Centretarian

Open Sewers and Politics

As a general rule I like to keep my distance from sewers and politics but Bush made such a mess after his coup in 2000 that I felt I had to be a good citizen and get involved. 

Obama is a magnificent man but the GOP has left him such a mess at home and abroad that once honeymoon is over the jackals will be out in force and they will do what they can to rip him apart. He has reached out his hand to the rabid right and they are doing just what I expected. They bit it.

Before 2000 I might have believed in and would have supported bipartisanship. There is perhaps some possibility of working together by centrists of the left and right. However, McCain's campaign and his recent behavior have proven there are no real centrists inside the GOP. The GOP is being led by Rush Limbaugh and he is a braying ass encased in blubber.

Clinton and Bush have led us into a global economy, dependence on loans from Communist China more and more dependence on middle east oil and a national economy seizing from years of unrestrained greed. The truth is that nobody knows how to get us out of this mess. There might have been some hope had the GOP proven willing to shed itself of the kind of partisanship that leads to gridlock rather than action.

I hope Obama succeeds but with the other party acting in ways to ensure his failure that is more and more likely.

They Are Baaaaaaack!

The rabid right is back and doing all they same things they have been doing for decades.

Obama's first week has been magnificent. He is going to make many long overdue changes. It is unfortunately also true that the GOP which is now a party based in the old slave holding south will do their best to stop him from getting us out of the economic disaster they created stating with the voo doo economics of the 80s.  In the last 100 years the GOP has brought us to the brink of disaster over
and over and voter put them back in over and over.

In the 20s they created the great depression and then fought FDR tooth and claw to keep him from succeeding. Before WWII the isolationists of the GOP did all they could to keep us from joining other democracies to destroy fascism. Their position weakened America and made the war more likely---not less likely. Many on the rabid right still blame FDR for the war. After WWII they opposed the recovery plans which brought Europe to its feet and the same isolationists kept a grip on the party until Ike booted them out. Ike was a great American hero and a good president who kept us out of new wars and hosted an economic boom. He was a moderate republican and they have all been booted out of the party by the rabid right.

In 1964 the rabid right took over the party with the Goldwater-Reagan group.  Goldwater had a libertarian side, and I respected him, but he opened the door to the rabid right. The so called new south was born in 1964 when the ONLY part of the country to vote GOP was the old slave states. The suicide of the democrats by supporting the civil rights movement led to a GOP victory in 1968 and gave us they darkest figure in our history until Rumsfeld and Chaney -- NIXON. Nixon and the GOP gave us the most serious constitutional crisis in our history. He resigned and then Jerry Ford delivered on the deal and pardoned him. There were some republicans who had integrity and put eh country before party. Two pols defended Nixon to the end---Reagan and Bush-- and they were rewarded with the nomination in 1980. The voters elected them in spite of what the GOP had done to the country. I grant that might not have happened had the democrats not put up a peanut farmer who was not up the the tasks of the presidency. Much of the vote was against Carter rather than pro rabid right. The democrats through their incompetence have sold out America to the rabid right over and over since then.

Since the GOP had electoral success the democrats went with a carbon copy of the GOP in still another southern governor Bill Clinton. He adopted many of the positions of the rabid right and sold out his party. His lack of personal discipline led to a sexual escapade in the oval office with a sexy promiscuous intern. In spite of the set up Gore almost pulled it out and did win the popular vote in 2000. This time the GOP went with a southern governor and were willing to steal the election. So we got W---the most incompetent presidency in the last 100 years. Basically the GOP gave us the second major constitutional crisis in a 30 year period. The democrats capitulated to the thievery rather than fight for the country and the constitution. The American people voted them in again in 2004.

The economic approach of the GOP since 1980 in alliance with Bill Clinton, who passed the enabling legislation, have now created the greatest economic catastrophe since the great depression. It is now clear that the GOP will fight Obama at every step. The slavery states and the rabid right are in control and will now apply their free market fudamentalism to create a new version of the great depression.

The only thing the rabid right understands is raw power. Obama needs to learn that and remember it is unwise to hold out your hand to a rabid dog.

The Two Most Corrupt and Incompetent Institutions

As the GOP prepares to prevent further effort to keep the country out of a depression and the democrats prepare to stab him in the back I can only think how completely right Americans are to hold both congress and the media in the lowest of possible contempt. They took their allotted breaks while the economy grew worse and worse. They have already failed to deliver a stimulus package and now it looks like the second phase of the bail out will be denied because Bush did such a bad job on the first phase. There is a rabid  right response---punish the new president because of the behavior of the outgoing dope.

The mass media continues its distorted approach to the issues faced by the country. Shallow analysis and emotional appeals that create heat but shed no light. If a really corrupt and partisan person makes a comment (see Palin) the media features them over and over until they sell no more of their sponsors products.

People hold these two institutions in the highest of contempt because they both merit nothing but contempt.

Another Big Danger

If there were still professional journalists who had refined their ability to think by a career of writing before going on TV to become a talking head I would have much greater confidence that with Obama's leadership we could overcome the Clinton-Bush depression sooner rather than later. Instead more and more the mass media is staffed with shallow people who belong entertainment and drama. All the cable news organizations abdicate the responsibility that should attend the freedom to use the monumental power of the air waves. They seek to incite strong emotions rather than provoke thought. The new definition of objectivity is to put two completely biased spokespersons on the tube and keep stoking the conflict for the amusement of the audience. It is the same mindset that led the Romans to put gladiators in the arena and cheer the blood and death.

The coverage by the mass media during the election and even more since the election has been incompetent and reveals the death of what used to be a profession and which is now a collection of hacks owned and managed by huge,impersonal corporations with, as is the case by definition with all corporations, a driving motivation to improve the financial well being of their executives and shareholders.

We are now on the brink of the greatest financial disaster since the great depression. If Obama cannot create confidence sufficient to jump start the wheels of the economy we will face a 21st century version of depression. A depression wolf in the sheep's clothing of a recession. The drama queens and kings need to be sure that in meeting their narcissistic needs and performing for those who own them they do not sell the country out.

It Could Be Catastrophically Worse

The economy was in a dive to matter who was elected we would be in deep trouble for a couple of years. Now sit down and think what it would be like if McCain and Palin had won. Feel better already?

The Bush Depression

This depression will be different than the Hoover depression, the last major depression brought on by greed with the GOP as midwife. But there are similarities. One is that the people who gave us this depression will persist in advocating the same nonsense that led us here. They will use the Reagan delusion that government "is the problem" and that we must give more and more money to the very wealthy while blaming labor and refusing any direct help for those suffering the most. They will oppose Obama's efforts at every step when they can get away with it.

There are big differences. In the 30s we are a country in control of our own fate. Now we are part of this big global economy the GOP has sold us as the way the wealth and stability. Now what happens to us depends greatly on countries like China. Nobody really knows what to do with a global melt down. That is hard to accept. But another difference in many ways is more disturbing. In the 30s we a nation of communities in which communitarian values of helping one another in times of trouble was a theme. Now we are a nation fragmented, with families in different places and thus less available for support. We have become a nation where "greed is good" and profit is the source of virtue. A tradition of individualism has morphed into narcissism  in which rather than manufacture things we do all we can to pick each others' pockets. Every man for himself. Screw your neighbor.

Who is to blame? You cannot blame politicians. They do what they always do. They do what gets them elected. The people who have voted the Nixonocrats election after election. They are to blame. It could have been avoided. It is perfectly stupid to vote for a man one would like to have a beer with or who might make a good sexual partner. We need to elevate thoughtful people capable of leading. In the last election for the first time in my life since 1963, we have done so. Will these same people destroy him or support him?

Two Countries in America

For a few weeks my country acted like the civilized nation I remember. It looked like we might even work together to resolve the problems created by the era of Ronnie Reagan. Bush has actually been impressive lately. Like he could even think. But we have the corn pone senators with their ignorant white trash twangs stopping the effort to buy time by preventing the collapse of the auto industry. It all leads me to wish that Lincoln had allowed the south to succeed from the union. Rather than have them in the country they would be outside and all the rest of us could move to the more civilized areas outside the slavery south.

The south has always been a nation within. The new south is a myth. Just better PR and good spin doctors.

Nixonian Politics As Usual

The governor of Illinois learned his lessons from Nixon very well. The scandal will be used by the same Nixonocrats who use those same methods but with a little more intelligence to end Obama's honeymoon and as the whores of the Oligarchy they will do anything to keep the greedy speculation which led to the Bush depression from being stifled. I generally try to stay away from sewers and from politics. The stench from politics is worse. For a for weeks there was fresh air as a competent and ethical man prepared to take office.

The mass media will sell soap suds and beer by emphasizing the scandal over the dispicable governor of Illinois rather that be good citizens and report about efforts to get us out of the mess Bush leaves us. Since they cannot govern they will use this as a distraction. It will work. Obama's numbers will go down and it will be harder to take bold action. Sad for all of us.

Rabidity is a Product of Fanaticism

 Fanaticism will always be with us and so while Obama won we must recognize that the rabid right is still with us and since it makes up 30% to 40% of the electorate is remains a power that will devote itself to the destruction of Obama's efforts and to maintaining all the policies that have brought us to the current economic and foreign policy catastrophe. The election of Obama may be the beginning of the end of the 28 year reign of the rabid right. May be. The era began with Reagan who declared that "...government is the problem." The federal government may be needed for resolution of some problems (like Katrina) and other problems require more bottom up solutions. But to say government is "...the problem..." is the kind of fanatical point of view that leads the true believers of the radical right to oppose all regulation, all taxes and to do everything in their power to be sure that government cannot work.

The home of this new fanaticism is the Slavery States of the old south. The home of the Nixonocrats (aka the GOP) is those same Slavery States. There is no real hope for the Slavery States until a lot of hating old bigots are in the grave. The real future is in the youth.

Which states are the slavery states? The red gash across America where the reaction against the "nigger" was the dominant force started in hillbilly West Virginia down through South Carolina, into corn-pone Tennessee, sweeping Georgia with its absurd pretensions of the "new" south, then over through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. The Slavery States are the base of the Nixonocrat party, the party of hyper-nationalism, no regulation, no taxes and where fanatics are quite at home.

Islamic Fascism is Real

Islamic fascism is a very real threat. Bush and his black and white group thinkers have blundered terribly since 9-11 and we have made too little progress. When Rumsfeld was told we needed to deal with Afghanistan he complained there were no targets there. Rather than fight the war the Islamic fascists gave us we would create a more conventional war in Iraq. We would fight the war we were prepared for rather than prepare for the real war. So Obama will face both an economic disaster given the country by the GOP but also play catch up on the conflict we must face at last with the kind of people who just gave us the violence in Mumbai.

Bush could not fight the war against Islamic Fascism because he was so deeply entangled with Christian groups who share many of the same fanatical notions. The Islamists want a theocracy in which those who share their beliefs are given total power. Bush's allies on the rabid right want to tear down the essential walls between church and state and make us a Christian nation. They do not mean the Christianity of tolerance and compassion. They mean the rabid fundamentalist variety who are more than willing to let people suffer since we all know that you can tell who God chooses. Rich people must have God's blessing otherwise they would not be rich and poor people are that way because God chose to punish them for something.

Only liberals can beat Islamic Fundamentalism because liberal values are the antithesis of their vile murderous philosophy. Our own Christian Fascists are too much like them.

Is It Fair?

Is it fair to compare Bush to Herbert Hoover? No. It is not fair to Hoover who was wrong but was not a perfect fool. He was an excellent administrator. It was not fair to blame Hoover for the depression. It is more than fair to blame Bush for the current mess. Hoover was not the most incompetent president in the last 100 years. Bush is. And it is clear from Bush's position on the auto industry that he is not finished wrecking America. He will keep it up. One insanity piled on another.

Red Gash On America

I was born in the south and lived in the south all my life. I have studied its history. If I lived my life again I would still spend my life here. There are many wonderful things in the south but there is also an ever present shadow. The shadow is racism and white supremacy. Today there was a map on cable news that was remarkable. It mapped the congressional districts that actually became more red in the election. It was like a bloody gash across America from West Virginia down through Kentucky into Tennessee and South Carolina then across Arkansas into Oklahoma and down into Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. In response to a black (they use the N word) these areas became more republican while the rest of the country elected Barak Obama.

The great news is that the election exposed that the GOP cornerstone is in the malignant south which in spite of nonsense about the "new" south is still the home of nuts who drive the GOP agenda. The so called Bible Belt is the home of a form of religious fascism that endangers our country as Islamic fascism endangers the world. They want to impose their own religion on the country (See definition of evangelism) are have a theocracy. They oppose separation of church and state. They claim to be Christians but favor Social Darwinism in which compassion is viewed as weakness and which celebrates only the strong surviving. They pretend to be for life but are for babies being born into a world of poverty and cruelty. They subscribe to the notion that if "queers" get married it will somehow corrupt everybody. "Queers" need to be beaten and left in the gutter to die. Above all they hate 'niggers' and see them as subhuman creatures to be excluded from the political process now that lynching is no longer fashionable.

The gash across America exposes a malignant part of the country. We must turn the election of Obama into a realignment in which the country does not have to depend on the South or the Archie Bunkers of the north for anything. The south has held America hostage since the birth of the nation. It is time America turned its back on the malignant south while welcoming refugees from the old order who are willing to think and be decent citizens. There are good people in the south. But they are a minority.

Don't Try To Pet A Rabid Dog

Obama should try to work with thoughtful conservatives like George Will but he should not be so foolish and his supporters should not be so foolish as to think the RABID RIGHT will cooperate and can be won with amiability and reason. The vile and vicious attacks under the leadership of the malignant version of McCain will continue and in fact have already begun. They will do all they can to prevent Obama from leading the country out of the mess they have created. They will go for his throat whenever they can. The rabid right will continue to involve an alliance with evangelicals whose cold blooded and cruel approach to politics in distinctly unchristian. Their paranoid and hostile approach to politics will not change. Their incapacity for holding a complex thought in their heads will not change. They will continue to see the world in terms of black and white. They will continue to prefer authoritarianism over democracy. They will continue to be for sale very cheaply to moneyed interests. They must be managed and quarantined.

To fight them I will continue my blog.

Was Race A Factor?

Of course it was. Take a close look at the sections of the country that rejected Obama  and you will find, with some notable exceptions, the most solid section was old confederacy. This is the area that was built on enslavement of Negroes from Africa, who were so rabid about the matter that they started the most costly war, in blood, in our history to keep their slaves in chains, and when they lost the war managed to place them in economic slavery and prevent basic civil rights for one hundred years. Virginia, North Carolina and Florida were the exceptions and bolted from the party of Nixon. The old confederacy was the birthplace of the most rabid of the self-proclaimed Christian groups--the Southern Baptists. They broke from the rest of the baptists so they could make sure their version of Christianity did not interfere with slavery. During the most brutal times of the era of Jim Crow they were either silent or active supporters of segregation. They remain the primary religious advisers to the rabid right. The GOP in the south provides cover for bigots, the same kind of bigots who delayed progress in civil rights and it ironic, but not surprising, that the old confederacy rejected the notion of a black man for president. Race was a factor and to say it was not diminishes the contribution and the courage of those who elected the first black president.

America should be proud. The old confederacy adds another shame to the long list.

Tuesday

The catastrophe that the GOP has given America will make the next four years almost impossible. The McCain campaign has ceated divisions that cannot be reconciled soon --- if ever. It is my view that any pol who uses methods that make it impossible to govern is a traitor. In these last days McCain will use the worst tactics in the history of the republic. That being the case were he to win I will use all means short of violence to be sure he cannot govern. That is what we should have done in 2000. There is no working with the rabid right. They must be destroyed. Look at the worst of the rabid ads from the rabid right then tell me how any thoughtful person can work with people who risk the governability of the country with such venom.

The only hope for America is a big victory for Obama. If it is a close election he will not be able to solve the problems the GOP has created. If he cannot win big then let McCain work on the mess he and his boy Bush have created. Perhaps in four years even idiots like Joe The Plumber will be ready to hold the GOP responsible for what they have done to the country.

It Will Close

Obama people need to have a bit more caution. They are ahead but the attacks will appeal to some of the kinds of people who in spite of all the information available still have not made up their minds. Some are seeking the excuse they need to vote against a black man with out admitting it. I think well over 50% of the idiots who have not made up their minds will go for McCain. Those undecideds need to have been paying little attention to all the information for the last year and thus I think are much more susceptible to the mindless attack ads. Obviously they do not read much. So the McCain vicious attacks are likely to give them what they want---a way to make up their minds without the work of thinking.

The second reason it will close is how effectively they are using coded racial attacks. Notice they have taken the transfer of wealth theme and emphasized that Obama will take from working people and give it to THOSE people who do not. Two guesses as to the race of the people they are referring to.

The ad homonym attacks on Obama as a commie and terrorist are perfect for arousing emotions that can well up in the voting booth and hijack the vote.

Today I Voted for Barak Obama

I never thought I would live to see the day that I could vote for a black man who might win the presidency. The fact that he is black is irrelevant as it should be. He is the most exciting candidate for the office in 40 years. He is thoughtful, analytical and cool under pressure.

He seems to understand leadership. He is inheriting a mess left him by the Bush-McCain GOP which is under the influence of what we used to call simply--the nuts. They will of course hold a knife to his back and do everything they can to kill him politically and if need be in reality. No man will have been handed a more troubled America were he to win.

He is a man for his times.

I have little left to say until the election. I had hoped for a better process. First Hillary and then her buddy McCain have done major damage to the country with their Rovian methods. Right now it makes me sad. But I am just tired of it all.

Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers Journal this evening was excellent. You cane reviewthis monumental book and watch the interview at this place.

Moyers is an intellectual giant. We need more like him.

Bias Makes an Expert

I continue to be amazed at the news networks who seem to need only bias to qualify a spokesman as an expert. The reason for the scream you see below is that I am tired of being bombarded by images of these buffoons. Just when I think it cannot get worse a completely biased right wing nut has attacked Obama for flying to see his dying grandmother.

I have thought for some time one needed to be a cold blooded reptile of a human to be on the rabid right. Just look at this reptile.

AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

My only comment on this election today. It is driving me crazy. 

Will Racism Determine the Election?

Obama is ahead in the polls and that means little. The rabid right will now pull out all the stops and use the methods that have worked to well since 1950. They will employ Neo-McCarthyism to label Obama as a liberal and a terrorist. They will appeal to fears and out and out racism of many whites. Not so hard this year because Obama is a black man. Just show a picture and shout "Boo" and some will get the point. While it is taboo to actually expose the racism still rampant in this country that may yet make him lose the election and perhaps die by the hand of an assassin. Here are great interviews that make the point better than I could do,

Emotional Control Problems

As I watch the face of John McCain in the third debate after 35 years experience as a mental health professional in emergency rooms in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi I have to conclude he is the most unstable man to run for president in my lifetime. I suspect in all our history. Thad Cochran, senator from Mississippi was right. He is dangerous. Much more dangerous than Bush though much like Chaney.

What about Nixon you say? For me Nixon was a tragic figure. He was neurotic but not quite mad. If you watch his farewell address to the White House staff you will see a real human who went astray because of those around him. Remember that Goldwater did not like this guy at all. Barry was not a phony. McCain is.

So what happens now? They will try to make sure people do not get to vote and then in the end they will try to steal the election as they did in 2000 and got away with it completely.

Beware.

We Once Had A Lion

As we prepare for the biggest financial catastrophe since the great depression it is useful to remember that unconstrained and unregulated greed led to that decline and those same forces have led us to this debacle. We will not have a depression thanks largely to that lion Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The rabid right hatred of him is not new. In his speech at Madison Square Garden in 1936 he said:

"For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace‹business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred."

Listen to the lion of liberalism.

John Lewis Speaks Out.

Any of us who have watched the faces of haters and seen their hatred create the stage for assassination would be concerned at what McCain and his vicious bitch are creating at their rallies. Today John Lewis dared to speak out while Obama defended McCain.

I am concerned that Obama's lack of passion for truth and justice is a real character flaw. He never experienced the struggle of blacks like Lewis but was handed the results of their efforts on a sliver platter. Were it not for the courage of people like Lewis, who faced down rabid mobs just like the ones McCain is creating, Obama would be nothing but a joke.

"During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state ofAlabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham Alabama," said Lewis. He warned that McCain and Palin were playing with fire. And if they are not careful the fire could consume us all.

Is McCain as bad as Wallace? No. He is much worse. Obama needed to keep his mouth shut on this one. He needed to say nothing at all. Lewis is completely right.

Palin's Abuse of Power

The rabid right's new sweetheart, who has set back women in politics by decades, has been found by a bipartisan panel in Alaska as having abused her power. Not terribly surprising for those of us who find her screeching speeches and her flirtations with a party in Alaska which advocates succeeding from the country disturbing.

Here is the report.

Look At The Faces: The Rabid Right in Action

If you would like to see why I use the term RABID, as in the Rabid Right, then look carefully at the faces of the raging mobs at McCain-Palin rallies. They shake their fists and shout their attacks. McCain's own rage and demagoguery and Palin's screeching speeches whip then into a a fury. These are the people who have brought this country to the edge of catastrophe and they want a blank check to continue their recklessness.  In my life I have never seen anything like this because we were once a civilized country. The only place I have ever seen these kinds of speeches and these kinds of responses is in movies of Germany in the 30s. I understand Huey Long had some rallies like this but I did not see them. There is no place in this country for this kind of politics. No responsible person who puts his country first, as McCain claims, would countenance this. The GOP is turning into the Know Nothing Party. They are a party which was built on a southern strategy drawing the bigots opposed to Civil Rights top become the cornerstone of the modern party. I also saw those white faces filled with rage in the 50s and 60s. Those were the faces shouting at the young girls who were integrating  Little Rock High. Those were the faces of the mob which attacked the freedom rider bus and beat the people inside to a pulp. Those were the faces on the side of the road when blacks tried to march to Selma. The faces of hate look the same and any pol who encourages that is despicable.

McCain is shaming America and himself. And the backlash has begun.

He Is Hero

The surge was not successful. The change in strategy proposed by General Petraeus has been successful. He is not an erratic unstable impulsive man like McCain who fought his war from the antiseptic cockpit where the smell of dead bodies does not shock one into the realities of war. Only a perfect fool thought that adding more troops, within a bankrupt strategy, would produce results. The "surge" did not work. A new leader and firing Rumsfeld did work. My admiration for this general continues to grow. McCain likes him and on that one issue I agree.

America needs a new Ike. I think we have one in Petraeus.

The Compact

We need elections that are conducted in a way that the losers can accept the winners as legitimate and the country can move on. Since 1988 our elections have become so bitter that we are left polarized that the civic compact is voided. This year the McCain camp is conducting itself in such a way that I will  not accept the result as legitimate is McCain wins. I will not follow him and I will not support any of his initiatives. I will join others in an effort to ensure he cannot govern employing the non-violent methods of people Like Thoreau, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. I will never accept the results of an election won with deception and racism and the use of propaganda methods the even Goebbels would admire.

Out of this economic catastrophe must come a new American revolution that will seek to restore balance in the three branches of government, a return to the constitution that is dynamic and which can adapt to change, a return to civility in political dialog and a government which as its second mission after security will ensure justice and opportunity.

So how did this economic crash happen? It involved both parties since its roots were in 1997 and the Clinton administration. The depth of the crash is largely a product if the Bush, who has been the most incompetent in recent history. I do not fault George Herbert Walker Bush as much as Bush the Junior and Bill Clinton and in fact he lost the rabid right because he tried fiscal responsibility. But the real father of it all is the amiable Ronald Reagan who made any government regulation about anything the enemy.

"Kill Him!" Provoked By Palin

 At a Palin rally in Florida as she whipped the rabid rightists into a frothing fury out of the audience came the cry: "Kill Him." Now they will vilify Obama and turn him into a terrorist and alien with a dangerous middle name. They will not be honest enough to call him a "nigger" but they will do and say things in a way that the word comes to mind to their 'Joe Six pack.' That kind of thing always happens as America creates the context for another white male to crawl out of the political sewer and kill. It happened with Lincoln. It almost happened with TR. It came close to happening with FDR. It happened with JFK. It happened with MLK and Robert Kennedy. As always there will be talk of gun control but no action. The rabid right would prevent it. If it were to happen we would again find that the convenient assassin will be a loner with nobody else involved. The Pols like McCain and Palin who create the social climate for assassination will claim no responsibility. They might not pull the trigger but should share the guilt.

The Keating Scandal

 

Obama counter punches. So your scum handlers want to go to the smear tactics like Bush and Rove used against you in 2000, Obama will not be Kerry. He will kick your lying ass. Check out the full Keating video.

They Are Traitors Not Patriots

The country is facing economic catastrophe and it needs those running for high office to be talking about that and proposing solutions so the voters can improve their judgment. Any candidate or surrogate who seeks to divert voters from the most important issue of our time is not a patriot but a traitor to the American people. We need issues discussed and not smears. Diversion is dangerous. We need all candidates to talk about a crisis that was produced by Bush, Clinton and Congress. There is a lot of blame to go around. But we need a future focused discussion.

Over the last year my view of McCain has been transformed from admiration to contempt. On the way to contempt there was a period of just being sad. I always defended him against charges that he was "unhinged" by his POW experience. I still reject that. However, his behavior has become erratic and I now share Thad Cochran's deep concern about him, as even a senator, not to mention the president.

Anyone who really puts country above self as McCain so often claims would be addressing what many feel may be another depression and not trying to divert discussion from the most critical issue.

Economists Prefer Obama

While some rabid right women are gushing praise for Palin saying such things as: "She seems just like me and I like that," people capable of critical thinking like economists are for Obama. Check out this article.

The Dirt Will Begin

The rabid right, devoid of ideas that solve problems, will now do what they always do and what McCain has already begun, go viciously negative and divert attention from the life and death problems they have created for America. One thing the rabid right needs is for America to be in a fantasy land in which racism is dead. Goebbels seems to have been right. If you are going to tell lies---tell whoppers and repeat them over and over. In 2000 McCain was the victim of Bush-Rove smears with no respect for the truth. This time McCain's hired bitch will be vicious but since she is a woman we are supposed be sweet to her. If Obama dares respond to her it will be black man attacks white woman. Convenient and I suspect no accident. The will try in every way to remind people Obama is a "nigger" and will make him into a unpatriotic alien with the middle name of Hussein. McCain will tell us over and over he was a POW and always puts country first. Like all Pols he puts McCain first and is turning out to be one of the biggest phony in our history. He does not talk straight---he is the biggest liar since Nixon.

The election is likely to turn on two things. Ignorance and racism. How ignorant are the voters? Based on the VP debate 42% now find Palin qualified to be president. That kind of ignorance is very dangerous. With that kind of ignorance there may be enough voters who can be convinced the current economy is ABM's fault. Anyone who thinks Palin is qualified to be president can be convinced of anything.

McCain is Cognitively Impaired

After voting for the measure to resolve the credit crisis McCain today hinted Bush should veto it. He tipped his hand by saying the bill has led to the financial crisis. There has been a lot of evidence lately that his brain is aging more quickly than would be best for the country. He is raging inside and it seeps into his presentations more and more often. it reveals a side of him that scares me more than Palin. His tendency to be impulsive plus his inability to manage his anger constructively could lead the country into serious problems just as Chaney's behavior has done in the last seven years. I am concerned about Palin and she is clearly not up to national office but McCain is starting to scare me even more.

Palin in the Debate

The debate, which is not really a debate, will play into Palin's strength as a salesman. She is about as intellectual sloppy as Bush but Bush is a lot smarter. She learned the tricks of 'communication' and I think, as a former debate coach, she will be presented by the media idiots as having exceeded expectations unless she makes a major gaff. Everything depends on the moderator and that is why the McCain and Fox News spinners are making sure we see her as a "nigger." If she dares press the shallow, ignorant manipulator, they are poised to claim bias.

As a debate coach how would I suggest Biden handle it? He is quite capable of being a courtly gentleman. She will be on the attack. He must keep the focus of his attack on Bush and not allow himself to spend more than a few moments on defense. I few sentences about whatever rabid comment she has made--then back to Bush and McCain.

Who will win? That is an absurd question. The American people will lose no matter what. There are many republicans who would have made this a valuable moment. Palin makes it absurd.

The Rabid Right Catastrophe

Yesterday an alliance between the rabid right and the loony left in the house sold out America to help with their re-elections. Courage was in short supply. Leadership failed. It has failed from the outset. Bush and his boys sent a three page memo with the same arrogance they have shown in earlier initiatives. They wanted us to give the money with no oversight or accountability and complete control. That is what got us into this problem in the first place. There was enough unity in congress to deny them that. Obama remained calm and cool in the crisis. McCain was erratic and in the end shot himself in both feet. The debate at Ole Miss and the crisis was a public test and Obama passed with flying colors. Now the GOP will have no choice but to play the race card which may still deny Obama the office. It will be interesting to see how they do it. If 30% of the population still supports Bush anything remains possible.

This crisis was created by the rabid right and those who finance them. Driven by slobbering greed they have created a system that makes their allies rich at the expense of the rest of us and now they want $700 billion more in extortion money. The Bush administration has painted a picture of horror that clearly has scared some pretty smart people. I have no trust left for any Bush appointee. So we will have some kind of action to let the Pols cover their ass.

So what should we do? What we need to do is do what needs to be done to assure that the people vote for Obama and kick the people who caused this catastrophe in the ass. We are going to have a deep  recession no matter what we do.

Paul Newman: A Human

Paul Newman is dead. That is sad indeed. He was an actor but an actor who did not buy into the cheap tabloid version of life that typifies Hollywood. My favorite role will always be Cool hand Luke, not that it was his artistic best, but because it was a role with which I identified the most. His charitable activities expressed the mind and heart of Christ without the cheap phony PR that goes with rabid right versions of Christianity. The world was a better place with him in and the there is a hole without him. If we had more like him the world would be a better place.

A New Tack for The Centretarian

I began this blog as the presidential election process began with great hopes that in 2008 we could defeat the Rabid Right and elect someone who could address the monumental mess Bush will leave the nation.

I have been inspired by Obama, infuriated by the Clintons and shocked by the transformation of McCain into little more than a Bush flunky. I am even more skeptical about the political process in America.

In the last week I have discovered that the catastrophe Bush will leave us is far worse than I had imagined in my worst nightmare and now it is clear that even if Obama is elected we will not be able to address the problems because the trillion dollar bail out will freeze any meaningful action.

I do not know who will win but I strongly suspect that our country is great enough to nominate a black man but not great enough to elect. We have too many older Americans who remain both bigoted and militaristic and who will give McCain their votes. The election will be determined by racism. The pundits will dance around it and the Rabid Right which depends on it will deny it. I believe one day Obama will be a great president. Perhaps there is some justice in passing on the Bush catastrophe to McCain. McCain will certainly make things even worse. In 1619 the first black slaves were brought to Virginia. The founders ignored the evil. The civil war was fought over it and while the South lost the war the white supremacists won the peace. It will be ironic if white supremacy destroys us. Electing McCain will do so.

We must do much more than vote in a process that has given us mediocre leaders like Bill Clinton and George Bush. We must begin a new non-violent revolution based on the ideas of the founders and we must change the process. It does not give us the leadership we need.

I recommend Give Me Liberty as a good place to start. Check it out under books.

Why Liberals Fail

The United States is in big trouble with a malignant economy increasing human suffering and two wars sapping our blood and resources. We need an issue based campaign that will allow us to test ideas. Instead the Rove people in the McCain camp are repeating the tactics of 2000 and 2004. There is a difference and that is the nastiness is coming directly from straight talking McCain. He is a joke. His pretensions in the past are now laughable. I would prefer to keep Bush. McCain is vicious, dangerous and borderline senile. He is running the worst campaign in my lifetime. He may the biggest liar of all the Pols I have seen in the last 60 plus years. But can these Rove methods work once again? Are the American people so stupid they would elect this stand in for Bush after all the GOP and Bush-McCain have done to our country? I fear the answer may be yes.

It can work only because the mass media represents a failed institution. Mass media is increasingly under control of larger corporations and media monopolies who need the rabid right to stay in power to protect their interests. While this has been happening we have experienced the death of professionalism in journalism. In the early days of television those presenting news were real journalists with experience in the discipline of writing. Writing served to  sharpen their analytic skills. Now the typical talking head in mass media are people with much more in common with actors and actresses. They are self consumed and interested more in putting on a good show and getting ratings than in informing citizens of contributing to the welfare of the republic. We now have a class of people called pundits who seem to be selected because they are biased and their biases are entertaining.

The negative ads have no influence on intelligent voters except to make them disgusted or as a dose of humor. So why do they work? Next time you are in a check out line at the grocery store check out the sensational newspapers and magazines. The people who are influenced are the kind of people who would buy those rags. Go to a sports bar. The guffaws over bathroom jokes and anything that makes fun of women or people who think much should tell you a lot. A room full of Archie Bunkers of various ages. They mistrust education and are quite incapable of voting their self interests. They are not really capable of analytic thinking and are the targets of the kind of Pavlovian ads designed to lead to salivation and mindless responses. There are apparently enough stupid people out there to once again sell out

America as was done in 2000 and 2004. Liberals have failed for the last 30 years (Clinton was a Republicrat) because their view of humans is rather elevated. They are capable of being talked up to rather than down to. They can think and surely would not respond to something like a Willie Horton ad. People are smarter then that right? On the other hand, since Nixon decided to surround himself with advertising men and PR hacks the GOP has followed the methods of manipulation pioneered by Joseph Goebbels. People are really rather stupid and should be manipulated by any method that works. Who is right? It looks more and more as though it is really foolish in American politics to overestimate the voter.

 

Rabid Right Dominance

What ever the outcome of this election the days of Rabid Right dominance, which depends on WASPs will be coming to an end. The only way the Nixonocrats can win this year will be through a much more obvious exploitation of ignorance of voters who cannot even think clearly about their own obvious self-interest and of the racism that, while in decline, thanks to younger people, is still a malignancy in

America. One reason there was such a well orchestrated attack on Obama's comments in San Francisco is that he hit a raw nerve. He of course in no way intended it as an attack on blue collar workers but rather a statement of what is obvious to anyone who has followed politics since Nixon invented the modern republican party. In order to make sure blue collar voters sell out their own interest and follow the Pied Piper of the rabid right the propagandists turn issues like guns and fundamentalism into major issues. That way they do not look at their economic insecurity. Make them paranoid about gay marriage, which should rightfully be an issue only among gays, and which only a psychotic would see as threatening heterosexual marriage,and the voter will not ask hard questions about how the global economy and managed by Clinton and Bush are threatening their children and grand children.  This has worked well for the right since that cynical crook, Nixon, made it the center piece of GOP strategy. 

We can expect only more of the same from the rabid right. They will tell lies and follow Goebbels's propaganda method that entails the notion that if you are going to tell lies any way--go ahead and make them whoppers. The rabid right follows a PR strategy since Nixon surrounded himself with Ad men and PR spinners and people are not voters to whom we appeal but objects of manipulation. We can expect more 'swift boat' types of attacks and we can expect McCain to deny having anything to do with them. We can expect complete application of Penn's strategy to present Obama as something foreign and dangerous.

We need for the democrats to stick with issues and to avoid being brought down into the rabid right sewer. They should strongly attack their positions. Leave the sleaze to the sleazy.

 

A Divided Nation

The legacy of the 20 years of Bush and Clinton is a nation more divided than at any time since the civil war. I had hoped that the process this year would return us to the civility I used to enjoy. Obama has done the right thing. McCain has followed the lead of the Rove second string and with Palin's divisive speech it is clear that the pattern that has created two nations will continue. I give up. I will not be passive when the Ann Coulter methods become part of a campaign. I will attack, attack and the attack again.

It is interesting that the division in 1860 has much in common with the division now. We had the Rabid Right in the south defending the institution of slavery even if it cost hundreds of thousands lives. The fundamentalism of the day defending the rabid right and the rationale for the cruelty of slavery. The Baptist Church split with the Southern Baptists supporting the south. Leading the 'liberals' of the day was Abraham Lincoln and the rabid right of those days used the word 'abolitionist' in the same way they spew out the word 'liberal' today.

It was a rabid right white supremacist and confederate spy who brought it all to an end by sneaking behind Lincoln and shooting him in the head. That crime was troubling indeed but then 100 years later Richard Nixon sold out the GOP to the same kinds of people---southern bigots. I personally think Nixon's crime was greater than Booth's crime.

If the attacks are going to continue, and Palin made it clear they would, then we need to fight back. If McCain and Palin are elected I suspect the divisions will continue for decades.

Face Facts: We Are Losing the War

Because of criminal neglect by both the Clinton and Bush administration, fanatical Islamic terrorists, who had given a clear signal of interests in the world trade center,  attacked and brought to ashes the twin symbols they so despise. They have achieved their goals beyond their wildest imagination. Having a president raving and blustering then taking us away from the killers to Iraq has not made us safer. They have not attacked again because they need not do so. They won with one blow.

They wanted us to fear them. And we do. We are obsessed with them. Every time we fly we see the symbols of their victory. Every time we have to remove our shoes they get a laugh. They wanted us to be preoccupied with them. We are. They hoped we would react in a way that would improve their recruiting. We have. They hoped we would overreact and alienate the world. We have. They hoped we would send too little force to get them in Afghanistan. We did.They got away. They would never have dreamed we would be so stupid as to attack Iraq. But we did and handed our soldiers on a sliver platter to be slaughtered. They hoped they could shatter our way of being. We have ignored our constitution and sold out our principles. They must laugh at us.

The men who led the attack are still at large. That is not victory. That is failure.

America is In Decline According to 70%

This has been the greatest country in the history of the world in part because of the wisdom of the founders and then the luck of generation after generation which rose to the occasion in times of crisis. It increasingly appears that our luck has run out this time. In 2000 too many men voted for someone they would like to have a beer with and in 2004 too many women voted for the man they thought would protect them when it is perfectly obvious his bluster has made us less safe. Now with the help of shallow talking heads and media owned by the Plutocrats it seems too many voters will actually believe McCain-Palin running against the GOP and adopting the change promise.

The great republics in history have died from an overdose of democracy with demagogues promising bread and circuses. We used to only have to worry about liberals promising the moon without saying how they will pay for it but now the conservatives have promised no taxes as we run up astounding levels of debt. Each party focuses on the stupidest among us.

McCain and Palin will be far worse than Bush. God help this country when its people fail it so.

George Will Says McCain is Unfit

This is what conservative George Will said:

"It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?" 

For the whole Op-ed piece.

It Essentially Cancels the Election

If Obama is elected the trillion dollar bail out will mean he will be able to do nothing with any kind of price tag. So we might just as well cancel the election. McCain will continue the policies that led to this--the greatest financial crisis since the depression. He will make things even worse plus, with his unstable personality and military authoritarianism, we will get more deeply involved in current wars and probably add a few.

We are on the edge of catastrophe. Bush and McCain got us here. It is chilling.

Check out the Huffington page on the crisis.

Seven Hundred Billion Dollars

So this is the final installment on the Bush-McCain legacy.  Given how erratic McCain has been of late and given Bush at least is trying solutions and not blustering about firing people in between hugging Sarah, I would prefer Bush. If we get McCain we get worse than Bush. Add in Palin and we have the most dangerous duo in our history.

I used to defend McCain when he was characterized as unstable. But he really is an intellectual dwarf. Bush is smart but lazy. Even Rove has found that his attacks are over the top. I would say they are loony.

So what will happen? The McCain camp will play the race card over and over. It will be indirect enough that an IQ of 100 may be needed to get it. The only way to beat Obama is to emphasize he is a 'nigger' after all. They will do that and perhaps win. The pattern that led to the 700 billion dollar bail out of what greed has given us will continue.

Here is a Q&A on the financial crisis.

Watch the discussion on ABC's This Week.

Bordering on Psychotic

The election of President has taken on a psychotic quality since McCain appointed Palin his VP. It is like a bad movie you would like to get away from but you are bound to wait to see the end  because you have already wasted so much time. Greenspan is saying this is the worst economy he has ever seen. And yet we are witnessing a media orgy about a woman who was not even qualified to be governor much less be heartbeat away from the presidency and we have one candidate who admits he really knows little about the economy. Whoever is the new president will need a high level of intelligence, analytic ability and leadership skill to bring the country together in support of what will call for consensus and collaboration. Meanwhile the attack ads will certainly divide us further and are so bad even Rove himself says they are going too far. This nation is in big trouble and we are discussing moose burgers!

Sexism May be a Problem

Not being willing to vote for a qualified candidate because of their gender is despicable. Being willing to vote for a candidate because she is a woman without regard to qualification is also despicable. The most sexist thing done in this election so far was the selection of Palin because she is a woman.

We will find out whether women are as stupid as Rove-McCain think they are. One interview was interesting. Woman said she was for Palin because it proved anyone could be president. We do not need 'anyone' we need someone more competent than ALL OF US.

The Rabid Right Media Establishment

A new book is worth putting on your list if you care about America and want to understand the tactics of the Rabid Right. Here is an Amazon review:

From Publishers Weekly
In this heavily researched analysis of the conservative media establishment, Jamieson and Cappella (coauthors of Spiral of Cynicism) contend that Rush Limbaugh, the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal and key players at Fox News share evidence, arguments and tactical approaches in their defense of conservatism and their attack on its opponents. The authors argue that these three news outlets disseminate Reagan-era conservatism by creating a common rogues' gallery of enemies, which they fight by forming an echo chamber—a bounded, enclosed media space that has the potential to both magnify the messages delivered within it and insulate them from rebuttal, turning audiences into a balkanized cohort. The authors take pains to note that they are not arguing that the conservative media menace the country's well-being; rather, they are interested in the way changing media influence contemporary electoral politics. Their highly academic approach and chart- and citation-laden narration might be slow and difficult reading for those unfamiliar with the social sciences. However, readers seeking a carefully researched view of the changing face of news media will be rewarded for their efforts.

Distraction and Exploitation of Ignorance and Racism

What ever the outcome of this election the days of Rabid Right dominance, which depends on WASPs will be coming to an end. The only way the Nixonocrats can win this year will be through a much more obvious exploitation of ignorance of voters who cannot even think clearly about their own obvious self-interest and of the racism that, while in decline, thanks to younger people, is still a malignancy in America. 

One reason there was such a well orchestrated attack on Obama's comments in San Francisco is that he hit a raw nerve. He of course in no way intended it as an attack on blue collar workers but rather a statement of what is obvious to anyone who has followed politics since Nixon invented the modern republican party. In order to make sure blue collar voters sell out their own interest and follow the Pied Piper of the rabid right the propagandists turn issues like guns and fundamentalism into major issues. That way they do not look at their economic insecurity. Make them paranoid about gay marriage, which should rightfully be an issue only among gays, and which only a psychotic would see as threatening heterosexual marriage,and the voter will not ask hard questions about how the global economy and managed by Clinton and Bush are threatening their children and grand children.  This has worked well for the right since that cynical crook, Nixon, made it the center piece of GOP strategy. 

We can expect only more of the same from the rabid right. They will tell lies and follow Goebbels's propaganda method that entails the notion that if you are going to tell lies any way--go ahead and make them whoppers. The rabid right follows a PR strategy since Nixon surrounded himself with Ad men and PR spinners and people are not voters to whom we appeal but objects of manipulation. We can expect more 'swift boat' types of attacks and we can expect McCain to deny having anything to do with them. We can expect complete application of Penn's strategy to present Obama as something foreign and dangerous.

We need for the democrats to stick with issues and to avoid being brought down into the rabid right sewer. They should strongly attack their positions. Leave the sleaze to the sleazy.