The Charge Of The Lightweight Brigade

Earlier this week I had a slight nervous breakdown and posted this on Facebook:

““OK...R.E.M. disbands ten years too late and now the U.S. Government is threatened with shutdown again. REALLY? REALLY? Again? We seriously cannot do any better than this? This is leadership? From anywhere on either side of the aisle? People pay taxes to support this type of leadership? People die on the battle field to support your current way of governing our great country? Our economy is in decline, people are not working and you squabble like petulant children. Every member of congress, Senator or House Member should be hanging in their head in shame. Real shame.
"It's the end of the world as we know it..." R.E.M.””

Slightly over wrought? Way over wrought? Probably the latter but really guys, this is embarrassing. I had overblown expectations for our President to use his HUGE popular support to be transformative. It retrospect that was very childish but we had come from a Presidency that was so stage managed and tone deaf that I needed change and certainly John Mc Cain was not the change I needed. I can still shudder to think about how his Presidency would look and we would all be beating on an old man. At least with Barrack we are beating on a young man in the prime of his life. But even though he was dealt an unplayable hand, he has played through every attempt to unite our country under a banner of real, PROUD change. Congress failed him totally, first the Democratically run congress and then the democratic minority dealing with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives who was elected with a mandate from the people, God and the Constitution to thwart anything else he tried. But the original fault is with the Democratic congress originally which played the same liberal, entitlement program that has been pretty thoroughly debunked by our countries history. Nancy Pelosi sucked...and she looked really, really scary, especially when she was worked up. The President, upon getting to his office should have asked she and Reed to resign their leadership posts because it was not what this country needed. He didn’t. Now we are here.

My brother, whom I love, is a Tea Party Conservative. God Bless him and them and their cause because they have changed the argument. I don’t believe they have changed it for the better but they have changed it and that is indeed what makes our country the greatest country in the world...still...no matter what the nay sayer’s say. They have successfully thwarted anything being done by government. Seriously, anything. Now I don’t pretend to know what the proper role of government is but I will tell you that it has to have a role and it is our largest employer and that tearing it down quickly, threatening to shut it down every time there is a spending bill, is reckless and stupid. Obama will be a one term President unless they run a crazy man like Perry or a crazy woman like Bachman. You cannot say stupid things frequently in public, and then stand by them and double down. Both of these candidates confuse this for courage and fortitude. What worked on their small stage (and Texas no matter what they tell you is an intellectually small stage) will be a disaster on Broadway (likely because of the pointy headed New York Intellectual Elite). So that is going to take care of itself. Run whomever you want and they should win and they too will likely be a one term President because we are in a deep trough with no easy way out.
But back to my brother. In regard to politics we agree on nothing. Ever. This might almost be a point of pride for both of us. But we have found a common desire and we need another one term President. We need someone who is brave enough to say the following:
1. We are in a deep, bad economy.
2. Government cannot spend or save us out of it
3. The American People are going to have to get us out of it.
4. We are going to have less government services and our churches and not for profits have got to start really stepping up because there will be needs that the government simply cannot meet for the needy and for those without a voice. This is a tragedy but this is reality.
5. We are going to pay more in taxes.
6. Our standard of living as we knew it was the creation of a bubble and is not sustainable. We can argue about this but time and economics have proven it.
7. Our standard of living will still be the highest in the world and we can lead like America should lead, by example.
8. Social security retirement age needs to be rolled back.
9. Means testing for benefits needs to take place. (I don’t know if my brother would agree with that one but my point is that we should not pay out the “safety net” of social security to people like Warren Buffet, or maybe even to people like me who have managed to put some monies away for retirement.)
10. Having troop fight wars overseas (even with radio controlled airplanes) is expensive AND we are going to have to figure out how to employ and equip all these troops we are bringing home for civilian life and it will be VERY expensive for a while but we have to invest in our best.
11. Something has to be done about health care. Here my brother and I would totally disagree so I will stop but that is the third rail of debt. Social security, War and Health care. Something has to be done about health care. Stopping frivelous lawsuits, stopping waste will not even cover next years % growth of the costs. So...something has to be done about health care costs and we will leave it at that for now.

So we need another one term President after Obama or even better we need Obama to embrace for his last year and a half, the role of being a one term President. Lead us to what is next. Dignity. Real Christian values that question our materialistic and militaristic culture and speaking the truth with love, rather than speaking the truth, when convenient, for votes and campaign dollars. But if not Barrack, and not the next Republican President, than it has to be the next guy or we are in some deep shit and the country will be so angry that we will elect a madman. So watch, pray and expect more of these guys. Congress? We cant shoot them. So lets vote them out and see if we can get some people who put America before their party and who can think for themselves without an agenda of talking points to get people to clap and sing God Bless America. What we need as President and in Congress are real people. Smart people. Creative people who are willing to take risks to do what is right and what this country needs. It didn’t have to be this hard. God already has blessed America, and he still is.


*cue the large eagle flying down with American flag in it’s beak...cue the country song about God and Country...fade to black*

I Am BACK!

Soooooo... it has been a while. I have had a lot to say but the bottom line is in regard to writing there has been no time...no energy. Lethargy and rushing around for work and figuring how to get out of town and then recovering at work and catching up from being out of town have made blogging a luxury that time will not afford. As you can see from this pic, I have not been wasting my time in Michigan with Polka-Fest and what not. So lets do a potpourri .

The Economy: Everything I see is bad but it is bad not from a perspective of things getting worse worse (other than housing prices which will have to continue to drop) but from the perspective of bouncing along the bottom, perhaps for a long time. Republicans are “restoring fiscal sanity” but there will be a huge 2-3 year price for this in the form of unemployed Federal workers and construction people in the private sector who will NOT be working on infrastructure jobs. This is a fact. Obama looks like a one termer but joining in on budget cutting and his own lackluster performance warrant it. The economy will still suck for the 2012 elections. He is toast. He cannot even start a war to jolt the economy because that card has been overplayed. Poor bastard.

Unemployment: I believe that our current unemployment rate and lack of growth are systemic. The Republicans will un-regulate us enough that perhaps we can find another bubble like the tech and housing bubbles that caused us all to learn to like unsustainable life styles but the bubbles will be shorter and shorter lived. We do not mass produce anything here anymore on a cost effective basis. We cannot do it because we believe people who work all day would make a living wage. At least we used to. In a global economy where grunt jobs can be done for dollars a day only an idiot would make anything here. The tech jobs that will be created simply do not need that many people. That is one of the hallmarks of tech. 9-10% unemployment is here till the next bubble. Some politician should be brave enough to say it out loud.

Obama: He has been a disappointment to me. Not because he has not gotten us out of the current economy. I believe and still believe our country needs to be pulled to the left. free market capitalism (unregulated) is a recipe for the top 1% to pack it in even more. It is never enough. Obama had the chance originally to ask us make sacrifices and redefine the conversation. Instead he played politics as usual and even worse, played it badly. In dealing with the Tea Party and their elected minions and every other republican scared by a possible primary challenge if he does not tow the line he negotiated with terrorists. They only understand one thing and that is force. They are willing to shoot the hostages. he should have let the house of representatives not lift the debt ceiling. But it was a total lack of leadership and judgment that he did not get this done during the last budget negotiations. Unforgivable really, embarrassing and it certainly added to our debt downgrade.

The Debt Downgrade: Who gives a shit? Our currency and treasury Bonds are still the benchmark and they will continue to be if slash programs and raise taxes. Be clear though that both these things are a no growth plan for the near future. The debt grading companies will be gone soon because S&P overplayed their hand. As I tweeted the day it happened, “The S&P downgraded Bob Dylans record catalogue for 5 stars to 4 ½ stars.... Asian markets are reeling.

Our Politics: Somehow we have elected and empowered the deck chair reorganizers to run our country. This is not a recent thing but has happened in my life time. The don’t think. They only want to get re-elected. If they do think it is with a zealotry that ill befits a democracy. I remember my 8th grade teacher asking the question about whether you want your elected official to do as the population wants him to do or to do what he believes to be the right thing based on the situation? Everyone said that a politician should do what his constituents (we did not use that word) told him to do (the majority). He said we were idiots. He was right. Ultimately, God have mercy on our souls, we have gotten the government we deserve.

The Republican Candidates: The only way barrack gets elected again is because there is a good chance the Republicans cannot find a credible candidate.

Romney: Paper tiger. leading candidate only because he has been running for 8 years now. If Iowa straw poll does not kill him now, South Carolina Primary will. When he comes to town I hear a prison guard yelling “dead man walking”. he even looks scared. He said “corporations are people” which is enough of a film clip to cost him any election against Obama. Also, and I know this is an awful thing to say in a post racial, politically correct, open minded America (hah, hah and OMG HAH!) I don’t think when push comes to shove we elect a Mormon President. Too much baggage, too new of a religion and I could scare people off him in a paragraph. If you are the Christian right how do you do it? When people start reading The Book of Mormon... this will go poorly for him.

Huntsman: I thought he would be good and run hard. He has been non existent. He is also a Mormon, albeit a good looking one. See above.

Michelle Bachman? Really? I mean REALLY? I know a lot of people think she is “just what this country needs” but she is a fallen Lutheran and she fell the wrong way. She has crazy eyes, is a zealot and when she says hate filled things and gets applauded it reinforces her desire to talk more. She is telegenic but every time says stupid things and not because she is being asked “gotcha” questions. She also loses because we have seen how our most recent short term legislator turned President worked out. Too easy to beat on too many levels.

Gingrich? Already shot himself. Not in the foot but in the head.

Pawlenty” Looks good on paper. Dies early. He brings nothing to the show.

Herman Cain? Herman Cain? I can get angry without watching him explode every time he is in front of the camera. Does anyone really want to give this guy a nuclear football? he lloks like a Commerce Secretary or something to me.

Ron Paul: I love him. he has the courage of his convictions and takes the heat for them. he is consistent to a fault. Small government means SMALL government. Small military, slash entitlements and let people do what they want as long as they do not hurt anyone else. He is unelectable in every sense of the word and he has one crazy, amoral son.

Rick Perry: Pre-annointed, he announced today. he has said a lot of crazy things. he wins elections by narrow margins and in a divided country he gets the nod. He seems to have the nod from the Taliban in the party and they vote 100% in the primaries. It will make an interesting race as we get more into his crony government supported buddies in Texas. If Texas continues to dry up it will hard for him to campaign because there will be more and more suffering in his state. Stupid on immigration. Runs hard to his faith which creates a lot of opportunities to paint as a demagogue. Will do or say anything to get elected. He looks like the candidate.

I am sure I have forgotten a couple of their candidates. I hope it is none of them. Ihope they can raise up a leader which can unite us in the middle. Someone who can claim the majority rather than a coalition carved from a base on the fringe. America needs better than it is being offered but as I said earlier... we are indeed getting what we deserve.

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.

DISCONNECT FROM THE ROARING BLATHER!

Sooooo.... I thin the time has come to disconnect. Totally disconnect. For a long time our friends Rush Limbaugh and Fox Network have railed against the “drive by media” and that was of course and is of course bull shit. Self serving for them to give their audience someone to hate and blame. But now... in this economy... the media over all is a problem. Whether it is FOX, the Wall Street Journal, Cable News of any type, the evening news or even (gasp) NPR, these guys (and gals) are making me crazy. It is really the 24 hour news cycle that is making me and everyone else crazy.

Watching the market drop on your 64 inch flat screen (only 117 more monthly payments) or listening on your HD Radio (1000 dollar donation to NPR) or reading the Wall Street Journal (sadly the only daily still worth reading every day) there is just too much over saturation of blathering behemoths, bemoaning the beleaguered (thus end the alliteration) economy. They have nothing to say. We know the markets are going down... a lot. We know that no one has any answers. We understand as Republicans or former Republicans that the government has no answers. We know things are getting worse... much worse... every day....every hour...every minute...every second. There is no good news...ever...and we are all doomer...doomed, doomed. And it is all Obama’s fault (one month in office later) or the Democratic Congress (two years into their tenure) or the Republican opposition (annoyingly consistent), or the bankers, or the auto executives...or the unions... or the___________ fill in the blank for the whipping boy of the minute.

This is of course bull shit. Our economy is in trouble. It is well deserved trouble. the blame falls on every institution and sadly each of us and our families and our insatiable appetite for stuff. And the answer will not be in the government, or stimulus, or China, or the next bubble. The answer is going to come from us too. But not while we allow ourselves to be totally freaked out (and I cannot help from being totally freaked out) by saturation, 24 hour news cycle media. So it is time to disconnect.
For me that means

I am reading the Post Dispatch. There is no news in it.
I am listening to music in the car again.
I am keeping the radio off at work and (gasp) working.
I am not watching Obama’s speech to Congress tonight.
I am watching old movies rather then the news.

And this approach is working.

Other then one thing. It is ALL people talk about. Every conversation quickly comes to comments like:

“Can you believe how bad it is”.
“I have never seen anything like this”.
“My 401 (k) is now a 201 (k)”.
“Can you believe how bad it is”.
“My grandpa says it is JUST LIKE the great depression”.
“My wife will not sleep with me wince all our money is gone”.
“I lost my job”.
“I am losing my house”.
“Can you believe how bad it is?”

These conversations are relentlessly depressing. It seems like there is no way to avoid them so for my Diner review reading audience I am suggesting that you memorize some of these conversation changers in order to continue disconnecting and maintain your personal sanity I humbly submit the following conversation changers:

1. It is Spring, most of us live in St. Louis but it is time to start talking about the Cardinals. With pitchers and catchers reporting the time has come to ask your conversation mate: “Do you think the Cardinals will have any good left handed relief this year?”

2. If that does not work, since we are trying to be polite, lets ask about the family. “How old are your kids again”, “those are hard years”, “do you know who the father is?”, and when then reviewing pictures of the baby...”are you worried about the shape of it’s head?” is always a guaranteed conversation changer.... or stopper. Sometimes though they will then start to talk about how hard losing the house is on the family so....try the following?

3. Stare at any visible mole and say, “have you checked that out? Looks like it might be malignant”.

4. “Has that rash cleared up?”

5. “Are you losing weight?”

6. “If your so stressed out perhaps you should come to my Masque”.

7. “Did I ever tell you that I killed a man in Mexico?”

8. “Do you think Blagojovich is getting a raw deal? I do.”

9. “Do really think all those ball players used steroids?”

10. And if your really desperate:  “If you could drill a hole from the North Pole to the South Pole, and it was big enough to drop a stone through, would the stone go all the way through and out the other side and keep going? Or would it just go to the centre and stop? Or would it go half way through and bounce backwards and forwards and keep going backwards and forwards forever and ever?”
The last one is sure fire.

So unplug, disconnect and start your own economic recovery and when people insist on discussing the economy... print these questions out and keep them handy... use them.