Going to Work Hurts?

“The last two weeks have been an absolutely excruciating exercise”
- Senator Lindsey Graham

Senator Lindsey Graham is complaining about having to go to work. With record levels of unemployment hurting families across the country, he and his Republican fellows have begund echoing a familiar line, that somehow going to their place of employment, which millions of Americans don’t have, is a burden.
I guess whining about it is better than Democrat Joe Manchin, who simply skipped work to host a family party this weekend. What did he miss? Why are Lindsey and Johns (Kyl and McCain), and Mitches complaining about working? Because Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has finally jump started the legislative process in the Upper House of Congress, and they are voting on legislation that’s been stalled for months. Among the bills being considered are:

1. The repeal of segregation by the United States military (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell);
2. A path to citizenship, education and military service for adults brought to the United States illegally as children (the Dream Act);
3. Funding for the United States government for the next year;
4. Confirmation of federal judges whose nominations over the last two years have been filibustered by [wait for it] Republican Senators like The aforementioned Graham, Kyl, McConnell and McCain;
5. Ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Russia in which both countries agree to reduce nuclear stockpiles and allow the other to inspect and verify reductions (START);
6. Extend Unemployment Insurance for the aforementioned unemployed Americans (13 months) and extend current tax rates for all Americans (24 months) to help our recovering economy continue in its recovery (Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010);
7. And finally, the federal government’s financial support of policemen and women, firemen and women, and others who were the first emergency responders to the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001, and those who helped find remains and survivors and Ground Zero in the years that followed, who are currently suffering the deliterious effects on their health AS A DIRECT RESULT of their heroism on 9/11 (the Zadroga Bill).

With all of these issues pressing upon the Senate, which for two years has failed in its responsibility to pass legislation due to Republican recalcitrance, these Senators are offensive in their complaint.

They are offensive because they are blessed with work when so many others are not.

They are offensive because they have caused (by their lack of good faith to work with those with whom they disagree) the rushed “lame duck” calendar that they are decrying.

They are offensive because on those issues where they have deigned to cast a vote, they have chosen to stall debate until their demands are met rather than serving the needs of the nation which they have been elected to help govern.

If working is so painful (Senator Graham), or so disrespectufl (Senator Kyl), or so sad (Senator McCain), then perhaps the time for you to retire is nigh… that is, if you’ve reached the appropriate age and the Senate hasn’t raised the retirement age in your absence. The people of the United States deserve representatives whose work ethic and personal integrity are matched with their job descriptions.

Apparently, you fail to qualify. And that is excruciating… with whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics.

Filing Bankruptcy

The title is a double-entendre.

What with mounting credit card debt, missed lease payments on the cars, more expensive groceries, private school tuitions (with financial aid, mind you), rent – not mortgage, gas for the lease collateral, clothes for the children, and fewer deductions on our w-2s so we don’t end up with a “surprise note” and balloon payment from the IRS when we file in April, I feel like my wife and I should file for bankruptcy.  This economy sucks.  And we keep trying to pay stuff off without making more debt, but there’s simply too much month at the end of the money.  And my kids are spoiled – they like to eat at least three times a day, have a warm and dry place to sleep, shirts AND jackets AND underwear AND socks AND shoes when they go out of the house – I don’t know how they got that out of control.

Then there is the Republican Party.  Bereft of an economic theory that holds water, a chairman without ethical issues, a majority to ram through their “stimulative” tax cuts, a minority that likes or listens to each other, any credibility on foreign policy, infrastructure, small government, big government, any familiarity with the actual text of the Constitution, respect for the Bill of Rights, or any articulation besides the man who stole the presidency, Justice Scalia, I feel like they should file for bankruptcy, too.

From Ron Paul, who claims to be a Republican even though he can’t win anything even within the party; to John McCain, who managed to win only the right to be gobsmacked by the American populace for saying, “the fundamentals of the economy are strong,” (John, see above) and making the rest of us deal with that sad woman from the upper one; to Michael Steele, who’s proved that even black Republicans are ethically challenged; to John Boehner and Richard Shelby, who don’t have good ideas, but oppose everything like your foot kicks out when the doctor hits your knee with a hammer – by reflex; this sad crew is now turning on those members who actually want to help those of us in the first paragraph by passing the stimulus package sometime this year.

A little online research told me all I need to know about what happens when someone files bankruptcy:

The bankruptcy trustee will then begin the process of selling off your assets to pay your creditors.  You will likely be informed at this meeting that you are prohibited from selling, giving away or throwing away any of your property without the permission of the bankruptcy court.

This means that the Republicans won’t be able to stand there and distribute more bushlit about tax cuts and free markets righting themselves.  They don’t get to rename a stimulus bill a spending bill, when obviously the spending is what is supposed to stimulate the economy.  They don’t get to pretend they’re an inclusive party just because they’ve got one black friend, one female friend, one Indian friend and somebody in a log cabin.

There are a lot of people who are aching with the first paragraph, and unfortunately too many elephants bloated with the second.  The American people urged the Republicans to file for bankruptcy last year in November.

I hope they file before I have to.

Debate on stimulus to resume Monday

Payments to sister’s company were legitimate, Steele says

Stimulus will lead to ‘disaster’, Republican says

Indiana mayor says he’d put stimulus money to good use

Foreclosure fix: Obama’s options

SC Governor: We’re moving close to a ‘savior-based’ economy

Obama to stump for stimulus in Indiana

Florida Gov. to join Obama at stimulus town hall

Just the tip. Just for a minute. Just to see how it feels.

President Obama has a huge package.  He’s trying to use it to stimulate the country, but Republicans like Mitch McConnell, John McCain, John Boehner and Michael Steele are being coy.  They’re flirting with the President, inviting him to the House and having drinks with him, but they don’t really want to play ball.  Coquettish is, I believe, the term.  Meanwhile, the President’s stimulus package is being rammed through the House, and massaged through the Senate, all so that we, the American people, can feel relief.

How you doin'?

It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

I don’t blame Congress for being skittish.  The last president and his treasury secretary pretty much hit it and quit it, begging and pleading for just a little belief, getting half of what they asked for, and then leaving the rest of us gasping for breath, no closer to satisfaction, feeling used and still wondering what happened.

But this President wants more interaction, is buying Congress dinner and wanting to watch Sunday afternoon sports, before getting down to business.  He’s actually looking us in the eyes, and holding our hands as we walk down the hallway to the Lincoln Bedroom.  It’s natural to be nervous.  You know the rumor about black men, and we’ve already seen the size of this package that we’re getting.

But even though it may hurt a little at the beginning, it’s gonna feel so good once we get going.  And when the stimulus goes flooding into the country, putting people back to work, putting money into the economy, making frigid credit markets a little looser, a little warmer, a little friendlier to the average citizen, we can all lay back and sigh.

Then we can do it all over again.

A stimulus plan with duel goals: reform and recovery

Obama promises plan to cut mortgage costs

The Big Deal

McCain says Dems need to seriously negotiate

Tough choices for America’s hungry

McConnell says GOP trying to reform bill, not block it

Abraham Lincoln liked big government

A Real Republican

Abraham Lincoln liked big government.  He liked government so big, it controlled territory in another country.  Or rather, he wasn’t worried about the size of the government, he was worried about it’s effectiveness.  As I listen to Republican Senators and Representatives talk about why they are opposed to the stimulus bill the President is championing currently through Congress, how they are just trying to “get tax cuts” and “keep government small,” I’m wondering what Republican Party they belong to.  Lincoln was the first second presidential candidate for the Republican Party, which was formed to prevent the spread of slavery into the new territories.  It was formed, then, to insure that the federal government had purview over the states.

The Emancipation Proclamation, signed in 1862 by President Lincoln, authorized the freeing of slaves in the Confederate States of America – a country with a President, a Congress, a Constitution and a populace that did not recognize nor had cast a single vote for him in the election of 1860.  The Proclamation did not, in contrast, emancipate slaves held in the border states, where as president he actually wielded authority.  That’s a pretty big government, no?

These same elected officials start spouting, then, that they are simply fiscal conservatives looking out for the economic interests of the country.  More bushlit.  I haven’t met many people, registered Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Independents, whatever, who were not fiscal conservatives, simply trying to retain as much of their income as possible while acquiring necessary resources.  What they should say, if they were to be honest, is that they are hoarders, who have an adequate amount of resources, and they resent anyone trying to utilize their “hard earned gains” (as if Democrats and others haven’t worked for their money) to help “those people who won’t help themselves.”

Small government is a myth.  There never has been, nor will there be a small government.  Republicans who use this as a shield to hide behind, as an “argument” to oppose the financial bailout for the regular people in the United States, would do well to remember the first Republican president.  He was thoughtful, embattled, resourceful, manipulative, and a true patriot.  While it cannot be said that he was beyond racism (my favorite quote from Lincoln is, “I am not now, nor have I ever been, for the equality of the races.  If I could save the union by freeing [all the slaves], I would do it.  If I could save it by freeing none, I would do it.  If I can save it by freeing some and keeping I others, I will do it.”) it can definitely be said that he liked big government.

President Obama, like President Lincoln, is more concerned with effect than size.  I wish today’s Republicans would learn some history.

Republicans take on new rallying cry

Stimulus bill moves to Senate, where GOP wants compromise

GOP’s eternal flame burns outside DC

RNC race still wide open as members meet in Washington

From the Back of the Bus

Roland Burris is now the junior Senator from the state of Illinois.  For better or for worse, that’s what the Illinois Supreme Court and House of Representatives and Governor (and former junior Senator) have orchestrated in the last few weeks since the CHANGE was made real.  That’s not what this post is about, though.

In the jim crow era, segregation was the law of the land in the south, and the law of life in the north.  Black people and white people did not congregate in the same locations, with few exceptions.  And poll taxes, literacy tests, and other impediments were used to insure that the franchise was exclusive property.  The problem with this as a democratic political entity, though, is that it meant there were no black people in the halls of Congress, on the Supreme Court, or in the White House (unless they were serving dinner, or driving carriages).

In the last two weeks, we’ve seen the only black Senator resign his seat, to be filled with the only black Senator currently in the United States Senate.  That’s one percent.  That percentage indicates failure to me, both on the part of the dominant community, and on black folk.

Much is taken for granted in the MSM – that because President-elect Obama is black, systemic racism has been eradicated.  This is an absolute falsehood.  And despite Congressman Rush’s inappropriate language and assertions when Senator Burris was appointed, the nerves that he was dancing on were still raw because the underlying question is valid:

Are black folk still at the back of the bus?

My great grandmother was the daughter of a slave.  My maternal grandparents were born in the segregated South before the Great Depression (the first one, that is.)  My mother and father found each other while watching people their own age be beaten, murdered, lynched, sprayed, and while they were putting themselves in harm’s way for justice’s sake.  I do take much for granted, that I can do whatever I want to do in this country and this world, regardless of the color of my skin.  My children will be even more free, watching a black man take the oath of office before they hit the third and fourth grades.

But what of the young man “accidentally” shot by an Oakland police officer ringing in the new year?  Update:  The police officer has been charged with murder. What of the staggering number of black and brown youth failing out, dropping out, being pushed out of schools – from elementary through secondary and at the university level?  Why is the struggle to find positive black role models off the field of play so difficult?  Why do black people with an education lack authenticity in the public perception?  Why is learning considered acting white?

And before the critics and the naysayers begin to howl, riddle me this, Batman – why was there considerable conversation, inside the black community with chagrin and outside the black community with relief, that Barack wasn’t “really black” or “black enough”?

Because we are still at the back of the bus.

We are voluntarily paying our fare, getting off, and reentering through the back door.  For the second generation of integrated education, we have fallen off considerably. And there is a growing divide between the talented tenth and the rest.  Ernest Green succeeded because he had to deal with the reality of Central High School.  His education was valuable to him.  As it was and is to Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Colin Powell,Condoleeza Rice, Susan Rice and a host of others who grew up without the guarantee or assumption that they were going to be given anything for free, let alone an education.

This partial observation (there are many threads leading in and out of this train of thought) evokes a variety of questions, but chief among them are two:  Who is responsible for this status?  What can we do about it?

Different people are asking these questions in different ways in light of President-elect Obama’s victory in November, and his impending inauguration eleven days from now.  And other communities are asking the question for themselves as well.  Arianna Huffington asked it a few days ago on the HuffPost.  Bill Cosby will be on Meet the Press Sunday morning asking it.  And more than a few of us are asking it, answering it, and sharing our answers with the world.

I started this post with an observation that there is only one black Senator in a group of one hundred elected Senators representing the United States of America.  That’s one percent.  Literally.  Since more than one out of every hundred people is black in this country, I think there’s a problem with that, both on the country’s part, and on black folk.  The question is:

When are we going to move to the front of the bus?

Slaves helped build White House

Burris appointment valid, Illinois high court says

Obama isn’t the only one being inaugurated on January 20th

Congressman sleeps on cot to save cash

High Court to decide key voting rights challenge

Blu Phi!  You Know!

Powell endorses Obama service initiative

Little Rock Nine set foundation for Obama, students say

Ex-officer charged with murder in BART shooting

Welcome, Senator Burris

  

In a parting shot at the nation, it seems that Governor Blagojevich hit an ace.  Regardless of the desires or intent of the United States Senate, or the Democratic Party, he appointed Roland Burris to replace President-elect Obama as the junior Senator representing Illinois.

As a political maneuver, it was sheer genius, though one has to wonder where his brains were when he was being wiretapped and recorded attempting to barter for the Senate seat.  And Senator Burris’ hubris allowed him to hold his head high, even while he was being turned away from the Senate, testify against his “appointor” and made to step’n’fetch before being given the seat.

I for one don’t believe that his appointment should stand, because the ethical considerations are numerous.  But the responsibility for that is, I guess, at the feet of the Illinois legislature, which waited until today to impeach the governor.  And I can only hope that he really is as qualified as has been alleged, because the country is in desperate need of individuals willing to work for the common good.

Welcome, Senator Burris.

Burris denies any quid pro quo for Senate appointment

Illinois House impeaches Governor

Burris appointment valid, Illinois high court says

A bad habit

Cannibalism is a bad thing. Period. While I am a meat eater, I eat the meat of different animal species – not my own. I wish that the Democratic Party would follow my eating habits. It seems that with every electoral victory, Democratic elected officials begin carping about what Democratic elected officials are doing wrong.

Barack Obama won a historic election in November. Since then he has been working on appointing a team of leaders to help guide the United States and the world back on to firmer economic, political and social footing. But the Democratic Leadership seems intent on nitpicking him like they are field marshals for the Republican Party! They are literally trying to eat their own. He’s not even President yet, and with the current President working as hard as he can to make things difficult, President-elect Obama has to deal with the Democrats, too?

Here’s the list of cannibals:

Senator Harry Reid – “I don’t work for President Elect Obama, I work with him”

Senators Diane Feinstein and John D. Rockefeller – “Leon Panetta isn’t qualified.”

Representative John Conyers – “Obama should not nominate Sanjay Gupta.”

Senators John Kerry and Kent Conrad – “I’m not that excited about [Obama’s] tax proposals”

And these are just the quotes from this week! This bending over backwards to prove to Republicans how non-partisan and equally critical of their own that Democrats continue to do is ridiculous! Where was all this backbone from Reid and Feinstein on the invasion of Iraq? On FISA? During the Bush Administration? Don’t try to stand up straight and earn your bona fides by feasting on the decisions made by the Leader of the Democratic Party and the next President of the United States! You should have stood up during the last eight years! That would have been nice.

Next time they get hungry for someone to feast on, they should remember the Alaskan nightmare is never far away, or the reality of the situation could be much, much worse.

O-bummer

Key Democrats blast Obama stimulus plan

Do Congressional Dems need intervention?

Harry Reid: I don’t work for Obama

Obama calls for dramatic action

Obama appointee to face bruising confirmation fight

Panetta a surprise pick to run the CIA

Obama should not nominate Sanjay Gupta

Key Senate Democrats blast Obama’s tax proposals

Bush delivers final policy speech with few watching

It could be President McCain in 12 days

Obama names CIA, national intelligence directors

Consumer confidence called key to combating economic meltdown

The schedule of confirmation hearings

Update:  Now President-elect Obama is in on the feeding?

Ready before day 1

I’m never one for dismembering anything, but President Obama is cutting the earmarks out of Congress.  When I wrote a few days ago about more efficient government, this is what I was talking about.  Congress is working from day one of this session to get the stimulus bill passed.  And President Obama has declared that there will be no extras.  Excellent.  And he’s appointing qualified people who understand or have a track record of following the policies he wants to enact.

Imagine.  A government of the people, for the people, by the people.

Hope and Change: A tale of two Senators

This is a story of openings and closings. It’s a story of endings and beginnings. It’s not a story of black and white. Tuesday morning, the 111^th Congress will show up in the halls of the Capitol to be inducted and sworn in. Among them will be Roland Burris and Al Franken, two Democrats who came by their seats very, very differently.  Update:  Roland Burris was turned away from the Senate doors this morning.

Roland Burris enters without papers, under a cloud of suspicion not of his own making, filling shoes recently set upon a historical path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in just a few weeks. A qualified individual in his own right, Mr. Burris has shattered barriers in Illinois, the first black statewide elected official and the first black Attorney General. His path though, has been fraught with ridiculous assertions and potential explosions of ethical considerations. And the argument that his appointment is completely legal is the dancing around not only the spirit, but the letter of the law as well.

Al Franken stands before the doors to Congress having been first counted out, and then counted in two months (and a calendar year) after he was elected. His dance with the devil (aka Norm Coleman) began with jokes and wound through many a stage, Air America and a presidency with unfunny political tones. His victory, while assured to be contested by the litigious loser, says that the message of CHANGE that propelled Barack Obama to his historic victory also drifted through the land of a thousand lakes, too.  Update:  Norm Coleman has filed suit!  (surprise, sigh)

As the upper house of Congress gets underway, dealing with the myriad of controversies and current events which threaten to engulf our nation, I hope that these two stories are harbingers of a better political life for US as a nation.

That the questionable appointment of a “qualified” representative would be held up to scrutiny and consideration, and then rejected on its merits gives me HOPE. And that keeping your head down, espousing the values you hold, and being able to keep a smile on your face is being rewarded is a CHANGE I’ve been waiting to see.

And these two tales make me all the more excited to be on the mall on January 20^th, when HOPE and CHANGE get sworn in.

President-elect Obama in Washington, D.C.

Secretary of Senate Rejects Burris, aide says

Minnesota canvassing board certifies Franken win

Obama gets ready for his Washington close-up

Burris turned away at Senate door

1-2-3

My children are on my mind a lot, because they are intelligent, articulate, vivacious, energetic and a lot of fun to be around.  They also count really well and really fast.  I wish now, though, that we lived in Minnesota.  Al Franken would have been declared the winner in the same year as the election.

I realize that counting ballots takes a while, especially when there are so many excited and engaged voters participating.  And I haven’t seen the HBO movie Recount, yet, but I’m starting to get flashbacks of Bush-Gore 2000.  And the Coleman camp is now threatening to file legal action because the count didn’t go their way.  And I have to echo Will over at Will Rhodes Portmanteau when he asks the question, “Is this the real face of American democracy?“

1. Candidates run.

2. Citizens vote.

3. Votes are counted.

4. One person wins.

My children can count to four.

And while I realize the Democrats are trying to count to sixty, and the Republicans are trying to count to forty-one, I think we all need to start worrying more about the big picture issues (economy? Afghanistan?) and stop with the stuff that doesn’t really count.

Panel to declare Franken winner of Senate race

Burris to meet with Democratic leaders

Senate GOP prepared to fight

Tense moments in Minnesota Senate recount