The Bottom of the Barrel

The GOP is failing in spectacular fashion lately. Three of its stalwart proponents are attempting to advance their personal agendas on the backs of others by lying with straight faces to anyone with a camera and a microphone.  In no particular order, since their thoughts and words come out that way, are the bottom of the political barrel:

Senator John Kyl.  The mis-titled “junior” senator from Arizona brought some of his state’s hateful deception to the floor of the United States Senate when he asserted that “90% of what Planned Parenthood does is perform abortions.” Beyond demonizing another organization whose services are provided primarily to the economically challenged, Senator Kyl lied into the Congressional Record in order to advance a socially conservative agenda during an economic debate.  Not only is this disingenuous, but his lie, which he said “was not intended to be a factual statement,” was easily proved false and left him looking stupid. UPDATE: Senator Kyl has blamed his ridiculous assertion that his statement was #notintendedtobeafactualstatement on his press secretary.

Representative Paul Ryan.  The Republican Congressman from Wisconsin’s 1st District, is next on the list of ridiculous with his “Path to Prosperity”. A draconian boondoggle which simultaneously 1) plays to the ignorance of the Tea Party movement by simultaneously claiming to address the deficit while maintaining tax breaks for the wealthy which contribute to it, 2) cuts services to the poorest and most economically challenged citizens in the United States, and 3) FORCES SENIOR CITIZENS TO USE INSUFFICIENT VOUCHERS TO PAY FOR HEALTHCARE which means that those with the most limited means and greatest need will be forced to pay the highest costs to stay well.

Last and least on the list. Donald Trump. Should keep his day job. Another example where wealth and excess reflect a poverty of spirit. Used to be the funny, quirky business mogul. Now he’s creating an aura of racial mystification bathed in pseudo-economic savvy in order to promote his reality television show by exploiting the most ignorant example of racial profiling aimed at the President of the United States. There are people ignorant of the constitutional requirements for the presidency, though I don’t believe he is one of them.  He is however playing on their fears by claiming that Barack Obama is not eligible to be President in order to gain viewership and make more money on advertising. Capitalism at its worst – do whatever you can to get paid. I’d call him a prostitute, but I don’t want to insult those men and women who ply the world’s oldest profession.

Amazing that these three are involved in the political conversation of the nation when there is so much work to be done.

Related Articles

• Kyl revises Congressional Record to omit ‘well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does’ is abortion (dailykos.com)
• Best New Party Game 51: #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement (videogum.com)
• What a United States Senator Sounds Like (mydd.com)
• Senator Jon Kyl Purges His Lie About Planned Parenthood From Official Records (slog.thestranger.com)
• Donald Trump? (gesvol.wordpress.com)

No One But the Enemy…

I’m a UCLA football fan.  I’m a registered Democrat.  Both at the moment are painful.

Watching USC and the Gallant Old Party strut around the field, lying, cheating and winning, pisses me off.  It makes me sad.  But both have one similar quality that I do admire, that I think both my alma mater and my political party leadership need to emulate (and which President Obama does well to his immediate political detriment, but hopefully to the long-term benefit of the nation) is this: long-term strategic planning.

USC has a stock of skill-position players (quarterbacks, runningbacks, receivers, etc.) who are in the wings, waiting for their opportunity. learning their positions and responsibilities in order to jump on the field running and achieve their immediate goals of winning games and their long term goals of creating a successful program.  The GOP has been planning since Nixon opened China their uber-capitalist, non-regulated, (apparent) socially conservative, racially segregated Contract On America.  Whether it is called the Moral Majority, the Contract for America, the Bush Presidencies, the Tea Party or Speaker of the House John Boehner, the step by step dismantling of civil rights under a cloak of traditional values and dismemberment of the social safety net for the poor and underemployed while screaming about budget deficits (money before people), the GOP is implementing their soul-crushing, cash-hoarding razing of America with precision.

Meanwhile, my Bruins are scrambling and struggling without a quarterback (haven’t really had one since Cade McNown left), hiring and firing coaches (watch out Coach Neuheisel – there’s a target on your back), changing offenses, defenses and not getting new players enough learning and training time before throwing them out on the field with older, stronger, smarter men to be pummeled into submission.  And my Democrats are cutting each other into ribbons, pointing fingers, eating their young, whining about what they haven’t accomplished, throwing out babies with bathwater (sorry, Governor Dean, your 50-state strategy was awesome but there’s the door), and trying to hang our collective failure to plan and implement on the most successful Democrat in the last fifteen years, Barack Obama.

Do you see the difference?

They’re planning and implementing thirty year plans (how else do you explain the line of qbs, rbs,and receivers in the National Football League?  or the John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas Supreme Court which handed George Bush the presidency in 2000 based on “irreparable harm”?!) to implement their vision of what semi-pro football and the United States should be.

We’re going from year to year, from campaign to campaign, short-sightedly focused on immediate gains for people and failing to implement anything that lasts through the day after the election.  We’re recruiting one or two good players per year, playing them as freshmen, and then wondering why they don’t perform.  It’s painful to watch.  It’s death by a thousand cuts.

While I hate, hate, hate the Crimson and Gold, I grudgingly admire what they have been able to accomplish.  And while I abhor the stated values and goals of the Republican Party for this country, I have to admit that they have been out-strategizing us for at least a generation (really… they had in 2009 the minority in Congress, and they’ve been beating our asses with NO since then!) because they weren’t playing small ball.  They’ve trotted our John McCain as a presidential candidate, and he unleashed She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named – sideshow distractions while they pursued their political and economic agenda that we are dealing with now.

“I am your enemy, the first one you’ve ever had who was smarter than you.  There is no teacher but the enemy.  No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do.  No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer.  Only the enemy shows you where you are weak.  Only the enemy tells you where he is strong.  And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you.  I am your enemy from now on.  From now on I am your teacher.”

-Mazer Rakam to Andrew Wiggin, Ender’s Game

Would You Like Some Hypocrisy In Your TEA?

The Incoming class of Republican hypocrites who call themselves the TEA Party caucus already have their hands down the pants of Washington lobbyists, trying to pry hard cash from those silk pockets even as they talk out the other side of their faces about fiscal conservatism, debt ceilings, broken Washington politics, and taking their government back.
All of the indignation that fueled their campaigns and lip service to changing the culture of government has evaporated even before they begin serving their brief terms in our nation’s capital. It is sad, not only that their supposed virtue lasted less time than the previous Alaskan governor’s term (she did endorse many of them), or that it’s gone before they’ve moved into their ATMs – I mean offices – or cast their first votes. What’s sad is that the lies they told to get elected played on the fears and anxieties of constituents whose names they forgot as soon as the votes were counted.

Taxed Enough Already? Please.

A political party is a group of people who agree about how the government should operate; which policies it should pursue; which priorities it should elevate.  By all accounts, then, the TEA party does not qualify.  It is a disjointed conglomeration of angry and frustrated people seeking the refuge of common misery.  And their coronation of Sarah Palin as the keynote speaker (and “President Palin”) for their first annual convention is a step toward disunity and less organization, because she is in and of herself unsure of how government should operate, which policies it should pursue, or which priorities it should elevate.

There are plenty of instances where government’s usurpation of citizens’ substance has led to revolution . . . the Boston TEA Party, where colonists hurled the American Revolution against the English Crown; Shay’s Rebellion against the fledgling government of the United States called the Articles of Confederation; the Whiskey Rebellion against the newly-ratified Constitution of the United States and it’s first executive, President George Washington for the tax on alcohol.  One might even stretch credulity to proclaim that the War Between the States was a rebellion of the southern agricultural economy against federal legislation they surmised would take away the enslaved labor which supported their manner of subsistence.

Ex-governor Palin, though, claims injury when there is none, accomplishments that are not her own, and continues to spew ignorance and venom with a screech and a smile in order to feed the ravening hordes, or “revving up the base”, instead of promoting action.  How does a person quit her job in government to lead people to reform the government?  Below her jocular tone, and her claim that her husband is “too independent minded to be in the Republican Party (and more conservative than [she is]” appears to be the same narcissistic wannabe sportscaster and beauty queen, shifting and shaping her image to the applause of the day, rather than having principles and standards by which she opens her mouth and speaks truth to power.

The frustrations of some conservatives which are valid are lost in the tumultuous chaos stirred by the likes of Sarah Palin on behalf of and in support of the TEA baggers.  As long as she’s the face of the movement “that doesn’t need leaders”, they’ll still be a fringe group that even the Republican Party won’t incorporate.

Tea Party Convention organizer: Tancredo gave ‘fantastic speech’

Palin blasts Democrats in Tea Party speech

The Tea Party’s populist political message

The Pessimism of Rationality

It seems that each article I read, whether they tout the President’s promises kept or broken, are starting from the pov that somehow he’s done something wrong. In his first inaugural address, President Obama said that the problems we face as a nation would not be solved “in a short span of time.”
Yet, forgetting President Reagan’s and President Clinton’s one-year ratings, the common wisdom is that Senator-elect Brown’s victory over a Democrat in Massachusetts somehow sounds a death-knell for the Obama Administration, or the change that they are affecting on a daily basis.
Under the cloak of objective rationality, “journalists” and pundits are questioning whether the man can do his job in order to get hits on the website, sells papers, get viewers, and increase their adshare.
In Taylor Branch’s new book, The Clinton Tapes, President Clinton muses whether the media reflects the insecurity which appears to have gripped the nation, or is affected by it as well. I think the same can be asked again.
With each of his 158 interviews this year, President Obama has outlined his pragmatic vision for establishing institutional change to guide the country in a positive direction. The pessimists have called this grandstanding, for being seen and heard too much, or naive, for “irrationally” believing and working toward the better nature of the United States.
It seems to me, though, that we’d be better off drinking the Kool Aid, because understanding as Confucius did, that people are good by nature is a much more successful approach to life and participation in our adolescent democratic experiment.

Obama’s First Year: Strong Foundation or house of cards?

I Hate Stupid People

I have a personality flaw.

No one is perfect, but I hold against dumb-ass people the fact that they are dumb asses. And while I’m certain you don’t fall into that category, let me elucidate my statement to be “crystal clear.”

Each of us is on this planet for a short span.  While here, we share this rock with numerous other life forms, some of the same genetic make-up as us, known commonly as the Family of Man, or the Human Race.  This isn’t good enough for some of us, though, so we divide ourselves into “races”, ethnic groups, types, nerds, jocks, rockers, slackers, Republicans, Democrats, governors, tyrants, victims, Americans, Spanish speakers, etc.  And as we troll the planet for resources, for affection, for a partner to walk the planet, we impact each other.

Let me repeat.  We impact each other.

Stupid people, then, are those who are unaware of the impact they have on their fellows.  In their determined foraging for their own pleasure (note the difference between  affection and pleasure) they maraud destructively over others, in complete oblivion or (worse) disregard for the well being of others.

Each of us is responsible to do what we can while we are here to make the world a better place for all of us.

Before those who disagree politically with me begin to argue, understand that I do not expect everyone to agree on what making  the world a better place means.  But I do expect that they are arguing in good faith , that they are applying the principles and privileges that they enjoy for themselves to each and every person on the Earth who has not transgressed against others.

When politicians or citizens have to twist into pretzels the language they are speaking to justify the ideas they are espousing, they are stupid.  When the beliefs a person holds are in direct contradiction to their actions and they are unable to realize this, or unwilling to acknowledge their own weakness, they are stupid.  When the laws they seek to enact vilify others for being members of the human race, they are stupid.  When bloggers pontificate about the shortcomings of others as if they don’t possess some of those same shortcomings, they are stupid.

Each of us is responsible to do what we can while we are here to make the world a better place for all of us.

That means speaking up when others are in pain.

That means knowing what you are talking about before you speak.

That means treating others the way you would like to be treated.

That means honestly addressing the problems which affect us all without tabulating how much you put in to make sure that’s how much you take out.

That means not being stupid.

the human condition

“ . . . this camp is the ash and soot of human shame.”

-Silvia, The Surrender Tree, p. 96

There is a problem with all this conversation about declassification of secrets, about ‘enhanced interrogation’ v. torture, about actionable intelligence and false leads, about enemies, enemy combatants, immunity or prosecution, whether to move forward or to look back, innocent victims and propaganda. Those who argue that the President is wrong to release information are arguing the wrong case. They are trying to justify torture because it “kept us safe.” They are arguing that the ends justify the means. Cain thought so, too.

As a nation, our greatest strength has been the few words penned by a slaveholder when he believed that his humanity was questioned, “all . . . are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” This belief founded a nation of justice, not just us. And so the debate out what our government did in our name is about whether we are who we say we are, or are we who President Chavez and Comrade Castro say we are; do we believe in the ideals of freedom and equality or do we believe in “robbin’ old folks and makin’ a dash”?

Are we invested in the human condition, or are we simply interested in the American condition?

As a patriot, I have always believed the former. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld have expressly stated and acted as the latter.

When we improve the human condition, then we automatically improve the American condition. This is the argument. It is the same argument that Dr. King used, that Sojourner Truth used, that Cesar Chavez used, that Thomas Jefferson used. Whether or not we have always lived up to that investment in the human condition is not up for debate, because we obviously haven’t. But whether we should is always up for debate, because when we stop speaking about it, when we stop arguing about it, when we assume that we’re all working toward an improved human condition, those simply interested in their own condition will steal our soul.

Senator John McCain tweeted that we should, “urge the President to avoid finger pointing and move forward . . .” I would say that holding usurpers responsible for their actions, for the stain on our national honor, for besmirching, “the woman [he] didn’t know he loved . . . until [he] was parted from her company,” is necessary, and is more important than simply “finger pointing.”

There are many petty despots around the world, whose actions serve only themselves and their coteries, who see as weakness an investment in the human condition. President Bush and his administration, through their use of torture and their feeble attempts to cover themselves with mumble-mouthed legalese have placed themselves squarely in those ranks. But I refuse to go with them.

I refuse to not hold them accountable. I do not believe the American condition is that important.

We must reinvest in the human condition.

Torture and the Problem of Constitutional Evil

‘No one is above the law’ Holder says of torture inquiry

Boehner: Memos Outline “Torture Techniques”

Obama waffled on torture

McCain warns the president of a possible ‘witch hunt’

Rice, Cheney OK’d CIA use of waterboarding

Pakistan sends troops to area grabbed by Taliban

Yemen Dispute Slows Closing of Guantanamo

Enemies of the State

“You’ll find that many of the truths we cling to depend on your point of view.”

-Obi-wan Kenobi, Return of the Jedi

Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Michelle Bachmann, Senator Ensign and all the others who said that President Obama’s handshake and smile with President Hugo Chavez sent a message to the enemies of America were right. What they didn’t say, and would probably not truly understand, is that they are those enemies. The President managed to establish, in two interactions, diplomatic ties with Venezuela. I’m uncertain how establishing a political relationship with another country, one which supplies us with oil, is bad, but these people are adamant that it is.

They are also critical of the President’s decision to forgo torture, and to release information about the criminal acts of the previous administration. Again, perhaps I am naive or perhaps they have something to hide, but the good book says that “the truth shall set you free.” Much as I was tired of being afraid for candidate Obama’s safety or for feeling the HOPE that he would be elected to lead us in November, I am tired of the arrogance that goes with the statements of these people regarding the United States and our position in the world.

It is weakness and insecurity which doesn’t allow them to acknowledge the faults in our behavior. No one is perfect. No country is perfect. And yet, they would have us believe that acknowledgement of imperfection, or apology for things we’ve done wrong are signs of weakness?

How then, do they argue for the continued embargo of Cuba on human rights issues when we have Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay? How do they argue that we are fighting against terrorists when we used our army to invade a sovereign country, and we are sending drones into another country? How do they claim the moral high ground with China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela or any place else when they support and advocate the same behaviors from our government and our military?

Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Michelle Bachmann, Senator Ensign and all the others who said that President Obama’s handshake and smile with President Hugo Chavez sent a message to the enemies of America were right. What they didn’t say, and would probably not truly understand, is that they are those enemies.

And I hope they fail.

Hitting the Reset Button

My children like to play Parking Lot. It’s a great game, both as a board game and as an app for my iPhone. For those who don’t know, it’s a puzzle game where you move cars, trucks and buses out of the way to get your car out of the parking lot. It’s a problem solving exercise that strengthens the brain while it entertains. When you get stuck, though, it can be frustrating to the point of nail-biting, cursing whoever invented the automobile, or flipping the bird at inanimate objects. For the cool, calm and collected, it comes with a reset button which allows you to put everything back in place and start again having learned from your mistakes and miscues to approach the same problem.

Many of us, in the United States and around the world, are operating as if life has a reset button, too. I know personally that the President’s forceful passivity on the torture situation is causing me to raise my voice, both here and in person. The tea baggers don’t like President Obama, don’t like paying less taxes, don’t like bailing out corporations, don’t like socialism, don’t like “big government”, and I would venture to say, don’t like much of anything right now.

But President Obama appears to be working without a reset button, looking at the cars on the board (or the crises he has inherited), and making the best moves available to him. On some fronts, he is moving the cars back to where they were before President Bush came into office – rescinding torture as an American tool of interrogation; drawing down our military involvement in Iraq; allowing the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire; repealing the ban on adult stem cell research, etc.

In other cases, he is moving the cars from the position they’re in to what he deems more beneficial positions for the future – more troops and attention paid to Afghanistan and Al Qaeda; actual diplomacy with Iran; repealing the ridiculously stringent relationship between the United States and Cuba; understanding that our economic turbulence requires both indirect (tax cuts for many Americans) and direct (bailouts of restructured companies) government interventions which are politically unpopular, etc.

In both cases, millions of us are screaming, saying, writing, blogging, thinking, critiquing, criticizing, and encouraging his moves. For the ninety days that he’s been moving the pieces, he’s made a lot of progress toward actually getting our yellow car out of its parking space, and moving it forward toward its goal. There are still obstacles in our way – nuclear North Korea; staggering unemployment; Republicants; budget deficits; over-extended military personnel and their families; corporate and other pirates; escaped war criminals, etc. But unlike those of us screaming from the sidelines, President Obama is making the moves to get us out of the lot.

And he’s doing it without the reset button.

Opposition Grows to Obama’s Decision Not To Prosecute CIA Agents

Obama ‘gravely concerned’ about U.S. journalist in Iranian prison

We can move U.S.-Cuban relations in a new direction

Bailout overseer draws fire from right

Picking Letters, 10 a Day, That Reach Obama

Obama defends greeting Hugo Chavez

Senator says Obama’s appearance with Chavez ‘irresponsible’

Summit of the Americas ‘productive’

A World of Trouble For Obama

Two al Qaeda leaders waterboarded 266 times

No, Mr. President. I Won’t Look The Other Way

“In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”

-President Barack Obama, April 16, 2009

I concur with President Obama most of the time.  But he’s wrong today, and he’s messing it up for everyone.  The memorandum from President Bush’s administration that he released today outline torture: the decision to authorize, the proscriptions and applications, the “limitations” and durations of.  To quote Howard Feinman, they are “a window into a heart of darkness.”

Part of my support for him until this time was the necessity for rectification, for redirection, for a return to the ideals that fundamentally support the United States of America.  And my support of him was based on the deeply held belief that CHANGE meant holding people responsible for the decisions they chose to make, the actions they chose to take, and the values that those actions expressed.

Releasing the memos with the right hand, and exonerating the torturers with the left hand while claiming that he is “looking forward not looking back” is an offense against those ideals which he has espoused almost as great as the former president claiming divine authority to invade Iraq.

No, Mr. President.  I won’t look the other way.

Frankly, I’m embarrassed that you are.  There are prosecutors in Spain who understand that the treatment of people in United States’ custody under the Bush Administration, under the purview of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales and John Yi and George W. Bush, was torture and constituted criminal activity, if not crimes against humanity.

Forgive the profanity . . . it is the result of believing that truth, justice, honor, integrity and equality are not simply cool logos on t-shirts, but the reason that my ancestors fought, bled and died on these and other shores.  And those ideals were shat upon by the elected leader of this nation and his coterie for eight years.

I supported you, Mr. President, because I believed that you were intent upon restoring if not those perfected ideals, at least domestic and international responsibility to pursue those ideals.  Today’s duel decisions call into question that intent.  Not because it is simply a decision you’ve made that I disagree with.  I don’t believe that any president would make decisions I agree with 100% of the time unless I were elected to that office myself, which is obviously not the case.

Today’s decisions literally give cover to the prison guards, literally allow the torturers to continue on the payroll that I fund, and leave the ideals for which I struggle and teach each day laying on the floor of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay with their heads bashed in, and leave me gasping for air wondering how to teach my children about justice, about morality, about right and wrong when one of the primary examples I use each day cowers behind rhetoric of progress while allowing regress to fester with impunity.

Loving my country and being a patriot means speaking truth to power, and yours is as has often been said, the most powerful office in the world.  We as a people cannot afford to simply look forward.  That is the ridiculous attitude that lets idiots claim racism no longer exists because you were elected.  Releasing the document which catalogues torture without holding the torturers accountable is moral cowardice, which means that they did the right thing if only because they got away with it.  You have become accomplice after the fact by your failure to hold them accountable.

It is important that we move forward, that we look to the future and the reconstruction of our nation.  But it is equally as important that those responsible for the current state of the union face the consequences of their actions.

No, Mr. President.  I won’t look the other way.

And neither should you.

Bush-era interrogation memo: No torture without ‘severe pain’ intent

Rights groups criticize CIA immunity on interrogations

Future of the U.S. depends on torture accountability

Memos reveal harsh CIA interrogation methods

President Obama’s Statement on the Memos