Don't Believe Anybody

The news is pissing me off again. I'm back to just skimming headlines and I'm boycotting the cable bloviators.

All this talk talk talk, rant rant rant about Obama's economic stimulus plan and the automakers rescue and the mortgage rescue plan is irrelevant.

Why?

BECAUSE NOBODY REALLY KNOWS HOW TO GET US OUT OF THIS MESS. They're all just guessing.

Put five economists in a room and you'll get six different opinions. This shitstorm we find ourselves in is unlike anything we've experienced before, so anybody speaking with certainty is an out-and-out liar.

BECAUSE NOBODY REALLY KNOWS...

A quote from FDR during the height of the Depression seems appropriate. We need to do something, he said, and if that doesn't work, we need to do something else.

BUT NOBODY REALLY KNOWS WHAT TO DO.

Thank God there's finally someone in the White House who is obviously a whole lot smarter than I am. Who's pragmatic and not an idealogue. And who is trying to create a culture of bipartisanship and collaboration. (Good luck with THAT one...)

All us little folks can do is keep our fingers crossed while whistling in the dark.

Rants from a too-long too-cold week

* Okay, I'm done with winter. A ubiquitous opinion, I know, and I am stating the obvious. At least the sun was out today.

* Gov. Blago is now ex-governor. Thankfully. As a native of the great state that bills itself as the "Land of Lincoln," I would like our local newsreaders on both radio and television to make note of the following: it is pronounced ILL-inois, NOT ELL-inois. (And I do love to hear you try to say "Blagojevich.")

* I'm sick to death of egos. I witnessed - and was unable to do anything about - a pissing contest today between two people whose egos were in overdrive. There was a third person involved - the one caught in the rainfall of urea. These two so-called adults were really pissing on each other, but from a distance, with #3 in a position of trying to accomodate both and catching the spray. Some people really need to get over themselves.

* On the other hand, I'm feeling really good about the goings-on in Washington. Well, not in Washington as a whole - just in the White H0use. (Congress - at least on the House side - continues to act like children - Democrats and Republicans alike. We'll see how the Senate behaves on the economic stimulus bill.)

I know it's fashionable to be cynical; disdainful is cool. (I've often been both myself - and probably will be again.) But I've been reading a lot of history lately about the start of this messed-up country in which we reside - biographies of Ben Franklin and Alexander Hamilton the two latest - and it's amazing we survived. (The Articles of Confederation almost did us in long before the Civil War.) It's been a dysfunctional journey, to be sure, but look at those 200+ years of (often painfully slow) progress, then look around at the rest of the world, and you realize the truth of Winston Churchill's words:

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government

(pause)

except all the others that have been tried.

So to those of you who looked down your nose at those of us misting up at the Obama inauguration: up yours.

Now What Happens?

* I liked this move on his first day: Obama authorizes a bunch of new regulations providing, as he put it, light to the dark corners of Washington. Transparency is a good thing.

* And - just to be safe - Chief Justice John Roberts re-adminsters the Presidential oath of office again. Since he messed up yesterday, and since the Constitution specifies the language, he and Mr. Obama did it again today. This is apparently not the first time this has happened: Chester Arthur (????) and Calvin Coolidge both re-oathed.

* I'm hearing/reading lots of comments to the effect of "what was with that hat???" Yes, the chapeau worn by the Queen of Soul was somewhat bizarre to us white women who think of hats as more utilitarian than statement. Aretha was wearing a "church hat," the kind of flamboyant hat chronicled in the book and exhibit, "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats." This video from some local TV station in Virginia explains it best.

Warning: turn your sound down. The video starts up suddenly with a commercial that will blast you out of your seat.

Inauguration Day Arrives...

...and my overwhelming emotion is one of relief.

Relief that the clueless bozo at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is movin' on out.

Relief that we won't be subject any longer to the arrogance and hubris demonstrated by the Bush administration.

Relief that maybe - just maybe - I can hold my head up when I go beyond the borders of my country.

Not that I'm expecting miracles. But it is a moment to be proud and hopeful.

So pride and hope are in there, too, along with relief and great satisfaction that the Bush II era is over.

Power to the People???

The election's over, thank God, and now the hard part starts: governing. So what's next? Who knows?

But I think the Internet and the huge database built by the Obama campaign are going to be key tools in his presidency. If he could mobilize people to send in $5, $10, and $25 donations, how much easier to urge them to contact their legislator on whatever the issue at hand is. (And I'm sure he'll provide them the link to said legislator.)

That database isn't going anywhere. And it won't be gathering mothballs.

His strategic use of technology was key to his campaign. Through it, he built a coalition at a grassroots level, getting ordinary folks involved in a way they hadn't been before. His messaging was disciplined and his tone was (nearly) note-perfect.

Exhibit A: Hillary blew off the caucus states, while Obama quietly mobilized gazillions of people to show up and vote. She stuck to the traditional political playbook. He did not. He won.

Just as the then-immature medium of television made the difference for John Kennedy in 1960, the still-evolving Internet made the diff for Barack Obama.

It'll be interesting to see how he uses the Web to try to fix all that's broken...

Welcome to the 21st century!

Debate #3

A little bit of new ground broken, but not much. I heard a couple details from both Obama and McCain last night, but again - not much.

I liked what Michael Beschloss said last night on PBS' post-debate analysis: that when a candidate goes on the attack, he is the one most diminished. Especially when his opponent seems cool as the proverbial cucumber in the face of whatever...

I hope that's true. I hope that - whoever wins the election - the rest of us realize what a mess we're in, decide to get over ourselves, and focus on what's really important.

Recommendation: PBS is a welcome refuge from the self-important chatterers on the commercial networks. Their analysis - following the debates and on election night - is thoughtful and balanced. What a relief...

Sunday Morning Rants

* Is the election over yet????? My God, this is going on FOREVER.

* I wrote a few weeks ago that I thought I'd probably like Gloria Squitiro if I met her outside of City Hall. (I tend to like earthy, outspoken women - being one myself.)

After the incident at KCI, I've changed my mind.

Throwing her weight around, being "snotty and sarcastic" (as the skycap testified), threatening the rage of the mayor's office at two people just doing their jobs, are NOT the kinds of behaviors of which I approve.

And does she remember 9/11? Jeez....

* Is this what the start of the Great Depression felt like for my grandparents? Too bad they're no longer here to share that experience. I could use the advice.

* Screw the finger-pointing. BOTH parties are to blame. The subprime mess started in the Clinton administration with an effort to get those who couldn't really qualify into houses of their own. Then Bush loaded up that program even more. A noble idea - but......

Add to that the GOP anathema toward regulation and, well, here we are.

* Back to the Funkhousers: the mayor has managed to make himself completely irrelevant. Notice the recent spate of 12 to 1 votes? The City Council is obviously moving on without him. All he has left is the bully pulpit and, when your colleagues are ignoring you, YOU DON'T MATTER ANYMORE. Even Deb Hermann and Bill Skaggs - one time allies - have gone over to the other side, voting with the rest of the councilmembers.

What I thought was principle turns out to be massive stubborness.

* And is anybody as scared as I am at the way this election has turned? Whack jobs yelling "Kill him" and "Off with his head" at the latest McCain-Palin rallies...as those two candidates try to turn him into 'the other'?


To hell with it all. I'm going for a walk in the woods and relish in the fact that Mother Nature bats last.

Debate a Rerun???

McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time. Obama's going to raise your taxes. No, McCain's going to. Obama didn't support the surge. No, McCain blew it by supporting the original (mistaken) Iraq invasion. Etc. etc. etc. heard that all last Thursday - and was hoping for some fresh material in the second debate.

I've got the message points down, boys, could we move onto something NEW? Maybe something RELEVANT? Like the fact that we seem to be going down the economic toilet and - specifically - WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT????

I think copying our Mother Country might be a good idea: in Britain, you're only allowed to campaign for four weeks (or something like that). I know, I know...free speech and all that. Except most of the speech isn't free...it's paid for by special interests with way more money than you or I will ever see.

Everybody says they hate the negative campaigning but guess what, boys and girls: the candidates and their overpaid advisors happily get down into the mud BECAUSE IT WORKS.

And by the time the campaign is over, whoever emerges the victor is covered in the aforementioned mud, and is hated and despised by those whose candidate lost. And the national vitriol continues...

Sad sad sad.

It's a Question of Leadership

When it comes right down to it, this Presidential election is about leadership. Which man do we best trust to lead us through what will certainly be a tumultuous four years?


The last few weeks of economic craziness have shown us the kind of leadership we can expect. One hot, the other cold. I think it's instructive to look at their leadership style.

McCain announces he's suspending the nasty work of political campaigning to help fix the economy - an act which was the ultimate campaign ploy. He blasts Obama for "phoning it in," when he spent nearly all his time - you guessed it - working the phones. On Monday morning, he and his surrogates claimed victory for the bailout package that subsequently didn't pass.

He was all over the place.

Obama rightly cautioned about injecting the politics of the Presidential campaign into the bailout talks, though I wish he'd had some suggestions on how to solve this mess. Yesterday he suggested raising the level from $100,000 to $250,000 on FDIC-insured bank deposits...a move McCain quickly seconded. But what else to do?

Add to all this McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for vice president...an unwise move at best. God love her, she is just not ready for prime time. Nor is she ready to be a 71-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.

I like John McCain, admire his courage and commitment to country, his ability to work across party lines. His principled stand against torture was admirable.

But we've had a cowboy in the White House for the last eight years and I don't think we can afford another four. We don't need a Teddy Roosevelt charging into battle; we need a Franklin Roosevelt to get us out of all the various and sundry messes in which we find ourselves.

I want someone who is thoughtful and inspiring. Somebody smarter than me. And somebody who plays it cool rather than running all over the place. McCain's antics this past week smell like desperation.

I can't wait for Thursday's debate....