Lawmakers’ fiscal gambles are worse than the sexual ones - The Washington Post

Dana Milbank gives us some definite food for thought in this commentary. He makes the case that, whether it's sexual scandal or professional misconduct or misjudgment, politicians are guilty of their transgressions because of a sense of invincibility. The more some succeed, the more they "become thrill-seeking adolescents, taking ever-greater risks until they retire or get caught."

Lawmakers’ fiscal gambles are worse than the sexual ones - The Washington Post

Scroogian Insensitivity

When did the Republican Party and the conservative movement cease to care whether they came across as heartless bastards?

Just this week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor suggested that Congress won't pay for relief for tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri unless the budget is cut elsewhere. On Monday, May 23, Cantor linked any aid to the area to offsetting budget cuts, stating "if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental." Even Tom "The Hammer" DeLay favored disaster funding as House Majority Leader, supporting disaster relief -- amid his own party's criticism -- for Hurricane Katrina victims without offsetting budget cuts. DeLay stated, “It is right to borrow to pay for it.” I guess things have changed among GOP leaders between 2005 and 2011.

At least equally outrageous was a statement in the Kansas legislature by Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R-Mulvane). The Kansas House passed a bill banning abortion coverage in insurance companies' general health insurance policies. DeGraaf answered a fellow pro-life representative's question whether women would buy abortion-only policies in a shocking way, saying "I have a spare tire on my car." DeGraaf's crude entreaty for women to plan ahead for rape, incest, or any other unwanted pregnancy reportedly drew a few groans from fellow lawmakers.

Our culture -- at least our political culture -- is in a season of vilification from the right. Unemployed are not victims of the Great Recession but lazy bums that won't get a job; some businesses that are starting to hire have bought it and put "unemployed need not apply" on their help wanted ads. Government employees suffer similar disdain even though they are actually working. Women are accused of having abortions merely to fit into prom dresses. Some Hispanic Americans try to pass themselves as Native American due to the irrational anti-immigration sentiment currently gripping us.

Certainly we haven't been free of such positions in the past. What we haven't seen before is the matter-of-fact defamation of ordinary people or groups that would make Scrooge proud. To a Joplin resident, Cantor's remarks probably sound pretty similar to "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Bin Laden changed us, but did not destroy us - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com

We were bent by bin Laden. But we have not broken, and we can heal if we will. Pitts made a great summation, so I'm linking it to my blog.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Bin Laden changed us, but did not destroy us - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com

The Bipartisan March to Fiscal Madness - NYTimes.com

David Stockman, the face of Reaganomics as the OMB Director, offered this analysis in this morning's New York Times of the shortcomings of the budget plans of both President Obama and Representative Ryan and how both approaches foster class warfare. The sharpness and comprehensive scope of Stockman's analysis causes me to link this column, for we will need clear, partisanship-be-damned vision to get our fiscal and economic house in order.

The Bipartisan March to Fiscal Madness - NYTimes.com

Budget Battles - Tax and Spending Myths and Realities - NYTimes.com

I include this column here because the enduring perspective that tax cuts are always good and tax hikes always kill the economy needs a cold water splash of fact, and this New York Times column outlines the record under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush the younger in a useful way. By the way, I was a Reagan Republican (before the GOP scared me out of the party in 1992) so seeing his record is a bit painful for me. But the record under Clinton's budget-surplus years is irrefutable.

Budget Battles - Tax and Spending Myths and Realities - NYTimes.com

Political Cartoons December - US News and World Report

I'm including this here simply for the Dalai Lama cartoon ...

Political Cartoons December - US News and World Report

An atheist view of December – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

I found this fascinating and worth a thorough reading. Quoting one passage from David Silverman, president of American Atheists: 'Silverman says it’s a problem that Christmas is a religious holiday that’s also a U.S. federal holiday. “If you’re going to force Jews, atheists, Hindus to observe Christmas by shutting down the country, what we’re going to observe is the most secular parts of the holiday,” he explains.'

An atheist view of December – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Of Conflicts and Keith Olbermann

Journalists and editorial commentators have become embroiled in incidents that call their impartiality in question. Juan Williams was shown the door at NPR for saying on a Fox News program that obvious Muslims on airplanes make him nervous. He responded by telling Bill O'Reilly that he was viewed disfavorably at NPR because he appeared on Fox News programs.

Now it's Keith Olbermann's turn. The host of Countdown and one of MSNBC's brightest stars was suspended indefinitely last Friday for contributing to three Democratic candidates for Congress in violation of NBC policy. As it turned out, indefinitely lasts only a few days; buoyed by hundreds of thousands of protest messages, Olbermann was reinstated as of Tuesday, November 9.

There are those who argue that the old rules of impartiality should not apply to commentators who have a partisan point of view; only transparency is necessary. I do not agree.

I first became a fan of Countdown because of Olbermann's razor-sharp humorous sarcasm, honed by his ESPN days. He was an equal-opportunity spotlighter of the foibles of all public figures, whether celebrity or political. But his Special Comments developed against the excesses of the Bush Administration, and he rocketed to cable TV stardom.

However, it became clear during the 2008 presidential campaign that Olbermann showed favoritism toward Democrats in general and then-candidate Barack Obama in particular. What I once saw as righteous indignation toward Bush-era outrages had disintegrated into mere partisanship. As a result, I now watch MSNBC less and CNN more (and Fox News not at all).

Olbermann has castigated Fox News over owner Rupert Murdoch's $1 million donations to the Republican Governors Association and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. How can he now claim the moral high ground when he himself has contributed to political candidates he has covered on Countdown? There is no difference. And this is why journalists and commentators should not contribute to those who they cover.

False Belief

Nothing is as frustrating and deflating in public policy debate as false belief -- either in the form of willful ignorance or those taken in by deliberate misinformation. Never in my lifetime has there been such an overabundance of false belief as now.

Our politically polarized world has gone beyond a difference of opinion to a place of malicious fictions where demons abound, anger is easy, and ignorance fuels the flames. As one reporter put it, how can the president get people behind his policies when he can’t convince a third of the people he’s a Christian.

So we have Rick Santelli's famous call for a tea party because of "losers' mortgages," blaming the housing crisis on the victims and not the predatory lenders. Forbes magazine stated "the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s" in a cover story. Proposed mosques are frantically opposed from Manhattan to Murfreesboro, and even wild charges have been made of Sharia law coming to Dearborn, Michigan. Such fears of terrorist havens were never leveled at Christians after Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building.

This naked deception by some and willingness to ostracize by others is poisonous to the health of our society. The only way it stops is for enough people to stand up to malicious falsehoods and demand "enough."

Letter to Daily News, 9/10/10

This was a letter I wrote to the Daily News in Bowling Green KY and published on September 10, 2010:

Your Sept. 1 editorial “Hope and Change Was Disappointing” sounded wearily like the constant drumbeat of automatic opposition that has come to characterize the Republican Party.

The editorial’s language – “ram a stimulus package down the American people’s throats,” “Chicago-style politics” – came straight from GOP talking points rather than thoughtful analysis of current events.

If “the country is angry” as the Daily News stated, it is from the constant stream of Beckian diatribes, official GOP revisionism and death panel and birther nonsense designed to appeal to people’s fears rather than their aspirations. It is also due to President Barack Obama’s lack of vigor in standing up for his policies. Whether his energy was sapped by the health care bill debate or the pro forma Republican stonewall of opposition, Obama needs to buck up and be as motivating in the Oval Office as he was on the campaign trail.

Someone should send Obama a DVD of “The American President.” In that movie, Andrew Shepherd refused to answer allegations from his political opponents and became defined by them since, like the real-life conservative blowhards and angry tea partiers, the public only heard their voice.

Obama needs to forcefully advocate his policies so the public knows his vision, not Fox News Channel’s take on his vision. And he needs to tell the tea party movement that, in Shepherd’s words, “your 15 minutes are up.”

Bunning's Hypocracy on Paygo

Our retiring Senator Jim Bunning has made a national spectacle of himself the past few days, singlehandedly holding up an emergency extension for unemployment in the Senate, which was also tied to highway, health care, and small business loan funding. Bunning finally relented last night and allowed the stopgap bill to be debated (it passed 78-19).

Bunning's stated rationale was that the bill did not follow paygo, the principle Democrats want reinstated in spending that each spending increase will be paid for in a spending cut or tax increase. Bunning said the 30 day extension would cost $10 billion.

However, as a Senate colleague pointed out in last night's debate, Bunning was unconcerned about paygo during the Bush years when he voted for two unfunded wars and all the deficit spending that W pushed through. If the Republican party wants to avoid the label of the party that hates the poor, Bunning did them no favors.

Musicians' New Years Resolutions by David Kibler

A co-worker shared these New Year's Resolutions with me from a central Kentucky music publication memusicnews.com, resolutions specific to different types of musicians. They're so spot-on that I had to share them with my musician friends on this blog. Proper credit: these are reprinted without permission and come from the column David's Slingshot by David Kibler, who is lead minister at Catalyst Christian Church in Nicholasville KY. Thanks to David - enjoy!

Lead Singers:
1. Don't be like the lead singer who was asked to change a light bulb. He just held it and let the world revolve around him. Other people in the band are important, too.
2. If you can't hit the notes, don't blame the sound engineer or insist on Autotune. There are some things even reverb won't fix.
3. Don't sing through your nose. The Jonas Brothers don't need any competitions in that area.
4. Realistically, though, if anyone in the band disagrees with you, just can 'em and move on. The band is all about you, anyway.

Drummers:
1. Resist the urge to overplay. Most songs don't need a Neil Peart wannabe on drums.
2. Don't be like the guy who delivered me a pizza the other night. His knocking sped up, and he didn't know when to come in.
3. Get your own place to live -- pretty soon, you will have to move out of the parents' basement.
4. Cowbells are only cool if you play in Blue Oyster Cult. Other than that, leave them to the cows.
5. If you break up with the girlfriend, don't sweat it. There are plenty of homeless shelters for you to stay the night.

Bass Players:
1. This year, realize that none of the fans think you are important, and you will not be receiving any praise from them.
2. Resolve not to say the words "Hey guys, let's do some of MY material!" That is the quickest way to get kicked out of a band.
3. Find the "pocket" and stay there. Especially when the lead singer is picking up chicks.
4. Unless you are Geddy Lee, Michael Anthony, or Sting, don't try to sing. BAss players don't have any talent anyway.

Lead Guitar Players:
1. Develop good people skills. They are necessary for waiting tables and working fast food while you wait for your band to "make it big."
2. Effects DON'T cover up for sloppy technique.
3. This year, resolve to show up to practice actually knowing your part so the rest of the band doesn't have to waste time listening to you learn it.
4. This year, resolve to show up to practice beforehand, giving yourself time to set up and be ready when practice actually starts.
5. This year, resolve to show up to practice at all.

Keyboard Players:
1. This year, resolve to make peace with your bass player by staying off the left hand.

Accordion Players:
1. Get rid of the pager. No one is going to call you.

The Name Game

While reading yet another screed online where President Obama is either a socialist or trying to establish a socialist nation, I considered the disjointed reasoning behind said screed and others like it I've endured. I recognized that a large part of the efforts to derail Obama's proposals have centered on emotional symbols, especially when corroborating facts are thin. The most powerful symbolism is often the simplest: the names we use to label people.

The epithet of "socialist" has been thrown around freely by Limbaugh conservatives and the Tea Party set, like a magic tar that should stain the president and scare the rest of us back into line. The mere mention of the most vile leftist monikers -- socialist, Marxist, communist -- fans the wildfire of irrational anger and fear, and the mob mentality at so many town hall meetings on health care reform is a logical result of the baiting language that has been used.

Some folks on the left have their own f-word -- fascist -- that they throw around like a rhetorical gold MasterCard. Most use it the same way as the right use socialist, with a there-I-said-it certainty and nothing else to back it.

It's easy to push someone's buttons and motivate opposition. But what gets built this way? When we can't listen to the ideas in a proposed course of action because one or both sides are substituting inflammatory language for reasoned debate, nothing meaningful can be accomplished. With the great problems of our time, we can't settle for a grade-school playground level of discourse.

Judge: Ky. Can't Legislate Dependence on God - ABC News

It's been a week where there's been a little rolling back of old mindsets in Kentucky. Earlier in the week, a bill was prefiled to remove the 19th century section of oaths of office vowing not to engage in duels. No joke; my wife took that oath when renewing as a Notary Public. Yesterday, a circuit judge's ruling struck down 2006 law forcing the state Office of Homeland Security to propagandize (the term that best fits here) that "the safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God." The law mandated such references in training materials and on the plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort. I can't make this up. A link to the ABC article follows.

Judge: Ky. Can't Legislate Dependence on God - ABC News

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Agitators and Our Country

Something to keep in mind as our country celebrates its birth once again: We've been through a period of time where speaking out against authority/establishment has been heavily frowned upon, with hints of treason sprinkled in. I've come across a piece by Jim Hightower, national radio commentator and author of Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow that suggested quite the opposite.

According to Hightower, "the Powers That Be detest you -- you ... you ... 'agitator!' They spit the term out as a pejorative to brand anyone who dares to challenge the established order. . . . [T]he message is that America would be a fine country if only we could get rid of those pesky troublemakers who get the hoi polloi agitated about one thing or another. Bovine excrement. Were it not for agitators, we wouldn't even have an America. The Fourth of July would be just another hot day, we'd be singing 'God Save the Queen,' and our government officials would be wearing white-powdered wigs. Agitators created America, and it's their feisty spirit and outright rebelliousness that we celebrate on our national holiday."

Individual liberty is celebrated on the 4th of July, but we should regard it as a work in progress. Our history shows it to be so. Hightower stated that while the Founding Fathers were most definitely agitators, "they didn't actually create much democracy. In the first presidential election, only 4 percent of the people were even eligible to vote. No women allowed, no African Americans, no American Indians and no one who was landless. So, on the Fourth, it's neither the documents of democracy that we celebrate nor the authors of the documents. Rather, it's the intervening two-plus centuries of ordinary American agitators who have struggled mightily against formidable odds to democratize those documents."

Hightower and I seem to share a mistrust of Establishment expectations. He said, "The Powers That Be -- especially America's overarching corporate and political forces (often the same) -- give lip service to democracy, but tend toward plutocracy, autocracy and kleptocracy. They prefer (and often demand) that We the People be passive consumers of their economic and political policies. Don't rock the boat, stay in your place, go along to get along." That sounds a lot like Ari Fleischer's "watch what you say" admonition during the W years. Actually, the confluence of corporate and political demand for passivity (joined by demands of the religious right, it should be noted) was a mark of W's time in office, weighing on the chest of individual liberty like a gorilla.

The powerful in our society may make it uncomfortable (or worse) to dissent. So it is vital to realize that it was agitators that created our country, and agitators continue to form a more perfect Union and better allow for the pursuit of happiness. Hightower's closing remark was "when the establishment derisively assails you as an agitator, remember this: The agitator is the center post in the washing machine that gets the dirt out."

Mitch Albom's Sportwriter's Take on Racial Equality

This column by Mitch Albom contains profound observations on racial equality that I had to excerpt and share here. Taken from the op/ed page of the Park City Daily News, Bowling Green KY, November 12, 2008:

“[F]rom the start of the presidential campaign, I’ve been less concerned with Barack Obama than some of my countrymen. There were many white voters who were hesitant about a black president. Some were painfully blunt. . . . Others, who didn’t want to appear so racist, embraced labels like ‘radical’ or ‘terrorist.’ But it stemmed from the same part of human nature: We distrust that which is different.
“Well, one thing you get accustomed to as a white sportswriter is ‘that which is different.’ You get accustomed talking to black Americans doing better than you financially, being better known, more widely respected. You get accustomed to black coaches making trades, black executives returning your phone calls – or not. The music you hear is often not your music. The slang in the locker room is often not your slang. In the case of Latino or Japanese players, it may not even be your language.
“But you know what? You do your job. Everyone else does his or her job. And pretty soon all that stuff fades to the background.
“I remember a scene in the football movie Brian’s Song, where Gale Sayers is called into the coach’s office. He is nervous. What has he done wrong? They tell him they are thinking of rooming him with a white man, Brian Piccolo. ‘That’s all?’ he says. ‘You had me worried. I thought this was something really.’ ‘This is something really,’ a coach says. At the time depicted – 1965 – it was something ‘really.’ But it isn’t anymore. And of the two attitudes, Sayers’ is the one to admire. The one that says ‘That’s it?’ The one that says this is only as big a deal as you choose to make it. . . .
“Look, nobody’s being Pollyannaish here. Racism did not die Tuesday. But the first step is dismantling prejudice is taking it out of the system. You room a black football player with a white one, you haven’t eliminated everyone who hates it. But you have eliminated the idea that they’re right."

Bad Karma and the PRC

The concept of karma: believe in it or not, it opens the mind to consider the consequence of intent. Act in bad faith, and something bad will follow. Sharon Stone expressed an open question about whether the People's Republic of China has just suffered bad karma's effects with the earthquake disaster of two weeks ago. Her voiced opinion has resulted in a real-world consequence with a Chinese cinaplex giant vowing to ban her movies from their screens.

"I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else," Stone stated in a Cannes Film Festival red-carpet interview with Hong Kong's Cable Entertainment News. "And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"

To my mind, that's pretty pedestrian for a controversial statement. Folks are more up front -- okay, blunt -- in my neck of the woods. Still, Stone's "bad karma" statement pissed off the Chinese, particularly on the internet. Ng See-Yuen, founder of the UME Cineplex chain and the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, called Stone's comments "inappropriate," adding that actors should not bring personal politics to comments about a natural disaster that has left five million Chinese homeless. Ng vowed not to show Sharon Stone movies in UME theaters, which has cineplexes in China's biggest urban movie markets.

I tend to act as if karma exists, but I'm not sold on its literal existence. After all, there are sharks like Ameriquest, the company who has been among the worst predatory subprime mortgage lenders in the U. S. Its owner Roland E. Arnall avoided the repercussions of his company's deceptive business conduct by being appointed ambassador to the Netherlands by President George W. Bush, at about the same time that Ameriquest settled for $325 million over predatory loan practices.

On the other hand, Arnall resigned his ambassador's post in February due to his son's ill health; less than a month later, Arnall was dead of cancer himself. Maybe I was a bit hasty . . .

Food For Thought, Oil and Terror Edition

I just heard Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on Letterman, while talking about the war on terror, Iraq, and related matters, say that the price of oil was $24 a barrel in 2002 when the justification for war in Iraq was being pushed by President Bush.

$24 a barrel. One year after the 9/11 attacks.

And look at it now. Over $100 a barrel higher as of this writing.

Yep, that sure worked out, didn't it. Diverting resources out of Afghanistan, which was safe harbor to those who attacked us, and into Iraq, which was uninvolved in 9/11, sure kept the "terror premium" of oil down. I don't see a Texan or Okie being elected president anytime soon.

Sudanese Sauce for the Political Goose

Here's a political story refreshingly without the reflexive knee-jerk opposition between sides. Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain and heiress to a nine-figure beer distributor fortune, has sold some $2 million of investments related to Sudan. John McCain has called for international financial sanctions against the Sudanese leadership in light of the genocide in the Darfur region, and the Associated Press pointed out that mutual fund investments held by Cindy McCain included companies that do business with Sudan.

Cindy McCain has repeatedly stated she will not reveal her income tax records publicly, even if her husband is elected president. But give her points for transparency here, for when previously disclosed investments in American Funds Europacific Growth fund and American Funds Capital World Growth and Income fund proved to incorporate companies doing business with Sudan, Cindy McCain quickly sold her investment in both funds.

Since John McCain has publicly criticized China for its dealings with Sudan -- "There is only one reason China has opposed sanctions to pressure Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur: China needs Sudan's oil" -- having investments that are even indirectly connected with Sudan would appear highly hypocritical.

Lest anyone think this is political sinning on the right, four presidential candidates had to divest of Sudan-related holdings last year: Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards and Republicans Sam Brownback and Rudy Giuliani. Brownback also wrote 44 governors to urge them to divest their employee pension funds from businesses linked to Sudan. Guess it all goes to show how difficult it can be to invest wealthy sums of money without inadvertently lining some tyrant's pockets.

So, it's nice to see a political story where figures from both major parties agree on the proper course of action. Maybe our political landscape isn't irreversibly toxic.

This And That News Items

Some end-of-month observations:

Today is the fifth anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech. White House press secretary Dana Perino acknowledged that the Administration has "paid a price" over that banner. Gee, ya think? Five years and 4,000+ U.S. military deaths after Bush announced "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended" beneath that "Mission Accomplished" banner . . . there's just no way to spin that into anything positive.

Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. Unfortunately, in nearby Bowling Green, a cult that calls itself a church will be coming to picket a fallen soldier. Yep, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas -- a group I have written about in this blog -- will protest outside the funeral of Sgt. Adam Kohlhaas who was killed in his third tour of duty. This fruitcake brigade led by "Rev." Fred Phelps uses signs such as "Thank God for IEDs" and "God Hates Fags" to show their stated belief that God is punishing America's supposed tolerance for homosexuality by killing American soldiers. Perhaps some folks should extend their prayers tomorrow for Phelps and his ilk, for they are about as close to Christian belief as the Taliban is to Islam.

Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice David Souter told a conference of judges that a visit he made to Gettysburg changed his view of difficult cases. Admitting he once wondered why he had to resolve a case, Souter said he found an answer after going with his law clerks and secretaries to the battlefield where the Civil War changed course. He mentioned a desperate bayonet charge by a commander at the end of the Union line which ultimately stopped a Confederate charge, observing "It seems a fair assessment that one of the pivots of American history was at that place, at that moment." About deciding difficult cases, Souter summed up, "I could not ever again, under any circumstance, say it is unfair that I have to do this."

And what in the hell do we make of the out-of-left-field emerging scandal with Roger Clemons and Mindy McCready? Rocket met Mindy when she was 15 and they had a 10-year relationship which included him sending bundles of money to her and (she says) giving her a different high hard one than he gave batters from the mound. Just when you think you've heard it all . . .