A Modest Proposal For January 2014

Soooo…. the news.  The NEWS?  The gnu’s? The newz?

I am reasonably well read.  I take the St. Louis Post Dispatch out of sympathy and sense of obligation.  I read the Wall Street Journal Every Day.  I get the New Yorker Weekly.  I listen to NPR almost incessantly in my car and in a vain effort to understand my brother I listen Glenn Beck several hours a week.  I watch “Meet The Press” every Sunday and follow it up with Fox’s weekly news show.  Sometimes I scramble home from work to watch the national news at 5:30.  Historically, I try and stay away from the freestanding silos of cable news but there was a dark period during the last election where I would watch FOX or MSNBC as I got dressed but that was too depressing on all counts.  The point is, historically, I  like the news.

But that seems to be changing.  I really enjoy the local NPR station, The provide a lot of news and although they are not “Fair and Balanced” they provide different voices and often illustrate that there are two sides to issues and that some have “nuances’. I do not find them particularly liberal but understand myself well enough to realize I have become indoctrinated.  I generally believe that:

1.  Everyone should have health care

2.  Immigration, even illegal immigration has made our country great and we need to let this latest group of criminals in.

3.  Government holds the potential of improving peoples lives in some limited situations.

4.  I do not believe that corporations have constitutional rights or that the founders intended same.

5.  I do not believe that money is “speech” or that the founders intended same.

6.  I think I live in the greatest country in the world at the best possible time to be alive.

7.  I think my children’s future and the countries future is what we, and they make it.

So I guess that makes me a pinko but as I said, I have some awareness of my socialist/communist/progressive/Christian leanings.  The Post Dispatch I am told is a liberal publication but I just think of it as a shitty publication.  Their own editorials are all liberal, some stupidly so but they publish Krautheimer and George Will and David Brooks as well as the liberal columnists.  Almost every day they publish a letter from a reader  going off on the President so, they try and show some other sides but more than anything, it is just a bad paper with a lot of Associated Press stories, no analysis and trivial local coverage.  As I have stated in the past…”you can wrap fish in it.”

The Wall Street Journal is awesome for international coverage and runs a steady drumbeat of “the colored boy is ruining the country” in it’s domestic reporting and editorials.  But I like it as far as providing a more intellectual right wing point of view as well as the best international coverage.  Better than the Times.  I do not agree with their editorial page much but it is well  written and often well argued.  I believe that The Hoover Institution at Stanford exists solely for the purpose of turning out Wall Street Journal Editorial page fodder.  But I like it.  It challenges me.  This is good.  Rupert Murdoch and Fox own the Journal but it still has a modicum of journalistic integrity. Murdoch's ownership and his influence has compromised that as any owners politically leaning effect the editors who have their paychecks signed by them.  I can live with that.

Fox is less than useless.  A drum beat of pretty and angry woman and spluttering, overcompensating, self important, effeminate, angry men.  They are fair and balanced like a lynch mob and their “We Report, You Decide” along with “Fair and Balanced” provide the best example of Orwellian NewSpeak, other than “The Affordable Care Act” and “Operation Freedom”.

Glenn Beck is a demagogue and an entertainer who makes money by making people frightened.  I guess in a free country that is acceptable but as a Christian American I abhor the politics of fear that he spreads.  It is not a source of news and his “Blaze” web site and TV channel are more than shameful but… it is a free country.  The “fat man on the radio” Rush Limbaugh is no different.  They set up false narratives that support their agendas but never be confused, their agenda is to make money by feeding the people in their silo.  A false narrative is something along the lines of citing a school in Omaha sending a kid home for waving around a picture of a gun as evidence of the FACT that America has become irrationally intolerant of guns and violence.  

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/18/the-power-of-false-narratives/

But lately I have been suffering fatigue.  It has been building since 2008 but the 2012 election capped it and since then it has been once again a steady drumbeat and it is starting to fill me with anxiety… and a little dread.

Obamacare

Debt Crisis

Shut Down

Sustainable Energy

Iraq

Benghazi

Nuclear Option

North Korea

Climate Change (go ahead and argue it’s made up...I dare you)

The next debt ceiling increase

Fill in the blank

_____________________________

Everything is a pile of shit.  Government has failed, the Fed has failed, big banks have failed, “Mainstream Media”...FAILED, FOX...failed, our schools have failed, curtailing gun violence, FAILED, Mid Eastern Policy, FAILED… it goes on and on with everyone attacking everyone else and no one listening or working with anyone who disagrees with them because listening and compromise are SIGNS OF WEAKNESS! The idea that all of these problems are complex and do not allow simple solutions are an anathema to the way all these media/news/entertainers make their livings.  

It is starting to make me mentally ill and all who know me would say MORE mentally ill and no one needs that.  It literally makes me jittery to turn on NPR and when I switch over to FOX it is worse.  Everyone is so earnest and so genuine and everything is not just a disaster for me and my family but is a disaster for our grandchildren AND OUR IMMORTAL SOULS!  

Really?  Can anything be that important?  More to the point, is EVERYTHING so important?  Can EVERYTHING be threatening our democracy, our environment, our morals and of course OUR CHILDREN!?!?  The answer is obvious and the answer is no.  I like being informed but these guys have screwed the pooch.  I am a Christian.  My hope is for the future and my faith is in God and his plan.  I cannot continue to be thrashed by this litany of “EVERYTHING IS HOPELESS AND WE NEED TO BUY GOLD, STORE FOOD AND BUY GUNS”!  It seems wrong to me but it also seems wrong to rail against the people who believe this.  There a time when we just ignored crazy people in our country.  Now we elect them, give them microphones and we read their blogs and often give them money.

I am not going to create the answer but as a news junky I am going to try 30 days without news.  No Post, No Wall Street Journal, Music in my car and perhaps some time alone with the Bible on Sunday mornings before church.  Maybe some books on tape or TED talks or something...anything.  I do not know if I can do this.  Also, if there is news on in my vicinity I will try not to listen.  I will be happy to discuss things with people who are tuned in but I really am going to try to read some of the books that have stacked up on my shelf and spend a little bit more time in contemplation. It is going to take some planning and I am inviting you to do the same thing.  Opt out.  30 days.  We can encourage one another if you're brave enough.  Let’s reclaim our anxiety and breathe deeply and avoid these earnest, well intentioned new sources predicting our doom. Just for a month.  Unless it feels too good to stop.  If you are of a mind join me.  

I would like to say, “See you in the funny papers” but I think I am going to duck those too.

Peace.

Election 2012: Debate Stupidity

Soooo... the first debate.  I watched.  I watched the whole thing. I talked on the phone a little but I watched.  I thought Obama looked like a President and did a pretty weak job getting after Romney.  I thought Romney looked pretentious and unlikable but very competent and certainly "Presidential", whatever the hell that means.  I don't like the debates and I watch them skeptically as if it is kabuki theater.  I think intelligent people should read the news as it comes out from different sources.  Read editorials by the thinkers on both sides of the debate and try and decide which of these two deeply flawed, but brilliant men might best lead us through the next four years of pain.  Jim Leher the moderator did a fine job and was probably too nice to Obama which did make Obama seem weaker.  Still, it was not a disaster.

Until it was over.  And I flipped around with the remote.  And I found that the mainstream media, accross the board call the President a loser, a resounding loser and the drum beat got louder and louder.  It was a disaster for the President.  It was a beating!  It was carnage never seen before on Television.  Romney was Mike Tyson stomping in and beating the crap out of whimpering, simpering, frightened Obama.  The race...OVER!

This followed three weeks of Romney on the run.  47%.  A stupid convention and belated release of Tax returns where he paid more than he owed (something he thought a Presidential person would not do) and he was slipping.  But not anymore.  The media needs a horse race and he could win.  We are 51-49 country.  It looks like the swing States are for Obama but even those States it is close.  With the media coverage every gaffe is magnified and whether it is MSNBC or FO or all the cattle in between the news makes itself.

I am ambivalent about who wins.  I will likely vote for the President.  I think he took a world, not a country that had already fallen off the cliff and thrashed around with it and we did not die.  I suspect that we likely needed to die.  I suspect that we need a global depression to bottom out and clear the dead wood and really rebuild.  But no one wants the pain, least of all me.  So we keep kicking the can down the road.  Whomever wins this election has my prayers and should have yours too.  We are a divided country of know nothing, know it alls who only listen to voices that reaffirm our ideas and no one is willing to say the hard truths which i think are as follows:
1.   We all have too high and unsustainable a life style which we developed treading on the most bounteous natural resources on earth and then piled on some bubbles of tech and real estate and cheap money.
2.  We live in the US in an economy where 70% of it is driven by consumerism rather than production an that is not a sustainable model.
3.  We have an entitlement society that has built up over the last 200 years pushing paying the debts off till tomorrow and whether we stop today, tomorrow or not at all that debt will eventually crush us.
4.   We will all have to work harder and longer to make less and retire later, if at all.
5.   We will have national Healthcare, hopefully like Canada and the service will be adequate for most of us and not cutting edge and not as personalized and in some cases substandard to what we had before.  It will not allow that millions be spent to keep anyones 90 year old parents alive.  That will suck.
6.   Social security will pay out half of what it does now if it survives at all.

But there is a second part to that.  We are America and while i do not buy in to "American Exceptionalism" (I think God made people, people) I do believe that we are an extraordinary people and extraordinarily blessed people.  We as a people need to stop whining, stop being afraid, stop suspecting that everyone is out to take our stuff.  We need to be more charitable.  Go to church, or Mosque or Synagogue more and worship God with our brothers and sisters and for those who are not religious, those of us who are need to pray for them and lead by our example.  We need to stand up and BE the greatest country on earth and we need to do it quietly, and humbly and then when we get our own house in order we need to see what we can do to help God's people in other countries.  But there is going to be pain and suffering and disappointment in the next four years if you base your happiness on money, things and status.

There will be more debates.  In town hall meetings I would love to see people demand the truth.  What exemptions will you cut Mr. Romney.  How will I keep my house without the mortgage exemption?  President Obama, the top 1% cant pay for everything so you need to tell me how much taxes are going to go up to support health care for everyone.  How much Mr. President and how can I trust you to do it after the last 4 years?  Mr. Romney, why do you think "trickle down" works when any of the "gains" you point to from that were clearly the product of unsustainable bubbles?  President Obama, why couldn't you embrace the hard truths of Simpson Bowles?

That is the shit I want to see.  Until then it is all background news, sound bites and bullshit.  We have a right to expect more from our candidates and our media.  OK... I am done.  Sorry for the rant.  Very annoyed.  I might be off my meds.  Go Cards!

Supremely Stupid

Soooo... I am a pinko. I voted for our current President. I am happy John Mc Cain is not our President and happy Sarah Palin is not our Vice president. Not thrilled, but happy. I painted a lot of childish hopes on this President and he has not fulfilled those hopes but it was not fair to expect that anyone could transcend the partisan miasma that national politics has become. I have gotten over it. I knew he was left with a mess and that he was just a man. I believed our nation had been pulled to the right through 16 years of Clinton/Bush I thought we could be brought back towards the middle.

Instead he galvanized the far right and every election, every discussion is a suicide mission for them. And he has, despite everything ushered our nation further to the right. Less tolerant. More selfish. Less free. Still I appreciated the thoughtful tone he brought to discussions. the reasoned cadence in mad throng.

That having been said I was sickened by his recent attack or at least questioning of the Supreme Court when they were considering the healthcare issue. Granted, I dislike this dogmatic Court. I believe them to be small minded and fully agendaized with kind of a cheap nod towards “original intent” which is one of the most asinine concepts ever foisted on the American people. No one can agree on what the government’s intent was 10 years ago, much less 200 years ago. Certainly Scalia politicized the conversation making it clear this law sucked and he was going to find a way to tear it down, and not a piece at a time but in one fell swoop. That was wrong. It is wrong for Justices to clearly wear ideology on their sleeve and it takes all questions on independance out of the system. Decisions are pre-ordained and pre-judged before they ever arrive and that is sad.

That having been said Obama sank to their level when he attempted to rile up public opinion against the Court. It was like he was trying to incite a mob. It is totally inappropriate for a President to comment on, question and try and bully the Court while a decision is being argued and considered. I demeans the Court, it demeans our system of checks and balances, demeans the President and demeans our country. We deserve better from the President. But in our current climate, everyone plays to their base conventions, common courtesy, history and statesmanship be damned. I do believe these people we have entrusted our political system to are unworthy of their positions and I fear they will incite the people to tear it down.

These are your happy thoughts for the day.

A Boston Surprise

“I have come to know the wish list of my father.
I have come to see the shipwrecks where he wished.
I have come to wish out loud, from the overdressed crowd,
Come to witness now the sinking of the ship...”

-Joe Pug

So. Boston. October 10th. My borthday. Time to take stock or perhaps after a little more vodka to stake tock. It has been an awesome birthday and perhaps I will recount the trip later. I am still in Boston as I peck away but there seems a gravity that needs to be addressed. Of course I know it does not or at least it does not by me but... here goes.

Boston is awesome. We have never been here before and we are renting the second floor of a brownstone in the South end of the Back Bay. Evidently it is a historically gay area and history has stayed true and it is charming. We have done a lof fun stuff but yeaterday Sandy and I visited the Kennedy Museum out at U-Mass. I was vaguely interested and Sandy was really interested so we took the T out and took another shuttle and there we were.

It sits on the bay. A big glass and concrete facade with a giant (6 story) flag hanging inside of it. We had to wait about 20 minutes between tours and then were ushered to a little theater where they basically told us about the world leading up to his election and gave us a little Kennedy family history. The world is in turmoil, the Russians are about to blow us up, the 3rd world is heaving with early growing pains and everyone hates America as the leader of the former western colonial governments.

In walks the good looking, bornwell, Havahd boy who has a congressional seat and then a Senate seat purchased for him. He walks into office with a beautiful, horsey-set, monied wife and presides over this short, nightmarish Presidency. At every step he faces unbelievable challenges of a bad economy, and Russian pressure and plays hard with everyone he fights with. His speech from his inaugural was a tour de force of everything a leader should bring complete with the call for action, the rallying cry for a country which has been lost. Everyone recalls this fabulous, brilliant line which lunched a thousand programs for the assitance of others:
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”

But equally impressive was this line or observation:
“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. “

Is anyone listening those words of wisdom now? Are any Christians paying attention?

These were not the blatherings of a guy out huckstering and posturing for votes. These were the words of an American, who had fought for his country and had a vision of us being a greater country than anyone, even he had imagined. A leader by example. And by words. Although in our 24 hour news cycle and lack of civility his personal life would have brought him down hard.

The most striking thing about the entire tour, the entire exhibit to me was the headline from a Des Miones newspaper saying “Republicans and Democrats Applaud Presidents Speech”. In what world could that happen in 2011? Obama gave some really good speeches but he was not brave enough to call on us a Kennedy did. That was a bridge too far for him and he, and we will suffer for his weakness and his fear. He had an opportunity to grab us and call us out to be a greater country, to redefine the discussion, to redefine greatness as not being a half million dollar house, a Mercedes and children who want for nothing, but to be a country that leads by example, focused on its religious heritage (not to preach to others, but) to lead and serve as Christ had served and through our example save our country, ourselves and the world.

Instead we labor in acountry where the rich keep getting richer on an accelerated basis. People who do nothing but make bets make tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars a year while job creators and the working people scramble for the rest. Which is fine. The rest is fine and we are lucky to have it, but what about those below us? How can they live with the people at the top insisting that they must make more? If they don’t make more they will leave. If they are taxed more, they won’t want to work anymore! I have never met a millionaire who would not keep working because he was taxed. I am not saying taxes are the answer, they are not! Not even close, but when we do not tax, when we stop regulating because it kills jobs, we lose site of the fact that human nature is selfish and those at the top, the very top, will take the want and change the rules through their money and power to keep what they want.

I am so frustrated right now by the same people who declare “American Exceptionalism” and extol our entrepenurial spirit, who run our largest countries but are telling us that “situations are too uncertain to invest their huge piles of cash”. There is nothing exceptional about fear. There is nothing exceptional about hoarding. Lets invest in ourselves and our values again so that there will be no doubt who leads the world. We are a city on a hill and that will not go away unless we allow our leaders, in politics and business to lead us through fear to make selfish, short sited choices.

We need another leader to call on us to be better. All of us. Together. One Country. One Nation. One People. I am ready for that man or woman to step forward. In the meantime we had best work with what we got.

Later this week I am going to explain why we need to consider rounding up and shooting all of our State Senators and State House Members. Should be a hoot.

Election Irritability: What Program Will You Cut and How Much?

Soooo....one week to go. As regular readers (and I do thank all 7 of you) know I have been rather silent lately. Part of the reason has to do with starting a new law practice and traveling a lot like I do not even need to make a living. Trips to Austin, Cancun, Michigan etc... leave little contemplative time and when coupled with trying to work enough to keep body and soul together there is very little time to watch and observe food, travel, music, life and of course politics. Which brings us to the real reason I have not written...politics.

We are just coming off the long dark tea time of the NPR pledge drive where I listen to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Jamie Allman... the angry cynical chick on talk radio around lunch... and the whole sick experiment has left me even more tired then ususal and more hopeless then I have felt since the start of W's second term. Never has the discourse been so vile, low, stupid and without hope and all of this in the greatest country in the world.

Roy Blount and June Carnahan... What programs are you going to cut and how much? And don't tell me healthcare... it has not brought us here.

I feel for the arguments that are supposed to be at the core of the tea party. Smaller government. Living within our means and self reliance are all great traditional American values. Not religious values but really, REALLY good things. But seriously, where were you fucking people when Ronald Reagan, Bush the Elder and the born again moderate Bill Clinton and then Dubya were ramping up spending at a monstrous level and even Saint Reagan increasing governments size and budget deficit (with the exception of a few Clinton years every year? And every year we elect the same people who say "I am going to cut waste and fraud". That is bullshit. The political class makes it's bones every day on waste and fraud. THEY NEVER CUT WASTE AND FRAUD! But we are going to elect Christine O'Donnell and re-elect Michelle Bachman and elect that crazy chick running in Arizona because these people are serious? These are the ones who will do it?

Ed Martin and Russ Carnahan, what programs are you going to cut and how much? Ed, I don't care that you were a politcal fixer for a governor who was smart enough to quit before his secrets made him a target and Russ... well Russ, i do not care about you at all.

I want to believe it. I am a bleeding heart liberal. My religion causes me to think that Jesus would want all people to have health care (even illegal aliens) but I know the government cannot afford it, anymore then it can afford wars of choice in the middle east. I like health care more then war with a couple of trillion but it is not affordable and sustainable BUT if we can send a few thousand American boys off to be killed and in the process destabelize a region so hundreds of thousands of their people can be killed and they can legitimately blame us for it while paying trillions to do it... I will take health care (even for illegal aliens).

And now we have this silly, silly election. In my life they have always said the same thing about election cycles. In every non presidential election 40% of the country dictates their displeasure and in the next election cycle 60% decide they did not like what the 40%. Well we are in a 40% year. I will vote but many of the crazies who voted for Obama will not come out and cheer for their local congressman and Senators. I do not blame them. they are an uninspiring bunch. the only thing less inspiring is their Republican dopplegangers who are there to rescind, remand, undo, unfund and stop Obama Care. Reinstitute tax breaks for everyone and shut down government. That will work well. The minute someone's mom misses a social security check... heads will roll.

And therein lies the lie of the tea party. They want to cut government but not the government that serves them. they decry socialism but take social security, unemployment, medicare and every tax break they are entitled to and they ARE entitled to their breaks. But the others...the LAZY ones who "take advantage" of the system.... their support needs to be cut. If smaller government is the goal (and it is an honorable goal) there is only only question EVERY candidate should be asked. Which programs will you cut and by how much? The follow up being if you are going to cut taxes what dollar for dollar cuts will you make in programs to justify those cuts. But forget the follow up. Ask you candidate, which programs will you cut and how much? Which programs will you cut and how much? Which programs will you cut and how much? (Repetition is a rhetorical device). If they cannot answer and if they answer with bullshit platitudes like they are going to stop earmarks and cut waste and fraud... then they are the frauds. Call them out. Republicans, Democrats, a pox on both their houses. I will vote Democrat again and hold my nose because their politics seem slightly less stupid, slightly less selfish in concept and frankly slightly less mean.

20 years of Republicans enlarging of government (the last 20) but it takes a black President to unite the anger over big government and the self righteous bullshit about selling out our kids futures. Now the Tea Party wants us to believe that their politicians have gotten religion. Being co-opted by the Republican party illegitimizes their goals. I get the anger, I am angry too, but until our culture changes, the institutions cannot change. Changes at the top are pure laziness. If you cannot pull our country together by it's core values of inclusion, hard work, charity, self reliance and compassion then we will keep electing leaders who reflect our broken sense of values.

Change youself and become a better person. train your kids to be better persons, discuss being a better person with your friends and what you (and they) can do to make a better Country. Then our leadership can make a meaningful change. In the interim...ask these hypocritical son's of bitches...which program would you cut and how much? Then wait for a real answer.

Black Tide: A Nightmare of Unprecedented Proportions

Sooooo...what can you say about this oil disaster but... oh shit. How could this happen? That seems to be the first question but the answer is obvious, shit happens. When you put people in charge of huge projects (and people are still our best option) they will tend over time, given enough opportunities, to screw up at least once in a while. And that counts for well meaning, well intentioned people. The calculus gets a lot less pleasant when you bring a strong profit motive (short term profit motive...this quarter profit motive) into play but no use crying over spilled oil. is there?

So this is bad. This is really bad. It appears there has been some slight progress in contanment but we are told no total relief till mid-August which you have to think means September or October. There is already and unknown and unbelievable quantity of oil already in the gulf. We do not know how much. I am not sure what difference it makes. Whether above the surface or in "plumes" below it is bad. Very bad. So lets assume the best case scenario which is that BP traps most of the spewage now with it's latest "top hat", and skimming and that all we have to worry about is clean up. Once again, what a nightmare.

How do you do it? What is "it" anyway. Does anyone really think you can find, track and recover literally millions of gallons of oil from a nice, formally nice gulf which bordered our liberal, intellectual southern states. How would a poisoned Gulf of Mexico effect Texas pending secession? How will it effect LSU football? How will it effect Mississippi and Alabama's perennial effort to pass Arkansas and become 48th in literacy in the country? And how do you clean it up? How do you get oil our of the fish that are already there? How do you keep those fish from dying or having screwed up breeding due to the oil ingested? How do you find areas that have been poisoned under water and the now oily sediment that will be some of the worlds formerly richest oyster beds.

Guess what, you can't. And it is our President's fault. Why is it his fault? Because he was President when it happened. One of the problems with running for President and winning is that once your elected and once some time has passed (one day, week month or year) it is all your fault because it is all on your watch. I am told that our President is not taking enough "ownership" in anything and is blaming our former President for everything. That is bad form. I quoted to him that Reagan had done the same thing (based on Paul Krugman's asserting that Reagan basically spent three years blaming Jimmy Carter). I believed it. I was wrong, I think. Based on my limited internet research skills I could find where he did it about three times. Bush on the other hand looks to have said that "he inherited a recession" about 100 times. I do not know that my research is exact but that is what I found. Reagan clearly pegged a lot of problems on Carter and the country's malaise. hard to argue with. Bush on the other hand inherited a recession, along with a huge budget surplus and then presided over a real estate bubble to pull us out of it. Nice.

But back to Obama. He should not blame Bush anymore. It is boring, it is played out, it is poor form and he should be better then that. he is not. But he should be.

PS...and I was wrong about Reagan blaming Carter all the time. So was Krugman (the Nobel Prize Winner). I think I need to kill Krugman too.

Healthcare, Who Cares?

Well that is really the question. I thought I cared about healthcare. I thought that I (WE!) voted for someone who was going to bring national healthcare. I feared it slightly but that was the kind of change I was voting for. Then the congress started debating it. Then the Republicans made it clear that they were not going to agree to any reform, other then tort reform. Then the Democrats did what politicians always do, creating a bill that served a variety of special interests, towards doing a lot of good things, but short of national health care. Then they really started debating it. Then the tea Party people waded in. Just STOP they cried. Socialism! Death Panels. As I type this Tuesday night the people of Massachusetts are voting for another type of change because they like me think all this shit has got to stop, so we vote against whatever is going on. And I do not care. I know the Tea party People and the republican's will tell you it is referendum on health care, or even better a referendum on Barack HUSSEIN Obama but they are missing the point.

It is a referendum on our whole current government. Not the Democratic controlled Congress, but Congress itself. Not on the President, but the office of the President. I don't disagree at this point. the bill or bills that congress approved does not accomplish what I elected Obama to give me which was healthcare for everyone. I know we have healthcare for everyone now, but grudgingly and it is certainly not guaranteed. I would have even given healthcare to the dreaded illegal aliens. it also does not seem to be doing a lot to control costs since he cut deals with insurance companies, drug companies, the AMA etc... I don't know everything in the bill. I tried to get educated and what Glenn Beck. I tried to read summaries of it. I just could not take it all in. Neither could congress. I watched Beck and Limbaugh pull peaces out of it to demonize Congress and the administration. It didn't really tell me anything. Frankly the whole exercise has pointed out how divided our country is and watching cable news incessantly dissect every vote on every issue as the bill progressed... made me sick. I still wanted health care reform. But in the end I also want world peace. This appears to be something that is just not going to happen.

So I am assuming that weird Democrat lady in Massachusetts lost to that good looking, rich guy "man of the people" and that the republicans will be able to stymie health care reform. They will be lauded by the 20% of the country who adamantly oppose the bill. They will be vilified by the 20% of people who wanted the bill. The rest of us will just be dumbfounded and depressed that this is the best our elected officials can offer us. Seriously? This is it. Total division. Barack said he was going to "forge a new area of bipartisan politics. The Republicans made clear that anyone who would vote for ANY bill submitted by the Democrats was a dreaded RINO! The democrats then decided to play hard ball and use their elected supermajority to push through a more liberal bill, though still not as liberal as their far left constituents would have wanted. They miscalculated Teddy Kennedy's batteries and the patience of the people of Massachusetts with the current level of bull shit.

The Dems and crazy Nancy Pelosi will try and force through a bill, a watered down bill. They will likely fail and even if they succeed they fail because it will be a lot of nothing. So, we get the healthcare we deserve. Just like we get the government we deserve. You can vote these guys out but it is the dreaded "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" thing. Until we get rid of career politicians and big money special interest lobbying the game will remain the same. Demonize people who do not agree with you. Question their intelligence and their motives and their agendas and cobble together a 51% majority to try and shove your favorite policy down someone else's throat.

So. Who cares about healthcare reform? Well, you will when your old. You will when your sick. You will when your daughter marries a putz without health care from his job and she gets sick, or their baby gets sick. Ou system and the way we deliver healthcare is broke. Perhaps what Congress finally came up with would make it even worse but perhaps something might have worked and we could have started to sift through ideas keeping the ones that worked. Instead the healthcare industry will continue to dominate the debate and take up a larger and larger part of our GDP, our economy and what was formerly take home pay.

I want to elect Rush and Glenn. They have lots of creative ideas about how to fix the system. Oh, no they don"t. But they are entertaining if you can stomach them.

Democracy is a good thing. This is how it works. The Democrats have blown an opportunity here. It will be a while till they have another clear shot. Elections have consequences but this one, not so much.

***

Post Script: That was last Tuesday night and not surprisingly I called it. Although it is only the Senate seat in Massachusetts, the media (and not just FOX but all the media decided it was a referendum on Obama, healthcare, socialism, the economy, everything wrong in the country. This is of course silly but... I am wrong about this one. I am out of touch with the country. It is all about the economy and when the economy is bad everything is bad and it really is all that matters. All the social issues, abortion, gay marriage, immigration, taxation and even cries of socialism are all just back ground noise for the economy. The Tea Party cannot make tea if all those people are happy, employed and employing people. But they are angry and we are scared and we are sheep. We will vote these guys out quickly and vote in a different kind of problem. If the economy stays bad we will vote them out too and bring in some more.

On a brighter note, my brother and most of my clients were very pleased and it was nice to see them happy for a few minutes. Still angry... but hopeful.

Nothing will get done on healthcare because the only "change" we can stomach is change we believe will be beneficial for us. Any other change, no matter how needed is unacceptable and when your talking healthcare there is too much to scare people out of. Once again the only wisdom of the Diner Review is that we get the government we deserve. It is actually a George Bernard Shaw quote. He was a negative guy and the quote is:

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better then we deserve." God help us. Even better God have mercy on us because rarely has our country been collectively acting so ultimately scared and selfish.

Ahhhh... Politics...of Waterloos At Home And Abroad

There is a portion, a small and deeply troubled portion, of the massive readership of The Diner Review (estimated circulation 3.6 MILLION readers and that is only because they block me in China) that encourages my noxious, one sided, commie political ramblings soooooo.... here goes.

Health care. Dead before it gets passed. They will pass something. It just will not accomplish anything worthwhile and will polarize us as a people even further. Obama mistakenly believes he has to pass something. Mistake. Health care as an issue is a mistake for any party or President. That is why nothing has been done. It is easy to say that doing nothing is what has gotten us here and that no Republican has ever tried to reform health care other then to push stronger tort reform and damage caps and to provide more and more safety and profit for the insurance companies with zero...ZERO regulation of how they do their job. Let me be clear. They will pass something. let me also be clear, we will still have costs spiraling out of control, drastically in excess of inflation and that for a lot of people, their care will suffer as we adjust to the new rules. I would prefer they pass nothing to this and unfortunately it is not "getting it right". I still admire the courage it took to try and do something. It has been and will be (as the republicans predicted) his Waterloo. It could not have been anything else. Rahm Emanuel should have told him. The Democrats do want "European style health care". It will lead to a diminution of care for many and maybe even most of it.

My father in law is a very thoughtful man who just had a a quadruple bypass. Before he surgery we were riding to the Race Track and discussing Healthcare (4 months ago) and he said, the Bottom line is that we all expect the best possible healthcare and that every measure and technology be used to take care of us in the best possible way... and that there is no way to afford that. He is right. Once again we have built up expectations for top notch health care as a "right" and entitlement. We are spoiled children. And demanding and unforgiving ones.

PREMISE: BUDGET DEFICITS ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY AND WE MUST STOP THIS PROFLIGATE SPENDING IMMEDIATELY! UNLESS IT IS FOR HEALTH CARE.

One commentator suggested that this European Health Care will demand a European style military (not much) suggesting that you cannot do both. Perhaps that is right. Which brings us to:

Afghanistan: "Never Fight A Land War In Asia". Although attributed in our most excellent culture to the movie "The Princess Bride" this was actually an admonition of General Doulas Mac Arthur regarding the Vietnam War. How much does it say about our culture that "The Princess Bride". Is what we remember. My guess would be that the quote well predates Mac as well and goes back to...the Japanese...the British...The French and Napoleon...Alexander...(you get the idea). Whether it is because of the hugeness of the land mass or the hostility of certain areas we (the Republicans and the Obama administration) have forgotten this general Chestnut though my guess is that it was taught to our generals at West Point.

Along with it you can the idea that history has taught over.... well a few thousand years at least and that is that an occupying army always eventually loses. Why? Because the natives live there and never have to "go home". Ultimately they out last you and the will of the people who sent you.

Along with it add that America does not have the time or the patience to engage in any over seas adventure for more then two terms (8 years). There are no exceptions.

Finally in regard to Afghanistan add "Where Empires Go To Die".

PREMISE: BUDGET DEFICITS ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY AND WE MUST STOP THIS PROFLIGATE SPENDING IMMEDIATELY! UNLESS IT IS FOR THE WAR ON TERROR.

Wake up Barrack! In your campaign and in order to win you changed the focus from from Iraq to Afghanistan. Prudence would have dictated abandoning that premise (and promise) and gotten us the hell out of there and spending that money further working up our intelligence and our border security. There is no national security interest in keeping a massive force there. The country cannot (and does not have the will, the history or the government) to be tamed and "civilized".

So far we have 5300 casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, not counting any of our coalition (soft laugh) partners or any of the indigenous people killed who we clearly do not care about enough even to bother to count. The estimate regarding Iraq and Afghani casualties is about 10,000 in Iraq and 3,000 in Afghanistan. Most of these deaths were caused not by our troops but as collateral damage from insurgent bombings. Not counting dead in Pakistan (no estimates) that is about 20,000 lives expended.

Dead at World Trade Center: 2976.

Deaths in the first Gulf War (where we waded in and destroyed their military and their country) 294. Hmmm....

The U.S. needs a new policy on terror saying that we will do what we initially did in Afghanistan. When attacked we will identify who the attacker is to the best of our ability. We will go after them wherever they hide and exact a huge price on whoever was and is harboring them. We got that done in Afghanistan 7 years ago. Yes, Bush might might have blown getting Osama, but we totally kicked the shit out of that country. Then for reasons that become more and more unclear we took out eye off them and went to Iraq. Oops.

For these two miscalculations...Obama is a one termer. The 24 hour cable news culture does not allow mistakes. Look at that poor Huckabee guy. Career...over. Why, a pardon he made based on his best and humanly (humanely?) fallible judgment. No mistakes guys. We might never have more then a one term legitimately elected President ever again. You heard it here first. I will miss Obama. So will Glenn Beck.

Why Are We So Angry? Maybe "WE" Are Not

So we have a continuing theme of anger in our country and it seems to at the current administration. The Tea Party people, the Christian right and the “conservatives” all will tell you it has nothing to do with “the President” but the policies AND with the people who are “the system”.

Where is anger at people and administration who brought us here? It is non existent. And it should be. Bush is done. Even Cheney is done. But their cobbled constituency of the biggest American Corporations and Banks and the radicalized evangelical community remains as an incredibly solid base of 20% of the electorate and a boat load of money. These loud, angry people are controlling the debate. They are “motivated”. When engaged what they are motivated to do it is to tell the government to “just stop”. I understand the sentiment but once again where were you for the last 8 years? The government is a big ship that is hard to turn and momentum in any direction is hard to stop. We headed down this road for the last 30 years which were great years. Reagan and Clinton and Bush’s dad ran us down the path that unbridled capitalism (funded by government in many cases) will solve all problems and that government debt has no consequences. Unfortunately we all suspect that Obama will accelerate that process but be clear, Obama has not spent a penny of our money yet. Our deficits and indeed this budget are all creatures nurtured by our past “leadership”. But we have stuff like this going on:

PHOENIX (AP) — About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.

Good stuff!














I have really appreciated the few Republicans who have said “Elections have consequences.” This guy was elected by a large majority. He was never unclear about what he wanted for healthcare and America spoke that this was “change” they wanted. When faced with being frightened regarding how the details might effect them they have reacted like everyone would and are saying “whoa”. I know the system is broke and cannot be fixed but do not change it if it is going to effect me. We elect people at times for the purpose of forcing us to do unpleasant things and putting a bullet through the head of our current healthcare/industrial complex might be one of those things. Our country voted hugely for change and groups of vocal people, peacefully assembling while carrying guns to meetings and asserting their rights have hijacked that majority will. I have not seen a single tea party member who has said, “I voted for Obama and I made a mistake”. It is important to note that literally tens of thousands of Americans have joined these peaceful/angry/reasonable/spontaneous/coordinated by Limbaugh, Beck and FOX demonstrations. According to the census bureau there are approximately 307,500,013 of us in the United States which means that as many as 307,400,013 have not yet joined these citizen revolts. But you wouldn't know it to watch ANY cable news.

What about racism? Seriously? This is a meaningless discussion. We are NOT a post-racial society and will not be in my life. It is a fact that many of us are VERY uncomfortable having a black liberal as a President. Some of us have let this color and exacerbate our basic opposition to his policies. This is a fact. Live with it. People are human. I do, when watching FOX hearken back to the days when you were a traitor and a commie under the sacrosanct rule (when Bush was President) to "Never Criticize a sitting President at a time of war." And so i not be remiss. Lets talk about ACORN. This organization was originally a good idea. They have blown it and are done. No matter what an organization has stood for you cannot be "entrapped" into the type of stupidity they have and not have organizational accountability for your employees. They as I said are done. I do note with interest that the same cannot be said for pro life organizations when there members kill people. They cannot be blamed for the crazies among them.

This was of course stupid then and it is stupid now. But where from the Christian right is the basic moderator of their faith? Of our faith? Of MY faith? Jesus lived under an oppressive totalitarian regime. In all the Gospels other then "render unto ceasar..." he didn't say squat about it. he wanted his disciples to focus on healing people, helping people and moving them to faith and to concentrate on the higher things. There is this guy who wrote a lot. St. Paul. He wrote a lot of letters to people in strife and dissension. On such group was the Phillipians. They were a generous people and this was a letter of spiritual encouragement. Paul said "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

So where does that leave us? Well, perhaps all of us are NOT that angry. perhaps by watching Glenn Beck, exchanging email forwards that mock the President, all just reinforce our feeling that EVERYONE feels this way. Maybe talking to people who agree with us and do not challenge our vitriol (especially from a Christian perspective) is self reinforcing of our anger. Perhaps we ought to read a book. Maybe some fiction or maybe even better some American history. because one of the other things that really saddens me is the lack of confidence the angry people have in the greatest Democracy in the free world. Every President, from Lincoln to Obama had been accused by some segment of the country in undercutting and imperiling our Democracy. They have not succeeded in doing it yet. This guy will not be the one to get it done either.

When we are talking about healthcare, government, or our brothers and sisters in the human race... think upon these things. INDEED.

Here was a thoughtful rant on healthcare from an unexpected source, my favorite singer songwriter James Mc Murtry. A tax paying Texan. http://blurt-online.com/blogs/view/2781/

OBAMA Where Art Thou?

Sooooo...it is March and we are about to begin March Madness and two months into Barack Obama’s America. If I listen to the news (which i have stopped doing) I know I would hear that Barack has not fixed the banking system and has not restored confidence. If I listen to Fox he is running us down the road to socialism, running up a huge bill we cannot pay and that Rush Limbaugh wishes he would fail (like that was even worth talking about?). If I listen to the liberal talking heads we are doing just what we need to and Republicans need to stop being so obstructionist.

That is all one load of bullshit. I am beginning a disappointment with our new president but only beginning and he has plenty of time to bring me back home. Am I disappointed for any of the reasons cited by the Republican opposition? Yes, two of them. One is that he has not curtailed pork and earmarks at all in this new budget and two, he has not curtailed lobbying as the way to get things done in Washington.

It is depressing for me. I feel right now like I am looking at the other side of the Bush coin, and it is the same coin. There is nothing transformative about what is happening is Washington other then we are having the other side of an ideological, we are right, they wrong, mentality which I had incorrectly ascribed to the nasty, hateful Bushies. Now I am seeing the same thing but from the opposite side. It is making me sick. Not because the policies are so wrong. I have no idea whether the policies are wrong or not. It is the attitude of exclusion. It is the business as usual. It makes me sick.

Obama still has a chance to be transformative. He can call us out to a higher standard, a higher purpose. Our Judeo-Christian (and perhaps even Muslim but I do not know enough about the faith to even comment) heritage has an awesome history of higher values. Somehow in my life, we lost our way. We confuse success with money and things. Our grandparents and to some extent our parents main goal was to improve the life of the children so they could have a “better” life. We have become concerned (like a publicly traded company sacrificing the future and making high stakes bets) with immediate gratification and having more and better then everyone else. he can call on us all as individuals to be brave, show compassion, pick up our brothers and do more for others rather then our recent culture of getting everything I want...NOW!

The Republicans cannot lead us there. They are bankrupt of ideas and take no responsibility for our current predicament being the natural result of Gordon Gecko “greed is good” capitalism. Capitalism is awesome. It has a tremendous power to transform economies and people in a good way. But when we glorify nothing but dollars at the expense of long range sustainability and the value of the people we employ, capitalism becomes the snake that eats itself. The current Beatification of Ronald Reagan is the best example of the parties myopic view of the past and it’s very limited “get me and my friends more money now” view of the future. The greed heads with continue to partner with the pro life groups so that there can be no middle ground on anything.

I do not know what our President is waiting for. He needs to make a formal request to the Republicans that their leadership step down. He needs to use his authority to force the Pelosi/Reed/Barney Frank contingent to also step down. They are to agenda-ized and politicized to be part of any serious change. These people on the left are just as guilty, now that they in power as the Republicans used to be. There is no compromise for the group. They must have everything that is abhorrent to the right and damn the consequences and they are wrong, wrong, wrong.

America is the greatest country on the earth. If we are lead by admirable people we will continue for the next generation in that role. If we are divided, hateful, small minded and unwilling to every acknowledge that there might be good people with good idea on the other side of the aisle we are well and truly screwed.. So stand up Mr. President. Call your own party to account first. Hack the pork. Save your social agenda for 2011. Get rid of your own small minded leaders and then call the Republicans to account on the other side. Then and only then can you come to the people, come to me and lead us on to a greatness that might embarrass Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation”.

We are tired of government making us afraid and expecting nothing from us but the worst. We are tired of government being corrupt, bought and sold and rife with special interests (business and social interests) which most of us in the middle are sick of hearing about. We are ready. Get off your ass and lead us. It was not the far left that you rode into office.

Post Election Erata....blah, blah, blah

Down in the mouth and not half right
but I can feel the changes comin on
bloom like flowers in bluest night
bloom like the sunlight in my song*


Sooooo... I started writing a little on election night and other then responding to some Facebook posts... I didn’t have anything I thought was meaningful to say. I mean everyone said everything and in a 24 hour news cycle they said it about180,000 times already. So I waited... I watched.... I listened. I learned nothing.
****
Lutheran kids are by a large part angry and somewhat hate filled about the election. That propbably is not fair, I am sure it is just a vocal minority to full of hate but wow. What have these kids got to be so angry about? And why hate Obama? Do their parents hate him that bad? Even if they do shouldn’t the kids be rebelling against that? And what does it say about how we are raising them up as Christians that they have so much angry bile that they are willing to lay out on the web for everyone to see.
****
Mc Cain’s speech was an excellent piece of work. Grace filled. Generous. Funny and serious. It was everything that made me and a lot of other Americans like and admire him for years. It is too bad that such a quality person had to lose. I was worried that they would allow Sarah Palin to break tradition and give her own concession speech. I would not have cared for that.
****
The post election attacks on Palin are embarrassing and unforgivable. And not on her part. I do not think she was ready to be VP much less President but there is no reason to think that she is not spenty intelligent. I have no idea what the agenda is of the poeple who are stabbing at her anonymously but they should be outed, fired and banned from election politics. really unforgivable.
****
all of the words you can't say right
burn my ass with anger to no end
I love my country so much man
like an exasperating friend *


I do not know what Obama is going to do or what he realistically can get done. Picking Rahm Emmanuel is not exactly a reaching acroiss the aisles type move. He sounds like a meticulous, dangerous guy but perhaps he is the guy who can get a job done. We are counting on Obama to surround himself with quality people. Lets hope he is one and that he turns out to be the first of many. I put a number of things on Facebook as a dream for this administration:
I have a dream that Obama gets elected and immediately does the following:
1. Offers Secretary of Defense job to John Mc Cain
2. Makes Petraus head of joint Chiefs of Staff
3. Offers Secretary of Treasury or Fed job to Warren Buffet and urges him to take it as a matter of public service.
4. Announces Hillary will fill next Supreme Court opening.
5. Shuts down our stock market for a week to retool the rules regarding program trading, hedge funds and over night trading and perhaps selling “futures” of things that are not actual commodities.
6. Consider closing the banks for a brief period to review them and open them again so that people have confidence in them.
7. Set aside 700 billion plan and start over. Do not allow the banks to have any money for mergers unless they are mergers directed by the FDIC. Use the money in a way that actually gets banks to lend.
8. Give the first great speech of this Millenium. remind the country that we are the greatest country in the world but help the country to redefine that greatness.
9. Ask Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed to step down from their leadership positions in order to elect new leadership for our new challenges.
That is a lot.

***
I liked Obama’s speech but it was not transcendant. perhaps it did not mean to be. I was moved and not put off by Jesse Jackson’s tears.

yeah, i believe the war is wrong
don't believe that nations can be steered
lead the world by smarts and compassion
by example, not coercion, force and fear*

****
How great is it that Proposition 1 to provide mental health services to youth passed? A tax increase in a time of tremendous economic upset. That is a nice sign about people in St. Louis County and I did not expect it at all.

****
So.... where was i when Barack Obama made history? I was in my shower I believe when they called the elction for him. Granted it was a foregone conclusion before then. We sat at home all night and watched returns come in. I was looking for Indiana, Ohio or Florida to tip for Obama and that would seel it. the fact that they called Pennsylvania so quickly was a sign and the close races in Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and Missouri which all were supposed to be Red states also boded well. When they called Florida and ohio it was over. The west coast was just gravy.
Looking at the map was a little depressing. It looked almost like a civil war map. Creepy.

****
There is of course the inevitable talk of a new alignment of politics in our country and it just seems so absurd to me. Obama won for among other reasons that the republicans have had the White House for the last eight years. He also was a tremendous campaigner, an unbelievable speaker and someone who catalyzed something in the American populace. The idea that in four years or eight years that this Democratic mandate will continue is delusional. This was a case of people being sick of the administration and having a bright young star to chose to put their hopes in. This honeymoon will likely be over even faster then prior ones, especially if the Democrats in the House have their own agenda.

****
One of the problems with the expectations and hopes people have for Obama is the obvious thing that he cannot change anything. Only we can change things by changing what we do every day. We do not want to change. We do not want to conserve. We do not want to pay more taxes. We want to elect someone to do all the hard things for us but this is America. It comes down to us. That is really annoying.

***
In any case... this is still the greatest country in the world to live and we are all blest. Pray for our leaders. They are going to need it.

*Lyrics of "Move On" by Mike Doughty

DINER REVIEW ELECTION PREVIEW 2008

Sooooo... it is election eves, eve. The talking heads say Obama is lock but Mc Cain has momentum so it is not over. I do not know how those things gibe. The say Mc Cain has to run the table but figuring they have called some of the races wrong I will say if Mc Cain loses Ohio, Pennsylvania or Florida.... he is toast.

He was hilarious on SNL last night. He can make fun of himself and he does have timing. Somehow he let the campaign run him as a grumpy old man (and that is perhaps who he is) but that seems unfair. I like John Mc Cain. I like that he fights for what he believes in. I like that he got his reputation of speaking truth to power but i am voting for Obama because:

1. Mc Cain sold out his “crossing the aisle” I am a consensus maker and builder reputation when he chose a V.P. to pander towards a base which had no where else to go and he adopted the extension of the Bush tax cuts which he had made a career of opposing.

2. The choice of Palin also was just a poor choice for this election and the way she was handled is embarrassing. I am confident that she is smart, ambitious and has the best interests of the government at heart but... the way she was rolled out and pandered to the base was a mistake for a candidate who clearly has a lot going foe her.... even if I think i hate her.

3. He did not surround himself with people who could help him make good decisions in difficult time. Surrounding yourself with people who do not have good instincts is...Bushlike. Obama clearly ran a better, smarter campaign. Perhaps running a campaign is whole lot easier then running a government but if you cannot do one...

So I will show up at 6 in Webster and cast my vote. I have predictions.

1. Voter turnout will be huge but even with a massive increase in young voters (18-25) they will not show up and make the effort to vote.
2. Obama wins in landslide with 58% of popular vote, without the youth vote.
3. He has huge electoral college win leading idiot Democrats to do the same thing Karl Rove did and predict a fundamental turn in the electorate and a permanent democratic majority. This is...idiotic. Our country is deeply polarized and politics is cyclical. It is the Dems year and it is only because Obama is a charismatic leader. With anyone else at the top of the ticket (even Hillary) this is a nail biter and they do not win all those states.
4. The Dems have 59 in the Senate.
5. Obama is one term President.
6. Obama is so wrapped up in recession/depression problems that there is no timing or funding for health care reform or almost anything else.

The Republicans could still win this election. They need to promo Sarah Palin at a 50,000 person rally in Branson to get the whole crowd chanting “Obama, Pelosi and Reed...OH MY!” to the tune of “Lions and Tigers and Bears”. That is a scary thought. That could turn the whole thing around with a few prime time TV buys and huge You Tube press. Seriously, that could do it. Instead they will try and scare people in stupid and unscary ways like Bill Ayers and “socialism”...yawn. they deserve to lose. They have no imagination and that is the unkindest thing I can say.

****

MY DREAM
I have a dream that Obama gets elected and immediately does the following:
1. Offers Secretary of Defense job to John Mc Cain
2. Makes Petraus head of joint Chiefs of Staff
3. Offers Secretary of Treasury or Fed job to Warren Buffet and urges him to take it as a matter of public service.
4. Announces Hillary will fill next Supreme Court opening.
5. Shuts down our stock market for a week to retool the rules regarding program trading, hedge funds and over night trading and perhaps selling “futures” of things that are not actual commodities.
6. Consider closing the banks for a brief period to review them and open them again so that people have confidence in them.
7. Set aside 700 billion plan and start over. Do not allow the banks to have any money for mergers unless they are mergers directed by the FDIC. Use the money in a way that actually gets banks to lend.
8. Give the first great speech of this Millenium. remind the country that we are the greatest country in the world but help the country to redefine that greatness.

****

I don’t ask for much.
God’s Blessings. Go vote.