Showdown at the GOP Corral

Elephant getting restless.. Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

I had a decent blog topic for today, but current events have pushed that one out. Today I’d like to talk about current political events since they’ve taken some unusual turns..

Grand Old Party

In my long memory, the GOP never seemed much like the party of Lincoln.. black Americans have voted Democrat since at least the days of Franklin Roosevelt. Wealthy people and business men seemed to have the biggest lock on the Republican Party. Up until the mid-1960’s, the GOP was the gathering place of WASPy, protestant, middle-to-upper crust men. These were men most concerned about inheritance tax, capital gains and interest rates. These were pallid, fiduciary men -- not heated by the fires of race and religion. These pallid men I dub the GOP “patrician elite”.

LBJ SENDS RED MEAT THE GOP WAY

In 1965, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. While signing, he said as an aside, “There goes the South”. And he was right. Starting with the 1968 Presidential election, the “red meat” Southerners migrated over to the GOP, in droves. The migration was complete by 1972 when George McGovern’s liberal campaign suffered a huge, humiliating defeat. The GOP had acquired the Angry Southerner. While not adhering so much to Southern issues, the GOP Elite loved having the extra votes. What could they to do accommodate their newest party members and make them feel welcomed?

RED MEAT REPUBLICANS

Red meat Republicans and the Elite share a lot of similar views, but with entirely different emphasis. These are major care-abouts for the largely blue collar, lower middle class red meats:

1. Abortion / Planned Parenthood
2. Gay marriage / Gays in the military
3. Freedom of Religious Expression / Freedom to post the 10 Commandments
4. NRA / Right to bear arms including machine guns
5. Immigration
6. Low taxes

On this whole list, the only ones that grip the heart of a Yale Man are items 5 and 6. The others, not so much. On number 5, the red meats and elite are in direct conflict with each other.

THROW THEM A BONE

For 40 years, the elite have played on the emotions of the red meat.. Beware of gun-confiscating, lesbian, secular humanists! Listen to Jerry Falwell! Phony liberal bogeymen were summoned forth through all the years to scare blue collar people to the polls. Downplay anything that might be an actual conflict.. The fact that Walmart Stores and Gemcraft homes love the cheap labor of Mexican immigrants was kept hushed and subdued – like the drinking habits of a favorite uncle.

Truth be – Elite Republicans align more with Democrats in many ways. They think abortion is sad and regrettable, not necessarily immoral. They don’t celebrate in a Gay Pride event but avail themselves of gay catering and gay style sense. They worship in the Episcopal Church, but refrain from public proselyting – perceived as an exercise in tasteless yelling. The Elite might shoot skeet or fish, but they don’t have firearms as a major life factor or concern.

FRANKENSTEIN, ARISE!

This game has worked extremely well since 1972. In 2004, Howard Dean marveled at how a certain demographic (red meat) is primarily concerned with “Guns, Gays and God”. In so many ways, across so many days this strategy worked .. until international terrorism raised its ugly head. Suddenly the red meat contingent has a bone to pick with one of the bones it was thrown. They have a serious problem with immigration policy and are lining up behind the likes of Trump and Cruz. Trump and Cruz are the anti-Elite and frightening specters to anyone from the GOP Old Guard.

GOP CIVIL WAR

In truth, the GOP is two very different groups – it’s an awkward marriage of convenience. Bubba doesn’t care about derivatives or capital gains. He cares about the Three G’s above. Reginald from Yale doesn’t get any major upset from God, gays or guns. But he becomes excitable if we start talking about Visa expirations and deportation of illegals. What happens to the nanny, the yard crew and the H1B staff at the office? This blog author doesn’t know how it ends. It may be Credence Clearwater's Bad Moon Arisin’ – a storm of epic proportions yet to play out. This is what happens when you play with fire – it’s only remarkable that a fuse in this case took 50 years to ignite.

© 2015 Snillor Productions

Getting Over the Trump Hump

Trump on the Stump .. Poster courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
TODAY

Today is one of the 4 days a year where Dallas has pleasant sidewalk café weather. There was no parking at White Rock, and Starbucks is full to capacity indoors and out. Yes I’m loving it!

TRUMP

Enough of the idle chit chat – let’s talk about the elephant in the room, our leading GOP candidate Donald Trump. This loud, bombastic titan of all that is golf courses and beauty pageants has somehow risen to a poll number of 32% in a field of 16 GOP candidates. Like columnist George Will, I’m appalled by this development. I’m reminded of the 2006 movie Idiocracy where a rapper and former porn star becomes President.

If I had to name a public figure who Trump most calls to mind it would be Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Both men are ego-centric, crude, macho demagogues. Trump would have to operate within the limits of Constitutional law thank goodness. Putin has no such boundary to observe in Moscow. Of course, when Adolph Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, all of their Democratic protections became debatable – something to place on the bargaining table. That’s something for America to consider as we choose a President the same way we would choose a Reality show contestant.

I will absolutely admit – Trump is entertaining and interesting to watch. He can be a laugh riot. He reminds me of my cousin-in-law who tells hilarious yarns, and also thinks black people should be shipped back to Africa. That man is funny in his local, yokel salesman kind of way. He should NEVER be President, or be in any position that determines social policy. Dodge that bullet now.

Donald Trump made his biggest impact in June, when he said he would “round up all the illegals and send them back to Mexico”. He would also build a “Great Wall” to stop the influx of more illegals. The full implementation of these things would cost a national fortune and create a police state .. the impracticality is as monumental as the proposed Trump Wall itself. Other GOP candidates have been forced into a game of xenophobe leap-frog. Scott Walker has now proposed a wall along the Canadian border.

Trump has potential to be a wrecking ball to the GOP as well as the Democratic process. Much like the bamboozled denizens of Venezuela – we will get the banana republic of our choosing. Irony there – in the fact that so many Americans harbor racist feelings toward Hispanics. We stand a good chance of importing their type of governance – a governance that makes the governed people seek escape from corruption, scandal and brute force heavy-handedness.

© 2015 Snillor Productions

Whigs and Squirrels

Squirrels making strides .. Poster courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
Today is hotter than Hades – both of the nearby Starbucks are full to capacity with people drinking iced coffees, escaping the heat. I’ve now landed at the Highland Park Whole Foods. I’m drinking an Allegro ice coffee flavored with almond milk and Truvia.

SQUIRRELS

Before I launch into today’s topic, I have to comment on the squirrel situation. I have two nice bird feeders in my back yard.. in previous years they attracted sparrows, cardinals and blue jays. Nary a bird comes by anymore – the squirrels have taken over. I guess squirrels have to eat too.

My newest feeder is called the “squirrel stumper”. It has a metal grill surrounding the cylindrical body. The squirrels are not stumped by it at all. They can hang upside down on the grill and eat out of the dispenser tray. They even appear to have figured out how to remove the screw top. It’s eerie – can a rodent be that smart?

There is a cable that runs from a telephone pole in my alley, past the hackberry tree (with feeders) over to my house. It runs about two feet above the feeder and a foot or two to the right of it. Yesterday that cable was hooked under a short tree branch next to the feeder. It’s as if the squirrels engineered a bridge directly to the feeder. They weighed it down and swung it over. Those little brown bastards! Little, brown, innovative bastards at that.

WHIGS

If squirrels are smart, Republicans are showing signs of devolution. Never mind Donald Trump; he’s amusing but he’s not the main GOP issue right now. The main issue with the GOP is immigration – a topic which succeeds in splitting the GOP right down the middle. Companies like Walmart and Gemcraft Homes benefit highly from immigrant laborers with their reduced wages. Wealthy stakeholders (who trend Republican) embrace the immigrants. Populist middle class Republicans are angry with immigration and even hostile toward Latinos in general. They abhor immigration and it’s a central theme of theirs. These two groups cannot live in the same domicile for long – history even has a precedent dating back to the 1850’s.

Our man Abraham Lincoln was a Whig in the 1850’s. Whigs were a conservative, pro-business party but they were riven by the issue of slavery. President Millard Fillmore was a slavery apologist and the anti-slave Whigs could not tolerate his re-nomination. It’s a rare case in history where a party name, “Whig” came to have a nasty connotation to its own members. It could signify a slave-freeing Lincoln or a slave-justifying Fillmore. By 1856, the Whigs were destroyed as a party. The anti-slavery Whigs founded the new Republican Party and the pro-slave group glommed to a failed “American” Party. They next gravitated over to a Democratic Party that had a stretchier (albeit hypocritical) view of humans owning humans.

I have trouble imagining anyone who his young, female, gay or minority voting for the GOP. The party is a fossilized, ossified vessel of Old White Man ideas. I typically think that third parties are a bad move – but I can actually see a 3rd Party now supplanting the GOP with fiscal conservatism that accompanies a sensitivity for human and animal rights. It would be in some ways a sequel of the Whigs in 1856.

© 2015 Snillor Productions

The Best of Times and the Best of Times

Finding a pot of gold .. .. Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
I’m shocked that my 3-day July 4th weekend is almost over. The sky was overcast most of the 3 days and rain was threatened but never delivered. This is our summer of weirdness with cloudy skies and temps about 10 degrees below normal. I think for the sake of consistency we should return to blue skies and 100+ degree temperatures.

LAST WEEK OF JUNE

The last week of June is one that will live in infamy with staunch conservatives. The confederate flag took a hit for being (possibly) a symbol of racism. And then Obamacare and same-sex marriage were upheld by the Supreme Court. Adding to the overall excitement, Donald Trump implied with a broad brush that Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers. As it stands, the Hispanic Voter’s alliance has requested clarification from the GOP Chairman as well as other candidates to see if they all feel the same way. We know that Ted Cruz has chimed in as agreeing with Trump.

When blacks were integrated into white school districts 60 years ago, it released the furies of white southern indignation. Eisenhower had to send the National Guard so a little girl could attend school in Little Rock. Governor George Wallace tried to physically block a school entrance being approached by black students. The times were changing but the guardians of Southern status quo could not cope or concede.

I’ve sensed a similar vibe with Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Abbott here in Texas of 2015. They would like to take arms against the onslaught of same-sex marriage and Obamacare. The "Sound and Fury" will proceed as it did before. Racism didn't end with judicial progress -- neither will homophobia or health care scare tactics.

OBAMACARE

I have a particular nit to pick about Obamacare. Given this situation – an 8 year old girl is diagnosed with a form of leukemia that is treatable but only with expensive, state-of-the-art medical equipment and drugs. It shouldn’t matter if the little girl is white and from University Park or black and from Oak Cliff. Even a “Rockefeller” Republican will concede that an uninsured girl should still get tax-funded treatment at a state-affiliated hospital.

Aye but there’s the rub. When we make it distant, vague and lacking specifics, Republicans have a smug certitude (based on history) that the girl at the county hospital will actually be given third-rate care. She may die in the waiting room with a four hour wait. She may finally see a less well-compensated, overbooked doctor who misdiagnoses her condition. Another doctor at the same hospital might despairingly give inadequate service knowing that expensive treatments are off-limits.

The “horrific” thing that Obamacare does is take vagueness out of the equation. The Oak Cliff girl will now have insurance that mandates an appointment with a “good” doctor in a non-emergency setting. No county hospital needed. If she needs $100K in high tech imaging, Blue Cross will pay for that as they would for any paying customer.

Part of giving people their dignity is telling them that their lives matter. Surviving leukemia shouldn’t be something that goes to the highest bidder like oil paintings at a Sotheby’s auction.

Symbols of racism coming down, gay people marrying and everyone getting quality medical care – what’s the world coming to?? Next we’ll have medical marijuana and animal rights. Conservatives everywhere – take a cue from Rush Limbaugh and find your OxyContin pain pills.

© 2015 Snillor Productions

Psychic Readings for 2016

Hillary in a confirmation hearing - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
Today I’m at home on a Saturday night – surprise! We’ve had unexpected thunderstorms and power outages today. Probably a good idea to keep indoors and avoid the rain drops.

ELECTION 2016
I’ve been writing this blog since 2005, and have been famously inaccurate about predicting who will win or even run in a next presidential race. That does not stop me from pontificating at all. A broken clock is right twice a day, and maybe it’s my time to be right. 

RICK PERRY
Governor Perry was just indicted for coercion of a public servant. The federal indictment will surely cause him image problems but some legal experts including democrat David Axelrod think it’s a weak case. I figure that Perry was a long shot due to his poor 2012 showing and general lack of pizzazz. The legal issues won’t help, but it was a “hail Mary” effort anyhow.

RAND PAUL
Rand Paul is energizing, youthful, interesting and sometimes he even makes sense to this centrist democrat (me, the author). He actually sided with Obama on a couple of recent foreign policy issues and seems to be reasonable until … he whips out his Libertarian philosophy. He believes in a flat tax and thinks federal spending should be drastically curtailed. He would have trouble gaining momentum with the Old GOP Guard who value their pork barrel politics. Libertarianism is a hard sell, even when it disguises itself as “constitutional conservatism”.

TED CRUZ
This senator from Texas actually scares and concerns me a bit. He’s good-looking and charismatic. He has what Bush #1 called “the big mo” (momentum). He’s a bombastic, overconfident Tea Party bloviator with apt phrases and good camera presence. Americans frequently go for the guy with a twinkle in his eye (never mind anything at all about the candidate’s worthiness for the office). Cruz was the wrecking ball who nearly shut down the government last year but Americans also have a short memory. Watch out for Cruz.

JOE BIDEN
Biden has recently suggested he might run in 2016, though Queen Hillary has very nearly been anointed for that role by the party elders and the press. Biden is a good, fun, jovial man. He’s stepped in a few controversies and misspoken a couple of times but he’s an intelligent man with his heart in the right place. I like him a lot, personally, but think that the Hillary juggernaut will leave him in the dust.

HILLARY CLINTON
I have Republican friends who almost assume Hillary will be the next president. Women and feminists everywhere are baying at the moon for President Hillary. I hate to burst their bubble, but I think Hillary has a good chance of losing for 2 or 3 reasons:
1) The Adlai Effect – She’s already run and lost. Prior losers are less-loved.
2) Hillary will be old - She would be 69 at inauguration. Old ladies are less-loved.
3) Beer Buddy question – This is the most important fact. Hillary comes across as a stiff, academic policy wonk – an overly serious nerd who did her homework last week.

Americans famously dislike intellectual eggheads. People who are rich, highly educated or use big words lose American voters really fast. John Kerry came across as a limousine liberal snob and George McGovern came across as a stuffy professor. Americans want a guy who can crack wise on a talk show or play the saxophone. Who would you rather have a beer with? Probably not Mrs. Clinton.

TWO DISAFFECTED VOTER GROUPS
I wrote previously (“Will the Voter Get His Groove Back”) – about 2 disaffected groups. Evangelical Christians sit on their hands if they don’t love the GOP candidate’s flavor of conservatism. They didn’t like McCain in 2008 and they distrusted Romney in 2012. African Americans also sit on their hands if the Democratic candidate isn’t a stylin’ smilin’ hipster (like Bill Clinton or Obama). They were coldly indifferent to Al Gore and John Kerry. Let me get on my soapbox… ATTENTION DISAFFECTED VOTERS – you will never, ever have a candidate who precisely reflects your opinions. It will almost always be a lesser of evils situation. You still have a dog in the fight. Evangelicals helped Obamacare get passed and African Americans helped start two unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It matters that you vote and who you vote for. Petulance and pettiness only help the other guy get what he wants. Keep that in mind when you hate your party’s next nominee.

Have I nailed any predictions here? Absolutely not. 2016 is like a greased pig and it could go in several different directions. Everyone needs to be on his or her toes. Message to Hillary – smile more and laugh it up. Your biggest hurdle is not your resume but rather your repartee.

© 2014 Snillor Productions

Give Christie a Break

Think of the Alternatives - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

With all the scandal surrounding New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, I see the situation differently than the blood-thirsty bloggers at Daily KOS and Huffington Post. Many progressives seem to take delight in the trials that the portly governor has endured with "Bridge-gate".

Did Christie know that his operatives vindictively closed a bridge to the town of a mayor who dissed the portly governor? The bridge is a single-point access to the town; the "traffic study" closed off two essential lanes. The resulting traffic jam created a nightmare situation. There were actual health consequences for people needing ambulance service.

Today, there have been suggestions that Christie knew of the closings and even may have orchestrated the bridge closing. Liberal editors and late-night comedians have lambasted Christie over the series of events. The actions, if true, would suggest a "boss-man" bully who will do anything to get his way.

I have a problem with all of needling, keeping in mind that Christie is (was?) the probable 2016 GOP front-runner. Christie is a "Rockefeller" Republican of the old school. He's socially liberal and pragmatic in fiscal affairs. Unlike the Tea Party extremists, Christie would probably work in a bipartisan way if elected. The GOP is presently adrift and I fear who might be the alternative if Christie were disqualified. Names like Rand Paul and Ted Cruze come to mind -- names that send a shudder through my soul.

We have a schizo electorate that swung directly from George W. Bush to Barack Hussein Obama in 2008. Who can predict what way the wind is blowing in 2016? There is residual anger over the bungled roll-out of Obamacare and Obama's ratings are low right now. Hillary Clinton (presumed 2016 Democratic front-runner) has two tons of political baggage and her victory in 2016 is not assured. It will be great if BOTH candidates are people we can live with. Heads or tails - a win.

So Democrats -- as you roll tanks over Chris Christie, keep in mind the stage you are setting. The American electorate is fickle; it seems to elect people based on whimsy, style, and momentary air currents. A Tea Party activist with style and flair could upstage Hillary and it's not even a long shot. I'm hoping that Christie wasn't too much of a "crime boss". What did he know and when did he know it? Let's hope not much and late in the game. A bridge-closing Christie would probably still be preferable to a government-closing Cruze.

© 2014 blogSpotter

Jane's Addiction

A new phone in town - Pic by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter

THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY

Jane is an Apple addict with more money than sense -- that is if Jane were a 55 year old male software engineer living in Dallas. I have @ 5 iPods, an iPad, a mac mini, an iBook and an iPhone. Despite my previous blog where I dissed the iPhone 5C, I must confess that I checked it out at the Apple Store and fell in love with it. I got the bright green one, unlocked. Then I fitted it out with a black jacket -- the Green Hornet color combo. Next I went over to the AT&T store where they gave me a nano sim; they also transferred the phone number and contents from my tired old 3GS to the new 5C. What’s not to love on the 5C -- it gets LTE speed, or 4G at the slowest. It has the bright, large retina display. And it has the new iOS7. Once I restored my apps and contacts from the iCloud I was back in business. The 5C’s width is ergonomically perfect for an adult hand, unlike the Samsung Galaxy “phablets” which will give their owners a lifetime of hand cramps.

The 5C was all of my good news. Now let's turn our attention to the shut-down and healthcare.gov ...

THE SHUT-DOWN

Words cannot explain the ire I have for House Republicans who dwell in a sad land of denial. They are trying to use the budget process to circumvent not just Obamacare, but every other project they dislike. They are not behaving like adults, and the shut-down is their doing. I have no idea how this will resolve itself -- we have another debate about the debt ceiling coming right on the heels of this. It would help Obama’s case if the healthcare rollout were smooth; this brings us to the next topic..

THE HEALTHCARE.GOV FIASCO

Obama, what happened? The much-touted health care exchanges came on-line October 1, 2013. Prospective shoppers were asked to create an account even before browsing the offerings. With the crush of 5 million hits, the site was overwhelmed. The most dogged customers could never get past a screen that said in essence “Please come back later”. By day 5 (that is TODAY) it still was not fixed. The “Please Come Back” screen advised customers to call a toll free number for faster turn around. In Dallas, the only instance of people being registered was via paper forms at local hospitals.

This is completely unacceptable. The administration had 3 years to prepare this application -- wouldn’t they have hired system experts? Wouldn’t they have known that millions of people would be trying to access it? Giant-scale operations are not an impossibility by the way; Expedia and Google have had such large-scale throughput for years.

Already this is such a fiasco that IT schools will use it as a negative example of scalability. Business and policy schools will use it as a negative example on product roll-outs. There should be a thorough post-mortem of what went wrong. Who hired these consultants and what kind of oversight was there? I may become more temperate about this down the line, but blogSpotter has these recommendations:

o The consulting company that designed this system should be FIRED. They’re lucky they aren’t tarred and feathered.
o Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, should tender her resignation if it appears she oversaw this train wreck -- and it appears that she oversaw this train wreck.
o The Admin should quickly and forthwith get the ablest, best consultancy for large computer infrastructures to come repair this horrid system.

Given the snarling nostrils of Obamacare enemies, it was crucial that the roll-out be smooth and relatively painless. This utter failure we’ve had reinforces every negative stereotype of government programs. Not every government program is so fraught with incompetence -- the military can tie its shoes and chew gum at the same time. Government can do right when it has the right resources. Obama -- we’re looking at you. Make healthcare.gov a well-oiled machine. To borrow from Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well” and maybe there could be a redemption of sorts if we come away with lessons learned and a computer system that finally works.

© 2013 blogSpotter

Just Say No to Syria

13th Century Mongols at War - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
NOT ONLY NO, HELL NO

I’m in the very unusual position of being in direct opposition to John Kerry and President Obama’s hawkish stance on Syria. I’m also in the strange company of Rand Paul.. He wrote a position paper last week; I could’ve written parts of it myself. We have differences -- I think Paul might actually support a “boots-on-the-ground” occupation and that would be unthinkable to me. Rand Paul and I are in total agreement that a limited strike would serve no useful purpose and it would draw us into a quicksand pit.

Did we learn nothing from Iraq or Egypt? After 10 years, Iraq is having sectarian violence everywhere -- hundreds of deaths reported recently. In Egypt, the democratically elected Morsi tried to turn his country into a 12th century Muslim caliphate.. how’s that for unexpected returns from your “Arab Spring”? Furthermore, limited military involvement is like being a little bit pregnant; you’re in or you’re not. If you’re in, it has to be balls to the wall.

Obama is distraught over the use of chemical weapons in Syria (a fact which hasn’t been convincingly established by the way). To make chemical warfare the worst example of egregious warfare is arbitrary. When we toppled Saddam Hussein, we implicitly put wind in the sails of the militant Shiites, Saddam’s most organized enemies. Their behavior was horrific -- at one point they were using an electric drill to drill holes in the heads of their still-living captives.

SEPARATION OF MOSQUE AND STATE?

The Middle East has no concept of religious freedom, or even true democracy. The choices you have will be between the 7th and 9th circles of Hell in any Middle Eastern country. The people on either side are strident, cruel and nasty. They’re blindly devoted to primitive religious writ and cannot be reached with reason. Not one American life should be sacrificed over these terminally lost people. Really, not even any American equipment or capital should be wasted on this.

To term our role as “world police” is both hypocritical and ridiculous. Our main concern in that part of the world has ever and always been about oil and military access via air space or water. Some might add the entrenchment of Israel to that list, but Israel isn’t compelling its primitive neighbors into self-destructive craziness. They do not figure prominently in this equation.

In America, a dim view is held about organized crime. If La Famiglia shoots itself up we deplore the violence but we are relieved that they mostly direct it toward each other. That's how we need to look at the Middle East. If Baathists and jihadists must tear into each other, so be it. Ready, aim, fire -- just keep it to yourselves.

CAUTIONARY ADDENDUM

The West embraces religious freedom, but we should stay vigilant about religions who seek to replace western law with Sharia, or encourage terrorism to advance their causes. The scourge over there should remain over there, and gain no admittance over here.

© 2013 blogSpotter

You're Entitled

Are entitlements a bad thing? - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Back in the 1980’s, liberal was a perfectly acceptable word, one with a noble political history. In short order, the word was gutted and destroyed -- by Reagan/Bush operatives and a passive press. It came to mean “uber politically correct, welfare-loving communist”. The patrician Kennedy family who gave us the Peace Corps and the Roosevelts who gave us FDIC were relegated to an evil subclass of dare I say ...liberals. President Bush #1 described Bill Clinton derisively as a “damn liberal!”. The media and liberals themselves gave into this word bias and moved ever so quietly to the term progressive.

Now in the 2010’s, I’m seeing a similar hatchet job done to the word entitlement. Dictionary.com defines entitlement as “the right to guaranteed benefits under a government program”. This doesn't seem so inherently evil or bad. There are a litany of entitlements that Republicans revere and respect:

Republican-approved Entitlements:

o Modern highways, free of toll charges
o Military protection from unrest or invasion
o Police and fire protection
o A free public education
o Space advancement and exploration
o Farm subsidies
o National parks
o Voting for people with ID’s
o Government grants for health initiatives and research

These are all expensive programs which have been deemed generally beneficial and necessary. They are noble enough in their intent -- we don’t have to question whether they need to be canceled, scuttled or privatized (for the most part).

Now here are the mid-century Democratic Entitlements which still incur the wrath of “Old Guard” GOP:

o Social Security -- Government guaranteed pension for widows, orphans, disabled and those advanced in age
o Minimum wage -- a minimum wage rate for jobs, providing a livable baseline for people in low-skill entry level jobs
o Medicare/Medicaid -- Government health subsidies for poor, indigent and aged Americans

Note that the revocation of the three above items would take us back to the age of poor houses, flophouses and debtors’ prisons. To object to specifics of these programs might merely make you a fiscal conservative. To hate them without qualification makes you somewhat a heartless Simon Legree who would tie a penniless mother to a railroad track.

Affordable Health Care which comes on-line this October 1st has exacted perhaps the greatest, most protracted temper tantrum from the Old Guard GOP. The absolute outrage -- that 1 of 3 Texans now uninsured might finally be covered with health insurance. Oh, the humanity! Angry, nasty volleys have been directed using many new word games. “Obamacare” replaces “Affordable Care”. Entitlement is snarled like a word more foul than a cuss word. Republicans be aware -- entitlement refers also to the fire hydrant on the street and the police officer watching your neighborhood. Yes, those are entitlements. They are reasonable social and government expectations. The same type of reasonable assertion that says a black child from Oak Cliff with cancer should have access to the same advanced treatment as a white child in University Park. We have in our country’s charter the concept of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- good health is a cornerstone of that. Yes, we are entitled to it.

© 2013 blogSpotter

Windows 8 Can Wait

Where are the settings?- Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

Today’s blog entry will serve up two things in need of a “Come to Jesus Meeting” – Microsoft Windows and the Republican Party.  I know, they’re very different and yet somehow similar as lame products appealing to white men in expensive suits.

GRAND OLD FART PARTY

After Obama won a 2^nd term last week, I sensed a lot of bitterness on the part of my GOP friends – believe it or not a couple of good friends vote Republican.    The GOP has strayed so far from its reasonable Eisenhower sensibilities that it’s hardly recognizable these days.   From my liberal vantage point, I find it hard to believe that anyone over 65 would support Romney but support him they did.  The Romney support skewed old and white.   I’ll offer 3 areas of critique which might help to bring the GOP around in 2016:

1. Quit talking about rape, abortion or lady parts.  Ex-Bush advisor  Karen Hughes was right – gag the man who says anything  about rape other than the fact that it’s a horrible crime.    The GOP arguably lost two Senate seats because of candidates speaking too candidly (and archaically),  talking about “legitimate rape” among other things.

2. Open your hearts and minds to the possibility that children of illegals might have a path  to citizenship.  Unless you’re a Native American, you’re likely  descended from an immigrant looking for the same breaks that Hispanics seek – good jobs, stable government and upward mobility.

3. Without conceding an ounce to the idea of supporting bums and derelicts, admit that there is such a thing as legitimate financial need:

• Enfeebled old people
• People with serious maladies and disabilities (that prevent work at a normal job)
• Injured veterans
• Disaster victims
• Crime victims
• Account holders in failed savings banks 

The list could probably be extended.  We as a society should not throw these people out in the cold, nor should we leave their livelihood to the mercy and unpredictability of private charities.   We should extend the compassion which we hope would be extended to us in the same situation. “There but for the grace of God go I”.    I’ll close the topic now, but in general the GOP would do better to realign itself with fiscal conservatism – not anti-gay, anti-Hispanic, anti-woman rhetoric.

WINDOWS 8 OS

What if they upgraded a PC operating system and nobody came?  Well, that sort of happened on October 26^th when Microsoft came out with Windows 8.  I’m speaking as someone who has enjoyed and supported Microsoft products – I’m typing this on a Windows 7 HP Pavilion laptop.   Previous iterations of Windows were widely spaced and gave us “momentous” features:  32-bit processing, long file names, a start menu, desktop gadgets, “Glass” interface resembling Mac OS X. 

Windows 8 offers not even one compelling feature that would make me want it (at least on a lap top or desktop computer).    Extending their tablet “Metro" scheme of bright-colored tiles to the PC is purely confounding and confusing.  It adds an extra layer of complexity to what otherwise looks like Windows 7.  Upgrading to a new PC introduces several hazards:

• File and setting migration
• Backward software compatibility (for old files being processed by new software)
• License issues for previously installed software
• Functionality problems with new/different web settings

Why would an individual risk all of this plus the cost of a new PC just to have pretty colored squares?  I once took training in User Interface design, and it was emphasized that logic and consistency were higher goals than being eye-popping or trendy.  Windows 8 fails that test by a mile;  the Windows chief  officer Steven Sinofsky just left Microsoft last week and one can only wonder if there is some connection -- who knows.   I’m hoping a Windows 9 puts things back where they belong.

So there we have it – a political party and an operating system that risk obsolescence by going off on trajectories or focusing too much in one area.   I’m fighting a cold and need a coffee refill, so will leave my contentiousness here and move on to other chores.       

© 2012 blogSpotter

Biden Here to Stay

He ain't going anywhere but maybe the White House - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia
by blogSpotter

“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”. That piece of Texas wisdom is handily ignored by so many people... I’ve recently seen a handful of articles where people hope or speculate that Obama will replace Joe Biden as his 2012 vice presidential candidate. A couple of them have been diehard Hillary fans (“pumas”) and one of them is ultraconservative columnist Mark Davis. In each case it seems, they want to replace Biden with Hillary Clinton.

Where to begin on this? Let’s start by pointing out that Joe Biden has done nothing wrong. If he is guilty of anything, it’s too much exuberance and a smile that shines at too many kilowatts. He hasn’t stepped in the cow patties that Dan Quayle did in the early 90’s – he hasn’t even molested the English language or foreign policy the same way George W. Bush (the actual President BTW) did in his two terms. Biden has certainly made some minor gaffes… he fittingly described Obamacare as a “big effing deal” when the legislation was signed. He didn’t know the microphone was so sensitive. Some people think that Biden’s support of gay marriage somehow forced Obama’s hand on the same issue. I doubt that’s the case; also if Obama dumped Biden now, it would look altogether punitive and cancel out his progressive stand on marriage equality.

To Hillary Pumas everywhere – get over it. Obama won, and that was four years ago. Do some yoga, EST or whatever zen meditations it takes for you to get over this loss. It’s a near certainty that a woman will be POTUS or VEEP at some point – that point is just not now. Please keep your response to one which is simple and measured, not a reflex that puts feminism ahead of all else. Obama being the first black POTUS probably trumps having a first female. Europeans have blazed all around that territory with Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel and others. Our arrival there will be less remarkable from here forward anyway.

Mark Davis, I don’t know what to say. He is a sworn enemy to Obama and any suggestion he makes to or about Obama’s campaign is suspect. Is he purposely making a stupid suggestion and hoping that Obama’s team will bite? There’s really no telling on that one. Biden has done nothing worse than silly gaffes that any of us might do if we’re constantly being followed, quoted and cornered into interviews. Even an on-his-toes extrovert will occasionally misspeak. Obama has sometimes misspoken (though never seriously).

Mark Davis did point up something in his “Ditch Biden” article…Davis admitted it would show a huge lapse of loyalty, cause a circling of wagons and create gross nastiness where none is called for. Obama shouldn’t change horses in midstream – it wouldn’t be prudent. O’man’s shakiest relationship is with the White Male constituency, gosh that includes Mark Davis. By ditching Biden and taking on Hillary, he’d be eschewing a needed wing man for someone who already represents a solid Obama fan club (liberal white females). Biden is white-male enough to be the perfect balance for Obama's ticket. Biden has been a great Vice President and should continue to do so in the 2nd Obama term (should Obama get his 2nd term).

To you pumas out there – take a couple of chill pills. Your day will come, be patient at least for now. For ingenuous, conservative commentators out there (listening Mark?) – keep your malarkey to yourself or share it on the FOX network where nobody progressive is watching anyway.
© 2012 blogSpotter

A Santorum of Our Own

James, in the mold of Santorum - Picture courtesy of ESPN

by blogSpotter
Today’s blog is a mix of things – have a been a little too busy to carefully research something like my previous entry on Stephen Foster. I’ll do this like a Ouija Board and see where my typing fingers take me…

ROBERT, THE EXERCISE FREAK

I was at a 12-step meeting last week. We had an unremarkable speaker, but one thing impressed me in her talk. This short, squat, 45ish pear-shaped woman said that she was into “extreme sports” and liked to run marathons. The thin wisp of a middle-aged woman who introduced her vouched that they “walk around White Rock Lake every day”. I’m not the world’s most agist or sexist person but had trouble thinking of these two as track stars. I decided that today – a beautiful, sunny 63 degree late February day – would be perfect for me to see how and if my 54-year old self could trek around the lake. Yea, verily I did it in exactly 3 hours. I thought it was 6 miles – in fact it’s 9.3 miles. Here are some (fairly sad) details about the achievement…

o I had to use every port-a-potty along the way – to get rid of a giant carafe of breakfast coffee I drank.
o I started having severe allergy attacks off the bat, and all the way around. Spring-like weather is a mixed blessing for me.
o As I thought would be the case, I was worn out at the halfway mark (7-11) and contemplated calling a cab to take me the rest of the way… (I resisted!)
o Every bone, muscle and sinew in my body was aching – my back was in pain. I started developing two blisters on my toes, to accompany the rock that was tumbling around in my shoe.
o Observed that walking is as exhausting as running, when done in the extreme.

Will I do it again – Good Lord, no! Not any time soon. My fatigue has fatigue as I type this. Does the pear-shaped woman do this daily? Maybe so – my 30-year old cousin Jessica runs half marathons every other day. Mine is not to question why, mine is to avoid doing it again lest I die. I do feel like I accomplished something and can always point to that day when I “walked the whole lake”. I’ll see the Bath House in the far distance and know full well that my feet could get me there in 90 minutes.

But ENOUGH of my personal fitness drama, let's proceed and look at Texas' political drama ...

CRAIG JAMES, REVEALED

I was vexed and perplexed when I read that Texas Senatorial candidate Craig James was making blatantly homophobic remarks last week. He took Tom Leppert to task for riding in Dallas’ Alan Ross gay pride parade. Mr. James further elaborated that sex preference is a choice and one that the “Lord will judge gays for it in the hereafter”. Leppart defended himself as best he could, saying that as mayor he wanted to represent all his constituents. Mr. James is most impressive – he seems to know the mind of God. He knows who will be punished for what and when; heck, he’s almost taken it upon himself to do God’s work.

Imagine how interesting it was when I read in today’s paper that James is disliked by many heterosexuals in his former sports circle. Craig, an ex-ESPN sportscaster and SMU football player is apparently the “stage dad from Hell”…. When his son Adam was sidelined at Texas Tech for lack-luster football performance, Craig accused Coach Mike Leach of tormenting his son (who was nursing a concussion) -- sending him to a dark, convalescing room. James turned this mole hill into a mountain and got Coach Leach fired. The reverberations and bad vibes of this are still playing out in the sports world – very fittingly it spills into Craig James’ senatorial bid. Karma after all. I don’t know what God has in mind for any of us later, but he has something in mind for Mr. James’ reputation right now.

And so it goes – I’ve rambled for too long here at Starbucks. While I typed this, a little girl was trying to show me where her American Doll injured her leg. I can relate to that doll’s injury – my legs are still recovering from White Rock. I’ll sign off now and probably go soak in the tub. I won’t walk around the lake anytime right away; I won’t vote for Craig James ever. I can’t say what my Bush-loving Texas brethren might do but that’s a topic for another blog.

© 2012 blogSpotter

Incorrectulous

Maher on the Walk of Fame - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
When I just searched for Bill Maher on the Internet, several other Bills and Billy’s popped up ahead of him – Cosby, Clinton and even Billy Joel. That is a total shame; our nation of web surfers should have more curiosity about this insightful, controversial actor, comedian and humorist. Maher’s views do fall askew of the mainstream TV viewers, and he would probably be another type of unwelcome “alien” in deeply red Texas.

Maher is a secular humanist, libertarian, pro-feminist, PETA following, “Apatheist” trouble maker who dares to play devil’s advocate in all too many places. Some people would say he is the devil – usually people of a strident, blinders-on mentality. The son of a lapsed Catholic father and Jewish mother, Maher has the clarity and objectivity that comes from such a varied background. He isn’t a slave to any school of thought so much as an objective, cultural critic to all of them.

To be sure, Maher has stepped in it a few times with his strident, opinionated enthusiasm. On his ABC show, Politically Incorrect, he incurred the wrath of many by suggesting that the Islamic jihadists of 9/11 were “brave”. This was in 2002, shortly after the attacks – so many sponsors pulled out that it cost him the show. In context, he was saying that someone flying a plane into a building is not acting timidly. But – and Maher was quick to admit – it was the wrong thing to say.

Maher then moved to HBO and started his still-running talk show, Real Time with Bill Maher. Real Time is similar in concept to Politically Incorrect but features more political figures rather than randomly assembled celebrities. Here he drew fire from Alabama's congressman Bachus for pointing out that the US Military hasn’t met 46% of its recruiting requirements. Maher rightly asked why Bachus didn’t use his energy to correct the recruiting problem instead of starting an “I Hate Maher” campaign. Lastly, Maher angered the AMA by suggesting that swine flu shots were risky and he would pass on it. He backed off of the position a bit after being lambasted from all directions.

Maher isn’t afraid to lock horns, and sometimes his rabble-rousing is very deliberate. His 2008 movie Religulous points up many of the fallacies in organized religion (pretty much all of them are lampooned). Devout people with thick skin should go see the movie – it raises some interesting points. Maher has also won a Richard Dawkins award for working to promote secular and scientific values in our society. He doesn’t claim to be an atheist like Dawkins so much as a questioning agnostic. Both secular and question are red flag words in the faith community so Maher’s noncommittal nature still makes him pretty much a nemesis to the church-going crowd.

Lastly, but not least, Maher is a confirmed bachelor playboy who indulges in non-medical weed. If you weren’t already shocked and appalled by his religious views, you might very well blanch at his libertine lifestyle. What I myself find odd about Bill Maher is not any of his maverick ways – he’s very much in the tradition of his brilliant stylistic forbear, Mark Twain. I applaud his weirdness – our mantra should be “Keep Maher weird”. What I find odd, is that so many people find Maher to be odd.

We live in a nation of cookie cutter homes, does it also have to be a nation of cookie cutter people? Bill Maher is a devilish exception – he’s from an entirely different cookie recipe. And his is a recipe that intellectually curious people should savor.

© 2012 blogSpotter

Superprez

It's a bird, it's a plane! - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I’ve been busy moving to a new office at work and repainting 3 rooms of my house – I guess it’s good to stay busy. It’s kept me from my blog though, so there’s some catching up to do… Today’s topic is all political and I’ll start with a brief remark about Rick Perry’s recently ended campaign.

PERRY CAMPAIGN EULOGY
The fourth grader who forgot his lines in “Sleeping Beauty” still dwells deep in my psyche. I froze up, and my teacher, Mrs. Conwoop (on stage right), had to feed me every line for 5 minutes… The horror! The embarrassment! That part of me feels for Rick Perry’s various campaign freeze-ups – he forgot the government agency he’d like to cancel twice. He thought the Supreme Court had 8 justices. His infractions were actually minor and human if not for the fact he was running for POTUS. His positions were actually Neanderthal and poorly spoken – a columnist for Dallas Morning News condensed them as “more conservative than thou”. Turned out more was needed, even with this weak field of GOP candidates.

Perry’s poor performance actually says more about his fellow Texans than it says about Perry… we’ve had him as governor for twelve years. He skated by in a couple of election cycles with nary a debate and very few interviews. Do Texans want to repeat that cycle? We could just as easily send a door stop or a hat rack to the governor’s mansion. How about a suit on a hanger and a pair of cowboy boots? Texas needs to rethink its red meat/red state mentality. Maybe governance needs people who’ve thought through the issues and know how to present their ideas coherently. This is all something to chew on as we proceed to our next political topic…

ANDREW SULLIVAN and SUPERPREZ
Andrew Sullivan is a talented Newsweek columnist who recently kicked a hornet’s nest with his provocative cover story – “Why Are Obama’s Critics So Dumb?” On wonky web sites like realclearpolitics.com, Sullivan’s article prompted a handful of retort articles like “Why Are Obama’s Critics So Smart?” Any article which prompts 5 reply articles merits a read – it got under peoples’ skin….

Andrew Sullivan used to be a contradiction to me. Until Obama came along, he was a conservative, gay Republican. He fell under the “Log Cabin” moniker which strikes me a little like being a black Dixiecrat (were that still possible, thankfully not). He became an “Obamican” in 2007, and in his recent Newsweek article he articulates Obama’s 1st term achievements. Here is but a short list for “Superprez”….

o Rescued GM and Chrysler from bankruptcy
o Passed $787 billion stimulus that probably steered us around a depression
o Added 2.4 million jobs, more than entire W Bush years
o Actually lowered taxes – 1/3 of stimulus was middle class tax cuts
o Enacted Obamacare, an approach which encourages individual responsibility.
o Took out Osama Bin Laden and Khadafy, seriously weakened Al Qaeda
o Ended DADT and ended US pursuit of the “Defense of Marriage Act”
o Ended the Iraq war

These are fairly remarkable achievements – any two of them would be lifetime bragging rights for an aspiring, progressive politico. They're all the more impressive coming from a political novice like Obama... I must confess that I myself was for Hillary back in 2008. Obama seemed like an untested “dark horse” (no racial pun intended :-) ) and I wondered what we were in for. It irked me that Caroline Kennedy and her Uncle Ted were pushing Obama – I blogged tirelessly about the unwarranted adulation in articles like “Obaminable”.

Have to say I was mistaken -- I’m impressed by Obama’s achievements. Sullivan describes him as a “long game, show-don’t-tell” politician. He’s more interested in doing than telling (or bragging). I myself think that the watershed moment was killing Bin Laden. Taking out this elusive, evil cancer was important – probably important enough to explain why the GOP has sent in only their “B” Team (maybe their “C” Team) for 2012. The GOP establishment wants to keep the “A” players primed for 2016.

To people all over, who have a secret envy and dismay over a wunderkind newbie with a middle name of “Hussein” no less, I know whereof you sputter with exasperation… how dare he? Well he dared and he did. And in all fairness, we have to give credit to this remarkable Superprez. What might he pull off in another 4 years?

© 2012 blogSpotter

Rethinking a Paradise Lost

Washington creating our Confederation - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Imagine a USA with no President, no executive agencies, no judiciary and no tax base. In this America, states can send in a suggested amount of tax dollars but there’s no requirement. The Congress must have unanimous buy-in from every state to ratify any treaty or pass any law. Every state is sovereign with regard to its commerce and trade policies… It sounds like the pipe dream of all conservative Republicans, former Dixiecrats and Libertarians everywhere. In some ways it sounds like the current European Union which has foundational cracks and fissures from one rogue member country, Greece, running up a large national debt.

In fact what I’m describing actually did exist – from 1777 until 1789. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation were drafted and sent for approval by the 2nd Continental Congress and were fully ratified by all states in 1781. They were essentially in effect for a dozen years from ratification until replacement with the U.S. Constitution in 1789. They were created at the urging of Thomas Paine, among other prominent colonists, who thought they would give legitimacy to what would otherwise be seen as a scruffy band of rebels. The Articles as written in fact gave us the Confederated States of America – 80 years ahead of the die-hard Southerners who tried to resuscitate it, like Lazarus from the dead, in 1860. The Confederated States could declare war, negotiate treaties, and resolve conflicts between states. For such a noble idea, there were problems…

There was no tax base – tax money was given voluntarily as a “suggested amount”. Not surprisingly, little money came in. Some states wouldn’t even pay off their own Revolutionary War debts. Other states failed to kick in for food and supplies or pay pensions to war veterans. States disbanded their militias as soon as eminent threat went away – laying themselves open to future attack. Sometimes the attack was internal, as with Shay’s Rebellion in 1786 – a group of farmer’s angry at the depressed market struck out at the state government. After the 1783 Treaty of Paris, various countries (primarily Great Britain) declared trade war against the fledgling United States. The United States couldn’t enact any navigation or trade laws to counter the trade threats – when Massachusetts observed a suggested tariff, Connecticut would rake in money by ignoring the same law.

The Confederation was an odd bird in several ways. There was only one house of Congress called “Congress”. The Congress had a President who was more of a figurehead, a Parliamentarian. The most powerful official in this United States was arguably the governor of the most populous, prosperous member state. The Congress itself resolved disputes between states, thereby suspending (on occasion) its legislative duty to serve as a de facto executive branch. A group of Federalists (including George Washington) were starting to see the need for some backbone and order to their bold-but-fledgling Democratic experiment.

By 1787, things were visibly falling apart. States were ripping in to one another with law suits, military veterans were rioting for back pay and Barbary pirates were threatening Americans who refused to fund a US Navy. Trade-wise, foreign governments were playing states against one another and gaining a decided advantage. This dismal state of affairs brought top aide Alexander Hamilton to prominence – he argued successfully that the Articles should be replaced by a U.S. Constitution and that a strong Federal government should be established. Even the most devoted States’ Rights supporters had to admit the Articles were not cutting it... It’s a great statement about our founders that they could admit a mistake and right the situation early on. How many other countries have such a capacity for humble self-correction and redirection? While the USA hatched out a bicameral legislature, France had a Reign of Terror followed by an Emperor.

It’s amazing that Southerners, Dixiecrats and many of the current “Tea Party” look fondly to this questionable Paradise Lost. The European Union of 2011 appears to be held together with Scotch tape and Elmer’s glue … it may suit them to read some American history. To borrow from a 1990’s cliché – we’ve been there and done that. The other very necessary shoe didn’t drop until 124 years after the 1789 Constitution was drafted. In 1913 the Federal Income Tax and Federal Reserve System was put in place to help secure the money supply, protect against panics and fund the Federal government. It may not have served all these purposes as expertly as we'd like, but it has helped immeasurably in strengthening a robust, truly United States that acts as one power when it matters.

© 2011 blogSpotter

The M Word

Romney at Battle Creek - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I haven’t done an election piece for a while. Thought I would weigh in on a few things as 2011 draws to a close. Today’s topic is Mitt Romney but I’d like to address a couple of small “nits” first …

Dallas' NBC 5 and its love affair with Rick Perry

I’ve noticed that NBC 5 and the Dallas Morning News run prominent Rick Perry stories every day now. These are nice, softball pieces that show up in on the front page of DMN or the top of NBC 5’s news hour. I’d like to inform these two news agencies that Rick Perry being from Texas does not mean that all Texans are pulling for him. I felt sorry for Perry when he had his (now historic) brain freeze in one debate, forgetting which federal agencies he’d cancel. But more generally when the man opens his mouth he says something appalling – that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme or ending Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell is a violation of Christian morality. I think that if DMN and NBC 5 want to continue running commercials for Rick Perry they should either (1) charge him standard rates for the coverage or (2) give equal time to other candidates. A Texas upbringing is a minor, negligible factor in which candidate is best.

Mark Davis and his hatred of immigrants

Mark Davis, in his 11/30 DMN editorial railed against illegal Mexican immigrants. He compared an illegal immigrant to a bank robber or other serious felon. Really Mark? You’re going to follow that line of illogic? A poor Mexican father of four is probably doing what any “market actor” does – he looks for the job that offers the best salary and benefits. That’s probably what Mark Davis does when signing on with a news program or talk show. Yes, the immigrant may violate US immigration law – does that make him equivalent to a bank robber? Our (Anglo) forefathers came from Ireland, England and Western Europe for much the same motivations as Mexican immigrants. There was a huge, paranoid outcry at the turn of the last century, much like now. I will close this topic by saying that immigrant contributions far exceed what they might cost in social services. Conservatives need to quit looking for hapless scapegoats when Wall Street is much more the problem with our current economy in the dumps. Pick on someone your own size. And President Obama -- tear down that fence along the Rio Grande.

The Trouble with Mitt

Now that Newt Gingrich has overtaken Romney in all the polls, people are wondering how and why. Newt has been described as an ego-maniacal, grandiose windbag with a short fuse, no less. He’s also said to be charming, brilliant and fascinating – none of these traits preclude each other. The essential verdict from pundits who know Newt is that he’s an amazing man who probably shouldn’t be President due to a non-Presidential temperament. Mitt Romney on the other hand is like the devoted High School valedictorian – he’s a picture of discipline, self-control and temperate thoughts. He’s done all the homework. Romney has also succeeded well in business though he modestly keeps his $200,000,000 net worth out of his “humble” biography.

Magazines and talking head shows have pointed to a couple of main things in analyzing Romney… he’s a flip-flopper on issues, he prevailed over a “socialist” government health care plan (“Romneycare” in Massachusetts), and he’s seen as too liberal by the extreme-right GOP. These things may all be true, but we’ve put other flawed men into office – men with heavy baggage and far less to recommend them (e.g., Nixon’s 2nd term, Bush after the Iraq fiasco). What people (and the media in particular) tip-toe around is the fact that Romney is a devout Mormon. “M” in my title is not Mitt – it’s Mormon. Mainstream deep-south Protestants view the Mormon Church as a cult. This might not be as it should be – how unpleasant is the topic of intolerance. This is what is.

When JFK ran for President in 1960, his Catholicism was an issue – would he be taking orders from the Pope? Political Correctness hadn’t yet put the stranglehold of an overfed boa constrictor on our society. The topic was allowed to be broached and even discussed at length. When discussion was allowed, the silliness of the original proposition was fully apparent. Kennedy made it clear that he would be foremost a U.S. President, for all Americans. What is disturbing in 2011 is that a significant viewpoint probably knocks all the ex-Confederate states out of Romney’s support column. And that viewpoint is a forbidden topic. Conservative Texans, when asked why they don’t like Romney, will pussyfoot all the way around the sagebrush… he’s “too liberal…a Rockefeller Republican”.. Translation …. “There is no way in Hell that I’d ever vote for a Mormon cultist”. This blog’s author sees Christianity and Mormonism as similar types of cults. One simply has more history and infrastructure surrounding it. In 2012, we’ve closed the door on the discussion because it might lead to another discussion about religion. Now is the PC moment for all of us to clear our throats uncomfortably and change the subject.

But let’s just put the 2012 GOP race into perspective. Because of all the weirdness in this year’s candidates it’s indeterminate what will happen. Bachman developed crazy eyes, Rick Perry forgot his lines and Herman Cain had bimbo eruptions. But it’s looking like Mitt will not be the guy either – for a reason that in 2012 “dare not speak its name” – religion and cults.

© 2011 blogSpotter

Occupying Wall Street

When the rain comes ... - Picture courtesy of Lionsgate

by blogSpotter
I’m sitting in Starbucks on my 54th birthday...yes, I’m 54 years young. There has been so much weirdness in my life lately, I’ve fallen behind on my blog entries again. Will try to do a system reboot here at Starbucks ….

Quick Update on Android

After 6 months, I lost my LG Optimus V phone. Think it fell off my belt in a 7-11 parking lot on Harry Hines Blvd. To be honest, I wasn’t loving that phone … it had some issues. The 3G was slow and often unavailable. The pop-up keyboard had tiny little keys. The screen had lots of glare and the contrast was poor. Worst of all, the Android operating system has a rigidness to it that I never mastered – I kept exiting an app when I wanted to look at its menu options. Esthetically, Android OS reminds me of the spare Linux Ubuntu compared to the lush and beautiful Mac OS X. It was a prepaid, pay-as-you-go phone so the separation shouldn't be too traumatic. OK, enough about phones, let’s talk about Wall Street Occupation…

Margin Call

I just watched Margin Call with Kevin Spacey and Demi Moore. The movie is loosely based on actual events that transpired on Wall Street in 2008, just prior to the epic meltdown of September 14, 2008. My initial prejudice was that the movie might be wonkie and dull, appealing mainly to bean counters and political science majors. It wasn’t like that at all – it was a gripping, financial thrill ride that moved at a good pace. Nobody in the whole cast of characters is blameless but the shades of moral slippage go from light indiscretion (junior analysts following orders) to pure, vile nastiness (Jeremy Irons as CEO using people as collateral blame objects). A warning – there are aspects of this movie that may remind you of things still on-going. You may walk away feeling like you need to occupy Wall Street yourself. This leads me to me next topic…

Occupying Wall Street

Ann Coulter who is my favorite mean-mouthed conservative wench wrote a hilarious piece recently about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Though I’m from the opposite side of the political aisle from her, I have to agree with Ann. Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is without a leader and is without a manifesto. Its members are all over the map in their opinions – sometimes at odds with each other. Some are staunch pro-Obama liberals and some are libertarians angry about Obamacare. When I saw their profiles in Newsweek, I saw jobs like performance artist, life coach and unemployed actor. These don’t sound like people who would ever be working at anything resembling an office job in the concrete jungle.

I like the idea of OWS in general, but am an overly practical, middle-aged guy. I think OWS should have structure, goals and leadership. I know that rains on the parade of 20-something potheads who are mad at …the men who did … that thing… that was really bad. I totally support their right for civil disobedience – carry on. But do it with some semblance of knowledge and direction. I have my own thoughts about Wall Street and why it’s so discouraging…

Nobody went to jail – The only people who have done time are over-the-top con artists like Bernie Madoff. Where is anyone being held accountable for the largest loss of national net worth in history?

The insiders were recycled back into the Bush/Obama Administrations – What of people like Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Henry Paulson. These men weren’t necessarily directly involved in the 2008 debacle but their fingerprints are all around it. Why do we keep having the foxes watch the hen house? What was clear from the 2008 events (and made clear in Margin Call) is that many people in business and government saw the disaster coming. The insiders’ last 2-3 months were spent with damage control, blame mitigation, and how to break it to the public.

There were already laws on the books – My first impulse in 2008 was to say, “There ought to be a law!”. There were and are a host of laws – there should’ve been 3 layers of protection. But when SEC, Federal Reserve, Attorneys General and so many others turn a collusive blind eye, it doesn’t matter what laws were on the books. Why weren’t the laws enforced?

This is late 2011, and basically nothing has been done to rescue or mend the situation of 2008. The only reason it hasn’t happened again is that the American public has a newly cynical attitude – American’s are actually in a mode of frugality right now, much like Japan in its "lost decade".

I’ll close by saying to Occupy Wall Street – Keep it up! Wall Street needs to be occupied. But academia, the White House and Congress might also need occupy themselves – with a greater sense of what “doing the right thing” means in the aftermath of 2008.

© 2011 blogSpotter

Weiners and Supermen

Men behaving badly, and otherwise - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Here in Dallas we’re already having the dog days of summer and it’s not even summer yet! The heat has sapped me of all my energy but I’ll do my best to serve up some commentary. I’m in the Knox-Henderson Starbucks and all the cute people just got up and left. What is an old man to do? Hoping it’s nothing I said or did. ;-) It’s a Saturday twilight hour when any young person with “a life” is probably heading off to a date or a party. How well I remember...

But enough about me. Let’s talk about Obama for just a minute. Earlier on (circa 2009) I accused Obama of being tepid, timid and boring. Then he surprised me by: (1) enacting health care (2) repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and (3) taking out Osama Bin Ladin. He did three Herculean feats that several Presidents prior could not approach doing. He did them all in a relatively short period of time -- complimentary caricatures were surfacing with Obama dressed as Superman, and the analogy does spring to mind. Now having praised him, I’d like to ask Obama to please refocus on something else (I know he reads my blog!)…. His fourth feat of Hercules should be to bring unemployment down to the 6% range. A bad economy is what torpedoed George H. W. Bush in 1992, while his Gulf War victory should’ve made him a shoo-in. A similar thing could happen to Obama if he doesn’t quell this Economy from Hell.

Oman, I hate to borrow from the toolkit of Paul Krugman, a humorless crank who happens to be right about economics. Until we “prime the pump” with government enterprises (a la 1930’s WPA), there won’t be a significant goosing of the labor pool. TARP and similar bailouts did nothing but forgive existing debts and put money in the hands of corporate CEO’s -- no obligation to invest in jobs, factories or research. A WPA project would help repair the nation’s infrastructure while putting good people back to work. But don’t listen to us -- Krugman is a sourpuss and I’m not even an economist by trade. We only *know what we’re talking about*. I will say that Obama has pulled a couple of rabbits out of his hat -- let’s see if he can do it again with the economy.

WEINERGATE

I’m perennially single and fairly liberal in my outlook, so my take on Anthony Weiner’s Twitter pics will fall out of the mainstream I’m sure. Obviously, he shouldn’t have done what he did -- it shows a lack of judgment and discretion. That being said, I don’t think it amounts to a crime. It doesn’t really need a Congressional inquiry to fathom the intricacies of boxer briefs being strained by a Congressional member. Today’s news yields this info: Weiner has agreed to seek professional care and rehabilitation for what “must” be an out-of-control sex obsession… PUH-LEEZE. If sexting is a sign of mental illness then easily 25% of America needs to be institutionalized for Twitter Abuse and/or felonious Facebooking. All Weiner is guilty of is sleaziness and horniness -- traits which attach themselves easily to most of the under-age 60 Web-surfing world. I think Weiner should have his district 9 voters decide his fate in the next election. All of the people out there who harbor no sex fantasies or illicit thoughts -- don’t be too discouraged if he makes a comeback.

STARBUCKS TONIGHT

A second shift has strolled into Starbucks, not as A-List as the first crowd. Lots of jogging outfits and Mav’s fan tee shirts. I just happened by at a weird juncture; in two more hours the beautiful date crowd will hit. They’ll need to have lattes and brownies after watching Hangover Part 2. Unfortunately for me, I don’t even have the “virtual” dating life of Representative Weiner -- my big thrill will be a magazine and a couple of recorded TV shows later tonight. More power to the Weiners of the world; have fun while you can. If you’re a Congressman there is one minor suggestion -- learn the difference between a private message and a public post. Also keep it somewhere in the back of your mind that all electronic communications are traceable. ‘Nuff said.

© 2011 blogSpotter

Pondering Pakistan

Pakistanis protest the Ugly American - Courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

PREFACE

Let me say I'm very happy that Bin Laden was apprehended and dispatched by Navy Seals last week. The skill, the risk-taking and meticulous execution of the “hit” will probably be the stuff of legend – discussed by historians and military buffs for many years to come. This preface is also a segue into our “real” topic du jour …

PAKISTAN IS OUR FRIEND

The reader must have picked up the fact that the subtitle is dripping with sarcasm – Pakistan is not our unqualified friend. I have an instinct to pile on with conservative GOP congressmen who want to withdraw all funding to Pakistan – for the odious fact that Pakistani military intelligence very likely sheltered Osama Bin Laden for 8 years. For the past 5 years, Bin Laden lived in a conspicuous, large modern compound in Abbottabad, near a military camp. For 3 years prior to that, he lived almost as conspicuously in a small town near Abbottabad.

Pakistan's ISI claims they had no idea of Bin Laden's presence. They would have to be lying or grossly incompetent – either situation is somewhat terrible. To flesh out the total picture, it helps to look at two fairly extreme viewpoints ... Salmon Rushdie, the controversial Muslim dissident author, has described Pakistan as an “enemy state”. He stated in a recent interview that Pakistani contacts told him years ago that the ISI was sheltering terrorists. At the other extreme is ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She declared in the last two days (since Bin Laden's death) that Pakistan is our unimpeachable, most valuable ally. Well which is it? Why can't we call it as we see it, and how is it that two fairly respectable people have such divergent views?

It's because Pakistan is a patched-together ethic house of cards. Sixty different languages are spoken and many competing strains of Islam are present. The government is officially secular, but that status is continuously under threat by such groups as the vociferous Pashtuns. This ultra-conservative group comprises 15% of the population and reveres Bin Laden as a hero. The fact that Bin Laden has the blood of @ 5,000 people on his hands (including many Muslims) is dismissed as the collateral damage of jihad. Some US military analysts speculate that if Pakistan had openly ratted out Bin Laden, it would've destabilized an already unstable regime. It's further speculated that last week Pakistan looked the other way when Navy Seal helicopters invaded Pakistani airspace to conduct Operation Geronimo. Hear no evil, speak no evil and certainly – see no evil.

Thus Pakistan was almost neutral in the final tally. They didn't disclose Bin Laden's hiding place, but like Edgar Allen Poe's purloined letter Bin Laden wasn't very much hidden. They didn't “notice” our helicopters but asked us to please not do that again. They didn't protest too much. This takes the spotlight over to another place entirely... Why was Uncle Sam AWOL in all of this for 9 years.

The W. Bush administration was right in publicly claiming Pakistan as an ally. We need the secular arm of the Pakistanis to give access to air space and air bases. We couldn't have conducted the Afghan war without Pakistan's help. But the dreadful reality comes clear -- W. Bush and his immediate advisers must have really thought that Pakistan was our unequivocal ally. They must have thought that this 3rd world nation riven with assassinations and unrest would tell nothing but the truth and always serve the purposes of the USA. I hope that it was colossal naivete because the other alternative would be the dark, disturbing aspect that someone on the USA side was also hoping to shelter the mass killer.

Whatever the case may be, the fault is not Pakistan's. They are a nation in continual identity crisis. That their police and military force would be peppered with Bin Laden sympathizers should have been no great shock to the United States. That we went nine years floating on a myth about caves in Tora Bora is sadly pathetic on our part. Pakistan is what it is – a sometimes-USA-partner in a world crazed by religious extremism. Their every move should be inspected and evaluated, even as we politely smile and nod agreement. Not even Canada or Mexico is totally on board with the USA in its every move – why on earth would we think Pakistan is?

BlogSpotter thinks that there are other shoes that may need to drop out out of this whole affair. Suspicions and alternate theories run rife. For now, I will finish my Starbucks coffee. I will then do like W. Bush – look for some other diversion and hope that none of these awful things could be true.

© 2011 blogSpotter

One-Two Punch

Obama and Cantor in unholy alliance -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today’s blog entry might meander a little but there’s actually a couple of underlying themes. One of them is our President who seems to be losing altitude by the minute. I’ve been referring to him as President Feather Duster for a time now. The Faustian bargain he just made with House Republicans concerning tax breaks for the wealthy is maddening … no wonder that the Liberal Dems are looking to body block it. We could use some tax breaks for the little guy – the rich man doesn’t need it.

Now along similar lines, there is talk of reducing the deficit by eliminating the mortgage interest deduction – across the board, for everyone. So what we have friends, is a one-two punch to the middle class. Obama’s devil deal will assure that wealthy people aren’t on line to help out with the deficit via tax. Mortgage interest elimination will assure that the middle (and lower middle) class will be roped in, hogtied and branded for “deficit reduction”. Why is it that politics reminds me of a rowdy game of crack-the-whip? People think they know what they want and vote accordingly. But the result is horrible and bears no resemblance to whatever was offered. It would be like mixing the ingredients for fudge and coming out with lemon tarts.

Now let’s move the discussion along to earmarks and pork barrel spending. Several strident Tea Party candidates lambasted earmarks during the mid-terms and prominent “next generation” Republicans came along for the ride. Representative Eric Cantor made earmarks his campaign centerpiece as did Speaker John Boehner. Now both have suggested Hal Rogers, Kentucky’s notorious Pork Barrel King as the head of the Appropriations committee. Rogers would even like to bring along a Lockheed lobbyist as the committee coordinator. If these guys really care about reducing the deficit, would they be heading their committee with the King of Pork?

And speaking of the Tea Party above, they’ve been cited by Citizens Against Government Waste. It appears that Tea Party candidates have now received over 1 billion dollars in earmarks. Republicans everywhere, did you get what you voted for? It looks like several initiatives are adding to our tax bill and taking away tax revenue. The only people being billed are middle class home owners so far. This has all developed during our lame duck session at yearend 2010. We haven’t even let the dogs out yet.

It turns out (surprise, surprise) that people want what they want, never mind the cheap rhetoric. Politicians of both parties want to fund home district projects and would prefer that someone else pay for it. To be rigorously consistent with any idealistic goal is political suicide – the case of being dead right. What I have to offer is that there are comparatively fair and less painful ways of doing deficit reduction but it involves help from all corners – no one group gets stuck with the tab. Obama shouldn’t cave to Republicans bearing “gifts”. There won’t be a double dip recession here – just a double dose of regrets about who we elected, and who gets saddled with reining in the budget.

© 2010 blogSpotter