Post Fact

Soooo… I have been laying low since the election.  

What I discovered in the election is that...

MY SILO WALLS ARE VERY THICK AND HIGH AND I THINK MY SILO SITS OUT BY ITSELF IN A FIELD SOMEWHERE.  

To say I was confused by the result is a dramatic understatement.  I pride myself on being well read, well informed and kind of an information junky.  I proudly discussed the fact that I sought out all of the input I could on a day to day basis from what I thought was the “spectrum” of opinion.  This generally included:

1. The Wall Street Journal (Subscribe)

2. The Post Dispatch (Subscribe)

3. NPR (Send them money and listen as default in car)

4. Patriot Radio (Because my brother is Tea Party Conservative and listens to them

I mean that is pretty diverse.  And I listen and read a lot.  I read things on line.  I know the difference between Fake News and a journalistic piece.  I assumed any 6th grader knows that but once again I discovered that I was wrong.

The Drive By Truckers, a southern rock band (being totally unfair to them) came out with a song this year called “What It Means” regarding the current status of the “Black Lives Matter”, “Blue Lives Matter” racial divide that we are all living in post Ferguson.  It is a great song and here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY0qOCUy27Q

But one of the many great lines summarizing our morass is this:

"And we're standing on the precipice
Of prejudice and fear
We trust science just as long
As it tells us what we want to hear
We want our truths all fair and balanced
As long as our notions lie within it
There's no sunlight in our ass'
And our heads are stuck up in it”-DBT

So we are are all just hearing things that confirm our own innate world view and we don't hear anything that disagrees with that. And we all come to the table loaded with opinion. The Internet that was supposed to bring us all together and level the playing field instead is dividing us more than ever in ways we never imagined.

There was nothing in any of my information sources (and I don't want to label them “media” because that has become a prejudicial term) but there was nothing in any of these sources, liberal or conservative that prepared me for the fact that we could elect a man like Donald Trump to be President of the greatest country on earth and perhaps the greatest power in history on that earth. It felt like and it still feels like we gave the car keys to a drunken kid.

I get that the country rejected Hilary (although she won the popular vote she lost the election under the same rules that she thought had gamed the system for her. She was and is, difficult to like, a career politician, weighing every word and evaluating every opportunity to see how it “played”. Nothing got said that was not field tested to make sure it fit one of the demographics needed to cobble together the votes she needed...and she blew it. And she deserved to lose. Don't ever let me be mistaken for a Hilary lover but she was the kind of politician I knew and frankly the kind of politician that our country has historically rewarded. She played the game. I was happy she lost. Just not to this man. What the election said is that there are 48% of voting Americans who reject that and demanded change and it was change at any cost.

I am amazed at how wrong the polls were. Even Five Thirty Eight, my favorite and the other numbers stats guys had it wrong and evidently they had it wrong because no one would admit to a pollster that they were voting for The Donald. How does it feel that we elected a guy that people were embarrassed to acknowledge that they would consider voting for? Not too good.

But ultimately we get the leadership that we deserve. My hope and prayer is that I am wrong and this man who I loathe everything about (and when people ask me what I am basing that on I am basing it on everything he has ever said or done and his entire predatory, self aggrandizing, proud bullying career). I do believe he will bring change. So we pray that God blesses our country and blesses or leaders and for me, I have to expose myself to more and different people. Outside my silo, outside of my work, outside of my church. The fact is that I know more urban African Americans that I do white, rural working poor. Shame on me.

So I am looking for a source for news and for facts. Facts are something we should all be able to agree upon. If you are aware of a source where I might glean these common accepted facts, please advise. If not then I think we all have right to be scared because if there is not place to get facts that we can all agree on then I believe we are all well and truly #$%&*%$$!
Help me out.
Please.

ELECTION TIME IN NORTHERN ARKANSAS!

Soooo...as the avid 7 readers of these pages know, I believe that the State of Missouri as led by our legislature (term limited, terminally corrupted by money and lobbyists), in a heartfelt, focused, jihadi like drive to allow or at least force Missouri to follow its stupid and somewhat mean spirited and inbred heart and become “Northern Arkansas”.  Although they probably would not allow annexation as it would deprive them possibly of their perks related to office, they will accomplish what they will not do politically spiritually.  

They do it through supporting and passing stupid legislation. “Stupid” is a very narrow minded, prejudicial term and I hesitate to use it loosely but from a group of people constantly worried about, in no particular order:

1. The imposition of Sharia law in Missouri,

2. “The immigration problem” (which I assume is concerned that travel from our southern border home to Arkansas might be somehow infringed).

3. Anything that might limit someone in Versailles from owning a tank (the vote to nullify and Federal law regulating firearms)

4. Obamacare!  We refuse to accept Federal money and provide more health services to our residents!

5. Taxes!  They are all bad unless they fall disproportionately and the poor and cost businesses and rich people either nothing or next to nothing.

6. Voting.  You must have a valid picture ID!  So your right to vote requires you to register. Your right to own a gun… not so much.

Recently they have decided to “Take These Things To The People” and with a ton of lobbying dollars behind the effort they can skirt around the obvious veto by Governor Nixon.  On Tuesday we will be able to officially enshrine in our State Constitution Several New things.  Several things that have no business in a Constitution.  5 Separate “Amendments” are offered.  Take a look at this site to be a responsible voter before you go in.  It is run by Jason Kander.  He is our Secretary of State.  He appears to be a very nice man and runs a good website:

http://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/2014ballot/

Since 1945 the Constitution has been Amended 80 times.  Now it appears our legislature wants to change the Constitution to keep from taking responsibility for silly laws.  Today I only really want to discuss one:

1. The Right To Farm:

Section 35. That agriculture which provides food, energy, health benefits, and security is the foundation and stabilizing force of Missouri's economy. To protect this vital sector of Missouri's economy, the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state, subject to duly authorized powers, if any, conferred by article VI of the Constitution of Missouri.[5]

This will be the first one you face Tuesday.  Vote no.  This was engendered by the Humane Society People passing laws against animal cruelty.  They would dramatically potentially affect factory farms in our state and so AGRIbusiness got farmers all riled up and more importantly used the family farmers as a front for their bought and paid for legislature to provide them with a Constitutional Right to “farm” however they deem appropriate?

Really?  I mean, I am not high and mighty on this.  I love cheap meat.  I love cheap chicken.  If I ever witnessed the conditions we raise and kill these animals however I believe I would shit my pants in pure shame.  So I avoid that knowledge which i believe is my legal right but does not speak well for my almighty soul.  In any case, there is no God given right to “farm” without any definition of what that means, anymore than there is a “right” to be a lawyer. We confer to government the power to govern.  We want them to keep our food supply safe for example.  Lots of people will love this amendment:

1. Lawyers

2. Factory farmers

3. People who abuse child labor

4. Raw milk people

5. Marijuana Farms (it is a right to farm!)

We don’t need it.  It provides cover not for our family farmer but for the people who are putting them out of business. It is not the proper use of a Constitution.  It purports to confer special protections on farmers that the rest of us do not have. It is un American.

But in Missouri, our legislator under the guise of protecting our rights behaves as toadies for corporate interests and government haters.  I support your family farm.  You have a right to make living.  There is no “right” to farm and there is certainly no right to factory farm.

I am thinking of voting against all 5 amendments on Tuesday.  Why do we have to amend our constitution with “stupid”?

Fall!

Sooooo...Fall.  They say it was on September 22nd, the Equinox but that is clearly wrong and stupid… and wrong.  It is not fall until Day Light Savings Time sets the clock back.  You revel in sleeping in that morning adoring suddenly the cool crispness of the air. That crisp air of course intellectually advises us that winter is just about here.  The intelligent species (old people who have won the Darwinian wars with their peers) are already gone south but we, the stupid, the people with jobs, we shamble along and tell us that “Fall is not so bad!”  We exclaim!  We smile.

I got up this morning.  Cooked a large breakfast, read the paper and went to church and then got some lunch and without realizing it, the day was almost gone  Light started waning shortly after the Rams disappoint again.  Fall.  Dimming light and dimming hope that one can yet escape the bleak cold of a St. Louis Winter and forgot a cruel and beautiful baseball summer. Fall and it’s expectation makes people mad.

"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself."

— Mark Twain

Case in point, the United States Government.  Once again, I know I repetitively refer to it as a clown car, but that is because it is… a clown car.  The open up the doors of Congress and this unimaginably large number of bozos in brightly colored wigs, red noses come barreling out with their big shoes.  And these clowns talk… and talk… and talk.  Rarely has so much shit and trash talk come out of Washington in my life.  The threaten, they pose and they posture.  They assure you that they represent the American people but, don't we all know?

They represent themselves.  They represent their family.  They represent a perpetuation of their own power and the power of their friends and benefactors.  They do it by embodying the simple mindedness that can only come from being a true believer.  This is true of the right and of the left.  This is true of progressives and conservatives. They cannot see the truth because it is not in their interest to see the truth.  It is in their interest to announce loudly simple falsities that satisfy their constituents mind set.

“The Government IS the problem!”

And of course there is truth in that but government also has power to do massive good. But government cannot “fix” anything, but… it is all we got.

And these assholes that we have elected over the past twenty years (arguably my adult life) have severely damaged our democracy and our future.  Now granted they inherited a ship which at least since The New Deal has been premised on borrowing from the future or...let’s use another platitude…

“STEALING OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE!”

Hypothetically we could take the country back and fix it but it would require thinking, balanced people, the reasonable American middle to fight back against the dogmatic, certain SHOUTERS of the right and the left.  Make no mistake when our government is pushed to the brink of a shutdown it serves no one more then the Tea Party.  They want a government that provides roads, national defense and a minimal police force.  

They stand their ground, they don't call 911!

Every time they make all of us question their basic ability to govern they win in further delegitimizing government.  It started when they out maneuvered Obama on the sequester.  Cuts so drastic and stupid and inelegant that no one could abide in them.  But of course, the Tea Party could abide them.  More reasonable Republicans in the middle could not but they are now irrelevant. The goal of the Tea party is to destroy government because it cannot be fixed and the goal of the liberal left is to spend it into destruction.  Both should be an anathema to reasonable people.

We still sit on the greatest piece of real estate in the world.  We still have a fabulous melting pot of people and their progeny who are capable of anything!  But we need to bring back the middle.  We have to look at other opinions with respect and then win the battle with a sensible way of us all going forward together.  It can be done.  The return to the middle is possible but damn, it is going to be hard, and it is going to take a long time and it is going to require that we insist on rationale discussion and decision making.

it might require shutting down 24 hour cable news and demagogues on talk radio.  I know freedom of speech is the holiest of our constitutional rights.  So holy that it is not in the constitution but instead in the First Amendment but holy is holy.  It might require us rethinking whether corporations are people (we all know the founders loved the big corporations like the Dutch East India Company.  We might also have to reconsider whether money is speech… or speech is speech.  But we might not have to do those things if perhaps we could discuss it.  I could be wrong and perhaps corporations are indeed people but it would seem to run against everything I have ever learned, but still, I would embrace discussing it.

But we would need to be brave.  We would need a leader who was willing to speak the truth and when he tried to lead us down a painful road, we would need the courage not to kick him out for his courage.  Here is one example:

SOCIAL SECURITY

1.    Entitlements are writing checks we cannot pay.  In a growing economy with productive baby boomers we could pretend that there would always be more money...tomorrow and we could spend it today and promise… whatever.  This will require sacrifice.  It will mean that people who have paid into Social Security will; NOT get the benefits they were promised.  But those benefits for our long living generation are MUCH more than they have paid in.  So, in short order:

    a.    raise retirement age to 70.  I know none of us wants to work and “The Greatest Generation” (the one who raised us) retired younger and had a retirement house in Florida.  We will not be able to do that, or likely to have that and you know what, it is going to suck and it is going to be great too.

    b.    Means test for the money.  I don’t know what the number is but hypothetically people with 50 Million do not need $4,000.00 extra a month to put in the bank and leave to their progeny.

I don’t know what to do after that but I know that is a start which will be hollered about and it will stink and it will not solve the problem, but it will start solving a problem in a sensitive, painful way that perhaps if we had a brave leader he could lead us to brave solutions.

So it is 5:30 and pitch black and these are the types of crazy ramblings that come out of a middle aged man when his fantasy football team is out of contention.  I look forward to thinking about other ideas for our new party.  A Jack Danforth Republican Party with a Bill Clinton Democratic Party might be a good start.

We can make the middle phat again!

This is the day....

Sooooo... the election is over. Democrats are still talking like idiots about a mandate they don’t have in a divided country. Some Republicans are soul searching like Austin Powers looking for his mojo but many have made up their minds that the “takers” won and that it is all about Republicans (makers) and Democrats (takers). The facts unfortunately do not bear this out as the solid Republican South (minus the great nation of Texas) represent the biggest block of “takers” from the Federal Government. This election, surprisingly was not “about the economy stupid”. If it was in our weak recovery, likely soon to slide back into recession, would have tanked Obama and the Democrats. This election was about tolderance. Tolerance of immigrants (illegals too), tolerance of gays (we dont know that we need same sex marriage but we do not believe in a homosexual agenda to undermine our values) and an ackowledgment that for most of us, even if we believe life begins at conception, that abortion is a very difficult, heartbreaking, soul wrenching problem which does not lend itself to simple answers in a broken world. Economically our country might be swirling in the toilet (although I don’t think that is a foregone conclusion) but this time, tolerance won. Individual rights won. Arguably America won because it stepped back from demonization of those we dont agree with and sent a message...a “mandate” to our leaders to get their shit together and walk us back from the precipice. If it can be done.

Right now they are again failing us miserably. Obama has doubled down on increased taxes for those who make over 250k. Although this makes sense to me I think we all forget that we still live in aprogressive tax system. We will not tax everything they make at that higher rate, just the amounts they are making over 250k. Republicans demand entitlement cuts but there is no one who believes we can cut our way out of this defecit. The main thing they cannot do is give ANY ground. The main thing we need out of Washington is certainty. If we are going to be taxed more, TELL US! If we are going to not get social security till we are 70...TELL US! It will all suck but at least we can plan for it and try and do our best. But they won’t. They will not do it becaus we have a broken political class that we have made scred of their own shadows. These margianalized people who we have elected do not have the courage of their convictions and the ones that do are frankly so crazy on the right or the left that I wish they did not.. So what is going to happen is another round of can kicking. Debt cieling raised. Sequester delayed, each side getting a bone of compromise out of the other with a promise to do something way out in the future and we will remain uncertain and continue to have to find our way in the darkness.

Which we can do. If we have the courage of our convictions. If we work hard. We can take care of our families and ourselves. Meet our needs. Take care of those who God throws into our poath who need our care, worship as we please and speak as we please and be blessed even as these idiots drive the ship into the rocks. I decry the Republican visage of “the exceptional American”. I decry it, not because I don’t believe it in my arrogant heart, but because these people who trumpet American Exceptionalism are the ones that are so afraid. they cannnot do anything because the government. they are uncertain because of the government. they cannot sleep at night because of the government. they are worried for their childrens futures BECAUSE OF THE GOVERNMENT! What is exceptional about fear? What I see on FOX news are “Exceptionally Afraid” Americans. What I hear when I listen to Glenn Beck is a man who makes money off of that fear. It sickens me.

 

We are all blessed to live in the greatest country God has put on earth at the greatest time ever to be an American. We are the most powerful Country with the most natural resources in the world. The best combination of soil, water, timber, oil and gas on the planet. We can leave a legacy for our children and granchildren of peace, stability, wealth, strength and kindness if we all just work and take care of ourselves, our families, our churches, synagogues and masques. If we take care of people like we are all taught to do it. We will be great, our children will thrive.

We are responsible for our families and out values. Not the government. We are responsable for our finances. Not the government. If they take more of our bread, exceptional Americans figure out a way to bake more bread. Who are we? We are going to find out. It is going to be hard and it is going to be great. Who are we? Get to work and stop bitching. Who are we? Stop pointing the fingers at other. Who are we? Bake the bread. Enjoy your family and love your neighbor and get to work.

 

Psalm 118: 24 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Ruminations

 Happy Sunday.  I am a fallen Republican.  The party lost me somewhere at the end of Clinton’s first term when my young, yuppie, successful professional friends and their wives were all on the porch at the country club and one of the woman was crying about how the re-election of Clinton would literally be the death of us, economically and certainly morally.  As people joined the conversation agreeing heartily with her sentiments I realized that these people did not have a clue about how the rest of the country felt, the direction (inexorably) the country was going towards multiculturalism and how good they, themselves had it.  They were tone deaf.  Some of those people is now a local or regional muckity muck in the Republican party.  The Newt Gingrich contract with America followed by the neo-con (W Bush) takeover cemented their beliefs that they were “right” in the most morally righteous sense and inexorable.

My Christianity (and I do not say this sanctimoniously because “MY” Christianity is DEEPLY flawed) took me in a different direction.  I believe there is a role for government in caring for the voiceless.  I know my church tries but is inadequate to the task.  I know Republicans give more than Democrats and that is awesome but I believe most of that is given from plenty which diminishes the awesomeness somewhat.  The Democrats have always left me squeamish.  I am against abortion (which from my point of view also mandates being against Capital punishment). I believe in allowing Gays to have ALL legal rights accorded to the rest of us.  I think Ronald reagan handled it the “right” way and that we need to make everyone who is here today an American wholesale, ignore their braking of our laws and ackowledged the poverty and hopelessness that brought them here and ackowledge that they are making us a greater America, as every wave of immigrants has made us a greater America. We do need (I think) to secure our borders but I am NOT building a border fence along our 3500 mile border with Canada.  I do not understand why we have been unable to secure our southern borders and would like to have it explained to me.   I believe the wealthy should pay more taxes because no one benefits from our great countries systems more than them, they have proven it.  I will not work any less hard if I am being taxed at a marginally greater rate.  The very idea that people would do that seems asinine coming from a group that trumpets American exceptionalism.  The idea that these exceptional Americans are uncertain and afraid and are hoarding their cash does not sound very exceptional to me.

Anyway, you have probably stopped reading.  Sorry.   I voted for Obama.  I am not proud of the fact.  He disappointed me in that in his first term he had a mandate to call us to something greater but instead was the flip side of the same coin and it saddened me.  We march on now into a murky, difficult future.  Let’s do it boldly.  Let’s hope President Obama can be better and smarter. He is off to a bad start.  His first speech was not a hand being reached accross the aisle but a scolding “send me the bill I want, I have a pen”.  What a bunch of crap.  What a tone deaf message.  He is like a dog with a bone.  The Republican leadership needs to save face.  They deserve a chance to react rationally without being bullied and Obama is blowing it, AND he does not have a strong enough position to win.  

Let’s hope the Republican leadership realizes that if they can assist in a recovery, they can assume the mantle again in 2016 with a fine man who is not defined by traditional marriage, the right to life and illegal immigration.  George Bush ruined compassionate conservatism and that is a shame because ultimately empowering individuals to succeed is the most compassionate thing.  But if we cannot figure out how to do that, Jesus told us to take care of them if we can.  The government provides one way of doing that however imperfectly. Government is not inherently evil, only inherently stupid.  It can be fixed.

God’s peace and thanks for stirring my brain.  Sorry about the diatribe.  There is much to be said for being the loyal opposition.  The Republicans have lost that.  People like you have the power to bring it back and I would be happy to come back home to the party of Lincoln.  I pray for change but America remains the greatest country in the world and we are blessed beyond our comprehension.

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!

Final Aches and Pains (Or Akins and Palins)

OK...sooo... this is the last time I will bloviate on the Akin thing.  I promise.  I have listened to all the talking heads on FOX, MSNBC, local Fox and CNN.  I have read the Post (St. Louis Post Dispatch), The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.  The local folks on 97.1 FOX Radio have really stayed loyal to Congressman Akin and they are to be complimented for their constancy.  I have talked to people liberal and conservative (I have friends who are both... creepy).  A few final observations:

1.  This was no liberal media "gotcha" experience.  He was interviewed on local FOX.  Jaco asked normal questions.  Jaco did not jump on it or even follow up.
2.  It is Republicans who want the guy to back out so stop talking about the Democrats and the Liberals.  They all want him.
3.  He is not ready for prime time.  He was not prepared for a question that had to come, even on FOX.
4.  America is nuanced on abortion.
5.  This man is not in the main stream of his party.
6.  The Republicans are correct, we should be talking about the economy.
7.  The Democrats are correct in pointing out that the Republicans running will put radical social conservatives in office and in control. That has to be discussed as well.

Here is what will happen.  Akin will withdraw before the real deadline.  he will be replaced at the last minute by someone who will not have to answer a lot of hard questions, will not be Todd Akin and will offer the Republicans a chance to win the Senate.  It absolutely will happen that way.  Nothing else can happen.  Also, people will look beyond abortion and start listening to Akin about repealing the 17th Amendment and allowing State legislatures to pick Senators.  They will listen to him on school lunches.  He is not electable.  He is a good man, and a true believer and he is the best example of Missouri Taliban.  He will enforce his understanding of God's will on us and do his best to put in place a conservative Christian Theocracy.

They will get rid of him but it will NOT be the Liberals making it happen.  the Liberals want this fight. I am done with this one.  End of September we have a new Republican running for Senate in Missouri.

Todd Aching

Sooooo.... the Show Me State.  We have become reliably red.  Formerly a swing state we now cannot be prouder of our conservative values and it is reflected in our politicians.  Our State House is cornered and controlled by rural conservatives who do not trust government, city people, democrats or really anything.  Public education.  Bad.  Public programs for the poor.  Bad.  Public lunch at school.  Bad.  Government programs for poor.  Bad.  Government support of farms... well, bad in theory.  There is nothing government can do to help.  Free enterprise is the answer to everything if government would just...get out of the way.

We elect people who are “right” on the issues of small government.  Right on the issues of “the Constitution”.  Right on the issues of the democrats being “wrong”.  Right about the man in the White House being “the wrong guy at the wrong time”.  By electing these people who are “right’ and who cannot even talk to people on the other side of the aisle because of their “wrongness” and cannot even here the word compromise because it it sacrifices their values we are forced to embrace and elect wholly dogmatic people who are extreme on alot of issues.  We forget that just because their “purity” allows them to see our way on key issues that these same flawed people bring their zeal to every issue, whether we agree with them on those are not, and they bring that zeal to these same issues and it leads to totally unacceptable results.

We saw that yesterday with Todd Akin.  he is a fine man.  A Christian man.  A family man.  other than being minorly corrupted by power my guess would be that his core values are admitable in almost every way.  Yet life has brought him to a place where he can believe that raped women excrete a certain chemical which prevents them from getting pregnant.  This allows his to be totally certain of his pro life in all circumstances, even in the cases of rape, because a legitimately raped woman could only become pregnant in extremely rare circumstances and if she did become pregnant, it probably was not rape anyway...right?  I understand how this happens because cognitive dissonance is not something this type of ideologue can countenance.  That there might even be a reasonable opposing view is not possible if you have the moral certainty of God in your back pocket.  That you might be wrong on what is so morally clear to you is inconcievable so you invent and/or embrace theories which justify your position rather than admit there is any possible nuance.

I admire Todd Akin and his values.  I would surmise that I hold a lot of similar values regarding life, faith, family and government but I would never kid myself that I “know” what is right for government.  I think I know what is best.  I would work for that but the idea that God was mandating my views of faith and Chrisitianity to be carried out in government seems...un Christian to me.  That type of faith leads to Taliban-like craziness and what we are seeing is that true believers, dogmatic, doctrinal people like Todd Akin lead us away from the very Constitutional values they want to espouse.  Away from a melting pot and towards a Christian theocracy based on their particular understanding of Christianity.  The Taliban is alive and well in our Country.  When we elect them pretending that they are “like us” or “share our values” while ignoring their words and their actions we move towards an intolerant, unforgiving and unintentionally, un-Christian country.

I don’t know what Todd will do tomorrow by 5:00 when he needs to make a decision to stay in the race but when you consider him, watch his whole interview.  He did not mis-speak.  he spoke from his heart and he revealed a lot and presented Missouri with a clear choice.  Sadly, I do not know whether we will remember and that we will make a right choice in November but Todd Akin is not the right choice for Senator.

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.

Ft. Sumter: The Rise of the "GingFish"

BLOVIATOR IN CHIEF?


Soooooo....Newt. I wanted this because I thought it would be more interesting. It is indeed more interesting. Seeing Newt declare victory with the frightening...and there is no other word but frightening for her... blowing up a new populism from the right was really frightening. I was excited for Newt to win and to shake things up but this guy is an extremely articulate, quick thinking demagogue of the Huey P. Long genre. I love to read about Huey Long, because he is dead and he never got further than Louisiana. The question a guy like Gingrich poses is whether our whole country has essentially devolved into Louisiana 1932. The “GingFish”.

Everybody gather 'round
Loosen up your suspenders
Hunker down on the ground
I'm a cracker
And you are too
But don't I take good care of you
-Randy Newman “The Kingfish”

What is so mind numbing about this is that he is NOT a man of the people. He is a man who stands for himself and his vision of the hour. He changes his vision quicker than he changes wives and I do have to bash his wife once again. I have never heard her speak. To the best of my knowledge she cannot speak. I have read a little about her. She went to Luther College in Decorah Iowa and was a music major and is evidently a very talented musician and a committed Catholic. I admire all those things... but she appears to be a plastic, broken person with creepy, crazy eyes. She scares me like clowns scare me and that is the meanest thing I can say. Now I will leave her.

But I digress. Romney might be too much of a cold fish to be electable. He does not seem to be a street fighter and the Republicans howled again loudly that he is not their guy. After a proper counting in Iowa, he lost. He got killed in South Carolina. Perhaps he will rally back but he clearly is a wide open target for average Joe, Joe the plumber type attacks and whether it is Gingrich or OBama those attacks will come.

Why do we let three little states, all diverse but tiny to have such a loud, almost deafening voice in this process. These states carry population ranks of 30, 42 and 34 respectively. No one is even in the top ½. I had no idea that Iowa was full of evangelicals. That is because it is not. The Republican base in Iowa is full of evangelical conservatives. New Hampshire... do they have Republicans? South Carolina...seriously? South Carolina? Why should they have any voice in anything other than their key historical move of firing the first shot in the civil war. That worked out well, didn’t it? That what last nights primary was, Fort Sumter. It is a battle for the Republican party and it is the evil, final consequence of Nixon’s “southern strategy” to bring the social conservatives into the party...and now they are saying, “IT IS OUR PARTY!” It will be interesting to see if they are right.

Who took on the Standard Oil men
And whipped their ass
Just like he promised he'd do?
Ain't no Standard Oil men gonna run this state
Gonna be run by little folks like me and you

Watching FOX on a Sunday morning the said that Newt won a huge percentage of South Carolina voters who make less than 50k a year. What is a person who makes less than 50k a year doing voting Republican? How does that happen?

Kingfish, Kingfish
Friend of the working man
Kingfish, Kingfish
The Kingfish gonna save this land

The big question that my former party needs to ask itself is how were they left with these choices. I even think that Gingrich, Paul and Romney might be the best of the original pack but what a sad sack collection of people to send forward in the most eminently winnable election for them in years. I think they are going to have to find another person (and it is not Sara Palin) to carry their flag. There would be tremendous momentum for a Chris Christie or Jeb Busch or even that idiot from Indiana Mitch Daniels. They need fresh blood and it might be nice if they did not chum so much blood in the water. The electorate is taking notes, and they are not impressed. Gingrich is not a populist. He is not our friend. The Republican base is the party of the angry white man. Angry people make bad decisions and we just saw the Republicans in South Carolina make a very stupid mistake.

Romney: The Great Pretender, With Apologies To Jackson Browne

ROMNEY
The Pretender












I'm going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway (Pan onto or flash pictures of one of his 3-4 massive houses)
I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day (now shots of champaign caviar and lobster...and a lunch box)
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down (Bedroom of a Ritz Carlton or Fairmount Hotel)
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again (Romney coming out on stage)
Amen
Say it again (Romney among a crowd shaking hands)
Amen

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring (Pictures of he and wife and family)
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening (Headlines of Kennedy Beats Romney for Senate)
I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end it's the wink of an eye (Headline of Romney Winning Governor of Massachussets)
And when the morning light comes streaming in
You'll get up and do it again (Headline “Romney announces run for President 2008)
Amen

Caught between the longing for love (Romney Signs Universal healthcare In Massachusetts)
And the struggle for the legal tender (Picture of Bain Capital Logo)
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring (Picture of Sara Palin)
And the junk man pounds his fender (Picture of Newt Gingrich)
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light (Picture of John Mc Cain)
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor (Picture of rabid college kids standing in front of Ron Paule)
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the pretender (Romney Again if front of Crowd)
He knows that all his hopes and dreams Flash on state maps of Iowa, Connecticutt and South carolina)
Begin and end there (Florida)

Ah the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night (Bachman and her husband)
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight (Rick Perry)
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight (Herman Cain)

I'm going to find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means (Anne Coulter)
And we'll fill in the missing colors (picture of a pink slip)
In each other's paint-by-number dreams (Big Fox Logo)
And then we'll put out dark glasses on (Romney in Sunglasses)
And we'll make love until our strength is gone (Pictures of $$$$ signs)
And when the morning light comes streaming in
We'll get up and do it again ($$$$$$$$$$)
Get it up again (Bain Capital Logo)

I'm going to be a happy idiot (Corporations Are People)
And struggle for the legal tender (Bain Logo)
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim (SUPER PAC)
To the heart and the soul of the spender (Karl Rove)
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy (President of the US LOGO)
Thought true love could have been a contender (Olympics Rings)
Are you there?
Say a prayer? (Santorum)
For The Pretender (Romney)
Who started out so young and strong (Young Romney)
Only To Surrender (Fade to black)

Mad Men Running The Asylum

Sooooo....we have a problem with our government. Hopefully NOT with our governance. No, I think it is definitly with the government or more specifically the people we have sent there. I have always had a fascination, indeed a sick fascination with the mentally ill. Even as a small child the idea of being “cuckoo” or “crazy” seemed very freeing to me. As I got older I just aspired to be an individual and that often met abhorant or “crazy” behavior and now that I am ancient I still like the idea of being “a little off”. I believe those who know me can attest. But also as I have gotten older I have realized that mental illness is no joke and most of the people who really suffer with it are deeply and profoundly unhappy people. These people are often marginalized by life or education or employment. They are often ostracized by friends and even family and they find it very difficult to lead a meaningful and productive life. Sadly for many of them, this leads them to a life in politics.

I know this might seem cruel or random but these are the thoughts that arrive at four A.M. when I am not thinking about my clients and they are a welcome, welcome distraction so humor me. Think about the gathering rabble we have who are just about to really start in earnest competition for the right to take the White House from Obama. Shit, think about Obama. The go back with the Presidents and it is easy...Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford*, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower. You really have to go back to Eisenhower to find one whop is not a genuinely damaged person and Ike probably was too but it was just far enough back that I was not born yet and there was no 24 hour media circus to explain how crazy they were. Ike at least had the sense to identify “The Military Industrial Complex” and warn us about them on the way out the door. Thanks Ike. Carter of course is someone I like and perhaps he was not a manic depressive, megolomaniac...but he was a shitty President. Wonderful person though and probably the only one in the group I would want to have a beer with other than Clinton but with Clinton the conversation would have denigrated into discussions of women.... and in his case girls.

The point is not that our Presidents are mentally ill. In this day and age you really have to be mentally ill to want to be President. To think that “making a difference” means being President. To think that is the way you have to serve of God forbid to think that “God has called you” to the office. On that note, let me quickly say that God could not care less who is president of the United States. I think he cares about that in the same way he cares about Notre Dame and Tim Tebow and that is (and this is what is so great about God) more than you could ever know and less than you could even comprehend. The point is that we now are calling crazy, manic depressives, bi-polars and people who are a few clowns short of a circus at EVERY LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT!

State and Local Government, as I sit, are a huge dis functional problem. On the local level we still have the divided St. Louis, City and County. We still have a City police that are run out of Jefferson City and we still have people trying to do artificial, tax driven development in north city. All recipes for disaster. In the County we have Charlie Dooley, struggling to remain in power and spreading a lot of dis function as he asserts authority. On the State level the Republicans OWN both bodies of the legislature and yet can agree on nothing and can get nothing done and passed. Somehow saying “NO, I will not compromise on my principles no matter what!” has become a sick badge of honor. The people who we are electing have forgotten that once elected they are representing everyone. Not just the people who agree with them. That there is some obligation or social contract to work for the greater good but to make sure that government works.

We are totally screwed on the Federal level. I don’t even need to comment on it. The sad thing is that I agree that government is too big. I agree that government cannot solve all of our social ills. I agree that they often make things worse. But what I am seeing is that the conservative approach appears to be to shut down government through inaction. Make sure nothing gets done, no one gets what they want and slowly through inertia and financial strangulation government dies. Which in a vacuum and on paper might seem fine. Have government provide police, maybe some courts, some very basic laws and just let the market work it out. Have a standing army to protect our trade and oil rights. Health care, copyright law, it all can be worked out by the free market. Until your son is autistic. How does the free market deal with that? Or mental illness...your daughter is bi-polar and shoplifts and hordes. How does the free market serve her? Or you are returning 100,000 vets. Who takes care of them after the price they paid? Charities? Our Churches? In a perfect world yes. In the real world, no. But I digress.

What I really want to talk about is my theory on WHY this happening. Quite simply, we have gathered up all the crazy people and asked them to govern us. Nancy Pelosi/Eric Cantor. Harry Reid/Mitch Mc Connell. Just different sides of the same coin. Fundamentally broken people who are crazy enough to be gathered in one place to govern us. One of my favorite authors is a guy named Will Self. He is a Brit so he is probably a socialist and a commie but he writes a lot of interesting stuff and is a studier of human nature and people. I continue to believe that artists and writers of fiction continue to have some value. A long time ago he wrote a collection of short stories called “The Quantity Theory Of Insanity”. The premise was that there was only so much sanity and inanity around at any one time and it was spread among the population. So you could gather groups of sane people in a room or in a city to help balance the sanity in that place and influence outcomes. Our problem right now is that the sane people have opted out of the system and relegated it to the bi-polar, manic depressive, power seekers. They are not fit to govern. They are destroying us.

So what? Where does that leave us? A lot of us elected Obama because he had the opportunity to be a game changer. Instead he was the opposite side of the Bush coin. He played the same game, the same way. He called us to nothing better. Just a different version of the same. Granted he was greeted with a vitriol and hate no President had to deal with in my life, but whether he has done a good job or a bad job with the hand he was dealt means nothing. He did not change the game. He missed an opportunity. We do not have a chance to really change things in 2012. We will Obama or we will have Romney and they are the system. They are mentally ill demagogues trapped in a non functioning system. We need to elect smart, selfless people who will do the right thing, compromise, work for small, smarter government but recognize that government in any moral environment must take care of those without a voice. That is what has made America the shining light and the city on the hill. The compassion has left our leadership, as has the intelligence and we are left being ruled by the crazy and the ill. Elect thinking people who do not spout catch phrases. People who realize it is complicated, it is hard and it will take shared sacrifice, and who have the balls to lead us through it. Happy 2012!

In case I do not get to it. Romney wine Iowa by 5%.