What amuses me is this comment from an elected Republican–one of the few Congresspeople willing to show his or her face at the DC rally: “We’re on to this gangster government,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. “I say it’s time for these little piggies to go home.”

And this, from the same article: “Worried about liberal infiltrators, Kevin Terrell, a self-described colonel in the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters militia based in Louisville, led about two dozen camouflaged followers on a patrol around the park. “I’m a little apprehensive because of the left-wing nut jobs out there,” Terrell said.” Left-wing nutjobs, yeah, we’re the ones carrying guns and wearing camo.

More significant was the comment by Linda Chagnon, a 57-year-old caregiver from Burlington, VT: “We have to manage our own budgets and our homes, we have to cut our expenses, we have to go without,” she said. “This top-heavy government needs to be downsized. I downsize my home, they can downsize the government and still get the main things done and let the people do their thing.”

Linda, tell me this, who ran bigger budget deficits? Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W Bush or Bill Clinton? I know President Obama is racking up the debt but do you honestly think he could have spent much less or made much more of an impact on the economy this past year?

Which part of government spending should be cut first, defense, social security or Medicare? Because those are the only three where enough could be cut to make a meaningful difference.

Many remarks were made by speakers at the rallies along the lines of “We Want Regime Change.” Which makes me really laugh since anyone who opposed Bush the last eight years with similar sentiment was pilloried. Called unpatriotic and anti-American. Told to move to Canada or France.

So now that the majority of voters decided to go for the Democrats’ candidate (i.e, pluralities in the House and Senate, not just the Presidency), the shoe’s on the other foot. I’m shocked, just shocked that these folks are unhappy.

Posted in America, Conspiracy Theories, Politics, taxes | Comments Off

Undefeated

Posted on February 3, 2008

I’ve come to realize that my political philosophy and hopes are best represented by one of the great unknown rock and roll songs, Undefeated by Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. The song appeared on their 1983 record, Voice of America, which was one of the most explicitly political rock and roll albums after the death of the ’60s and a clear inspiration for bands like Rage Against the Machine.

Steven went far further lyrically than his part-time employer, Bruce Springsteen was really comfortable doing until the last few years, but he also stayed true to rock and roll muscially; VOA is full of Van Zandt’s blasting guitars and angry vocals, nearly danceable drumming from Dino Danelli and bass lines that pulse and groove supplied by Jean Beauvoir. 25 years on I still listen to the whole album and wonder what might have been if our boy went into politics instead of playing second fiddle to a TV gangster.

Here are the lyrics, copyright 1983 Steven Van Zandt:

Your love is so precious baby
So precious to me now
I got a thousand miles behind me
And a thousand more to go somehow
And there ain’t no peace with honor baby
No matter what you hear
Ain’t no peace with honor baby
Until we disappear

Don’t call yourself a patriot
Not with that gun in your hand
There’s only one way out of here I understand

Undefeated, everybody goes home

I got your picture close to me
I touch it when I’m scared at night
I want your picture to be
the last thing I ever see in my life
And I ain’t got no time for your pity
I got no more words to say
And you don’t know what you care about
Until it’s blown away

Don’t call yourself religious
Not with that knife in your hand
And there’s only one way out of here
I understand
That is

Undefeated, everybody goes home

There’s never been more distance baby
Keeping us apart
There’s an ocean, there’s a desert
There’s a hole right through my heart
I hope you can remember me
I might be gone to stay
I might be here forever
Fighting here forever baby
Until we’re

Undefeated, everybody goes home

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Court Bars Suits Against Faith-Based Initiatives

Posted on June 25, 2007

This is exactly the kind of result I was talking about when I told people that electing the Bush Crew would be a longterm disaster for our legal system. You can say as often as you like that Samuel Alito is an educated, urbane jurist and I will point to Hein vs. Freedom from Religion Foundation each time.

There is no way to explain the votes here any other way and Justice Souter hammered the nail with this pithy comment in his dissent: “I see no basis for this distinction in either logic or precedent…” What he means is that this decision is not about the underlying issue, whether the Faith-based initiatives violate the Constitution’s Establishment clause, but whether American citizens have the legal standing to sue the government on the issue at all. That is, the majority decided that funding for these programs cannot be challenged because it comes from a general purpose bank account Congress gave the Administration and not from specific legislation (that is, the First Amendment says “Congress shall pass no laws…” and it wasn’t Congress that specifically authorized the expenditures).

I guess we should breathe a small sigh of relief that Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, two train wrecks if ever there were any on the SCOTUS, couldn’t convince Alito, John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy to join their attempt to completely overturn the precedent allowing at least some suits on this issue.

The anal wordsmithing is completely in line with typical BushCo behavior, though. Tell me you aren’t immediately connecting this with Cheney’s recent claims that his office need not comply with an executive order dealing with oversight of classified information because, he says, his office is not part of the executive branch.

January 20, 2009, cannot get here soon enough.

Posted in Bushinations, Courts | Comments Off

Bloomberg and an indie run for President

Posted on June 20, 2007

Michael Bloomberg has resigned from the Republican Party, launching rumors that he’ll run for the presidency as an independent next year even though he issued the standard denials. Can he succeed where John Anderson, Ross Perot and Ralph Nader failed miserably? Can he make the leap from governing a city which, no matter how large, bears no organizational semblance to how things work at the natioal level? I don’t know and he’s certainly done the improbable in the past.

Let’s say he does win. How will he govern, as a practical matter, with no party members to support him in the House or Senate? Even with the Democrats in control of both houses this year, Bush has a completely staffed system to carry legislation and nominations, operate the executive branch departments and grease the wheels as lobbyists. This is a practical problem that I’ve wondered about since voting for Anderson in 1980 and have never seen it answered satisfactorily. Focusing solely on the election, there is also the substantial concern that if the Democrats choose a candidate who doesn’t appeal strongly to the centrist voters a pure centrist like Mayor Mike will drain enough votes to ensure another four Years of the Elephant.

DC politics may be—make that are!—in need of a huge overhaul but unless he follows an electoral victory with the creation of a new party, similar to what Ariel Sharon did in Israel at the end of 2005 and Morihiro Hosokawa did in Japan in 1993 after handing the Liberal Democratic Party their only defeat, or comes to a working arrangement with either the GOP or Dems I don’t see how a Bloomberg Presidency would be anything but a tragic waste of years.

There are so many huge issues that will need attention when we’re finally rid of the Bush Crew that the country cannot lose another four years. So, Mayor Bloomberg, consider this a request from a pragmatic fan: Please keep your word in today’s statements and don’t run.

Posted in America, Politics | Comments Off

Protection is always a racket

Posted on January 25, 2007

I’ve been a reasonably happy customer of Wells Fargo for this entire century (damn, doesn’t that sound impressive!) and I suppose they’re more or less as good as any of the other big national banks. Your experience may be different, of course, as the collision of individuals dealt with and company policies create an individual track record so I’m not asserting anything other than my own.

This morning I’m beginning to wonder. Wells Fargo sent me the latest installment of their monthly customer newsletter email and I clicked a link labeled Detect Credit Fraud Early: ID Theft Protection because, hey, who isn’t interested in bank security. The page beings okay, with a headline of “Protect Your Good Credit with Identity Theft Protection” and is short too, covering the program with six bullet points, all less than two narrow lines.

And then I my eyes reached the closer: “Enjoy peace of mind for just $12.99 a month.” That’s right, Wells Fargo expects you, me and Dupree to pay $156 per year for keeping safe what I–and you may feel differently–expect ought to be the normal course of business! Not necessarily by a bank, maybe by the major credit bureaus, but if I had to guess I’d say that Wells Fargo is doing this in some sort of partnership with them.

Credit card companies and banks, here’s a competitive advantage you can offer customers: do this service, maybe minus the personal credit analysis, for free. Make a big deal about it in your advertising and marketing. Most other things being equal I’d sign up and blog you very positively, just drop me a note.

Posted in Corporations, Economics, Politics, Security | Comments Off

Corruption takes two

Posted on January 18, 2007

One the one hand we have my old high school chum Christopher Christie taking down the rat bastards who tried to get rich off the backs of investors and employees at Cendant with former Chairman Walter Forbes getting a 12 year jail term, former Vice Chairman E. Kirk Sheldon getting ten years and each ordered to pay restitution of $3.275 billion. They can spend their days in the pen comparing notes with the Rigas men, Jeffrey Skilling and Dennis Kozlowski, remembering the days of $15,000 shower curtains and private jets.

On the other we have the sleazy Bush team trying to quietly do what they can for supporters and allies before the Democrats run them out of DC. In this instance that means firing US Attorneys like Carol Lam in San Diego before they can bring folks like Republican congressman Jerry Lewis (who is still very popular in France, right?) to trial for giving fat government contracts to businesspeople willing to give fat lobbying and consulting contracts in return. At least Lam convicted ex-Representative Randy Duke for taking a million dollar plus home in exchange for getting a few earmarks into legislation.

I really like this quote the Times has about Lam’s dismissal from the F.B.I. chief in San Diego: “What do you expect her to do? Let corruption exist?”

Update: Richard Koman reports in Silicon Valley Watcher that Kevin Ryan, the US Attorney leading the stock options backdating investigation, is another target of the Bush purge and that “[t]he Department of Justice has asked for resignations of all but one US Attorney in California and Democrats see the moves as at attempt to replace Attorneys who don’t meet the Bush Administration’s conservative litmus test.” Sad, really farking sad.

Posted in Bushinations, California, Corporations, Politics | Comments Off

Jumbo Bonuses: Dial Your Envy Down a Notch

Posted on January 10, 2007

[This is a Letter to the Editor to the NY Times, which they chose not to publish.]

Editor:

I’m frankly astonished you published this fig leaf of apologia by Phyllis Korkki. For starters, the Times has published many articles over the years on how high income individuals have used and abused tax shelters and other schemes to avoid paying their allegedly high share of taxes, meaning the assertion that “The tax bite from a six-figure bonus is likely to be substantial” is hardly likely to be accurate.

Second, while the $137,000 amount may be accurate in the broadest terms I doubt its meaningful in the context of this discussion since the secretaries, couriers and shipping department staff are hardly likely to get six figure bonuses and ought to be excluded. The true relevant number should be the average bonus paid to partners, executives and other top of the line Wall Streeters and I expect it would be far greater than $137,000.

Finally, the entire short article reeks of condescension. Even if the people getting high six and seven figure bonuses pay out half in taxes then the bonuses are still many multiples of the average American take home earnings each year, with these bonuses coming on top of high salaries, benefits and perks.

If anyone criticizes the New York Times as a card-carrying member of the liberal media, you can correct them by pointing them to Ms. Korkki’s article.

Posted in Corporations, News, Politics | Comments Off

Wishes for 2007

Posted on December 31, 2006

If I was less of a cynic I’d wish for the new Democratic majority in Congress and the Bush Administration, the Sunnis, Shiites and Israelis, the Somalis, Ethiopians, Sudanese, Rwandans, Zimbabweans and Congolese, the Basques, the Koreans, the Pakistanis, Indians, the Tamils and the Sri Lankans to find a true new path to peace, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Palestine and Israel, and everywhere people are killing each other out of misunderstanding, misplaced anger or envy, or from a sad drive for power in what is, after all, a fleeting moment that we have in this existence.

I’d wish that the greedy corporate leaders would appreciate the immense good fortune they already have and stop trying to grasp every last dollar, Euro or yuan they might possibly reach, and instead turn that drive to lifting up the far less fortunate just a little bit. Partners at Goldman, Sachs and your pals on Wall Street and the hedge funds, I’m particularly pointing at you and your absurd bonuses.
I’d also wish that the leadership of the global energy industry would realize that they’re people first, with family and friends who need a world to live in that hasn’t been ruined by rapacious consumption of what are, after all, limited resources before its too late and the rising seas are lapping up at their office lobbies.
But I am too much of a cynic, so I won’t.

Posted in Politics, TheFuture | Comments Off

CA's Kumar gets 12 years in the pokey

Posted on November 2, 2006

Showing that corporate criminals are starting to get the proper rewards, Judge Glasser sentenced former Computer Associates Chairman and CEO Sanjay Kumar to 12 years in prison for his part in a $2.2B accounting fraud that would have taken a weaker company down Enron-style. CA’s chief financial officer, head of worldwide sales, general counsel and three other executives have already admitted their guilt related to the accounting scandal and the company also agreed to pay $225 million in shareholder restitution.

Posted in Corporations, News, Politics | Comments Off