HOPE IS THE MESSAGE

HAPPY 2012

To win in 2012 Republicans must feed voters' fears, hatred of Obama, and their desire to return to the “good old days” of Bush. Democrats need to convince us the economic troubles Bush caused are being corrected and things are getting better, the country is safer, and Obama is prepared, and eager, to do battle with the lords of Wall Street. The GOP has no choice but to run a negative campaign while the Democrats can, and must, focus on the positive.

What makes it an especially tough year for the GOP is that their convention takes place in Tampa, Florida on August 27.and is followed on September 3 by the Democrats' in Charlotte, South Carolina. The country will have to endure a week of lamentation, hair pulling, and “Obama is the problem!” speeches. A week later the Democrats will throw a party to which we're all invited. The speeches will be upbeat, the music will be lively, and the Obama family (and dog Bo) will smile, laugh, and cheer. (Maybe Bo won't.)

My guess, or prediction, is that Americans are ready to feel good again after a year of tears, struggle, and fear. I think the nation is ready for a truly happy 2012. So let's let auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind as we embrace hope once again.

TRIP TO HELL

IF PEOPLE WERE CARS

When an uninsured driver totaled my car, my insurance company sent me a check for what Kelly Blue Book said it was worth. Cool. In California all drivers are required to have insurance, so the guy who ran into me lost his license. Very cool. Now, if people were cars everybody would be required to have insurance on their bodies like they do on their cars. It's called Romneycare in Massachusetts, and if the Supreme Court doesn't screw things up it will be required in all states soon. Totally cool.

What I don't understand is why some people are screaming that it's socialism, or worse. They didn't have a Tea Party extravaganza to shout down the laws that require car owners to have insurance. Were they asleep, or do they think making tax payers foot the hospital bill for people in ER is okay while getting their insurance company to pay if their car's in ER, also known as a repair shop, is swell?

Rather than further belabor the point, let me reflect on concepts laid out in the Christian Bible and the Qur’an. Both those holy books tell the faithful they must care for those in need or they'll go to hell. That being the case, Ron Paul faces spending a very long time in hell for his demands that we stop all foreign aid and repeal Obamacare. He wouldn't be alone “down below” All the other wannabe GOP nominees agree with most of his Libertarian views. (Which translates: liberty for me and screw you.)

The Good Samaritan saved the life of an injured Jew who was supposed to be is enemy. Other Jews who'd walked by the man had ignored him, the Samaritan came to his aid. That is the lesson all of us must learn. We are all our brothers' keepers. Remind those who don't want to pay for health insurance that can save another's life that it is damned hot in hell. .

POLITICS IS A DIRTY BUSINESS

ELEPHANT POOP

The old joke says the worst job in a circus falls to the one who has to shovel up the elephant poop.That job is now impossible as the GOP elephant has begun to suffer from acute diarrhea. And the shit is hitting all its fans. The brutal Iowa campaign – to win a meaningless victory – has forced the contenders to spit in each others' faces. Racism has reemerged (thanks to Dr. Paul,) wealth is an attack word, and anti-gay and anti-abortion attacks have once again alienated moderates and independents. The one who wins the rigid Evangelicals and Tea Party-ites votes in the Iowa caucuses will almost surely loose in the general election.

But it is even more of a problem for Republicans this year because the local battles have gone national, thanks to the endless string of “debates.” It used to be that what happened in Iowa stayed in Iowa, now it stays, and stays, and stays on Fox and msnbc. Gingrich's praise of Romeny-care will hurt Mitt in the Super Tuesday primaries, Bachmann's attack on Perry's position on immigration will erode the Hispanic vote even more, and Santorum's Christian crusade will reduce the Jewish vote for Republicans in Florida and across the country. And have no doubt, those bits from the Iowa campaign will be the stuff of Democratic TV ads month after month.

I'm not the only one who thinks all this shit can doom the party in November. Recently the conservative National Review and uber-conservative William Kristol have expressed dismay and called on more electable candidates to join the race. Who? Another Bush? Chinless Bobby Jindal? The fatso who rides in a limo because he can't even walk to his kid's ball game? The GOP isn't just in trouble in 2012, they also don't have any strong candidates waiting in the wings for 2016.

Watch where you step, Republicans, the ground is awash in what the elephant can't digest.

.

DUMB AND DUMBER

WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE

I read The Nation every week and usually find it informative and agreeable. In the current issue (Jan 3) I ran across a bit that I assumed was a joke so I read on, expecting a punch line. Finding none, I reread the paragraph, hoping to find I'd missread the joke. I hadn't. The author urged, nay, demanded that Obama “move in the direction” of The American Dream Act, an omnibus bill the Progressive Caucus created. It is every thing us progressives could hope for and, of course, has absolutely no chance in hell of passing either house. I doubt it could pass even if Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate.

Switching from that, I prowled through stories about America Elect. It has just gotten on the ballot in California, and a bunch of other states. Its boss insists it is not a political party, but that's how it is described in all of the states where it will be on the ballot in 2012. Their idea seems simple enough: people vote on-line to pick a candidate, who must then pick a vice presidential running mate from the other party. So voters would end up with what. Obama and Gingrich? Or Ron Paul and Michelle Backhmann? Don't those dummies know that the vice presidency is a pot of warn piss, as Vice President John Nance Gardner put it. His (or one day, her) only constitutionally assigned job is to serve as titular president of the Senate. The President tells his veep what else he can do, or can not do. Period.

The bigger question, however, is not why America Elect is so stupid, but who put up the millions it has cost them to pay for all the signatures that got them on those ballots. Do the backers of this bizarre movement have a Koch addiction? AE won't get anybody elected but it has the potential of drawing some independents from Obama, and even some semi-smart Democrats who are weary of the two party system. My guess is that that's what its financial backers had in mind now that there's no Ralph Nader to screw things up.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

Under the Christmas tree in the White House there is a gift box from the Republican National Committee, but there's nothing in it. The gift won't come for weeks, maybe not until Super Tuesday, or the GOP convention. But eventually Obama will opening it to find who the GOP nominee is, and what he finds will be just what he asked Santa for. Meanwhile, back at the campaign headquarters in Chicago, the staff is packing goodies into three boxes. One is labeled Romney, one Gingrich, and one just has a black “? “

These days the polls are looking good for Obama in 2012. In them, he's ahead of Romney or even with him, he easily tops all the others, and the campaign hasn't started. And there is the possibility that billionarie New York Mayor Bloomberg will toss his fedora in the race as a third parry canaidate, which would be a fatal blow to the GOP.. But none of this has stopped the professional whiners from attacking Obama for not giving them what they wanted in their Christmas' stockings.

The latest of these prompted me to cancel my subscription to Harper's magazine. The publisher of that once-responsible magazine, John MacArthur, recently wrote that Obama should not be reelected because he has “lost his moral authority.” It strikes me that anyone who says that has lost his, and his common sense too. Obama got bin Laden, ended Bush's Iraq war, got his health care bill passed, has cut taxes on the poor and middle class, killed “Don't Ask,Don't Tell,” and has restored true “family values” to the White House.

But the MacArthurs of the country, few as there are, will have zero affect on the 2012 vote. Before November of next year it will be Obama versus one man, and whoever that is his campaign is ready to launch block buster campaigns against him. (And it will be a Him now that Backmann has turned to dust.) There will be a southern campaign that reminds Evangelicals of Governor Romney's support of gay marriage and a woman's right to choose; a mid-west campaign that focuses on Romney's record as a jobs killer when he ran Bain, a company that is still paying him; and an east and west coast campaign that focuses on the recently “born again” Tea Party reactionary. All of those Romenys will loose and a truly moral man, who has read the Constitution, will be reelected.

.

AN EASY RIDE?

I AM VERY CONFUSED

Can you help me understand what's going on in politics? What am I missing? I've been studying the Hedgehog Report which collects data from all the major polls and it shows Obama beating Gingrich in the Electoral College by a vote of 426 to 112. That's what is called a landslide victory. And Gingrich is tied with Obama in Arizona and has only a 1% lead in Ohio but Hedgehog gives them to the Republican. The Hispanic vote could tip Arizona to the Democrats and Independents could swing Ohio. That would turn an Obama landslide into a tsunami.

There is, of course, a year to go before election day but one would think those numbers would have Republicans quaking in their Gucci loafers and hunting for an “anybody but Newt” candidate. Why aren't they and what is the GOP thinking? That's my conundrum.

I had one thought. Maybe there's a George Smiley-type agent in the GOP. You know, John le Carré's master spy in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy. He would have been the one who plotted all their disastrous debates, sought out the women in Herman Cain's past, fed Rick Perry a drug which made him forget what agencies he wanted to abolish, and talked Gingrich into saying Freddy Mac hired him as an historian. Oh, and he convinced Romney that Americans had lousy memories and wouldn't be able to recall what he's said yesterday about gays, abortion, or universal health care.

Their Smiley chap (who never smiles) has also gotten into Karl Rove's head and GOP pollster Linda DiVall's. Rove said the Obama campaign has a “sort-term view” and a very bad long-term problem. Ms. DiVall was prompted to note that the Obama campaign “should not feel in the least comfortable.”

Short term? Don't they read The Washington Post? That sometimes good paper finally noted that the Obama campaign launched the “two Mitts in one body” TV ad with sole objective of helping Newt get the nomination That was damned smart long-range planning and the campaign staff is feeling quite comfortable as they meet in the White House today. .

Or maybe the GOP rigged all the polls and concocted the Hedgehog report just to give the Obama campaign a false comfortable feeling. Now that would really have been a major coup for their Smiley-face. Or they could be echoing the line, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” to victory in 2012.

THE ONE PERCENT

GREED IS GOD

That is not a typo in the title of this piece. Congressman Paul Ryan and many others worship greed and Ann Rand's Atlas Shrugged is their bible. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck also adore the book as do many right-wing Republicans and some, but by no means all, Wall Streeters. In the book, published in 1957, Rand describes the hero as, “Having been born without the ability to consider others.” This is, of course, characteristic of psychopaths, one of whom Ann Rand idolized: the homicidal maniac William Hickman who slaughter a 13 year old girl.

In The Fifteen Biggest Lies About Capitalism author Joshua Holland details Rand's obsession with the concept of a world without empathy, a world in which each of us seeks only to achieve personal wealth and power. She doesn't even invoke Adam Smith's mysterious “invisible hand,”which he said is somehow able to reap a bit of benefit to all from the avarice of the few. Rand's dream of a world without concern for others leads Newt Gingrich into wanting poor kids to map the floor of their school while the well off students mock them, and to Ryan's plan to slice apart the fabric of what is left of our ragged safety net.

I read an advance copy of the book in the spring of 1957 and hated it. But when I was told to go up to the Brown Derby restaurant to interview her I gathered the film crew and headed up the street. She was sitting in a booth along the north wall with men I presumed represented the publisher. When she saw me and my film crew she hissed that we were schwein, (pigs.) I tried to smile as I spoke in my poor German; Ich nicht ein Schwein, Fraulein, ich bin ein Reporter.” The men in the booth laughed. Ann Rand tossed her glass of water in my face. NBC news carried the spot that night unedited.

However it is not the hard faced German's rudeness, nor even her books, that trouble me now. It is the way her philosophy of soulless selfishness has become an acceptable way of doing business in the world today. Recent research has revealed that even rats have empathy. When another rat is trapped the one who is free attempts to chew off the trap. But if the Randites have their way we will abandon all concern for others and serve only the god of greed. I hope her vision doesn't become reality, but I hope to live long enough to see my government boldly act to punish pathological capitalists.

JUDGE'S WORD ISN'T LAW

JUDGE TRASHES THE 1st AMENDMENT

Boston police raided the Occupy site (Dec. 10) after Judge Frances McIntyre ruled that “occupying” constituted “seizing” public property. She made that ruling while occupying a chair owned by the state, while occupying the position of judge, after having occupied a hotel room on occasion, occupying a seat on an airplane, and maybe even flicking the Occupied sign on a toilet door. How that beyond-stupid-woman could have so totally screwed up is hard to fathom. But in doing so she blithely ignored the 1^st Amendment of our constitution which guarantees the people's right to assemble peacefully to seek “redress of grievances.” And the Constitution does not limit that right to assemble where, when, or for only as long as the local authority approves.

I suggest that before the Occupy folks go to court to get her witless ruling overturned they buy her a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of the English language. To justify her bizarre ruling she may want to seize on the Latin root of the English word which combines ob – to move toward, and capere - to seize, but, as noted above, no English speaker (except foolish Ms. McIntyre) uses the word to mean “to steal,” “to take permanent possession of another's property,” or “to lay claim to.”

The dotty Ms. McIntyre is not, tragically, the only one who has ignored the Constitution to shoo Occupiers out of public parks and off campus. Multibillionaire Mayor Bloomberg did it, so did suck-up-to-the-banks Oakland Mayor Quan, and semi-English speaking Chancellor of the Davis campus of the University of California. Linda Katehi. (For whom our Constitution may be “all Greek to her.”)
The Occupy movement began as an effort to call attention to Wall Street's usurpation of power and the tragic effects of the wealth gap in the U.S. But now, due to the violent acts of police and the venality of local governments, it has became a true civil rights movement. Imagine what things would have been like had the McIntyre view prevailed when people marched to Selma. They could have been routed for “seizing” a public bridge, and poor old Glenn Beck's crowd would have been ordered to vacate the Washington mall or face pepper spraying. .

BRAIN DRAIN

YOUR BRAIN ON POLITICS

Remember the old anti-drug ad that said your brain on drugs is fried? Something like that seems to be true of some people's brains on politics. Republicans who were running against the Washington establishment now support Mister Insider, Newt Gingrich. Evangelicals who were running against “immoral” Democrats now support Mister Infidelity, Newt Gingrich. Conservatives who oppose Freddie Mac now back it's former lobbyist, Mister Insincere, Newt Gingrich.

As I tried to make sense of that I turned to psychology and brain science blogs and found a couple of clues. First, people are very good at deceiving themselves. Those who believe adultery is a sin switch from morality to electability as the basis for their decision to back Gingrich. Those who despise Washington insiders switch to hatred of Obama as their reason for supporting him. And “everybody has to make a living” is reason enough to overlook Gingrich's career as a lobbyist.

The other insight came from a study of “group think.” This is the “to get along, go along” attitude which explains why honest men and women working on Wall Street engaged in flagrantly dishonest practices. And it may also explain why perfectly rational men and women are backing a man who was fined $300,000 for engaging in corrupt activities while serving as Speaker; number three in line to serve as President.

Between now and election day the airwaves, and on-line social media, will be awash in ads which remind voters of Gingrich's past. (Assuming he's the nominee.) But those ads won't change minds unless they directly address the self-deception and group thinking. I suggest using a grandmotherly woman in an ad in which she says, “You may want to forget his repeated adultery, but I can't and you ought to be ashamed of yourself if you do.” And one that features a man in jail who says, '”I broke the law when I was on Wall Street and am paying the price. Are you going to let Gingrich get away with his crimes and serve his time in the White House? (Head down) It's just not fair.”

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

THE WHITE HOUSE OR THE JAIL HOUSE?

The President and Attorney General Holder are probably meeting in a closed door session today to discuss whether a Federal indictment should be brought against Newt Gingrich. It seems patently clear that he has violated Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 29, Section 599 of the U. S. Code which prohibits a presidential candidate from naming his (or her) cabinet picks, which Gingrich did. Today's Washington Times reported in detail Gingrich's speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Arlington, Virginia during which he promised to name former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as his Secretary of State. That clearly violated the law, and if found guilty Gingrich faces a year in jail. Of course, if charges are filed Obama will be accused of using the law to help his campaign, and if they aren't he will be slammed for putting political expediency above enforcing the law.

There is an out, however. U.S. Attorneys don't have to check with the AG before acting to enforce Federal law, so Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (an Obama appointee who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate) is free to act. Meanwhile ultra-right winger John Bolton has declined to say whether he'd take the job, but that should not stop MacBride from bringing charges.

The dilemma Obama faces is bound to spoil his sleep tonight. (And maybe make him wish he hadn't quit smoking.) What would help would be pressure from Congress to act to enforce the law. So Obama might want to make a late night call to Michigan Congressman John Conyers, Jr, the ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee. “Hey, John, do me a favor. Call Neil MacBride and get him to arrest Newt.'” The next day the President can meet with the press to lament the tragedy and point out he had no control over the action MacBride took. That ought to help him sleep better.

THE COMEDY SEASON

IT'S HARD NOT TO LAUGH

Donald Trump is going to moderate a GOP political debate. That's not a joke from the Colbert Report, funny as it seems. What's going to be tough for The Donald is to make this episode of the seemingly endless string of debates more bizarre than the others. They could all have been written by Jon Stewart's team on The Daily Show, and I'm sure that has not been lost on Obama's team, which may be tempted to run a Comedy Central campaign.

If “The GOP's a joke” becomes their 2012 slogan we're in for a fall season that will have the country in stitches. And each day's news brings more material to the comedy writers who, I'm sure, are not sipping tea as they work. G.W. Bush's press secretary handed over a bunch of new stuff when he urged Republican campaigners to attack Obama as a flip-flopper. To make his point he listed items so obscure that even the party professionals were mystified. I presume most of those present knew that flip-flopping is both Gingrich and Romney's Achilles heel, and using those words only hurts them. And at that same Republican National Committee meeting, to which a Yahoo reporter was inadvertently invited, pollster Nicholas Thompson countered that the party should be wary of attacking Obama because of his “high personal approval rating,” which has risen to 49%.

And they're faced with the new Public Policy Polling's finding that were the election held this week Gingrich would get 42% of the popular vote to Obama's 50%. That does not mean that 2012 is a certain win for Obama, which is why I'm urging them to go for the laughs. So let's dig out our old Mort Saul caps and start writing. How about, “The funniest thing about Obama is his name. The funniest thing about Romney is how many of him there are.” Or, “Gingrich just got a powerful endorsement. Tiffany's is backing him 500,000 percent.”

A WHO DONE IT

THE MYSTERY OF POLITICS

I read a lot of political news and a lot of mystery novels and during the political season the two begin to blend together. With mysteries the question is Who did it and will the good guys nail him, or her? With politics it's Who will do it, and will voters nail him, or her? In both genres the reader expects to encounter a number of suspects, be faced with the author's misdirections, and read of heart pounding threats to the good guys.

The GOP initially offered up a dozen suspects which over time has been reduced to two, Gingrich and Romney. Almost from the beginning of the novel it seemed that the Obama's good guys had their sights set on Mitt as the “who will do it,” then came a puzzling misdirection more confusing than I'd run into in any of the novels I've read. The Obama campaign ran a powerful anti-Mitt ad exposing the two Mitts trapped in one body. I asked myself if they want to run against Romney why run an ad that will hurt him win the GOP nomination? Then came the Ah Ha! moment. Obama wants to run against Gingrich!

At that point I went back to reading political news and discovered that Independents really, really don't like Newt. In California, 60% of them would vote against him and nationally only 31% of GOP voters have a favorable view of him. So things are turning out just the way the Chicago good guys want them to.

Of course before an “arrest” can be made hard evidence has to be gathered which will convince the jury (voters) that Newt should be locked out of the White House. And, as with any good novel, that evidence only comes in the last chapter; DNA turns up, or a camera catches the suspect with his hand in the till. We're going to have to wait a while before the “authors” reveal that evidence, but it is most likely something other than the million he took as a lobbyist for the mortgage giant, his marital infidelity, or his Tiffany bill. I wish I could flip forward to the last chapter but I'll just have to wait until mid-summer of 2012. And then for the November trial when the jury votes. That's the heart pounding element.

CRIME STOPPERS

LAISSEZ FAIRE IS NOT FAIR

It French, laissez faire means “let do” or “let it be,” which has been translated into the mantra of western capitalism: “Keep government's hands off!” The result, as we now see, is that those who plunder win over those who produce, those who cheat beat out those who create, and those who steal do better than those who save. Imagine if laissez faire were imposed more broadly on our society. There would be no traffic lights, no police to arrest bank robbers, no FDA to keep poison out of baby formula, and nothing to prevent counterfeiting. Surely we all now recognize that if government kept its hands off capitalism chaos would follow – as it has.

Government has managed to put a few Bernie Madoffs in prison, but most of the slime bags have been allowed to go free without having to admit their crimes or even say, “Sorry. Won't do it again.” The lackeys of Wall Street even managed to prevent the Consumer Protection Agency from saving us from investment pollution as the FDA protects us from poison in our food.

To save capitalism from today's capitalists we need to invoke a different French word: Arrêt! - Stop! And our only hope of doing that is to keep today's Republican party from gaining even greater control of our government. To achieve that, the Democratic party has no choice but to campaign against Wall Street. Harry S Truman defeated Thomas Dewey by running not against him but against a “Do nothing” Congress when Dewey led in all the polls. Obama can defeat the GOP candidate (assuming the eventually settle on one) by labeling him as the “Tool of Wall Street,” which he (or she?) surely will be. And the party must fight to control congress by running Main Street candidates against the Wall Street candidates. The Occupy movement has pointed the way, now it's time for the Democratic party to join the movement.

STREET CRIME

I MISS THE MAFIA

There was a time, not so long ago, when most suburban neighborhoods were safe from the Mafia. Back then, bad guys of one “family” murdered bad guys of other “families,” and if you weren't in “the game” you were pretty safe. Now no one is safe because crime has moved from the streets of Chicago to Wall Street. If you don't believe me, check out Academy Award winner Charles Ferguson's eye opening documentary “Inside Job.”

The “numbers racket” and loan sharking are now exclusively the business of the big banks, “investment” firms, and hedge funds. And they haul in vastly more money than the Mafia dons ever dreamed possible, money that comes out of your pocket and mine. The question is, Where are the G-Men now that we really need them?

The reason most of the crooks of today get away with stealing from us is that Congress has made their crimes “business as usual.” It's perfectly legal to put a bunch of totally bad debts (sub-prime mortgages) into a box and sell the box to somebody for a high price, which they can because they pay the “rating” agencies like Moody's and S&P to swear on a stack of old phone books that the box is really, really valuable. S&P, as you recall, was the agency that was paid to downgrade our country's credit rating because the people who paid them thought it would hurt Obama's chances of getting reelected.

There is today a glimmer of hope. Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley has filed suit against Bank of America, JPMorgan-Chase, and others charging them with real honest to God crimes. She's not a G-Man but she's one ballsy G-Lady!