Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Here's Another Fine Mess
God wants politics
God wants a good laugh
What God wants
God gets God help us all
-- Roger Waters, What God Wants-Pt.2
The crowd at IUS last night for the senatorial debate between top contenders Joe Donnelly and Richard Mourdock was treated to a bit of God's words being run through the man-filter, just to add that speck of imperfection the deity finds so amusing. My wife gasped and audibly said "Oh, my God." I was thinking about furnace pipes at the time, I believe, but the candidate's comment entered my brain nonetheless.
The whole affair was dismal by any measure. The moderator read questions, but did little else. His participation, now that I think about it, could have actually been taped and the fellow at the podium may have only been punching buttons on a recorder, which really makes more sense. The candidates were on hand to chime in on cue with rehearsed lines. I truly believe Donnelly mentioned his support for a balanced budget amendment and his participation in cutting $2.4 trillion dollars of government spending no less than three times. Joe D wants nothing to come between him and the antsy, still-discomfited Lugar supporters who are too embarrassed to sign on with an embarrassment like Mourdock.
Donnelly should heed Harry Truman's words that (paraphrasing here), "given a choice between a Democrat that sounds like a Republican and a true Republican, the voters will choose the real thing every time." Luckily, Truman didn't widen the choice to include a face off between a Democrat that sounds like a Republican, and a full-blown lunatic.
Also, luckily for Donnelly, and incidentally for Obama as well, the full-blown lunatic showed up last night while the cameras were running. If we Hoosiers are muttering to ourselves in some distant time about that idiot senator Mourdock, if we are embarrassed by yet another Mourdockism played back to national derision in, say, the year 2015, if we wonder then, "how in the world did President Romney get the votes to attack Belgium?" We'll be able to answer, honestly, we were warned about this fruitcake, but we did nothing. Maybe we thought, "he's just one vote, and anyway, he'll probably never run into Rand Paul, James Inhofe or any of the many Dunces of the Confederacy, so, he'll be a harmless little statement about Hoosier values."
Or, we can be adults, hold our noses and vote for Joe Donnelly, truly the lesser of two evils. Or, ignore the evidence and vote for Mourdock the evil of two lessers.
Monday, October 15, 2012
God Speed
It is sad to read the story that George McGovern is nearing death.
I voted for the first time in 1972. I actually engaged in an internal debate of whether I should vote for Nixon or McGovern.
I believe while choosing the road less traveled I chose wisely. I only regret the many wrong turns our country has taken in subsequent years. The single most under-used, or mis-used, verb in our electoral process is "think". Had we done more of that I believe we would have been in a different, and better, place today. That is what George McGovern asked of us.
I voted for the first time in 1972. I actually engaged in an internal debate of whether I should vote for Nixon or McGovern.
I believe while choosing the road less traveled I chose wisely. I only regret the many wrong turns our country has taken in subsequent years. The single most under-used, or mis-used, verb in our electoral process is "think". Had we done more of that I believe we would have been in a different, and better, place today. That is what George McGovern asked of us.
Tree Planting October 20, 2012
With the week ahead still a clean slate, as people plan what to do for next weekend, I'll offer the following suggestion. The suggestion is one which can truly and positively change our little plot of earth for decades to come.
The Tree Board will plant 150 Chestnut trees at Binford Park. These starts are cross-bred, disease resistant trees ( American Chestnuts with Chinese). The trees have been secured by Bryan Slade of EcoTech as part of that company's plan to plant 10,000 trees, 1,000 a year for 10 years to celebrate the company's anniversary.
The trees planted Saturday will not be the last Chestnuts the Tree Board plants. By making this initial planting we are committing to follow with care and maintenance of these trees as well as bringing more Chestnuts to New Albany. With other groups around the country doing the same thing, we may again see the Chestnut as a major species in our eastern woodlands.
Chestnut trees were decimated in the early half of the Twentieth Century by a blight. The trees had once covered much of the eastern United States. They were a towering, stately tree that contributed immensely to the prosperity of early settlers, they provided abundant habitat for wildlife, they provided a verdant cover for woodlands, and did what trees do, providing clean, fresh oxygen.
Modern cities are plagued by problems of our own construction, bad air-quality, sprawling loss of habitat, heat islands of radiant pavement, to name a few. The simple act of planting a tree can begin to balance out some of these assaults on nature.
Come to Binford Park Saturday October 20 at 9:00 AM and plant a tree. It's a wave to the future.
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit"
--Nelson Henderson
The Tree Board will plant 150 Chestnut trees at Binford Park. These starts are cross-bred, disease resistant trees ( American Chestnuts with Chinese). The trees have been secured by Bryan Slade of EcoTech as part of that company's plan to plant 10,000 trees, 1,000 a year for 10 years to celebrate the company's anniversary.
The trees planted Saturday will not be the last Chestnuts the Tree Board plants. By making this initial planting we are committing to follow with care and maintenance of these trees as well as bringing more Chestnuts to New Albany. With other groups around the country doing the same thing, we may again see the Chestnut as a major species in our eastern woodlands.
Chestnut trees were decimated in the early half of the Twentieth Century by a blight. The trees had once covered much of the eastern United States. They were a towering, stately tree that contributed immensely to the prosperity of early settlers, they provided abundant habitat for wildlife, they provided a verdant cover for woodlands, and did what trees do, providing clean, fresh oxygen.
Modern cities are plagued by problems of our own construction, bad air-quality, sprawling loss of habitat, heat islands of radiant pavement, to name a few. The simple act of planting a tree can begin to balance out some of these assaults on nature.
Come to Binford Park Saturday October 20 at 9:00 AM and plant a tree. It's a wave to the future.
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit"
--Nelson Henderson
Saturday, October 13, 2012
The Big Boys
As The Boss prepares to visit Ohio this coming Thursday, in support of the President, perhaps Bain's Big Boys will be getting their song requests together to serenade the Mitt's populist supporters. After all, Mitt wants his populist appeal to reach some of the laggards in the 47% he disdains.
Here's a suggested request Mitt might scribble on the back of a cocktail napkin to pass up to The Boss after he finishes "Born in the USA".
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
ATTENTION LOSERS:The Romney Campaign Wants Your Vote
As anyone with a television, radio or computer knows by now Mitt Romney is rich, a jerk, and a terribly inartful campaigner. Following on the heels of the opinion he offered recently to George Stephanopoulos that the income of the middle class is around, "$200,000 to $250,000 a year", he places something unsavory in the punchbowl of the presidential campaign.
My only question is, "why does this surprise anyone ?"
From top to bottom the Republican Party has been delivered to the fringe of the right wing. The Tea Party has become the Republican Party. The Republican Party has become the Tea Party. The glaring irony of this osmotic flow of party identity is that many of the people Romney speaks so dismissively of are caught in the same net the Mittster cast. The roughly half of the nation Romney says he simply writes off as unreachable boobs, beholden to government largess and an easy existence on the dole, make up a fair amount of his Tea Party base. They are retired. They are disabled. They are stuck in low-paying, dead-end jobs and so they don't make enough money to cross the threshold of paying taxes. Perhaps these low-wage dregs owe their station in life to a policy of job-elimination similar to that pursued by Romney's Bain Capital.
And yet, we are told, the presidential race remains tight, maybe even too close to call.
What's the matter with these people? Don't they own a television?
ATTENTION LOSERS: The Romney Campaign Wants Your Vote
As anyone with a television, radio or computer knows by now Mitt Romney is rich, a jerk, and a terribly inartful campaigner. Following on the heels of the opinion he offered recently to George Stephanopoulos that the income of the middle class is around, "$200,000 to $250,000 a year", he places something unsavory in the punchbowl of the presidential campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnB0NZzl5HA&feature=player_embedded
My only question is, "why does this surprise anyone ?"
From top to bottom the Republican Party has been delivered to the fringe of the right wing. The Tea Party has become the Republican Party. The Republican Party has become the Tea Party. The glaring irony of this osmotic flow of party identity is that many of the people Romney speaks so dismissively of are caught in the same net the Mittster cast. The roughly half of the nation Romney says he simply writes off as unreachable boobs, beholden to government largess and an easy existence on the dole, make up a fair amount of his Tea Party base. They are retired. They are disabled. They are stuck in low-paying, dead-end jobs and so they don't make enough money to cross the threshold of paying taxes. Perhaps these low-wage dregs owe their station in life to a policy of job-elimination similar to that pursued by Romney's Bain Capital.
And yet, we are told, the presidential race remains tight, maybe even too close to call.
What's the matter with these people? Don't they own a television?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnB0NZzl5HA&feature=player_embedded
My only question is, "why does this surprise anyone ?"
From top to bottom the Republican Party has been delivered to the fringe of the right wing. The Tea Party has become the Republican Party. The Republican Party has become the Tea Party. The glaring irony of this osmotic flow of party identity is that many of the people Romney speaks so dismissively of are caught in the same net the Mittster cast. The roughly half of the nation Romney says he simply writes off as unreachable boobs, beholden to government largess and an easy existence on the dole, make up a fair amount of his Tea Party base. They are retired. They are disabled. They are stuck in low-paying, dead-end jobs and so they don't make enough money to cross the threshold of paying taxes. Perhaps these low-wage dregs owe their station in life to a policy of job-elimination similar to that pursued by Romney's Bain Capital.
And yet, we are told, the presidential race remains tight, maybe even too close to call.
What's the matter with these people? Don't they own a television?
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Cleared for Take Off
As the Democratic convention in Charlotte gets ready to take off, one will be amazed at how often the question will be put to Obama surrogates, "are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
The answer is, hell yes.
Four years ago, if the U.S. were an airplane and George Bush the captain...
But, four years ago the captain of our flight was Barack Obama. Passengers boarded with an air of optimism, perhaps greater than the occasion called for, but most were so relieved to be deplaning from the ruinous, bizarre flight they had just endured that they felt nothing could be worse, and therefore things would be better immediately upon takeoff. There weren't enough little bottles of booze on the planet, let alone the plane, to make the previous flight tolerable.
Sure, Captain Bush had filed incorrect flight plans, there'd be no time for a maintenance check, a lot of people had died, but everybody in First Class was having a grand time and the people in Coach had plans and needed to get where they were going. So as he was leaving, Captain Bush kind of winked and tossed the new guy the keys and said "she's all yours, fuel gauge is acting up little, don't worry about it." Then, strangely, he kissed the ground.
As the plane lifted off, some of the passengers looked at snapshots from the earlier leg of the journey. Here's the day the terrorists attacked, and some were glad Captain Bush was at the helm. Just after that one was taken multitudes of IRANIANS flooded the streets of Tehran in a candlelight vigil of support for the U.S. in it's hour of tragedy. Why did the Captain label that very picture "Axis of Evil"?
Here's a few shots of the nineteen hijackers who boarded planes that day to mount the attack. Fifteen were from Saudi Arabia, so we knew then that the super-size can of Industrial-Strength Woop Ass would soon be directed at Saudi Arabia. But here's another photo of George W. kissing a prince from Saudi Arabia, must be like a Godfather kiss, right? Funny story, the whole Woop Ass thing with Saudi Arabia got trumped by an older black and white picture of W's dad getting threatened by Saddam Hussein. Since none of the hijackers came from Iraq you might think they'd be sort of in the clear, but their pictures are also labeled "Axis of Evil".
Here's an old one of Dick Cheney when he named himself vice president, written on the back, "no one else was qualified". Here's another titled "energy task force", but it's just a picture of a closed door, I don't remember what that's about.
Here's one of Jeb Bush when he was governor of Florida on the night of the 2000 election, that one's got "inside job" written on the back, but it's crossed out and instead it looks like it's just got numbers "5-4" written instead.
Somebody from First Class by way of a stewardess, sent a note back to Coach that said, "you all are living in the past, looking at all those old pictures. And besides, Captain W and Dick the co-pilot gave us a great flight."
Maybe it's not good to dwell on the past, but so many of the happy memories of the Bush years continue to influence what we're doing today, and the cost of two wars, one against the wrong enemy, continues to weigh down our economy. The special treatment of the people up in First Class has cut into the amenities of us back here in Coach. Captain Bush's tax cuts along with the wars, drove us nearly Five Trillion dollars further into debt. Obama's debt has been high too but you don't quibble about the price of water when the house, or plane, is on fire.
Back to the friendly skies for a moment. The reason I think things are better now than four years ago is that the economy, like a plane, was crashing then. It was crashing under the ruinous policies of Bush. While Obama has stabilized it and we've actually seen job growth for over two years. Under Bush jobs were disappearing at the rate of 700,000 per month.
Continuing on the airplane metaphor for just a moment longer, recall the Twilight Zone episode of the wild flight William Shatner had. He looked out the window to see a demon tampering with the engines to make the plane crash. When Obama looks out the airplane window he sees the beady, bespeckled eyes of the senior senator from Kentucky, the odious Mitch McConnell, working feverishly to bring truth to his traitorous pledge to make Obama a one term president.
Yes, it's been a rough flight under Captain Obama. We all wish we had made better progress on the journey. I for one, wish we had picked up single-payer health coverage in the gift shop. But Obama did end the war in Iraq. He did make some progress toward universal health coverage. Against an intransigent Republican party he has tried, but admittedly failed, to return tax policy to the time of budget surpluses. The sacrosanct job-creators, pampered by ten years of favored treatment, have thus far failed to deliver on their eponymous long suit. Instead they wait, we are told, for another plane.
Me? I'll stay on Captain Obama's flight.
The answer is, hell yes.
Four years ago, if the U.S. were an airplane and George Bush the captain...
But, four years ago the captain of our flight was Barack Obama. Passengers boarded with an air of optimism, perhaps greater than the occasion called for, but most were so relieved to be deplaning from the ruinous, bizarre flight they had just endured that they felt nothing could be worse, and therefore things would be better immediately upon takeoff. There weren't enough little bottles of booze on the planet, let alone the plane, to make the previous flight tolerable.
Sure, Captain Bush had filed incorrect flight plans, there'd be no time for a maintenance check, a lot of people had died, but everybody in First Class was having a grand time and the people in Coach had plans and needed to get where they were going. So as he was leaving, Captain Bush kind of winked and tossed the new guy the keys and said "she's all yours, fuel gauge is acting up little, don't worry about it." Then, strangely, he kissed the ground.
As the plane lifted off, some of the passengers looked at snapshots from the earlier leg of the journey. Here's the day the terrorists attacked, and some were glad Captain Bush was at the helm. Just after that one was taken multitudes of IRANIANS flooded the streets of Tehran in a candlelight vigil of support for the U.S. in it's hour of tragedy. Why did the Captain label that very picture "Axis of Evil"?
Here's a few shots of the nineteen hijackers who boarded planes that day to mount the attack. Fifteen were from Saudi Arabia, so we knew then that the super-size can of Industrial-Strength Woop Ass would soon be directed at Saudi Arabia. But here's another photo of George W. kissing a prince from Saudi Arabia, must be like a Godfather kiss, right? Funny story, the whole Woop Ass thing with Saudi Arabia got trumped by an older black and white picture of W's dad getting threatened by Saddam Hussein. Since none of the hijackers came from Iraq you might think they'd be sort of in the clear, but their pictures are also labeled "Axis of Evil".
Here's an old one of Dick Cheney when he named himself vice president, written on the back, "no one else was qualified". Here's another titled "energy task force", but it's just a picture of a closed door, I don't remember what that's about.
Here's one of Jeb Bush when he was governor of Florida on the night of the 2000 election, that one's got "inside job" written on the back, but it's crossed out and instead it looks like it's just got numbers "5-4" written instead.
Somebody from First Class by way of a stewardess, sent a note back to Coach that said, "you all are living in the past, looking at all those old pictures. And besides, Captain W and Dick the co-pilot gave us a great flight."
Maybe it's not good to dwell on the past, but so many of the happy memories of the Bush years continue to influence what we're doing today, and the cost of two wars, one against the wrong enemy, continues to weigh down our economy. The special treatment of the people up in First Class has cut into the amenities of us back here in Coach. Captain Bush's tax cuts along with the wars, drove us nearly Five Trillion dollars further into debt. Obama's debt has been high too but you don't quibble about the price of water when the house, or plane, is on fire.
Back to the friendly skies for a moment. The reason I think things are better now than four years ago is that the economy, like a plane, was crashing then. It was crashing under the ruinous policies of Bush. While Obama has stabilized it and we've actually seen job growth for over two years. Under Bush jobs were disappearing at the rate of 700,000 per month.
Continuing on the airplane metaphor for just a moment longer, recall the Twilight Zone episode of the wild flight William Shatner had. He looked out the window to see a demon tampering with the engines to make the plane crash. When Obama looks out the airplane window he sees the beady, bespeckled eyes of the senior senator from Kentucky, the odious Mitch McConnell, working feverishly to bring truth to his traitorous pledge to make Obama a one term president.
Yes, it's been a rough flight under Captain Obama. We all wish we had made better progress on the journey. I for one, wish we had picked up single-payer health coverage in the gift shop. But Obama did end the war in Iraq. He did make some progress toward universal health coverage. Against an intransigent Republican party he has tried, but admittedly failed, to return tax policy to the time of budget surpluses. The sacrosanct job-creators, pampered by ten years of favored treatment, have thus far failed to deliver on their eponymous long suit. Instead they wait, we are told, for another plane.
Me? I'll stay on Captain Obama's flight.
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