Joey...We hardly knew ya'

 As can be seen here, and from what has been referenced herein, this was originally  written four short years ago.  It was a time when the Red State Republicans routinely pounced upon any Yellow Dog Democrat for any reason, whether justified by birth, or race, or politics that had a liberal leaning, or, just as likely for no discernible reason whatever. .  

The real lesson here is not so much what I wrote regarding the, then current election, as my reasoning behind the tactics that were employed. Here, as then, I have endeavored to show that the master of political propaganda is alive and well.(Even contrary to reports of his death.) 

For your consideration this election cycle... :

 The Poison Dwarf…Revisited

Sunday, October 21, 2012 to Today....Just a few short weeks until we all vote again.

 

Please Think!

              And so...the election approaches... 

"A lie, repeated enough times, becomes the truth…"

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and / or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” 

Joseph Goebbels

Yes…a big lie, like the one I reference in  the earlier article, repeated becomes believable to the point of supplanting the truth.  Sure it does…That much from the poison dwarf, who, if nothing else, showed us just how successful such a tactic could  be. So my mission here is to expose what is the real truth…and to ram it down anyone's throat who is too stupid to realize that they have been duped.

 

“Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street.”

Joseph Goebbels

Have you seen something like this at work today?  I must remark that back in the day, that was a recruitment call to enter the Sturm Abteilung. Their mandate, conquer and control the streets.  The Brown Shirts did just that and look at how things turned out for them...
.

To be sure, we don't call these people' brown shirts'  anymore. Politically correct is the dogma that rules our current  times, and yet these same people  are still out there, and still doing their best to control the streets. Infiltrating the ranks of legitimate protest groups they show up at town hall meetings,  shouting down anyone with opposing ideas. They stifle public debate.   TEA PARTY?   They create so much disorder that no free discussion is possible and they do it with impunity. And yet they are all still only tools, tools of their masters just as were their predecessors in the SA. The real control of the streets depends on the sponsor's agenda to steer the masses in the required direction. 

Of course the sponsor is Uncle Sam but today he works behind a screen that Cujo, hyped up on PCP, couldn't get through on a bet. Toto wouldn't stand a chance and neither do many of us. The screen is one of obfuscation, of deceit, of misrepresentation of facts and the half truths of lies. Each of us who takes the 'blue pill' allows that screen to remain in place.For the best current policy is to lie by telling ALL or PART of the TRUTH. 

"To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium. Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”

Joseph Goebbels

 

Ah, the press, the venerable fourth estate, if you can define such hosts as the 'Honey Badgers' like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Steve Bannon,  and we, the television generation of couch potatoes are right where  the press wants us. So enter the talk show phenomenon that guides our choices of candidates these days. More bread and circuses.  And not just pundits of TV, we can barely listen to AM radio anymore so redolent with bias are the more vituperative and ill informed hosts. Half facts, in support of moronic arguments abound to the point of neausea, even in brief snippets as we surf for information. It should be noted that these churlish masters of ceremony are the most popular in their field. What does that say about the listening audience?

It would be comforting to believe that reported occurrences were at least factual, but yellow journalism has a long history here in these United States, where many of us are descendants of the same whiskey drummers and bible salesmen who pioneered concepts from Manifest Destiny to Madison Avenue. We all like a good show and so we watch...and we listen as sound bites for the intellectually uninvolved daily invade our thoughts. The sponsor's agenda every time. And we buy it all. It is designed for us to do so.The master told us it would be.

"Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans, which must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses. These slogans must be capable of being easily learned."
 

Joseph Goebbels

"Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat."

                                                                  

"It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success.”

 

Joseph Goebbels

 So, why do I quote from the Nazi Minister of Propaganda after all these years?  If you cannot answer that question, then you are prime fodder for the campaign excesses we witness daily in this year of 2016.  

   Labeling people with distinctive phrases like 'L'yin Ted' and 'Crooked Hillary'.' Easily learned and repeated'.  'A lie, repeated enough times becomes the Truth". 

"Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige."

 Joseph Goebbels

Attack and never apologize.  

A paraphrase perhaps and It does not matter whether that tactic has been learned from Roy Cohn or Joseph Goebbels. It is something that just works, and as noted by Dr. Goebbels, it works best on the less than educated segment of society.  Those, particularly, that are easily led.

No, friends and neighbors, If you are wondering, on November ninth, what happened yesterday, I ask that you reflect on what is written here.  As for me and mine, we are voting for Gary Johnson and Bill Weld.  No, I do not agree with everything he says, nor do I believe that any candidate's promises will be realized during his term .  It just does not happen.

Points to remember:

1. No!!! We are not going to build a wall around Mexico.  Mexico is broke and only subsists on monies returned to that country by workers who are in America illegally. Any idiot knows that. It has been true since the 1860's. 

2. These Mexican people are neither rapists nor murderers.  They are people just like you and I who only want a better life for their children.

3. Immigration?  The life's blood of a Republic is in its Immigration and  therefore it's immigration policy.  That much is incontrovertible and immutable. It has been true for all of our  two hundred and forty years.

 4. China?  Please let's make a deal, please!!!, and one that works for both sides and is enforceable.

5. NATO?  Absolutely. These so called allies have been on the gravy train long enough. On that I hope we can agree for George the first told ud in no uncertain terms 'Avoid entangling alliances'...

6.Russia, Think Back Mr. and Mrs. America. .  Russia recognized the fledgling United States in the very early 1800's.  Even before I was born.  ( I have tools that old...if they could only talk.)   I believe that Russia was  second after France to do so, and so our histories are intertwined since well before the abortion of Cold War perpetuated by Stalin and Truman. The Northmen and we have a long history on this continent and today I personally know many former Soviet Bloc peoples.  Trust me...they are just like us. All wanting to sleep out of the rain, eat two or three times a week and get laid occasionally.  The Northmen really are good people and if you do your research may well have discovered this continent 500 years before Columbus.  

Still, it cannot escape your ken that there is  Much to be done. And so I ask that you read, that you be informed beyond the propaganda and that you vote your conscience. No one can ask more...

For the historian:  Dr. Goebbels wrote more than twenty books. Researching them should be informative.  It was for me.

By the way, it should not go without notice here that H.L.Mencken, writing for the Baltimore Evening Sun,  told us that:

'The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron'

Please try to not vote for another moron.    Please...We have already suffered several...okay...maybe more than several.  You choose.   and Please take the red pill...Please.

And so...the election approaches...

 

A lie, repeated enough times, becomes the truth…

Or…

Dismantling the myth of Republican Fiscal Responsibility

Of a certainty, nothing rankles me more definitively, than having to be subjected to E-Mails or otherwise listening to so called Republicans decry the excesses of the so called liberal Democrats, without one fact beyond their own twisted reasoning, backed up solely by bias, either racial, or with pseudo religiosity. It is abhorrent, to me as a reasoning being, that otherwise intelligent, reasoning beings, can be victimized, to the point of espousing unsupported facts by a torrent of what is nothing more than pure propaganda.  To that end, I offer these tid-bits in context from the master of that particular communication medium….

* * *

The Poison Dwarf…Revisited

It cannot be argued, this late in the game, either that President Obama has decreased our national debt, nor done anything to even move us in such direction that might accomplish that event. And yet the question remains, why? What is the real truth? Why is everyone blaming President Obama for a problem that's incipience was never in his court?

As an apologist for the state of affairs that finds us in this predicament, I will begin by noting that our national debt now stands at 97.6% of our GDP.  In monetary terms, that is $14.639 trillion.  A staggering amount and yet, only a part of that, (approximately 10%)  is due to policies either enacted, or proposed during the last three and a half years of President Obama's tenure.

Quantitatively of that 10% amount, some dollars are attributable to  'new' policies, proposed by President Obama, (such as 6% due to his economic stimulus packages ). Additionally, 20%, are attributable to policies enacted by GW the third, and supported or extended by President Obama, according to the CBO forecast as reported.

Okay…together that is around 30% of the total, and as I have indicated, only 10% directly attributable to President Obama. In correlation, it should also be noted that an article by David Leonhardt, of the New York Times states that "President Obama's agenda ... is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits", but also that he "...does not have a realistic plan for reducing the deficit...."

 How could that be otherwise, since in remembering back to my high school civics classes, it is Congress that has the constitutional authority to spend money and to levy taxes, Congress alone. Sure, the President has a veto, but Congress is wise to that trick and early on learned to wrap key 'pork' spending proposals with 'other' proposals so that by vetoing the one, the other is also cut. It should be noted that those public tit sucking leeches in Congress these days always craft their bills to make the opposing party look bad to the voters. It is a standard practice. de rigueur, and I am tempted to remark here that when an arrogant Dick Cheney remarked in 2002, 'Proved deficits don't matter.' I took that to mean as long as a Republican president was in power and you should as well. But today, one cannot turn on a television without hearing some inane PAC touting the lie that Barack Obama is responsible for the debt as it stands. Standard phrasing allows that 'we cannot afford four more years with the man who got us into this mess'.

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and / or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” 

Joseph Goebbels

Yes…a big lie, like the one I reference above, repeated becomes believable to the point of supplanting the truth.  Sure it does…That much from the poison dwarf, who, if nothing else, showed us just how successful such a tactic could  be. So my mission here is to expose what is the real truth…and to ram it down anyone's throat who is too stupid to realize that they have been duped.

 

Therefore, why is it that so many Republicans are pissing and moaning and finger-pointing and vilifying President Obama on the national debt when so much of the blame, from the record, is so clearly in someone else's court? And exactly whose court are we discussing anyway? Is it strictly the 235 Republican Congressmen and 40 GOP senators that voted for the Paul Ryan 2012 budget that requires raising the debt ceiling repeatedly, or is the festering wound deeper? It this trend due to the 'tax and spend' liberal Democrats, or is it due to the 'don't tax and spend' profligate and greedy Republicans? Or…as I have noted above, is there something deeper? And whatever happened to that legendary 'Republican fiscal responsibility?

"Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat."

                                                                  

"It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success.”

Joseph Goebbels

So what is that success? Questions, many questions and yet, it seems that answers to those questions depend entirely upon who you ask, and how they want to 'spin' their reply. Lie, and lie convincingly, by telling either all, or a part of the truth. (No, Joe Goebbels didn’t say that. It's one of mine but I'm seriously thinking of having it appended to our national motto. At the very least it should be printed on our money, which isn't even worth the cost of burning. Now, we are selling it to Ford to recycle into dashboards.)

To be frank though, we have all become accustomed to reasoning of this same sort, used to portend dire events, throughout the most disastrous, and fiscally irresponsible presidency of the preceding administration, where we actively watched George the third, take our economy from a surplus in 2000, to a doubling of the national debt at $11.3 trillion in 2008. To a large extent, this was fueled by unfunded Medicare Part 'D', which US Comptroller, General David Walker, called, 'the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the sixties.'

Remember people, Medicare was 'broke' in 2003, and I promise, I'm not making that up. George the third knew that, (no one is that stupid), but he was afraid of losing the 2004 election …seriously afraid and so he decided to give seniors 'free drugs', and thereby, buy their votes. The cost? $1 trillion over ten years, no offsets, no dedicated financing, and our grandchildren get to pay the bill. It was all just Bread and Circuses again, and  all deficit spending. Thank you John McCain for having the courage to vote against this abortion of trust.

Then, of course, on George's side of the ledger, there were unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tax cuts of  2001-2003, but at least George was following big shoes. His oft quoted mentor in things financial, at the insistent prompting of the eminence gris Dick Chaney, was, of course Ronald Reagan, who, while effectively demonstrating to us all through some rosy scenario rhetoric, that 'trickle down economics' was little more that trickle up poverty, managed to triple the national debt to $3 trillion during his tenure.

Why?  The same reason that mired George the third, if you are being charitable…or George the idiot, if you are not. Hey guys… If you cut taxes and continue to spend, your debt will continue to rise, and rise, and rise. Governments have literally no other source of income. If I pull that kind of shit, I get sent to the hall of many doors, perhaps a good repository for our esteemed legislators as well.

So, at this point you are saying, that I introduced myself above as an apologist. So, in that capacity I shall start at the beginning and attempt to define my argument as to why the Republican Party has consistently moved away from the core values that once set them apart.

"Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige."

 Joseph Goebbels

Many years ago, and far away from here, I hearkened to the siren song of conservatism. After all, a conservative is someone who conserves, someone who saves and above all, does no harm. A conservative is a fiscally responsible person who never spends more than he has and who abhors the idea that a condition of debt can be a desirable thing.  ('deficits don't matter', my ass…) That was my goal. That was what I believed a responsible American should do, and so conservatism became my goal.

Then we flash forward…past Jimmy Carter…and, in 1979, that meant Ronald Reagan, since at that time he was certainly sporting all the right credentials and far from the RINO moniker that would characterize him today.  Then though, I was enthralled. Here was the man who could save AMERICA. Here was a man who would not back down, a hero, and a true man we could all emulate. I became a member of the Republican National Committee at a time when conservatism was less than a joke in official circles and yet; the Gipper had told us that he had the solution. After all, we certainly could trust 'the Gipper', couldn't we? He did have prestige….

(Retrospectively, and in full view of the RINO appellation above, we must remark that Ronald Reagan was a man that would scarcely ever be invited to a Tea Party in this current era…

For example…. His 1981, $749 billion 'supply side' tax cuts brutally led the way towards huge annual deficits.  Then, in order to keep up against a losing financial scheme, Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times before he left office and all of us holding a $3 trillion deficit. He also granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants in an effort to make them tax paying American citizens. In addition, Ronald Reagan dramatically increased federal spending by repeatedly raising the annual military budget. (Star wars technology is expensive. Just ask George Lucas.) And let's not too quickly forget those above mentioned 3 million cheap laborers.

Ronald Reagan's brand of  'Reaganomics prosperity' was aimed strictly at those who were already well off. Home ownership under his administration, fell and average worker's wages dropped repeatedly. I know, because I was one of those workers. Then there was the 10% 'luxury tax'. The only 'urban aid' program to survive slashing public service and job training cuts was federal aid for highways, which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities. Ronald Reagan demonstrated to us all that his tax cuts for the rich, 'job creators', benefited no one but the rich, who created damn few jobs. The 'new federalism' shifted responsibility onto states without necessary provisions for funding. Deregulation and Cost Benefit Analyses, were the watchwords of the day and 'ideological arithmetic' ignored the costs.

In 1983, Reagan abandoned the conservative philosophy that had gained him the White House when he openly asked for bipartisan support to 'save social security' from bankruptcy by quoting Franklin Roosevelt. In three short years, Ronald Reagan had at last learned that Government was indeed the problem. At the request of bankers, ( a true evil empire, if there ever was one), Ronald Reagan initiated the free fall, free for all slide of American banks when he de-regulated exactly how banks should behave in their fiscal responsibility to depositors.  Multiple home mortgages were traded as risky securities with very little that could qualify as regulation. Banks became insurance companies and bond traders, together with all the vice versa attendant. The end was fast approaching but in retrospective it too another twenty years to bottom out.

Okay…maybe it still hasn't bottomed out. The pundits and the hoo-hah crowd still feel 'bullish' but shoveling shit uphill, as we all are these semi-bright days of twenty twelve, it sure feels bottomed out to me.  But back then I watched as a younger man, and I noted facts here and there, and I concluded at that time, that Richard Nixon, for all of his idiosyncrasies and 'southern strategy', and Gerald Ford, serving out his 'reward' job,  were the last truly fiscally responsible Republicans.

No, Ronald Reagan was not a conservative, small 'c' or big 'C', and yet he was a Federalist, in the truest sense and a man that I truly admire to this very day. May God bless you, mister president for having the courage to DO something. Small government, strict adherence to a Constitution that our forefathers died to have ratified, free trade and the opportunities it expresses and I thank you Mister President for the 'amnesty' you offered those former 'illegals'.  Today they are indeed productive American citizens, as you envisioned, and so are their children, Yet, the problem remains that your economic policies did not work…Still, the only answer we got was Bush 43….

("We have a responsibility that when somebody hurts, government has got to move." 2003) Yes, George the don't tax and spend liberal, in conservative clothing of course, actually said that..

So, in the intervening years, between then, and now, Why have my icons of the political right failed me and why have they consistently failed America. I warn you, the answers are unpleasant. Some of those answers may disgust you. All of them may lead you to believe that your trust has been misplaced.

“Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street.”

Joseph Goebbels

Back in the day, that was a mandate to enter the Sturm Abteilung. Their mandate, conquer and control the streets.  The Brown Shirts did just that and look at how things turned out.

To be sure, we don't call these people by that title anymore. Politically correct is the dogma that rules our times, and yet they are still out there, and still doing their best to control the streets. Infiltrating the ranks of legitimate protest groups they show up at town hall meetings,  shouting down anyone with opposing ideas. They stifle public debate. They create so much disorder that no free discussion is possible and they do it with impunity. And yet they are all still only tools, tools of their masters just as were their predecessors in the SA. The real control of the streets depends on the sponsor's agenda to steer the masses in the required direction.

Of course the sponsor is Uncle Sam but today he works behind a screen that Cujo, hyped up on PCP, couldn't get through on a bet. Toto wouldn't stand a chance and neither do many of us. The screen is one of obfuscation, of deceit, of misrepresentation of facts and the half truths of lies. Each of us who takes the 'blue pill' allows that screen to remain in place.

"To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium. Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”

Joseph Goebbels

 

Ah, the press, the venerable fourth estate  and we, the television generation of couch potatoes are right where  the press wants us. So enter the talk show phenomenon that guides our choices of candidates these days. More bread and circuses.  And not just pundits of TV, we can barely listen to AM radio anymore so redolent with bias are the more vituperative hosts. Half facts, in support of moronic arguments abound to the point of neausea, even in brief snippets as we surf for information. It should be noted that these churlish masters of ceremony are the most popular in their field. What does that say about the listening audience?

It would be comforting to believe that reported occurrences were at least factual, but yellow journalism has a long history here in these United States, where many of us are descendants of the same whiskey drummers and bible salesmen who pioneered concepts from Manifest Destiny to Madison Avenue. We all like a good show and so we watch...and we listen as sound bites for the intellectually uninvolved daily invade our thoughts. The sponsor's agenda every time. And we buy it all. It is designed for us to do so.

"Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans, which must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses. These slogans must be capable of being easily learned."

Joseph Goebbels

 'Responses which the audience previously possesses'. Today that extends much farther than 'terrorist ragheads that hate us'. Today that labeling extends to the 47% of our population so recently characterized as 'victims'. And the 'distinctive slogans' pandering to an atmosphere of fear, engendered and perpetuated solely to refine a purpose of hatred for everyone that is different from the targeted listener.  And it works. Old Joe told us it would. 

So here we are, with two weeks to go to another election where nothing substantive will be decided. Taxes will stay as low as they were in 1953. Republicans will vote against anything the Democrats want. Democrats will vote against anything the Republicans initiate and the number of 'victims' of it all will grow. China bashing will continue as an easy target for all of our ills even though our national debt is mostly owned by us. If you like, I can spell that last word with capital letters but do the research, you'll see what I'm saying. 

No, there is no short term solution to this problem, none. In fact the only solution is for people to realize that we are all riding this rock together and it is high time we concentrated our efforts on things that we can agree on instead of the things that divide us.

Never fear though, that accomplishes nothing and remember, there is still time…sure there is. The world doesn't end until late this December…

Quotations taken from Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda to The National Socialist Party of Germany.

If Jerry Falwell's organization is against it, then I'm for it...

Recently I had occasion to read a column by Matt Barber, a constitutional law attorney and vice president of Liberty Counsel Action. Mister Barber dedicated that column to a rant against Ron Paul and the Libertarian viewpoints that define Representative Paul. Particularly, Mister Barber points out that Paul is lax on national defense and believes that Islamic terrorists, "...come here and want to do us harm because we’re bombing them."

Mister Paul is correct in that statement and you, Mister Barber, are and very far down the ladder of credibility in that you are unaware that the statement is substantively true. These Islamic terrorists 'want to harm us' precisely because we are bombing them...and usurping their sovereignty, and 'dissing' them, to put things in the vernacular of the times.

I will admit that it goes back a ways...at least back to T.E Lawrence but we kicked things off from our side of the bench when we did it to Iran in 1953. That was when the CIA and Britain's MI6 overthrew the government of Mohammed Mossaddegh. Yeah, that's right, Mister Barber, forcible overthrow of a government we had earlier supported so that both we and Britain could reap oil profits from an industry that had been nationalized. I'm pretty sure that the Iranians remember the incident well, even if you have forgotten.

We followed up when we did it to Iraq in 1980 when, after supplying chemical weapons and other means of 'mass destruction' to Iraq, we again changed horses in midstream. Back in the flying 80's, in order to justify our policy, we even removed Iraq from the state department list of 'State Sponsors of Terrorism' over the objection of General Alexander Haig, I might add. (Reagan and Bush#1 did that...unilaterally from the White House.)

We even made Saddam Hussein gifts of Anthrax and thirteen other agents with 'biological warfare significance'. There were also 'Bear Spares' for military equipment then under embargo from the supplier, the USSR. Then there was that award winning gesture of an expensive set of gold spurs from President Reagan, hand delivered by Donald Rumsfeld at the taxpayers expense. All that, as long as Saddam was supporting our cause against the evil Ayatollah in Tehran. Hell, the DIA was even planning daily operations to deliver those chemical weapons on target in Iran.

We turned on Saddam when it became apparent that Iraq would not repay the 14 billion dollars owed to Kuwait and he decided to annex the country instead.

We did it to Afghanistan' too. Remember Charlie Wilson? Yeah, we supplied all those warlords in Afghanistan with Stingers since they were fighting those godless communists. It even worked to a degree when the USSR pulled back to Moscow but then there was nothing to shoot at and so many missiles left to shoot and the United States was washing its hands free of Afghan dirt back in the waters of the Potomac.. What to do?

Well I suppose that terrorists could always be relied on as paying customers and I've been to Afghanistan, Mister Barber, they really don't have anything else to tout as a cash crop. So the Taliban took over along with their little sidekick bin Laden and we all know how that went.

So yes many third world and Islamic countries do hate us for our perfidy, but then that perfidy has long been the foundation of our foreign policy.

Elihu Root spelled it out back in 1922 when he advocated the 'self protection' scheme that was later converted by subsequent administrations into a policy of 'our economic welfare in America comes before anyone else's, anything else', and that doctrine, however laundered to support dictators from Mussolini to those in current events is diametrically opposed to the foundation principles of our country and the Libertarian Party of which Representative Paul is a member.

And still it is Ron Paul that you find dangerous?

You regard Ron Paul as dangerous for his Libertarian values in snapping off 'national defense' and 'social values' from Ronald Reagan's precious three legged stool, but what of that stool Mister Barber and your biased interpretation for the meaning of those legs?

On personal liberty:

See sections 1.0-1.4 of the Libertarian platform. Try this quote... "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..." Remember that? 'All men...are...equal'. That means just what it says and I am no better than you, nor are you any better than anyone else. We are all equal and all Libertarians support that equality along with personal responsibility for our own actions.

On a strong National defense:

See sections 3.1, and 3.3 of the Libertarian platform. In particular note that the language employed in both sections is the same language imparted to our fledgling government by George Washington when he wisely counseled us to avoid 'entangling alliances'. Perhaps Uncle George was a Libertarian as well...or should we neither allow him to carve the turkey?

In closing I suggest that you take the world's smallest political quiz.Find it here: http://theadvocates.org/quiz , from The Advocates for Self Government, and yes, they are a Libertarian organization.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Falwell Group: Ron Paul Is Dangerous

Can't Get a Job if You Don't Have One....

Recently the Huffington Post ran an article called 'Unemployment Discrimination: Who's Afraid to Hire The Jobless.'

Yeah that's right, Huffington Post. You might be thinking therefore that here's another commie, pinko writer quoting the liberal media and in that, you would be wrong. Indeed, I look at a variety of propaganda sources every single day since the news we get in this country is a lot like fertilizer. It has to be spread around to do any good and a reader constantly has to sift through the uh...inert matter.

So the story referenced above caught my attention. Mostly that was because exactly what was described happened to me personally. I was literally told, by a company recruiter that if I had any unemployment on my recent job history, I could not apply. Then it happened with another company.

Now, O learned mavens of the blogoshphere, I don't mind telling you that this situation seemed mighty queer to this old country boy, emphasis on the old. After all, I had just reached the point when I finally reasoned out that sending applications through on AARP sponsored stationery might just not be the best plan for a career position. Indeed I had attended interviews where the HR director came right out and told me that he could hire three young people for what he would have to pay me. Yeah, I know that is age discrimination and also illegal but we all know it happens, and really, why bother to sue when you have already been told that the company does not want you working there?

So after working a couple of corncobs like that out of my ass I was really not prepared to learn that If I didn't have a job, I might not be able to get one. I decided to read further, and yes, from other sources as well, even some from the rabid right. (I have to tell you though that there was no article about this practice on the FOX web site.)

What I found out during that reading was that the practice is actually legal since 'unemployed' is not a category listed as discriminatory under EEOC guidelines. Yes! Our government in action at its best. There is no policy that addresses discriminating against the unemployed. And the practice is growing according to NELP Executive Director, Christine Owens.

Now, there may be a few of you out there who have recently arrived on Earth from some off planet locations but most of us already here are familiar with the reality that since mid 2007 or so, unemployment has been on the rise at a rate nearly parallel with what was experienced during the great depression of the thirties. Of course the numbers have been dummied up to make the statistic look better than it really is but I'll bet that anyone reading this has friends and relatives that are unemployed. The situation is bad to the point of being dire and we need less methods used to disqualify or avoid hiring competent workers. The solution is more jobs but with the growing trend towards globalization that is becoming harder to do.

In this pre election year run up to 2012, I believe that the best strategy for accomplishing the sea change that we need is as I outlined in an earlier post entitled 'Throw The Bastards Out'. At least with that strategy we all have a fighting chance to get hired.

Throw the Bastards Out

I don't know where anyone in congress got the idea that Social Security was an entitlement program. It may have something to do with the fact that congressional pensions pay four to five times more than most social security after only five years vesting, or vestiture if you will forgive a slight archaism. Nonetheless, those of us out here in the real world, many of whom have worked forty plus years remember social security as an extorted purchase of an annuity that none of us ever expected to see a return on.

However Franklin Roosevelt characterized his spiel while he was rapidly shifting those three cards, (Liberal social program, insurance policy, and FICA contribution),around the table, quite apart from a method to provide for our elders, most of us downrange invariably saw 'Ponzi scheme' whenever we visualized what was going to happen to us downrange.

And now we come to today and another round of poor mouth propaganda rhetoric from our party partisan electorate.

Please don't get me wrong. While this is not intended as a rant against social security itself, when you strip all the varnish away from the turd of congressional spending you invariably arrive at the same conclusion. It is nothing but a pile of shit. Congress, that stalwart watchdog of democracy and the American way, does not care one whit about either any of us or our elders. It's all about what the money can provide to insure that above referenced five year tenure and that is why I say it is time to 'Throw the Bastards Out.'

Could I do any better? Could anyone else? Both questions, in contravention of strict logic have three answers, just like the card game up above. Yes. No. Maybe...Pick the right one and you win yourself a prize.

So, a few days ago I was reminded that a friend of mine, Emmett Delaney,had written a book called 'The Write In.' It is a story about a regular guy named Les Moore and how he became a national write in candidate for president.

In the book, Les, who is fifty-six years old, has a slight IRS problem, a case of worsening type two diabetes and who is a thirty-five year veteran driving forty-eight states for Transporters Express, one day wins a driver of the year award that comes with a new computer. Les has to learn how to use it though and so one day while trying out the internet he take a survey on what he would do as President of the United States. Les's responses to that survey get him noticed fast and the next thing that happens is that Les Moore finds himself listed as a 'write-in' candidate for president.

Can't happen? Well it does in the book and even though Les is not running, the momentum of the internet carries him along through every trial and tribulation you can imagine for such an endeavor.

I have to admit that an idea such as the one Emmett writes about here has a certain appeal. It is an appeal that every common man, in the best tradition of Jefferson Smith on that memorable Academy Award winning 1939 trip to Washington, wants to emulate.

Now, just as then, many feel that too long has our political system been abused and perverted to further the aims of avaricious career politicians. Too long have our jobs been exported to countries that hate us so that a few corporations can profit while many languish in poverty. Too long have we all been subjected to a rationalistic agenda that does little but fuel ambitions and enrich the bank accounts of ambulance chasing lawyers, the bottom rung of our legal profession. Too long have we all said nothing as we watched this denial of self reliance, this perversion of responsibility for our own actions and this complete disregard for principles that made this nation a singular paragon on the world stage. Maybe 2012 is the year that we, as ordinary folk, stand up and take back our country.

Many years ago I heard a stand-up routine. I can't remember where or who but I do remember the punch line. Anyway, one man says to the other. 'Did you know that the two biggest problems facing our nation are ignorance and apathy.' The other man turns and says. 'I don't know and I don't care.'

Okay, so it's not funny. I know that and now, so do you. So look up Emmett's book. I've provided a link and while reading think about a common man in a national office. Think about yourself in one of those offices. Think about making a difference. After all it is not enough to just 'Throw the Bastards Out.' Like it or not we have to replace them. Maybe with Lester Moore, maybe with you... It could happen.

To Cursive or Not to Cursive

So...there I was. I had mowed what is left of my lawn, weeded the old flowerbed on the west side of the house, knocked a couple of items off of the wife's perpetual 'list of things that will only take five minutes to do', and the day was effectively over. Worse than that, I was out of beer.

I then thought I might hit the pool for a few laps but since the water temperature in the pool was two degrees higher than the air temperature outside here in sunny Clearwater Florida, the idea of a dip was less than attractive. Long story short, I was casting about for something I could do to kill time before supper. On a whim I decided to tune in the six o'clock follies and see if there was anything remotely resembling what was advertised as news. Today I was in luck.

I forget who the commentator was, not that it really mattered. Here in Florida, and to be fair in many other locations as well, we have an assortment of lacquered, and powdered fully animated mannequins, some male, some female that have all purchased their hair from Owens Corning and all faithfully stick to the fully massaged script on their teleprompters. (I'm not supposed to discuss politics but that is just like the president does when the cameras are rolling.)

Anyway, listening in I was shocked to learn that there is a movement afoot to eliminate cursive writing as an item of curriculum in our schools and yes, even though we are not discussing politics this is something that goes right back to 'no child left behind' which as you will remember also means 'no child moves ahead'. Budget cuts, smaller class sizes, standardized tests and God help any teacher attempting originality or otherwise deviating from the banal.

The rationale, and we are nothing if not rationalistic in anything operated by governments, is that the teaching of cursive writing is time consuming, particularly with students that already know how to print block letters, or simply recognize those symbols enough to press keys on a computer or cell phone.

HELLO!!!

Yes boys and girls; they are actually touting just that. What I am hearing though is that teaching cursive is just too hard. After all, children have cell phones, and computers, so why do they need to 'write' anything?

Well how about a signature? Maybe notes during a lecture? That always comes in handy at test time. How about a quick note to that cute girl in the second row? E-Mail leaves a paper trail guys. It might be handy to know cursive...

Teaching it is hard though. The teachers do have a point. And let's not forget all the time they need to teach students how to pass those standardized tests like FCAT.

'No Child Moves Ahead'.


Now I don't know about you but as I recall school it was first learn block printing in first and second grade, maybe even third,) and then move on to cursive writing around the fourth grade. And yes, if it was time consuming for me as a student, I can easily surmise that with thirty eight students in my grade school class, it must have been even more time consuming for Sister Michael and Sister Joan, and all the other equally patient good Sisters of Saint Joseph. Still they persevered.

We, as students, were a captive audience of course but what the hell, we persevered too and practiced and practiced, ad neauseam.

We had inkwells with ink in them and stoppers. We had blotters and quill pens with changeable nibs and later we had fountain pens too. I even remember those horrible cartridge pens that sometimes worked and usually leaked.(Washable Blue, my ass...)

There were ink smudges galore, ruined shirts and you had to keep dipping the quill tips as they would only hold so much ink and yet through it all, we learned cursive. We were even graded on it. Some of us got decent grades, most of us though had terrible handwriting.

Once we had all got with the program it was evident even to anyone that cursive was a lot faster than block printing, a whole lot faster. Hell, even the Romans wrote in cursive. Oh not that stuff chiseled into places like Trajan's Column. The Romans used cursive for nearly everything else though. It just worked and obviously their instructors had time to teach.

Still, opponents of cursive tout that it is sometimes hard to read as not everyone possesses the ability to write cursive legibly. They do have a point and they further expand that point to state that important documents should be printed in block letters for legibility. That is certainly a valid position and I agree...at least partially. After all, no one would write something important, e.g. a document that was intended to last for a long time in cursive. Would they? In particular would they work the official document in cursive when they already possessed a printed copy?

They might. Or if they did we would have to infer that perhaps they simply couldn't print worth a shit. Men like Timothy Matlack and Jacob Shallus for instance. Yes...I'm quite certain they were better at cursive.

Transverse Myelitis

TM? I'll bet you thought that was Transcendental Meditation. Didn't you?

You know, if this were to be a redneck story I would have to begin with 'Hey...y'all ain't goin' to belieeeve this shit'. Unfortunately though, I am unable, herein, to segue into fast cars, loyal hunting dogs, unfaithful women or beer and so redneck just won't cut it. Similarly, 'Once upon a Time' is just too lame to consider and so I will just get on with it as you are probably tired of the long winded preamble. Besides, Joanie is making noises with the paper shredder in the next room so...

A few weeks ago I was driving along in Ohio, kickin my kitty, stylin' and profilin' with the best of them in my Kenworth T-600. With a recent bath and fresh shave I did look good.

Since it was Ohio and since I had recently received some beautiful, hand autographed paperwork from one of the more dedicated public servants down on US 35, I was particularly vigilant for uh...road hazards. One hazard I did miss, although about three hours from that particular time point it would find me, all on its own.

It had been an uneventful morning, except for the rain. Traffic was medium, the sun came up on schedule brightening gray skies and I was early for my last delivery in Columbus about twenty miles away. Just an average day trucking and delivering freight. I had seen many just like it over the last 1.3 million miles.

I had upholstered couches and recliners in the trailer today and I was anxious to get them off so I could call in MT and get to my next dispatch. I dropped a gear, hit the exit ramp off 270 for Roberts Road and turned left.

About a half hour after I bumped the dock the receiver showed up and together we threw the load in record time. No OS+D, papers all signed and posted to the Driver Tech computer, everything running like a clock but I noticed a slight pain in my back about midway up. If you are much older than thirty you have probably come to terms with something aching or hurting most of the time and so you probably do what I did that morning and slough it off. Besides, ramped up from the recent exercise no little back pain was going to deter me. I was ready to run.

Dispatch was not though and after about an hour of waiting I headed to the Pilot truck stop out on exit 79 for some decent coffee.

Those people at PFJ advertise that they have the best coffee on the interstate and I have to allow that the claim is well founded although how they can maintain that quality when they ship the stuff in those 8500 gallon tank trailers is quite beyond me. Nonetheless I parked and headed across the parking lot.

The rain had abated to some degree but it was breezy with a temperature in the high forties so this Florida boy in a thin jacket, hustled just a little, along with 'Tee' shirted locals. That coffee was going to taste mighty good and it did!

Passing a few pleasantries with other drivers I started back across the tarmac. My truck was about two hundred yards away. About a hundred feet into that journey I began to notice a tingling sensation in my right foot. Now that was pretty strange since it felt a little like my foot was going to sleep so I stopped at one of the fuel islands and did some stretching. I even banged the offending foot against a concrete bollard a few times just to try and shake the feeling. It didn't help so I continued towards my truck. Then I stumbled and damn near dumped my fresh coffee before I recovered enough to stand straight. The tingling was now crawling past my knee. Worse yet, my left foot was tingling too. I was halfway to the truck.

I don't know when it occurred to me that I was somehow in trouble. I'm pretty dense on things like that but most pains can be walked off. We have all done that a hundred times. The body is good at that sort of thing but the closer I got to the truck the worse my walking became. I stumbled and then I stumbled again...and again. My right leg was just not working and the harder I willed it to work the worse it became. When I made it to the grab bar by my door I could barely stand.

I did stand though as there was little alternative but I held tight to the grab bar as I unlocked my door and stuffed my hard won coffee inside on the mat. Then I used my left leg to drag my right leg and me into the truck. So far so good and I hadn't spilled the coffee. First things first, after all.

I sat on the seat for a few minutes and tried to resume 'normal' but the numbness persisted. Then it was into the bunk for some stretching. It had to be a pinched nerve. It felt like a pinched nerve. Rest and stretching would help. Wouldn't it? The answer to that was no. And I mean a great big fat NO!

Several hours later I knew I was going to have to call an audible.

Friends took me to Riverside Methodist in Columbus. There I learned the truth. It was a pinched nerve...sort of. My spinal cord was the nerve in question and it was much more than pinched. I had Transverse Myelitis. Listening through all the doctorese it was apparent that recovery was a long way off if at all.

A week later I left the ICU for Physical therapy. Acute In-Patient Physical Therapy they call it and it is something like a boot camp for brain and spinal cord injuries. Up early, get dressed on your own, meals in the dining room, (no hiding in your room) work late and then rest just as hard and tomorrow it starts all over again. I loved it. After the first week I earned my 'green certificate'. I could then use the bathroom and get into bed from the wheelchair unsupervised. Apart from the embarrassment of the other option, the freedom was a milestone. I was learning and becoming stronger.

Miss Katie, Miss Sarah and Miss Paula drilled me hard. No slip-ups into easy accommodation were tolerated. All movements were to be controlled and even. 'Trust the leg', 'Shorter steps', 'Hips forward', 'Squeeze your butt when you lift', Heel first'.'These were their mantras and I repeat them to myself with every outing.I still do. Without these dedicated ladies I would still be slinging my bad leg like a sack of concrete. Thank you all so very much. I mean that more than you know.

Another week and I am again home in Florida, still learning to walk but feeling more confident with each step. Funny, I don't remember it being all that hard learning this same function sixty some years ago but what the hell. I figure that when you get older you forget shit so I am just putting my shoulder to the wheel and hamstering it out.

For those of you who do not know. Transverse Myelitis is an inflammatory lesion or lesions of the spinal cord across its thickness in which the myelin sheath of the neurons is damaged. This adversely affects conduction of signals in the affected nerves, causing impairment in sensation, movement, cognition, or other functions depending on which nerves are involved.. The lesions are inflammatory, and involve the spinal cord on both sides. With acute transverse myelitis, the onset is sudden and the disease progresses rapidly in hours or days.

The cause for many occurrences of Transverse Myelitis is up for debate. In my case the doctors said it was idiopathic. At first I thought that was a snide remark that meant I had STUPID written on my forehead but instead of punching someone I looked it up. (Greek was never my forte'.) The word means arising from unknown causes, but as a functional process of the disease, for some reason my immune system had attacked my spinal cord. Maybe a virus, maybe an injury...who knows? The result is the same. One leg paralyzed, the other one just numb.

Recovery is very might be, maybe, could be, if in nature, although early treatment may lead to 90-100% recovery. Time frame for that recovery is up to two years. Wheelchairs are for pussies though so in the meanwhile I will be out pounding the pavement with walker and cane. It ain't pretty. It ain't fast but I am standing and I am moving.'Heel first', Squeeze the butt'...Yeah.


Believe that I am motivated. I'll have to be if I ever want to get back to fast cars, women, unfaithful or otherwise and some fine old mountain brewed, Tennessee sippin' whiskey. (See? I did work in a redneck angle after all.) Maybe I'll even try some of the other TM...just in case the stress gets to me, of course.

From February past and reprinted here:

You know I was talking with Lela the other day and she reminded me that we are almost out of the winter doldrums. Specially right now as we await the advent of Easter which as everyone in Florida knows means that the tourists will fly back north. Not quite as many of them this year due to the economic woes we all suffer under but some things are looking up and Lela has seen new people at The Studio. So I suppose that the season is almost official.

So, Spring has sprung here in Florida and the grass is almost riz but some of you might be sitting around wondering just how old that carpet in the living room is. Apart from short term memory loss the brown paths between your favorite chair and the refrigerator should be some sort of indication but when in doubt, the best plan is always to throw it out. That's where we can come to the rescue for any household and any budget.

With the advances in fibre technology today and the possibilities offered through solution dyed nylon, your new carpet, in a color that pleases every time you look at it is closer to a reality than just a distant dream.

So wander on down to the Lake Avenue Studio or maybe to your favorite home store and experiment with just how much envy you can wring out of your neighbors. And, the plus today is that in these down times you can do it for some very attractive prices.

Then you can sit back, enjoy a beer and wait for your dog to start scooting a new path.

Anniversary

An anniversary is generally a happy time, a celebration in some way of an event we want to remember. It probably says something similar to that in the dictionary but in a broader sense an anniversary may also call up something we might just as soon forget.

From my end this was the week last year that I was notified that I was being laid off. Yup, laid off. Okay, you could just as well say fired, retired, downsized,dismissed,discharged, or any one of another set of verbal images but the result would be the same. Out of work and now, a year later I am still out of work. Regular work that is and when you fall from a 200K slot down to unemployment you wind up doing some downsizing of your own. I sold the motorhome, sailboat, Harley Davidson, furnishings and let the house go for 300K less than it cost to build three years ago and my 2008 pick-up went back to the bank. Now I live in a trailer in Clearwater...on US19 no less! OK...its a shithole and I hate it but it is mostly dry and it is paid for. So is my new ride, a twenty four year old F-250 that starts on most mornings when there is no water in my diesel fuel.

Now I am far from the only person in my area that this has happened to. Hear tell we are at near 12% unemployed in the Tampa Bay area and there were a lot of causes but that is mostly water under the dam at this point. Now we are all just dealing with the results and attempting to formulate solutions so it occurred to me that some pro-active innovation, in the best traditions of The Wharton School, could be rewarding.

To that end I will say that I have staked out some prime real estate down near the Gandy Boulevard off ramp and that I am offering attractive sublets to willing citizens who will work cadging hand outs. I get 5% of your daily take and you will make money since I have full demographics and traffic flow rates from FDOT. I can also predict right down to a brass quarter your average daily haul so don't even think of trying to fuck me over .

Okay, this is shift work and appropriate attire is necessary of course. Scuffed boots are de riguer as are presentable, if worn, Blue Jeans. Leave the spit shined Ferragamos and those fancy designer ripped and tattered dungarees under your bed if you still have one or at least inside your shopping cart if your home has become more portable.

If you are new at this then rest assured that I have a marketing section that can supply sign sentiments with just the degree of pathos necessary to your particular situation and in colors to attract maximum visibility; all guaranteed to elicit a buck or a few coins since public perception of your presence generally signals 'wino' and we want to avoid that. Cash is king after all. I also have small children and dogs from citizens on more dangerous turf and all available for rent as an extra touch.

Not comfortable doing the hand out thing? Well there is another solution. You can commit a crime! If you do there is a good chance that the law abiding citizens of the county will send your tired ass straight to prison. If they do, you will get three squares a day, a warm bed and free health care for the length of your stay.

Now I am perfectly willing to admit that prison can be confining. Of course it can but just how confined or comfortable are you under that bridge...or inside that refrigerator carton or dumpster? How much time do you spend watching over your remaining possessions and how many hours does it take every day to find food. Prison can help. Remember those three squares? And when summer gets here there is exercise equipment and an outside yard so you can work on your tan, drop that flab and get in shape. Just like a health club! The best part is that you can learn a new trade and your PO will get you a paying job when you get out. Prison looking better to you? Is it?

Just remember that prison can help you avoid many miseries of everyday life since you won't have any possessions, any bills to pay and no lawn to mow. All you will have is peace of mind, and anniversaries...of course.

Legal Gun Owners?

My response to a Saint Pete Times editorial of May 30, 2009,

"Guns Don't Belong in National Parks"


Thank you Senator Tom Coburn.

While a long history of sniping attacks on the meaning and scope of the second amendment has resulted in a state of affairs where gun owners are commonly regarded today as less than mentally stable right wing nuts, you have had the courage to stand up and point out the necessity for the inclusion of this provision in our Constitution. Indeed, dating back to the Magna Carta and before that to The Assize of Arms, all free men should be required to 'bear arms' to 'provide for the common defense'. In the case of the Magna Carta that common defense even extends to the right and obligation to revolt against the King. Any King.
(Any of you liberals want to check how well this right worked for our founding fathers?)

While it nonetheless goes without saying that the individual bearing arms has a responsibility to use them well and with skill, the second amendment, notwithstanding the various illegal specific infringements, permits us to own and carry them anywhere we see fit. After all, the framers of our Constitution knew well that governments fear nothing so much as an armed populace.

Age Of Aquarius

That's what they say today is. If true, I suppose that the actual dawning is over at this point and the reality is here so, in case anybody is interested, I'm ready. Bring it on!

Remembering back into the fifth dimension and the message that 'peace will guide the planets, and love will rule the stars', I'm not sure of exactly how that translates into the third dimension where I live and substantively into something I can feel and touch and smell but I will say that I am encouraged.

Since being laid off again on February first, for the second time in the last two years, I will admit that I have steadily grown more despondent as the month waxed and demand for new houses and condos dwindled even farther down the toilet. No breaking news there for any of us similarly or associatively engaged but today things should change. Prosperity is here and if you check with the right sources. you will see that we are all set until the beginning of 2010. Wow!

Now I don't know about any of you but with the world scheduled to end on December 21, of 2012, I think we need all the prosperity we can get. So throw a party. Invite your friends and toast the planets (Jupiter and Mars if you don't know).

The key thing to remember about the Age of Aquarius is that change is coming. Boy, I know I've heard that somewhere before...

STUFF WHITE PEOPLE THINK

Comment to Conor Friedersdorf, C11 Editor at 'The Confabulum'

Dear Mister Friedersdorf,

It is worth commenting that if you were to look at me you would see a ‘white’ man. What that look would not disclose is a racial heritage that is quite probably common to many ‘white’ people.

My father was half American Indian and his grandmother was negro, Afro-Cuban if we want to get technical but me, well I can’t even keep a good tan. I’ve been working on one now for nearly 60 years and I think I may have it in another thirty or so but for now, all I can field is a dim summertime shading for my ‘poisonous tree toad whiteness’.
(No doubt due in some part to the Irish, German and English ancestors I also claim. Damn genetics! )

All kidding aside, it is easy to see where someone like me might have trouble identifying with a particular racial identity group.It should also be clear why I champion an attitude of judging people more by what they can do than by what color they are.

I will not attempt a claim that racism is not a factor in society but I do believe that if more people were aware of their ancestry, it might be something we could put into decline rather quickly since there are a lot of Americans just like me.

I applaud your effort here. RT

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Let Them Eat Cake, God Knows The Unions Can Afford It.

The New York Times, under an article written by David M. Herszenhorn, reported today that the

'Deal to Rescue American Automakers is Moving Ahead'.


'.....Nancy Pelosi hoped', or threatened as you may see things, 'that Mr. Bush's appointee- or car czar, as the position has come to be known- would not need to be replaced by President elect Obama, raising the prospect that the outgoing and incoming administrations would cooperate in selecting someone.' It also raises the prospect that either Mr. Bush will toe the line or the Democrats would prevail, one way or the other since Ms. Pelosi has summarily dismissed the two prospective names proffered by the Bush administration for the post.

Irrespective of what will churn on in debate and accusations, I, for one am opposed to a rescue. I am singularly opposed to any bailout however structured that would provide taxpayer money to the big 3 or big 2, depending on how you read this. (Ford hasn't quite come off the wheels....yet.)

'...Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in comments on the Senate floor on Monday nodded to' ..(my).. 'concerns'... when he said."As we consider new legislation this week, we must first ensure that we do no harm to taxpayers later in our efforts to help out any one particular industry now. Troubled automakers cannot expect taxpayer help without a serious commitment to change their ways-permanently."

Mitch, thank you,...that sounds like a responsible attitude. It also sounds to me as though you are describing the types of remedies and protections that would be imposed on the automakers by a Chapter 11 filing and I'm down with it Senator,...really. All of us out here in reality land call that 'bankruptcy' and Mitch, some of us are on intimate terms with those remedies. Been there, done that,...hell, I've even got a 'Tee' shirt stuffed away somewhere I think.

See those last four words up there in italics? Change their ways permanently,...renegotiate their contracts maybe. I like it.

If you tow the mark, it works and survival is possible because bankruptcy is a protection. We might even get fuel efficient cars, but automakers don't think it will work. They think we won't buy cars from a 'bankrupt' company. Why not? We fly on 'bankrupt' airlines. How bad can a 'bankrupt' car be?

After all, the United States is nothing if not a nation of whiskey drummers and bible salesmen. We are up to the task. Our children grow up reveling in the fruits of marketing programs, slimy PR campaigns and hucksterism of every single sort and for everything they touch or see or want or emulate. A 'bankrupt' automaker is just a bump in the road. You won't even feel it if you're driving a Buick. See how easily that rolled right out? And I'm a carpenter. Want to see what DDB+W could do with it?

Marketing, what a tool, you just can't beat it.

But as badly as the big 3 eschew bankruptcy as 'bad for business' due to their jaundiced perceptions of the marketplace, it is not all bad news. Bankruptcy would mean that the big 3 would have to answer to the courts. Yeah,...judges and stuff, real courts.

A bailout would mean that the big 3 would answer to Congress and you would have to be a complete idiot not to see that attraction that holds for the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Frank, et al. on the wrong side of the aisle.

(OK,...sorry, that sounded a little too,...uh, conservative (small 'c' ) and Joan is over there making noises with the paper shredder again. I admit,...I've promised the wife to 'watch it' ....and then there was that thing about bleeding in my profile....) Let's just say,...the other side of the aisle and let it go.

OK.

With the Democrats traditionally and almost perennially beholden to the unions, including the incoming administration it becomes clear why they are pushing this bailout agenda. The biggest losers from a structured Chapter 11 will undoubtedly be the cozening unions.

Now in examination of that statement realize that if Toyota or Nissan or even BMW notices their fat profits circling the drain due to a slowdown in sales, they lay workers off. It make good business sense to do that. Nobody likes it but it happens. It's life. Not so the case with the big 3. The UAW won't permit it and any attempt at fiscal responsibility from the automakers is met with the usual threats. Why?

Simple, when you bow your head and respectfully become a member of the UAW they promise to continue your benefits for life. That's right. Life. You put in your twenty five, they do the rest. (Kind of like the old Kodak slogan,...only different.)

So what, you say. It's always been that way. Why sure it has. Always, at least back to the inception of the unions. Know anybody else who gets benefits for life?.......Think hard.......

.....That's right, Congress does. Salary and benefits, for life, no matter how long you serve. See how it works? If the big 3 go bankrupt all of their contracts have to be renegotiated...the UAW too. How long do you think those union benefits would last? That's what I think too.

With those fat pork benefits for people who haven't done a lick of work in tears down the shitter automobile costs will come down and that will be good for all of us, even the big 3.

When we're all feeling better, we might even take a look at the other pork recipients. Senator for life, Congressman for life, President for life,___________________ fill in the blank with whatever you like (Duvalier is taken though).

Maybe if those people had to live out their days on social security or actually pay for health insurance we might really get some 'Change we can believe in'.

But then I'm forgetting something.

How could I be so stupid? President elect Obama has promised to put an end to pork. I'm sure he meant just that,...aren't you?

Pass the cake please.