Mike Sacks Keith

Maybe sportscasters do make the best political observers. Tonight on ESPN, Mike Tirico who generally remains aloof and impartial while letting the two color guys vent their spleens, tiptoed in to the pool and made a little tiny wavelet. As the Washington Redskins were self destructing on a national stage again, he observed that the pace of their approach on a 3d and goal with about five minutes remaining did not reflect the urgency of the matter at hand. One of the color guys said: "Not only that, they need to hurry it up." I don't think he was trying to be funny. He actually is an idiot.
Washignton would have had to score three times and the play clock was down to :02 before they finally snapped it. The Eagles quickly recovered the sudden fumble by the QB to which Mike said something like: "And there you have it; the reason the Redskins are who they have become."
On the radio last month, it was observed that no one knows what song the Nationals play when they score or win. The reason given was that they never score or win. NPR being what it is and from whence it comes, NPR criticized the criticism and played the entire song with all kinds of excuses for why the Nationals should be given more credit. All of this makes me think that both these teams are reflecting the confusion and disarry their home city is in. I can't really say much about the baseball team as I don't care one whit about baseball in general much less the joke that the Nationals are. I only know a little bit more about football including the notion that you can't have four people making split-second decisions about how to play a dynamic rough and tumble game on a big grass field with 20 huge strong angry men playing to a drunken crowd of twenty thousand people. Yet the owner, coach, coordinator and quarterback of this team cannot agree on who is in charge and who has responsibility.
Does this sound familiar? Just substitute Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Emmanuel or any number of other beltway figures' names into the football metaphor and that is why health care repair is dying. It is why the government is paralyzed and has been for a long time. It is why we need MSNBC and ESPN to get all the so-called smart mouth brainiacs in the White House out on a gridiron beamed to their networks live. Suit them up in pads and cups, and pit them against the blue dogs and the dumb asses with no headsets, no coded wristbands, no laminated cheat sheets and no second guessing from above. Obama is the QB for the public option, single payer, kill-the-insurance-CEO team. Kyl or McConnell can helm the other squad but who will referee? Because you know McCain will do a lot of clipping, horse-collaring, face-masking and generally dirty tricks. How about Harry and Louise? Or Hillary or Bill? God knows they have made careers pandering to every side imaginable on every issue that comes before them. No matter, because for once, we would get an honest contest and a fair fight with the clock ticking. Instead of this handwringing and posturing and fumbling and knee-dropping.
Are the Redskins copying the politicians or vice versa? Either way, some head-butting is in order and I would pay to watch some serious republican blood spilled. It might sway the crowd, it might put Boehner in the hospital, and it might show the Washington Redskins how to get it done.

Calgon Take Me Away

When I was little and could steal away to watch daytime TV, my favorite ad was for those bath beads. A glamorous woman would relax in her bubble bath as the noises of her household faded into silence and soft music swelled up. Maybe I should try a bubble bath but I doubt seriously it would make me feel less bad. I know; you wonder how or why anyone could sustain so much negativity for so long. This blog has been going on for years now with the same dark overtones. And just when you thought it could not get any worse, I am here to prove you wrong.
There was a death in our family a couple of weeks ago and it really upset me. Mainly because it was self inflicted. The person was not a blood relative but he was the brother of someone who had married one of my blood relatives. As a veterinarian for decades, he had doubtless put many animals to death as an act of mercy. He himself had been suffering from cancer so. . . While I do not know or need to know any details of the act itself, the notion that a person has or at least takes the right of self determination upon himself is a serious responsibility. And though the anguish such an act causes for the surviving and bewildered family members is deep, it is not for them or anyone else to decide whether it was the right thing to do. Why is it OK to inflict death by chemistry on an ailing dog, but not on an ailing person? In the end, I respect his decision as not an act of cowardice or weakness. But as an act of precisely what I cannot say right now.
The planet is going down down down by the day. The ability of the worldwide capitalist machine to deliver goods and services has been irrevocably damaged by its own greed and hunger and thirst for wealth. No replacement system is available off the shelf. Efforts to impose equality and fairness are met with derision and ridicule. The hope and optimism we all felt last winter is giving way to despair upon learning the sad truth that all idols have feet of clay. Since nothing is going to get better and everything is going to get worse, what is the point of staying to watch an inevitably tragic conclusion?
The thought in my brain which is hardest to get rid of right now centers around anarchy. I can't shake the idea that a willful destructive effort against the big institutions delivered randomly in the style of TERRORISM will be the only solution. I told a customer service person at my bank the other day I would go to church and pray to god that a 9.0 earthquake would level san francisco and kill everyone working in the wells fargo tower. This because they are raising everyone's credit card interest rate by 40%. I think while I am at it, I will pray that Iran gets the bomb and tests it on Wall Street. Do you think I am a monster? Do you think I am the only person quietly walking around secretly wishing for the end of days? Do you think no one is working on a way to make such things happen? The human population must be decimated if the planet has a prayer of making it through another century. Earth was here first; its plants and animals and seasons and machinations predate our human presence here and now look at what we have wrought. If we can't fix what we have broken, we need to stop being since we can't stop breaking things. A person who leaves by choice might be making his own small contribution to that end. But there would be a greater net gain in the middle term if cataclysmic forces were brought to bear on the real culprits. At least we would give the next generation a fighting chance instead of a life sentence to gulag with population SEVEN BILLION.
Just so there is no misunderstanding, I am actually saying that I really hope something huge and terrible happens to the banks, government, pharma, media, china and most of all MICROSOFT because going on living and watching the slow inexorable slide into hell for the working classes is going to feel very much worse than a bubble bath. If I or people I know or are related to die in the violence, too bad. Let's not kid ourselves: all life today is very cheap and none of it matters any more. There is something bigger at stake than my pathetic little world of vacuum tubes and old cars and whatever makes up your pathetic little world too. Sweep it all away and start anew.

The Bully in the Room

There will be two topics today which I am still trying to find a way to connect together. As this takes shape, maybe I will succeed.
Number one is nine eleven. I hate the whole concept of "remembering" the thing and all this New York sympathy schlock with volunteers reading the names. I know; someone reading this who is a friend or relative will reveal that they "lost someone" in the collapse or crash. And I will be shunned and hated for being insensitive. Which I don't care about because I am already hateful and insensitive anyway. Survivors of WW2 or Vietnam soldiers who died deserve respect and consideration, but I don't think many of them went around wearing their loss on their sleeve. Oh wait; those were wars and the so-called "attack on america" was in peacetime. Which in turn was cited as reason for us to kill civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan in a sort of wartime. Or at least a civil war time in those countries. If there ever was some trail of logic there, it is so hopelessly twisted as to become illogical. So just spare us all this memorializing especially eight years hence when there is still just a hole in the ground where all the evidence of what really happened is gone and buried and burned. No two people in NYC can agree on how many millions of public money should be spent on whatever the "thing" is supposed to look like so the scar just sits there oozing mud and pollution. If those people who are entrusted with carrying out some wish for a proper tribute are so ill-equipped for the task, then the rest of us should be spared the crying towel and hand-wringing. If the event were truly worthy of commemoration, why has nobody come up with a way to commemorate it? By reverse logic, I believe I have just proved that commemoration of nine eleven is unnecessary and worthless.
By way of strained tie-in to the second part, I submit the case of Van Jones. This is the incredibly handsome guy who the far right crucified and the President hung out to dry over a nine eleven truth website. Mr Jones signed a petition asking for full disclosure of secret government files that might reveal hidden ugly facts about complicity or even causation of the nine eleven attacks. He did this before he became a White House staff person but no one knew this it seems till now when someone with google skills dug up some moldy material of dubious relevance to anything. So the right wins another one; a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Every little thing they can find to discredit the President is to be exploited and emblazoned on TV. After a while, the dimly aware electorate will form a nebulous but negative opinion about the President as a result of this chip chip chipping away at the foundation.
The plant in the audience at Congress the other night which at first went off like one of those south american stink flowers has now become another brick out of that wall. By huddling to fine tune the wording in one of the bills, the Democrats have validated this boorishness and played right into the hands of the Becks and Rushes. A year from now, no one will recall the incident itself but the malaise descending over the presidency will become as concrete as the cone of silence. If only it were to be so transparent but I fear it will be more like a lead balloon.
The anemic non-response by POTUS to the shout-out spoke volumes about his lack of chutzpah. Those who have cited his over-reliance on the teleprompter now have more ammunition. Not that he could really have responded in kind or marched down there to throttle this twit by the throat; but some kind of stand-up defense or counter would have galvanized the left and center in a way no town halls or TV gabfests could begin to. The only satisfaction any of us got was Nancy glowering and seething as well she should have. He could have said something like: "Do you speak for the entire republican caucus? If not, your colleagues need to say so right now. I am waiting. If you do, the American people now see how badly the process has been hi-jacked and subverted. I am actually grateful for the revelation." I am not a politician much less the president. But I came up with something not half bad. Why didn't he? Because he is timid and afraid of being "uppity." Yes the charged race word in all its ugliness. If he were to stand up and smite the oppressive white master, he would prove to the world how dangerous and sub-human all blacks really are. So he Uncle Tom-s his way through the briar patch and we all sit here holding our breath and fearing for the next Fort Sumter attack. It is coming; make no mistake. The South may not rise again from the same geographic map, but the right is going to have its revenge on all things northern, black, smart, progressive, liberal and fair if they have to drag the whole country into the swamp with it. Whatever the President has to do to thwart them, the time is growing short and the enemy is gathering strength with every skirmish they win.

The Best, All-Purpose, All-Round, Metaphorical Device Known

If you held a Mobius Strip up to a Looking Glass, or took one through it, would it behave the same way? If the last twelve months of our governmental and political machinations were projected onto such a construct, would things make any less sense than they do right now?
I have reached a point where I too want the President to fail but not for the same reason and not in the same manner that the far right extremists do. He has to learn a hard lesson about being too nice and too naive and too compromising. If the only way to do is to fall flat on his face or on his ass, so be it. The blue dogs and the McConnell-Armey-Coburn-Gingrich-Palin crowd mounted a blind sided attack on him that was financed by the health insurance and pharma establishment. (It is much cheaper in the long run to bribe the Congress than it is to suffer the losses a derailing of the gravy train might have been.) The smart and savvy Obama we voted for would have seen it coming or at least ducked or maybe punched back. He is 0 for 3 and that is a strike out in baseball.
Some pundits have not given up and some are even optimistic a scenario can be salvaged from this that puts a public option health care plan in place. But I am resigned to the idea that millions more will go broke trying to stay alive or just give up and die. At least one left wing pundit suggested this was the Obama plan all along; to get elected by promising to try while knowing full well the outcome would be like this. I am not that cynical. Yet.

Revisionism Revisited

Many have drawn a parallel between the week's events surrounding Michael Jackson's demise and the passing of Elvis Presley. I can see some faint shadows of overlap for a few reasons. Number one is the black-become-white metamorphosis which Elvis executed so effortlessly and seamlessly and quietly. The difference is he did it before he burst on the scene rather than after. And in reverse direction. I wish we could say Jackson's changes had been so well-conceived, well-carried out and well-received. That is assuming Jackson's pursuit had merit in the first place which it did not. Elvis drew from the musical outlaw repertoire of black performers, made it his own and ran with it. In doing so, he was the first and biggest crossover act in music history. To say he integrated black and white onto the dance floor might be a bit much; but with some help from Dick Clark and American Bandstand, the youth of the time did begin to look past race and accept each other more I think. How could anyone fault Elvis--or Dick Clark--for that?
How many of these same good things can be said about Jackson? Well, the times were quite different. Blacks had taken over Detroit studios and were putting out the Barry Gordy sound on millions of platters bought by listeners of both colors. White artists had broken away from the quaint Elvis sound in favor of Brit pop; thanks to Beatlemania. The two camps had managed to de-integrate and re-segregate the music business; perhaps unwittingly but still effectively. Into this fray burst the Jackson Five which as a child act could pass for acceptability to Ed Sullivan's white audience, but deep down they were of course black people albeit with an edge-less quality to their brand of soul. A country torn apart by Vietnam and race riots could handle a cute black kid with an Afro who sang white material.
As Michael grew up, he began to hone an edge to his act. Maybe he did believe that a hipper Gen-X legion of fans who emerged from the turbulence could embrace his blackness without giving any thought to the concept of race at all. Smart move. They did just that as the machine was now being driven by Quincy Jones and MTV at redline speed and selling billions of dollars worth of music. Up to this point, he had been doing some good for music and race relations both.
Why Jackson went wrong, how he went wrong and why no one helped him back to the right path are all moot points now. They became moot long ago as his perversions and delusions and confusion about his self identity played out in court and the media. Any hope of a looming "comeback" would be as credible as one attempted by someone who thought the time was ripe for a modern version of Amos 'n Andy. Who would pay huge money to see a pasty caricature of a mannequin with no heart or soul left in him?
I think the saddest part of these last few days is the racial divide which is again so evident. The grieving energy expended by white people was a fraction of that depicted in the media at least by black fans. Nearly 3/4 of black people felt the amount of coverage was proper while about the same percentage of whites felt it was excessive. If Brooke Shields had not gone before the cameras (with a much better tan than she usually displays) today, I submit the event might have been completely un-integrated. Oh wait: Jackson's white "children" were present so do they count? But wait: they don't have any of his DNA so are they "his?"
Number two on my list of similarities has to do with medicine as practiced so badly and so ineffectively by the medical profession who does a great deal of harm despite their lofty and broken promise. To blame the victim for getting addicted to pills is missing the mark. The companies making these compounds, the government that approves them, the doctors who push them and the insurance companies that keep the whole machine greased and spinning are the villains. The people they suck in and chew up and spit out are pitiable. And because Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley both got ground up in those blades, I feel sorry for them both. I just wish Michael could have built on Elvis' sociological ground breaking rather than turning it on its head. He would have left a much better legacy.

Cheering Then Booing Then Cheering Then. . .

I have not written in a while because I have had something to do. It makes me wonder how many blogs are put out there because the blogger has nothing else to do. A casual perusal of the blogosphere would produce a rather obvious conclusion.
What I am doing is starting a vacuum tube equipment repair business. I have always fixed mine and other people's old TVs and radios as a hobby so I am going to try and dig my way out of this employment dustbowl the government has dumped us all in by making some money from my enterprising brainpower. Yes I do blame the government because part of what we charge them with is providing a sound basic structure on which a somewhat free economy can thrive and grow. They failed to do that in the beginning so in the end it is their fault.
I also have not written because I did not want to criticize the new prez even though I am becoming disgusted. He deserves all these good marks for being smart and progressive and hip, true enough. His wife has a vegetable garden on the museum grounds for the first time since World War Two days. She had a live jazz ensemble perform at the White House today for the first time in anyone's memory. There are lots of things to like about these people. Today he went before the AMA and told them what they did not want to hear. They boo-ed him. But then they are rich doctors making trillions off the anguish of sick frightened people so how much sensitivity can you expect from them?
Bill Maher of HBO made a good point on Keith Olbermann's show tonight. He uses his studio audiences as his political barometer. He says that in the beginning when he expressed hope for the future under the new leadership, the audiences cheered. Then when the new leadership started morphing into a mean-spirited copy of the old leadership and Bill complained out loud, the audiences boo-ed him in disagreement and blind support of their hero. Now when he rages against the machine that is stalling on ending war, stalling on Gitmo, stalling on gay rights, stalling on CIA reforms, stalling on every major promise made to get the left wing on board during the campaign, the audience cheers. So the fickle crowd has swung to and fro and to again but for different reasons.
Look at what Kennedy promised in the way of what was then liberal thinking. Then look at what he actually did in Cuba and Vietnam. And what he did not do for civil rights for African Americans. The difference between the promise and the reality is seldom mentioned in light of what ultimately happened to him. And it is unlikely that the man in the street in 1963 was fully aware of how disappointing the new leadership was proving to be. Today, the man on the street is plugged in to the instant web-o-sphere and disappointment can turn to rage overnight as seen in Iran over the last few days. I will stop there and let all this sink in as the ramifications and parallels are too chilling to expand upon. If ever there was a place I did not want to go there to, this would be it.

Do YOU Want to Swim in This Gene Pool?

For all his apparent skills in assessing and manipulating--, uh. . .the entire world, our President is a little out of step right here at home in the backwaters of the ignorant pond in which wade what used to be called the silent majority. Though I guess we need a new name now for the generation that succeeded the dim bulbs who re-elected Nixon since that original group seems to have produced offspring of equally challenged mental capacity. The question is whether he will float with the backflowing current or power up the pumps and flush the filth.
The latest issue that separates the know-somethings from the know-nothings is whether to torture our enemies or not. The Know-Somethings who should include the President and Eric Holder and Nancy Pelosi (and probably do) are quite right in their belief that torture is wrong no matter what information it produces from anyone about anything. The know-nothings that include Newt and Mitch and Sean and Rush (and why is this list longer than the other one?) are pressing forward with their ignorant and jingoistic drumbeat that torture saves american lives so therefore is OK. For all the nonsense that now passes for analysis on NPR, there are occasional unintended lapses that produce fleeting moments of vision on their air. The other day, they had a guy with a British accent who works for some think tank observing that other countries have suffered far worse proportional attacks on their own soil than the USA did on 11 September. But you don't see those other countries taking high handed (or would that be low handed?) measures to beat the so-called truth out of unfortunate captives to head off another attack. Here is a guy who can cut to the core and boy I wish he could bottle that and inject it into the mass bloodstream. But it's too late. The testosterone and adrenaline have been so pressurized by the titilating details of waterboarding and genito-electrical stimulation and dog biting and face-punching by big bruiser military macho men with stars and bars patches on their shoulders that the average clod out there scared of foreclosure is telling the president to "move forward instead of looking backward."
It has been a couple of weeks since I saw any poll numbers but as recently as the first of this month, a majority of citizens advocated torture as a means to extract information from "suspected terrorists." This is consistent with the high percentage of people who advocate murder by the state but call it "capital" punishment. These same people are buying up all the bullets and guns they possibly can in places like Texas and Florida so they can be armed and ready to resist whatever threat they think the government represents as it tries to keep order and calm amidst the widening chaos. There is a twisted sense of Twilight Zone irony in there somewhere; I should have that worked out in my next posting. For now though, I will try to get back to my main point. All this garbage about "looking forward" is code for "we reserve the right to bust mooslim ay-rab heads to protect the red white and blue."
The president and the Congress do have lots of stuff to deal with; like how to de-fuse the stink bomb the previous administration set off last fall that was calculated to produce the economic collapse which is hurting so many in the middle and lower classes. But that job does not take up every hour of every day. The hard work has been done; the groundwork laid and yes there is some tuning and tweaking and monitoring to be done. But there are thousands of smart lawyers and investigators and journalists reporting to work every day with time on their hands to dig up the ugly and illegal truth about the last eight years. If Pat Leahy and Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi and Obama himself can keep sight of Santayana's warning, they will be able to measure their forward progress by how meticulously they examine the past records of old emails and memos and phone transcripts. For if the crimes of the past are not exposed and recognized for the transgressions they were, we are doomed to play out the same bad scripts with unhappier endings.
The President needs to educate and enlighten and lead; not follow and cower and buckle. Whether he will yield to the ignorance and let bygones be forgotten and swept under the rug, or forcefully make a case for moving to the next level of social conscience and awareness and honesty will be the first real test of his character.