Perspective Means Everything

I have this happen to me all the time:
Something beautiful and simple to me is described as dangerous insanity by someone else.
Or something I see as dangerous and insane is defended as beautiful and simple by someone else.

Here is a YouTube example:  (Watch them both or you are only seeing 1 perspective.)

Perspective 1: I am a beautiful dancer creating beauty with my dancing hula hoop.

Perspective 2: I am a hula hoop and your irresponsible actions are making my whole world spin, making me ill.

Maybe this is why “conservatives” and “liberals” can live in the same world and never see the same issue the same way.
Hey I’m doing something clever and beautiful with money and real estate!
No you're not!  You are destabilizing the housing market and making me ill.

Hey I’m doing something clever and beautiful to save the environment.
No you're not!  You are destabilizing my business and my way of life and making me ill.

Perspective means everything in how you instinctively describe things in your world.

What we need are ways to acknowledge the different perspectives people bring to the table and still manage to get worthwhile things done.  MSNBC vs FOX NEWS is not helping.  Republicans vs Democrats is not helping.  Liberals vs Conservatives is not helping.  We are just making each other ill.

I don’t have any grand solutions to the world’s problems.  But I think we are all crazy if we keep having the same arguments over and over and expect a different result this time.

Think about it next time you are sure you are doing or defending some beautiful thing.

Think about it next time you feel ill listening to someone else’s defense of their crazy thing.

We are all dancers.  But we are all someone else’s hula hoop as well.

A Christian Mistake

A Christian Mistake, from Newsweek Online

By Jim Wallis
The Religious Right was a Christian mistake. It was a movement that sought to implement a “Christian agenda” by tying the faithful to one political option—the right-wing of the Republican Party. The politicizing of faith in such a partisan way is always a theological mistake. But the rapid decline of the Religious Right now offers us a new opportunity to re-think the role of faith in American public life.

Personally, I am not offended or alarmed by the notion of a post-Christian America. Christianity was originally and, in my view, always meant to be a minority faith with a counter-cultural stance; as opposed to the dominant cultural and political force. Notions of a Christian America quite frankly haven’t turned out very well. But that doesn’t mean a lack of religious influence--on the contrary. Committed minorities have had a tremendous influence on cultures and even on politics, just look at all the faith-inspired social reform movements animated by people of faith. But Martin Luther King, Jr. did not get the Civil Rights Act passed because he had the most Bible verses on his side but because he entered into the public square with compelling arguments, vision and policy that ultimately won the day. Those faith-inspired movements are disciplined by democracy, meaning they don’t expect to win just because they are “Christian.” They have to win the debates about what is best for the common good by convincing their fellow citizens. And that is best done by shaping the values narrative, as opposed to converting everyone to their particular brand of religion. Rather, they are always looking for allies around their moral causes, including people of other faiths, or no religion at all.

The story of Christianity in America in the coming decades will be defined by a multi-cultural shift as well as a generational one. “New” Evangelicals and Catholics, along with Black, Hispanic, and Asian churches will now shape the agenda. But also included are the millions of American’s who say they are “spiritual but not religious,” finding homes in non-traditional churches, mega-churches that teach that true religion is found in care for “the least of these.”

Making a real impact on the values and directions that a democracy will choose is, perhaps, a more exciting kind of influence than relying on the illusory and often disappointing hopes of cultural and political dominance.

The shift that Jon Meacham describes may be the best news in a long time.

--------------------------

Credits: Story by Jim Wallis.

Collage by Jay Larsen.

I have always found Wallis to be one of the more interesting modern Christian writers. Speaking for one "spiritual but not religious" American, I am willing to forgive the Christians their right-wing political mistake. I just hope the emerging Christian movements will focus more on Jesus' original message of caring for the poor, the sick, the underprivileged, and the sinner; and stop trying to legislate mote removal when there are so many beams in so many eyes making it so hard for us all to see clearly. God obviously put more than just Christians on this planet, so we all must have a part to play.

Peace and Compassion.

Right and Left Ready to Declare Obama a Failure

Almost a month and nothing has changed?!?!?

Americans are addicted to the 5-minute fix. You know, that fictional wave of the magic wand that happens at the end of television shows where no matter what kind of trouble our heroes got into, it is all magically made better in the last 5 minutes of the show. This is great for episodic television producers who need everything reset for the beginning of next week’s episode. But in real life it doesn’t work that way. Catastrophe can strike in an instant, but healing takes time.

Almost everyone seems to have had 5-minute fix fantasies about our new President. Liberals believed he could undo decades of corporate cancer and economic addictions with the wave of a hand and few speeches. But even more surprising is the extent to which conservatives must have secretly believed Obama could magically change Washington and the world. Yes there have been some fairly incoherent arguments against the Stimulus Bill from the Right, but when tempers really flair most of my Republican friends end up saying something like, “Obama has been president for nearly a month and nothing has changed!”

I was expecting lots of liberals to be disappointed when the whole world could not be remade in 100 days, but now it looks like the conservatives may have secretly believed Obama was magic after all.

Here’s my advice:
Lefties, you still have a lot of work to do. Obama made it clear during the election that he was not going to change everything himself. He is expecting people (that’s you and me) to push him and to push Congress to make progressive changes. Quit feeling betrayed and keep advocating and educating to change the things that need changing. You don’t get a vacation just because one guy got elected to one job. It was easy to blame Bush/Cheney for obstructing all your best ideas—maybe too easy. Keep the heat on and Obama will respond better than the last group, but he was never the great liberal messiah—he’s just an intelligent and reasonable guy who is willing to wade in and try his best. Help him out.

Righties, chill out. Take a deep breath. It sucks when your team doesn’t win. But you let that last group mismanage your team to the point where it is not recognizable any more. Quit acting like you didn’t approve of actions that resulted in a huge loss of dignity, honor, cash and lives over the last 8 years. Bring some real ideas to the table and don’t reward Republican politicians for just saying NO every time Obama says anything. Enough with the fake outrage. You can admit that you are angry, confused and sickened and not lose your identity. Conservative used to be a good brand with some solid truths behind it—rediscover that and make a contribution.

Everybody, Admit we have long term systemic problems. Our political and economic systems did not get like this overnight and there is no overnight solution. Our culture did not get to be like this overnight. Obama cannot provide us with a 5 minute fix. All the anger and denial and negotiating makes perfect sense. They are all symptoms of mourning. We thought we had our addictions under control. We thought they wouldn’t cause problems in your professional and political lives. But we are not in control. It has taken us decades to screw our system up this bad. It is going to take decades of work to reshape our systems and rebalance our lives and our culture. First we have to admit we have a problem. Then we need to be honest about what caused them and what we can do to avoid them. But most importantly, we need to rediscover our basic humanity and take small steps everyday toward the culture that we want to live in. There are no sidelines here. There is nowhere to hide. The sooner we get to acceptance, the sooner we can begin to heal. We need to be the change we want to see in the world or else our show might not get picked up for another season.

Giving Up on God?

Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post, a conservative columnist, has an interesting take on the relationship between the Republican Party and the Fundamentalist Right. An exerpt follows:

"Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.

But they need those votes!

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.

Short break as writer ties blindfold and smokes her last cigarette.

Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents, including other people of faith (those who prefer a more private approach to worship), as well as secularists and conservative-leaning Democrats who otherwise might be tempted to cross the aisle.
Here's the deal, 'pubbies: Howard Dean was right.

It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Religious conservatives become defensive at any suggestion that they've had something to do with the GOP's erosion. And, though the recent Democratic sweep can be attributed in large part to a referendum on Bush and the failing economy, three long-term trends identified by Emory University's Alan Abramowitz have been devastating to the Republican Party: increasing racial diversity, declining marriage rates and changes in religious beliefs.

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting. "

---Read the whole thing at the Washington Post

The Photo: Has nothing to do with the article but I wanted you to see it because it is awesome.

Polsters say Don't Blame Obama Supporters for Prop-8

FiveThirtyEight.com have been crunching the CA Prop-8 numbers and report that blaming Obama supporters for the passage of Prop-8, the Anti Gay Marriage Initiative, is not supported by the polling.

New voters brought in by Obama voted convincingly against Prop-8.

Older Voters turned out to be the key demographic:

At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.

The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era.

Link: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/prop-8-myths.html

Trends over the years are still moving towards greater acceptance of equal rights for all, but we are obviously not there yet. Personal experience seems to indicate that the biggest impacts are made by individuals talking frankly to their friends and family. Demonstrations are good for the moral of those already convinced, but social change happens one person at a time. Take the oportunity to talk with the people you know already.

Hate and Fear Play Out in Prop-8 Aftermath

Two steps forward and one step back.
That is how election night felt. We elected the first black president in America, and then California passed Prop-8 banning gay marriage.
I have been involved in discussions and back and forth with friends, coworkers, relatives (many of them in CA). And I kept thinking I should finally get my best thinking down and post it--One eloquent, convincing piece of prose that would sum up the situation and convince people to open their eyes and hearts to all people.

Well, fuck it. I can’t manage to be eloquent and I don’t know that people want to be convinced. So this is the best I can do for now. Though I still hope for eloquence and convincing argument from somebody if not from me.

This whole Prop-8 thing is really disturbing because of the involvement of the Mormon Church, the church in which I was raised and in which many of my relatives still remain active. I am not a Mormon now; thank god the constitution gives me that right. But I have a fondness for Mormons and my family. And I defend their rights to believe what they believe and to live the way they live. I also defend their rights to advocate their beliefs and to encourage others to believe as they do. So I understand when Mormons tell me that they do not want to be gay, and that they do not want other people to be gay. But there is a big difference between telling someone you don’t like what they do and telling them that what they want to do is illegal and will not be permitted, especially when the action under discussion is marriage.

Evolution and history have been moving in a fairly specific direction when it comes to human rights: more people get more rights all the time, even if we have to fight first. Agrarian societies had slavery. Industrial societies got rid of slavery. Now our society is trying to get rid of racism and sexism. There were people not too long ago who believed that letting people of different races get married was an affront to god and should be illegal. But people expanded their definitions of who was covered by the Bill of Rights and they struck down those laws eventually. History judges those people to be uninformed bigots while those who fought to educate and resist the conservative majority are now seen to have been ahead of their time. History will judge the people who voted yes on Prop-8 in the same way one day. I just hope that day is soon and not decades away.

I have heard a lot of anger from my gay friends and family. I understand. It pisses me off too. But I also believe that the anger needs to be used as fuel to drive resolution and action. That anger is not effective when poured out at the people who voted their beliefs, prejudices and fears. That anger does need to be used to calmly and clearly let people know that gays and lesbians and those who support their rights to choose their own life partners, husbands and wives, are not going away. We need to be clear that the days when gays and lesbians could be driven into the shadows are long over. Things will change. These civil rights will be defended.

The Black Panthers did not do as much for black civil rights as Martin Luther King, Jr. did. Anger and violence cause more fear and retreat into old prejudices. What we need is a combination of resolute firmness, and an invitation to all people to expand their concepts of human dignity, to open their eyes and their hearts, to change their hearts. People need to realize that these are not nameless, faceless fags they are voting against; these are their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, cousins and friends, coworkers and church members. These are people just like them, who want to live and love as best they can. Supporting the loving relationships of others does no harm to my relationships, nor will it do any harm to yours.

The Polls are Closed, America is Open for Business Again

Excuse me for a second:

WHOOOOO HOOOOOO !!!!

Wow! Talk about a home run.

Congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama.

I am truly moved.

I watched the returns come in with my girls.
And I feel like we have just helped write a new chapter in the history books.

Did I say Wow?

Now the real work begins for all America and all Americans.

Waiting for the polls to close

I'll be watching TV with a beautiful redhead.
I'll be crossing my fingers.
I'll probably yell at the talking heads.
I'm used to being in the minority on election day.
I'll be hoping for a good outcome.
It would be nice to be on the winning side this time when so much is at stake.

Election Day and Beyond

My Election Day To Do List:
1. Vote! Mail in your ballet. Stand in the huge line. Do what you have to do to cast your vote. It is one of the concrete things that citizens can do in this country. VOTE! If you don’t vote, don’t complain afterwards. Oh, and did I mention, VOTE!

2. Help other people Vote. Drive people to the polls. Cover for coworkers at work. Let your employees go and vote.

3. Don’t fuck with other peoples’ votes! Too many times our elections have been tainted because people have put up barriers and not let people vote, have interfered with the count or the recounting of votes. (Ohio 2004, Florida 2000, and lots of less publicized instances). If people are asking you to actively or passively get in the way of people voting, get the fuck out of the way. Go back to Step Number 2.

4. Watch the results come in. Cross your fingers. Pray. Rub your rabbit’s foot. Hope things go your way. Hope your candidates make it in to office. Hope the Propositions go your way.

5. If the results are unclear or very close, let the system work. We have methods for counting and recounting elections. There is no constitutional guarantee that all results will be in by Tuesday night. Sometimes it takes a few days or a week or two. Nothing bad will happen to us as a people if some districts or states need to be careful and recount things. Be patient.

6. If your candidates and issues lose, be cool, regroup and get busy working on the next election cycle. And make sure the winners represent you as well as those who voted for him/her.

7. If your candidates and issues win, be cool, regroup and get busy working on the next election cycle. And make sure the winners represent everyone, not just those who voted for him/her.

8. Make sure your new representatives at all levels of government are aware of your informed opinions on issues. Make sure your new representatives are representing you and your neighbors.

9. Make sure the people, parties and issues you are supporting are good for the country, the environment, and future generations.

10. Go back to step 1: VOTE!

No perfect choices, yet choices must be made

I had some interesting feedback from my last post.
Just for the record, I do not believe Barack Obama is a perfect candidate.
The Democratic Party is not a perfect party.
I consider myself an Independent Voter.
We don’t always get perfect choices, but we do have to make choices.
With that said, I am casting my vote for Barack Obama.
I hope you all make the best choice you can.

What I am most interested in is this: What are you going to do after the election?

I think much of what has gone wrong with our government in my life time is the result of an uninterested, under-informed, unengaged population of citizens. We have allowed the institutions and representatives of the people be influenced and purchased by corporations. It is going to take a lot of work for us to reassert the rightful place of the people in this representative republic of ours. But it is work that must be done to protect our lives and the future of our children and generations to come.

No matter who gets elected in November, we have to commit ourselves to the same task: We have to strive to be better informed and more active in monitoring the actions of our representatives, and we must do a better job of informing our government of our core beliefs, interests and desires. Only then can we hold government accountable to the will of the people.

I have my preference for who gets elected this November. I doubt everyone I vote for will be elected. But all of those elected, be they president, governor, congressman, or city councilperson, have a responsibility to represent all the people who voted. And we have a responsibility to be aware of what they are doing and what they plan on doing. We have a responsibility to communicate with our representatives as clearly as we are able.

And that means you have a responsibility to know what your core beliefs, interests and desires are. If you don’t, then you need to figure it out. And if you don’t share those things with your representatives, how can you expect them to represent you?

So no matter who is president in January. I hope that we can all be better citizens than we have been.
---------Jay the Citizen

Meanwhile, check this out: http://www.conservativesforchange.com/

So you want to save the Republican Party?

I have a lot of conservative friends and relatives. I have lots of liberal friends as well, but this is for my conservative friends.

I don’t have a huge audience on this blog, and I probably won’t say this as well as the concept deserves, but I’m going to give it try because I think it is important. I wondered after 2000 and 2004 if I could have done more, if there were people I could have reached out to but didn’t. So this election season I have been trying to talk to everybody I can. So here goes.

Real conservatives should not be very happy with the Republican Party and its leadership right now. The Republican leadership is decidedly pro-corporate and pro-Wall Street. They use traditional conservative language to carry conservative voters but their actions are all about big finance and big business. They are only socially conservative at election time. Just look at the recent Wall Street “bailout” to see how real this split is.

Democrats have the same problem. The Democratic leadership is very pro-corporate and pro-Wall Street. And they only are socially liberal during elections. The “bailout” reveals this split as well.

So how can traditional conservatives save the Republican Party? Vote for Barack Obama!

This is where I need you to stifle your knee-jerk reactions and actually think about this a little. The Republican leadership does not respect traditional conservatives. They have abused their power, let Wall Street and the huge corporations run wild. And then they offer up John McCain as their new party leader? Conservatives have never trusted McCain. He has only started to “talk” conservative after he lost the 2000 election and bowed to the Rove-Cheney pro-corporate machine that put George W. Bush into office. McCain has done everything he can to become the heir apparent of a pretty questionable group of big business interests. He doesn’t represent traditional conservatives. Yes, he brought on Sarah Palin to try and bring in the conservative voters at the last minute. But the administration John McCain will put into place will be the same pro-corporate administration that we have had for the last eight years. It will not be a conservative administration. And most importantly, the leadership of the Republican Party will have be reassured by a McCain victory that traditional conservative voters will keep on checking any name with an “R” next to it as long as they pretend to speak conservatively at election time.

“I don’t like John McCain, but how can I bring myself to vote for a Democrat?” Good question. Remember, the Democrats have the same split as the Republicans: pro-corporate leadership versus true ideological voters. The Democratic leadership did not want Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate. They wanted Hillary Clinton, an inside member of the pro-corporate Democratic leadership which has been ruining the Democratic Party for decades. But Obama got enough new voters involved that he was able to squeak out a victory over the Democratic establishment. Obama is a Constitutional law expert who knows how to build an old fashioned political campaign based on voter support instead of corporate support.

Is Obama the perfect candidate? No. But he is the best one we have in the race right now. And I am sure that his administration will not look like the same old Bush era or Clinton era pro-corporate administrations we have been suffering under for the last twenty years because his campaign has not been a typical campaign. He is more likely to put a team in place that will respect the Constitution and clean up some of the mess. Those are the reasons I am voting for Obama. And I genuinely believe that the best thing that could happen to the Republican Party would be for them to lose the White House this time. This would give traditional conservatives a chance to reassert themselves and throw out the current leadership. I believe a healthier and more conservative Republican Party will emerge after an Obama victory. But if McCain wins, the same failed leadership will stay in charge behind the scenes and in every administration appointment. McCain owes the current leadership too much to really get in and make the changes America needs right now.

Obama on the other hand will not have won the White House because of big business or the traditional party leadership. A lot has been said about the unusual amounts of money Obama has raised in his campaign. Keep in mind that he raised that money from lots of ordinary people not lobbyists for big companies. So while Obama is putting Washington agencies back on a constitutional footing, Republicans can clean their house as well.

I believe this will result in two stronger parties that are more responsive and representative of the actual ideologies of more voters, conservative and progressive. And that is more democratic and more American than what we have now, where a few rich corporations and their owners have too much influence over the leadership of both parties.

So think about it. And I encourage anyone who wants the values of actual voters to be better represented in Washington to vote for Barack Obama. It might just save the Republican and the Democratic Parties.

---Your friend, Jay Larsen

Say What Sarah?

Who is to Blame?

Who is to blame?

When things go badly and when we get hurt we want someone to blame.
This economy thing (I know, what economy?) is really starting to hurt everybody (or at least to really scare everybody). So we want to blame somebody. I want to blame somebody. So who do we blame? Wall Street, Banks, Fat Cats, who?

Wall Street? Well they have been greedy bastards, and they have made tons of money collecting fees as the market went up and down. So we can criticize Wall Street for being greedy bastards. But that has been Wall Street’s job description, at least during my life time. Wall Street is set up as a capitalist playing field and they have been playing the game.

Banks? Traditionally banks make money slowly and conservatively by collecting more money than they loan out. Recently they got the rules changed and gave into pressure to make fast money. They should have known better, but they have been playing by the new rules.

Yeah, the fat cats on Wall Street and in the Banks are greedy capitalist bastards who should be watched very, very carefully. But the guys who set the rules and enforce the rules are just as much to blame and maybe more to blame. Greedy people are out there. It is the rules and the umpires that are supposed to keep the players as close to honest as possible.

Over the last several decades the people in charge of the rules have bent over backwards to change rules the players don’t like. That is called deregulation. And they have looked the other way and refused to enforce the few rules that are still officially on the books. That is called dereliction of duty. You can’t have a safe or clean game if the umpires are dirty or just not there. And the umpires have been predominately Republican appointees during my lifetime. So they are to blame, probably more so than the Wall Street players and Banking manipulators and the Real Estate speculators. They should be taken to task. They should be held responsible. And the last thing we ought to do is hire another batch of the same people who have done such a miserable job and let the system get so out of control so that they can keep this cycle of dishonesty going.

But that doesn’t mean you and I are off the hook. We had responsibilities too. We were supposed to be informed and active citizens. We were supposed to monitor the actions of our representatives and make sure that they were enforcing the rules and protecting the country and its citizens. So I think we get some of the blame here too. We hired (or at least rubber stamped) these people. We have not clearly articulated our goals, desires, and standards for participation in our economy and our society. We have not told the politicians NO. They have not told the corporate capitalists NO. And now we all get to pay the price.

So let’s take a deep breath. Admit that it took years to get things into this state. And get ready to spend years getting out of this mess. I need to live on what I make. You need to live on what you make. And we need representatives that will make government, Wall Street, the Banks, and businesses large and small live within their means. We need rules that are fair. Rules that will keep greed in check. Rules that will protect the most valuable assets and aspirations of this nation. The “Free Market” is a failure, a twentieth century concept that never worked as advertised, a social experiment of huge scope and frighteningly huge consequence that produced a very few winners and made most of us and our natural environment losers. So how about an organized and regulated market where everyone knows the rules and knows they will be penalized for breaking those rules instead? What if we quit voting against our own self interests? What if we admitted how undemocratic corporate structures are? What if we enacted rules that held people and the environment to be more valuable than capital? What if…?

The Psychology of Perception

Citizen Ignorance
The backbone of democracy
Ideology makes men predisposed
To reject facts that counter
Their political beliefs
If a fact is worth thinking about
It is probably worth disputing
But arguing the facts
Just strengthens the misperceptions
Of the most strongly committed subjects
Trapped by the ping-pong format
Of the modern pundit media
Exposure to information
Running counter to tightly held
Political preference
Just makes the believers
Support their original opinion
With more fire and anger
So much for facts
So much for informed participants
Reasoning moderated by hidden motivations
The broken backbone of democracy
Self-imposed ignorance
Subjects not citizens
The psychology of politics

----------------------------------

Credits: Words and Collage by Jay Larsen

When Corrections Fail by Nylan and Reifler

Crisis Capitalism Puts Off A Particular Aroma

The US Economy is in a mess. That pile of crap has been correctly identified by any and all observers not suffering from olfactory fatigue of the worst kind. What has not been correctly identified by all the news cowboys out there is which bovine dropped this particular pile of crap in the middle of our living room.

There are a lot of reasons not to pass the “bailout plan” that Congress rejected once and the Senate approved (plus a load of pork). There may still be some good reasons for passing it, but I have not heard or read any of those so far. The part that makes me nervous is the language being used. Congress’s rejection of the “bailout” is being called a “catastrophe” a “dire mistake” that is going to freeze up the American Economy and force us all to roam the desert with crossbows fighting over the last tanker trucks full of gasoline, aka Mad Max.

The fact is that the Bush Administration wants this “bailout”. The Congressional and Senate Leadership wants this “bailout”. But lots of citizens and some brave representatives like Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb and a bunch of old-school conservatives as well have declared this plan a farce and an unmitigated power grab. In other words the Corporate Politicians want this bill despite what citizens want. And Corporate Lobbyists and their representatives want to push this bill through under the threat of dire catastrophic consequences.

The Leadership is claiming their failure was not controlling the language being used to describe the bill. They aren’t changing the bill, they just want to use better marketing terms to get us to swallow. And they say their biggest mistake was calling for a vote in Congress before they knew it was going to pass. In other words, never call for a vote if you don’t already know the outcome. Makes you wonder if the outcome of our vote in November is already known by the Leadership?

Every time the Corporate Politicians and the Bush Administration in particular start saying “You must pass bill X or horrible catastrophic things will happen.” We should all become very suspicious. Especially when the timing puts the vote right before an election. Previous examples of X include: Authorization to invade Iraq; the Patriot Act; Authorization to bailout Fanny and Freddy; off-shore oil drilling. In each case something horrible was going to happen if the bill wasn’t passed, huge amounts of power were shifted to a handful of individuals or agencies, and promises were made that they would never actually do any of the excessive and dangerous things that critics were warning about. In each case the bill was passed, the threats turned out to be overblown, the power was firmly seized and used, and all the things critics warned about happened. We invaded Iraq, we conduct warrantless surveillance of US citizens, we bailed out Fanny and Freddy, and we repealed off-shore drilling bans. Have no doubt, if this “bailout” passes the Treasury Secretary will become one of the most powerful men in the world, he will use that power, and he will cause many of the problems we are being warned about now.

This is Catastrophe Capitalism at its worst. Scare the hell out the population to get power you could never claim on a calm day, power that rational and informed people would never give up normally. Use the shock and awe of a disaster to take advantage of victims and potential victims. Naomi Kline has outlined this pattern powerfully in her book, The Shock Doctrine.

I’m just hoping we don’t have to repeat the cycle again. But only an informed population of active citizens and honest representatives can stop this power grab. And realistically, I don’t see that yet. There are still a lot of Catastrophe Capitalists out there. The have lots of Lobbyists. They have bought a lot of politicians. And lots of citizens are still woefully uninformed. So we have a lot of work to do.

This particular pile of crap comes from a predictable source, so we either need to corral these bulls or start wearing taller boots. Or we can just keep forgetting the lessons of history. Look into the flashy news device please...

Maybe the Bail Out Shoudn't Pass

Word has it the Wall Street Bail Out did not pass through Congress.
Maybe it shouldn't.

I just did something I bet you haven't done: I just read the 120 page bill.
The biggest problems are in the first 10 pages.
All that money and all the power to do whatever he wants, goes to the Sec. of the Treasury.
With oversight conducted by a board made up of the Head of the Federal Reserve, the Head of HUD, the Head of the FDIC. The same people who have gotten things so wrong in the past.
And can you imagine how contentious the Affirmation Hearings in the Senate will be when the new President has to appoint new people to those positions?
If I were a Congressman, I don't think I would vote for this bill.

Apparently, Dennis Kucinich agrees with me:
The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren't we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers' money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?
Why aren't we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren't we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn't it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls.

Some More Questions About Bail Outs

The President says that only the government has the patience and the long term vision to purchase these troubled assets and hold them until they mature and increase in value.

I agree. I don't usually agree with the President. But in this case, I agree.

Doesn't that tell us something about the Corporations that dominate Wall Street and Main Street?

Doesn't that mean that the Corporate focus on short term profits and short term maneuvers makes them incapable of safeguarding long term assets (like our homes, families, and national infrastructure)?

Doesn't that mean that governments rightful position should be long term, since "the market" is dominated by short term vision and action?

Wouldn't that lend some balance and stability to our country and our economy?

Doesn't that mean that in this interconnected world that we all live in, that there is no such thing as a purely private economic transaction?

Don't we have to weigh our own private concerns and the concerns of our neighbors and the health of the bigger systems our actions are a part of when making decisions?

Are we ready as a society to learn the lessons of the last 30 years?

Isn't it becoming undeniable that pure "free market capitalism" is not sufficient to address the long term needs and health of our nation and our world?

Are we ready to admit that the organizing principles of large corporations are antithetical to principles of democracy?

Are we ready to seriously discuss how we want to govern ourselves in light of what we have (or should have) learned over the last 30 years?

How about this?

Why doesn't Congress set up an independent review board to purchase undervalued assets and get the markets moving again?

They could start with a fund of several hundred billion dollars and ask for more in the near future if needed. Why does it have to be 700 billion or nothing?

This current administration has lost the right to manage this endeavor, so it should go to an independent board with lots of review and reporting mandates.

The next administration and the next congress need to staff our regulatory agencies with people who actually believe in the ability of government to work for the good of the people and start enforcing the rules we already have. Then new regulations should be imposed, not as a burden on individuals and small companies, but as a check on the short-sighted exuberance of mega corporations and very rich individuals who can unbalance our entire economy and ecosystems with their "private" business actions.

And the media needs to start asking these kinds of questions and expecting answers.

The keys to solving these problems are contained within the problems themselves.

The clues and the knowledge are available to us.

Human beings are capable of transcending selfish and violent modes of behavior, and expressing honest empathy and compassion for others.

We are all interconnected and interdependent whether we want to admit it or not.

We caused or allowed these problems.

We can solve them carefully and creatively.

But not if we keep doing the same things over and over and expect a different result.

I didn't mean stop the debate

I asked for everyone to slow down.
Now John McCain wants to cancel the debates.
He finds it hard to multitask, I guess.
Or he does not want to answer questions.
Or be compared side by side with Obama.
I didn't mean to slow down that much...

Can We Slow Down Please

This time. Can we slow down please?

I know we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud over Wall Street.

But just this time, can we slow down please and not give in to the panic?

How about 10 Things You Should Know about this Trillion Dollar "bailout" program?

Like is it Constitutional to give unrevieawable power to one person?

What happens if we don't bail out Wall Street?

Do we trust a Wall Street CEO who has gotten it all wrong to fix it?

Aren't we asking the foxes to fix the hen house?

Why doesn't Wall Street pay for the bail out?

What happened to the "free market"?

When did the Bush Administration become Socialists?

Does this fix the problem, or just prop up the problem makers?

Why was it so crucial to get it all done over the weekend?

Can we just slow down?

Constitution Day is September 17th

Constitution Day, Sept 17

221 years ago the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the U.S. Constitution. Ben Franklin said that the framers had built a remarkable republican framework sturdy enough to outlast them all, if future generations of Americans kept faith with the Constitution.

The original was not perfect and concerned individuals had to push to have the Constitution cover individual rights as well as the rights and limits of the government, thus the Bill of Rights.

The question today is this: Has this generation of Americans kept faith with the Constitution?

I think the answer is NO. But I also think we have the means to regain and repair our faith in and with the Constitution.

It is still a fine and admiral document. Instead of letting other people tell you what the Constitution means, read it. It is a remarkable brief document. Ponder it. And determine if our public servants and representatives have been upholding their oath to the Constitution. Decide if the individuals who want to lead this country are in tune with the Constitution. Decide if they will help us in defending the Constitution. Decide if they even know the contents of the Constitution.