November 21, 2008 – Capitol Hill Blue

A serious search for a viable political center

November 21, 2008

About two years ago, a group of 30 or so of us tried to put together a manifesto for what we thought would be a sensible start for a political party that would work for the betterment of society and protect the middle class. It’s a little long, but I hope you’ll read it.

There are times in history when groups established to further the aims of people either become unresponsive to those aims or inconsistent with the legitimate objectives they were conceived to pursue.

Finally, a politician with balls!

November 21, 2008

You may have heard that VP Dick Cheney and former AG Alberto Gonzales have been indicted in TX by a grand jury.

Since I live in a county right next door to Willacy county where this is being prosecuted, we have been privileged to hear a lot more than what the Main Stream Media is putting out.

This case comes from a 2001 inmate death which has been billed as Murder by the private contracting company that was in charge of running the state prison system. The same company operates many other state prison systems.

Why we are contracting out the prisons, I have no idea but that’s a whole other can of worms.

Apparently Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, and another TX politican Eddie Luciano Jr are involved in the private company.

Once upon a Spin

November 21, 2008

Expecting a crash the ground came with a thud
A long tortuous fall from a height queerly unassailable
Down a sprawling spiral inhabited with falling voices singing sh_wah wah
Strangely oblivious the tide flows nowhere but down
And murderously opposed to any pointing upwards.

Restlessness gave out the amber signal
Sh_wah wah put the name on track
Induced weightlessness freaked the mind
Oh happy death
Peace the suspended self at last has found
In this weighty bones.

Aided by Divinity
Time and time again bailed out by family
The crash shaped in inevitability
Ended with a thud.
Awaiting the spinning humanity
Suspended in virtual animation
Crash to realism on similar turf.

Obama set to tap Clinton for State

November 21, 2008

In a move that has political insiders shaking their heads and many supporters of the first African-American President elect fuming, Barack Obama is set to tap Democratic primary rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his Secretary of State.

Senior aides confirm that Obama will name Clinton after Thanksgiving after former President Bill Clinton agreed to curtail his often-controversial activities with his foundation and cut back on his foreign travel and speeches.

A dumb move for Obama and Clinton

November 21, 2008

Two questions about the possibility of Hillary Clinton becoming secretary of State: Why would Barack Obama offer her the job and why would she take it?

Just floating her name showed one of the drawbacks. As always with the Clintons the story quickly became about them. Her supporters fretted whether she was being treated with the proper deference. And would Bill Clinton disclose the donors to his library and accept limits on his overseas activities? He answered that question this week — "I’ll do whatever they want" — and in doing so put the President-elect in a box. What more could he possibly ask?

So much for Obama’s promise of change

November 21, 2008

Barack Obama’s apparent decision to ask Eric Holder to be his attorney general is not without peril for a young president-elect who has repeatedly promised to clean up the scandal polluted, partisan atmosphere of Washington.

Senate Republicans will lack the strength to deny confirmation to Holder, the former deputy U.S. attorney general under Bill Clinton. But they certainly can make his nomination their first big challenge of the new administration and in the process give Obama some very bad moments by resurrecting one of the more questionable last minute actions by an outgoing president in recent history.

Bailout lag

November 21, 2008

Auto executives flew into Washington in private jets, and before long there was congressional stalemate on what they wanted, not just because of the unfortunate symbolism, but because widespread discussion had successfully blunted sharp assertions.

Despite what some contended, it became ever less certain that the $25 billion federal bailout sought by the executives would save the auto industry, that a declaration of bankruptcy would kill it or that industry demise would wound the country grievously.

The big three & Congress: dumb & dumber

November 21, 2008

What are we to think of the Big Three automakers plea to Congress (and each of us) for a $25 billion bailout, euphemistically known as a bridge loan or rescue package?

During the disastrous trip to Washington by the auto companies’ three CEOs (stupidly arriving on private luxury jets), the three men were unable to say exactly how much they need and how it would be spent, provide assurance they wouldn’t be back in a few months demanding more money and, finally, explain why Americans won’t buy their products.

You don’t give your last tourniquet to a dead man, said one lawmaker. What is at the end of the bridge, another demanded. Why are Toyota’s U.S. operations able to sell its cars, and you can’t sell yours, another congressman asked.

What’s gone wrong with our language?

November 21, 2008

Meh. Feh. Heh. Wha …?

New words enter the language all the time, but not all of them warrant a mention in the dictionary. "Meh," say the word mavens at the Collins English Dictionary, means "an expression of indifference or boredom." The word’s inclusion in the dictionary, however, is anything but boring.

Meh is a pop culture creation — the word turned up in a 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" — that has exploded on the Internet. TV, text messaging, blogging, chat rooms and message boards are changing the way Americans read, speak and think.

America needs a civic lesson

November 21, 2008

However you regard the outcome of the November 4 election, it was heartening to watch 125 million Americans cast their ballots at precincts from coast to coast.

Unfortunately, they and the many millions more who skipped the whole thing collectively know frightfully little about the government we just reaffirmed, the principles that under-gird it, and the basic documents in which those ideas are enshrined. Thus, Americans slouch into the 21st Century — a free and confident people blissfully unaware of how we got here or how we shall continue our 232-year-old tradition of limited self-government.

Consider these staggering data: