Their Private Parts Corrupt their Public Pronouncements

Now I know why some Republicans didn’t want Congress to pass a Stimulus Package. Senator Ensign and Governor Sanford were already too stimulated.

This is a sad chapter in an ongoing soap opera called the Republican Party. The party is controlled by wingnuts looking for conspiracies and black UN helicopters, religious crazies and self-righteous moralizers, and tea baggers who believe the Confederacy will rise again. I am not sure who I feel sorry for more-the spouses and friends of these hypocrites who wrap themselves in vestments of moral and religious superiority or those true believers who give money and attention to these Grade B political hacks.

I am not surprised the Gingrich’s, Livingston’s’, Foley’s, Craig’s, Ensign’s and now the Sanford’s of this country let their private parts somehow corrupt their public pronouncements. Our friends on the Democratic side of the aisle, Spitzer, Edwards, and Big Bill are also prone to letting their libidos trump their better sense.

Remember, they all aspired to be in politics. History tells us over and over again that the political life has far more opportunities to indulge in financial and personal corruption than most other professions. Most politicians were once geeking teenagers with lots of acne, bad haircuts and pocket pen protectors, They just aren’t prepared for the rich array women and or men and lobbyists fawning all over them.

What I really don’t understand is how so many political sycophants and voters offer up their unbridled support for these political hacks that profess overly religious and moral pronouncements on complex social issues. Sadly, those voters and supporters are the ones getting burned again and again.

Do these hypocritical politicians really believe what they publicly profess? Or are they just like other politicians who use their transparent religiosity to advance their careers? I guess some of these overly religious politicians start as true believers and soon find out that this approach brings with it financial support and accolades from voters who are desperately seeking someone who will save them. They reduce highly complex issues into overly simplified views of what is right and wrong for a broad swath of the electorate who cry out for someone to tell them what to do. It becomes a symbiotic relationship.

The more events and issues became too overwhelming to comprehend, these scripture quoting politicians offer a portion of electorate a safe harbor in a very complicated world. Mark Sanford over time began to believe that he really was morally superior to others because his followers reminded him everyday of his self-evident greatness and moral wisdom. Remember, W’s minions use to say, “We are faith-based and not reality-based.”

I wish we could judge politicians more on their collected body of work on behalf of their states or districts than their personal behavior. The problem is the Mark Sanford’s of this world set themselves up for failure because they ask us to evaluate their actions in both their public and private lives. I don’t know many politicians that could pass such a test. Few of us could. I know I couldn’t.

I just gulped when I heard Governor Sanford start his press conference with overly religious parables to frame his confession of adultery. I feel sorry for his wife, children and all of those true believers who once again are hoodwinked into believing his pseudo-religious anointing as a public servant. It is so tiresome and contrived.

A Moldovan Haircut

After work I drove by one of those discount hair salons that advertise, “Walk-ins Welcome.” Well, I walked in. I was very fortunate. There was no one in front of me so the stylist said, “Come on back.” That should have been my first warning. She had a vague Eastern European or Near Asian accent that I could not place, Moldovan, Czech, Uzbecki. She asked, “Vat do you vant?”

These are the moments that separate the oldsters from the youngsters. My hair, what I have left, was a mess. It clearly needed a good mowing. I said, “Just clean it up. Off the collar and my ears. What’s left, I part on the right side.” If I was younger and still had more hair, I would have been more detailed in my instructions. These simple instructions have worked in the past. She responded, “Very good.”

At this point, I closed my eyes and relaxed back into my barber’s chair. Just as I relaxed and reflected on my day, I heard this whirring sound. It was not an electronic trimmer buzzing sound. It clearly was a whirring, like a grass trimmer. Miss Moldova pulled out this machine that the Bush Administration would probably not use to torture an Al Qaeda operative. It had these blades that moved in circular fashion that she then applied to my scalp. It simultaneously cut and pulled hair from the root. After she was done, I took a glance at the mirror. She apparently decided to attack the undergrowth first. What remained was a tuft of thick hair on the top of my head and very long strands that dangled around my ears. She then said something like, “You veel lighter?” I said, “Excuse me. I don’t understand.” “You much veel lighter with no hair.”

I am not that vain, but I was becoming increasingly concerned. My first thought was, “I hope she is done.” I said, “Yes, I feel lighter. You aren’t done are you?” She laughed and said, “No, no, no. we have just begunning.” At this point, I had no options but to let Miss Moldova continue.

She did some clipping with the scissors around my ears. I felt a tad better. I thought the worst was over. In a flash, she then pulled out the grass trimmer and went at it on the back on my neck. I cringed and acquiesced. What choice did I have? After some more plucking and trimming, she stopped and said, “You OK?” I said, “Yes.” “We almost done,” she said. I guess the “we” she was referring to was her and her circular three-bladed grass trimmer. There was a faint smell of burning oil.

Finally, she put her tools down after a few minutes and announced, “You finished.” I was mostly keeping my eyes closed during the procedure. I opened one eye and realized that she didn’t believe in parting hair. She trimmed so much, there wasn’t anything left to part!

She then announced, “You need to make gel. Not so much, just some for top of your head.” I agreed with her fearing that if I didn’t she would get out the smoking trimmer again. She offered to trim my eyebrows. I said, “Thank you, but I will do it when I get home.” Who knows what gas powered lawn care device she would employ to trim my eyebrows.

I got up out of the chair and thanked her. Her final comments to me were, “You have strong hair on your head vere it isn’t bald.” I guess that was a Moldovan compliment.

I paid my bill and left. When I got home, I did take a glance in the mirror. I was surprised that my skull is more mishapen than I expected. I have a Appalachian folded mountain ridge running the length of my head. I haven’t see it for nearly 45 years. My wife told me that I now look like one of the older men holding handwritten placards at a Teabagging Rally.

Sean Knows Torture, Apparently I Don't!

Poor Sean Hannity has boxed himself into a corner. Last Sunday night, Charles Grodin asked him if he would be willing to be waterboarded. Sean, without hesitation, said yes. So far I have not heard when Mr. Hannity plans on being strapped down and doused with water in his nostrils and mouth. He indicated he is willing to do it for charity. I for one would be happy to donate a few bucks to his charity of choice to see him actually consent to this sadistic practice.

Frankly, I don’t see it happening very soon. I was wondering though. Sean continues to assert that waterboarding isn’t torture. It is just one element in a varied course of enhanced interrogation techniques. I have come up with a few other enhanced interrogation techniques for Sean if he isn’t willing to be waterboarded. Perhaps he will be willing to submit to one of these:

1. Having his prostate examined by Dr. Phil on his TV program.
2. Cleaning the bathtub drain after former Vice President Cheney has taken a bath.
3. Sorting William Bennett’s dirty laundry into whites and darks.
4. Reading the transcriptions of the divorce proceedings from Newt Gingrich’s three failed marriages on Sean’s TV program.
5. Cleaning out Ann Coulter’s refrigerator.
6. Spending an entire weekend strapped to a chair watching every DVD that features Lindsay Lohan.
7. Sitting all day in Rush Limbaugh’s radio studio after Rush and Sean spent the preceding evening drinking cheap beer and eating baseball park nachos with lots of jalapenos.
8. Inviting Fred Barnes onto his TV program to read his favorite passages from his “best seller,” Rebel in Chief: How George W. Bush Is Redefining the Conservative Movement and Transforming America.
9. Helping Senator Larry Craig design a man cave for his basement.
10. Watching Todd Palin gut and clean a reindeer.

Sean still may believe these are only enhanced techniques. To me, these are all torture!

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/01/hannity-chicken/

266 Times!

C.I.A. interrogators used waterboarding, the near-drowning technique, 266 times on two key prisoners from Al Qaeda.The C.I.A. officers used waterboarding at least 83 times in August 2002 against Abu Zubaydah and 183 times in March 2003 against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As someone who passed high school math, I figure that Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded about 3 times a day for 31 consecutive days and Mohammed was given the same treatment about 17 times a day in August 2002.

If former Vice President Cheney and the other neocon apologists believe so strongly that waterboarding or "aggressive interrogation techniques" were so effective, why so may treatments?

Given what I have learned from reading about this grisly practice, I would probably admit to practically anything after my first time being strapped down and waterboarded! If three treatments a day for seven days didn't do the magic, why would another 24 days provide anymore valuable intelligence? I really don't understand.

This practice was implemented in an overheated atmosphere of hysteria and desperation shortly after 9-11. Many of us wanted vengeance and retribution for the 9-11 attacks. I can easily see how reasonable people confronted with the risk of future terrorism would endorse practically any or all interrogation techniques that would thwart future attacks. This country has a history of ignoring civil rights and other constitutional protections when confronted with crises. Don't bother me with the details just get the intelligence we need!

True leaders with moral compasses even in the overheated atmosphere following 9-11 should know when not to cross the boundaries of decency or step outside the rule of law. This is torture if it is conducted on an individual once. It is criminal and sadistic to do it 82 or 182 times more.

John "The Tanning Bed Master" Offers a Science Lesson

Given this is Earth Day, I am committed not to pass gas today as my modest contribution.

Minority Leader John Boehner is from a district just north of Cincinnati. Yes, folks he really is an intellectual lightweight and often a flat out embarrassment. His district is just a stone's throw away from another GOP heavyweight, Jean Schmidt.

Hypocrisy Perfected!

The right wing members of the Catholic Church continue to stomp their feet and pout. They just can't stand the notion that Notre Dame has invited President Obama to speak at Commencement this May. Under the pretense that Obama is "pro-abortion," they believe Obama's values are inconsistent with the spiritual teachings of the Catholic Church. Even the local Archbishop in Cincinnati has jumped on the anti-Obama bandwagon..

When former President Bush spoke at Notre Dame's Commencement in 2001, I don't believe I heard the same outcry from the Cardinal Newman Society or my local Archbishop. If the "culture of life" litmus test determines who should be invited to Notre Dame, it is a new exam.

Former President Bush, although anti-abortion, was a strong advocate for capital punishment. During his tenure as the Governor of Texas, Bush approved 131 executions; more than any other state. I am not a Catholic theologian but the last time I checked, I believe the Roman Catholic Church consistently opposed all forms of capital punishment.

As a newly elected President, the more conservative members of the Catholic Church and Notre Dame welcomed Mr. Bush with open arms. I do respect the religious beliefs of others. Persons of integrity can honestly disagree with Obama's stance on choice. In this instance, I believe this far more about political grandstanding than a genuine disagreement regarding abortion.

The GOP's New Solutions Center

Eric Cantor, John Boehner and other intellectual giants who lead the minority in the House are going to to establish a "Solutions Center" as a way to combat the negative attention they have received in the past few months. They are frustrated with the label as the "Party of No" and believe the Center idea will help frame their ideas and improve their stock with the voting public. The mission appears to be as much about repackaging long-standing principles as it is about offering brand-new ideas for each debate. Cantor’s Solutions Center often restates proposals Republicans offered as their alternatives to the president’s plans.

A GOP Solutions Center is a political oxymoron. When has the Grand Old Party offered any REAL solutions to the economic crisis in the past year? Or to resolve our most serious foreign policy challenges? So far all I have heard from the most vocal members of the party of ideas is that President Obama is a socialist, we should cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, and Rush Limbaugh is always right. And now some GOP governors and House members will be joining the teabaggers on April 15th to protest against the TARP outlays, deficit spending, derivative investing and tax policies promulgated by their fellow travelers in the Bush Administration. Teabagging is either a trumped up protest desperately looking for a culprit to blame or something Larry Craig would deny engaging in.

I do have this image of mad Eric, John, and their ally, Michelle Bachman, ensconced in a laboratory under the Capitol Building mixing together weird solutions in test tubes trying to find the right formula to combat the Obama express. The problem is Eric will only work where he can repeatedly see his own image and the new Solutions Center has no mirrors. John can't be more than a five minute walk from a tanning bed. And Michelle, well Michelle is just too busy converting her dollars into gold to devote any time to working in the Center.

The Solutions Center is just another lame brain political gimmick. It sounds like something at a Home Depot to help homeowners find a new paint color for their living room or get rid of moles in their yards. Please GOP...you have to do better than this.

Abstinence in All the Wrong Places!

In a recent interview, Levi Johnson, the former boyfriend of Bristol Palin, admitted on occasion he and Bristol did not engage in safe sex. Apparently, this ultimately led to Bristol getting pregnant. Poor Levi is no longer welcome in the Palin home.

Both he and Bristol begrudgingly admitted that abstinence education was unrealistic. It didn’t work for them. A spokesperson for Governor Sarah Palin came out with a statement refuting Levi and Bristol’s earlier comments. The statement also asserted that Bristol is committed to advocating for abstinence in the future.

Our right wing friends continue to push for abstinence as the only approach in teaching young people about sex. Even though study after study rejects its efficacy in reducing underage sex. In fact, many studies find that young people who participate in abstinence-related sex education programs are more likely to engage in unprotected sex and at earlier ages.

This is a clear example of “Don’t bother me with the facts when I know I am right.” If our socially conservative friends are committed to abstinence regardless of its failings in matters related to human reproduction, I offer a few ways for them to revive abstinence as a viable policy in other areas of our political and social life.

I think we should encourage Rush Limbaugh to practice abstinence. He can no longer order a box o’ sliders at White Castle, shop around his prescriptions for hillbilly heroin, or get married. Apparently the only way he can stop his addictions to food, opiates and failed relationships are to abstain.

I think Dick Cheney needs a crash course in abstinence. For someone who was so secretive and tight lipped as the Vice President, he now finds himself with diarrhea mouth. He just can’t stop telling President Obama how much he disagrees with the new President’s policies. Perhaps Dick’s nurse can add a bit of Kaopectate to his morning daily IV drip.

Newt Gingrich has had a bout of overexposure recently. One day he complains President Obama has a “fantasy based” foreign policy. The next day he converts to Catholicism. Then he complains Obama is mounting an offensive against organized religion. And then he spouts, “Dick Cheney is clearly right in saying that between the Court decisions about terrorists and the administration actions the United States is running greater risks of getting attacked than we were under President Bush.” Frankly, applying the principles of abstinence to the Newt meister would be like asking Paris Hilton to avoid the paparazzi. It’s impossible. In Newt’s case, I offer another approach. Let’s ask the various news outlets not invite Newt on their programs more than once a day. If he can’t abstain from making an ass of himself, perhaps the news media can.

And finally, Sarah Palin needs a bit of abstinence therapy as well. For someone who touts her version of traditional family values and has asked the media not to delve into the personal life of her family, her family and values are not traditional or private. Her sister-in-law is charged with burglary. Her daughter’s boyfriend’s mother is arrested for selling methamphetamine. Sarah can’t pass up an interview opportunity on Faux News. She wants everyone to know as Governor she did not want to take the stimulus money. Alaska will now accept every nickel. This is only short list of many splendid ways Governor Palin or her crew continues to keep themselves in the limelight. I guess since the Guiding Light is now dimmed, we need a new soap opera to replace it. Again, I know Sarah, Bristol and her entourage are enamored with all things abstinence. It really comes down to our collective weaknesses. After all if we were not obsessed with the “Lives of the Palin’s,” they go about their openly hypocritical and contradictory lives without scrutiny. WE need to learn how to abstain from obsessing on them!

One in Every 31 US Citizens is in Federal or State Prison, Local Jail, on Probation or on Parole

Jim Webb is one US Senator that acts like an adult. His new legislation, The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009, is a step in the right direction. Clearly, the incarceration rates in this country are unacceptable. As a bulwark of so-called democracy and freedom, for our country to warehouse nearly 25% of the world’s reported prisoners is appalling.

Often the path of least resistance is just to build more prisons when confronted with complicated issues of crime, punishment and rehabilitation. We have increasingly privatized prisons in our country. Over 35 states now have contracts with private companies to build prisons. Warehousing human beings in the jails is often one the largest budgetary outlays for state governments. Prisons often provide welcomed employment opportunities to depressed rural segments of our country. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year. The vast majority of individuals in our jails or criminal justice system are non-violent drug offenders. Many of our prison population are mentally ill. The Pew Center for the States has prepared a very sobering and comprehensive study. Something needs to be done.

Senator Webb’s proposed legislation is a good start.

The New Hip-Hop GOP

Michael Steele wants to make the GOP a more relevant political organization with new hip-hop branding and a more youthful message. I have given some thought to this idea and here are ten modest suggestions to help Mike give the GOP more street “cred.”

1. Have all the remaining Republican members of the House and Senate get tattoos or visible body piercings.
2. Have Mitch McConnell host a call-in afternoon music video show on Faux News.
3. Have all the noted African American Republicans put together their own hip-hop CD. That would include Mike “in the house” Steele, Lynn Swann, Edward Brookes (Sorry, I think he is deceased), Clarence Thomas, Frederick Douglas, Condelezza Rice, Don King, Sammy Davis, Jr., and John Boehner.
4. Introduce a new political slogan, “GOP Shizzle Ma Nizzle.”
5. Appoint Shaquielle O’Neal to the next open seat in the Senate or House.
6. Keeping repeating “Supply-side Economics is off da hook.”
7. Have Rush Limbaugh give up hillbilly herion for reefer.
8. Have Newt Gingrich volunteer to be on the next MTV “Real World.”
9. Organize a major concert fashioned after Live Aid or Farm Aid to help all the displaced Wall Street financiers and investors called “Derivative Aid.”
10. Develop a public relations campaign to alter perceptions about the use of torture that is something like, “Waterboarding is a like Spring Break without the beer.” Or “Torturing terrorists is just like mosh-pitting with some guidance.”

Just a few helpful suggestions for Mr. Steele.

Why Am I Not Surprised?

In a recent investigation conducted by the NAACP, researchers found that Wells Fargo Bank and HSBC steered more African Americans than whites to subprime loans for home purchases and refinancing. The NAACP is filing a class action suit against these banks and other small banks who engaged in these discriminatory practices. Why I am not surprised?

The neanderthals remaining in the party of ideas continue to whine that the financial morass we are in is largely due to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae writing large checks to poor black families to buy homes they could not afford. Or it is due to the large amounts of money handed to black businesses through the Community Reinvestment Act. The majority of subprime loans were originated by non-CRA covered financial institutions. In fact, only about 25 percent of sub-prime loans were made by institutions covered by CRA. Over 85% of foreclosed properties have nothing to do with Fannie or Freddie.

The myth is retold over and over again on talk radio that Clinton started it all by forcing both lenders to throw away any due diligence in lending procedures so that inner cities blacks and ACORN somehow could use those funds to engage in voter fraud to elect Barack Obama. I know its convoluted and paranoid but consider the source.

Now we learn some of our most respected commercial lenders engaged in discriminatory practices by steering African American to riskier loan products even though their credit ratings were equal to their white counterparts. This is flat out disgusting. I do wonder if the loan execs at Wells Fargo and HSBC got their obligatory bonuses for their racist lending practices. It would not surprise me. This is a classic example of racial prejudice reinforced by discriminatory business practices, Give poor blacks loans they cannot afford resulting in higher default rates. You know the rest of the story.

How Many Rushbos Can You Fit on the Head of a Oxycontin Tablet?

As right wing talking heads, wing nut bloggers and GOP legislators continue to engage in a self-destructive and supercilious dialogue about the future of their movement, Rome burns. Patrick McHenry, a dim bulb from North Carolina representing a congressional district comprised of former tobacco growers, chicken factory farmers, and end times followers, claims his job is not to solve the nation’s economic woes but to win the public relations fight against the Democrats.

“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Southern governors, still sore that Lee’s attempts to breakthrough the Union lines at Gettysburg failed, were seriously considering not accepting stimulus funds to help their ailing state economies. Governors Sanford, Barbour and Jindahl have turned up their noses at federal help. Not surprisingly, they represent states that have some of the highest levels of poverty, unemployment and infant mortality.

Representative Jim Wamp, a Republican from Tennessee, in a recent interview asserted, “Listen, health care is a privilege…. I was just about to say, for some people it’s a right. But for everyone, frankly, it’s not necessarily a right.”

There are just too many self-parodying examples of the incredible brainpower of the party of ideas.

Meanwhile, Michael Steele, the only black member of the GOP (other than John Boehner), is trying to transform an intolerant set of self-immolating ditto heads into a new multicultural brand of narrow-minded politicians who like white hip hop music and can eat Mexican food without a fork.

And you know how successful his efforts have been!

This is not to say that the Democrats and the Obama Presidency have not made some missteps in first few months in office. Perhaps events have overwhelmed their ability to respond to each daily piece of economic bad news. Their bench strength is very weak or non-existent right now. Treasury Secretary Geittner does not exude a sense of confidence. He reminds me of someone who gets picked to play right field in a backyard baseball game.

The financial markets are still the core of this economic crisis. Companies like General Electric are being sold at about $9 a share. Not because they are not making good products but because the financial portion of their business is view suspiciously by investors. Until institutional investors, pension funds, or international groups believe our financial markets are reasonably stable, they will not reinvest in the financial sectors of the market. Again, I am not an economist nor ever pretend to be but it seems obvious to me the first step in getting out of this economic mess to reestablish confidence in our banking system. Let’s hope that Obama’s core of economic and financial advisers can tamp down the fear in the financial markets. So far, they have had mixed results.

Even though I have some concerns, Obama and his team are trying to respond to the crisis. Their ambitious agenda for reforming health care, creating a green economy, and producing jobs are important first steps. The Democrats are not engaged in an intrafracine struggle like the remnants of the GOP. They won a major election and as Chris Matthews has said time and again, “Elections have consequences.” Democrats are trying to use the tools of the federal government to get us out of this near depression. And the Republicans? Well they continue to throw spitballs at each other, watch reruns of Ronald Reagan’s funeral, and waste time sticking pins in voodoo dolls of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Most Economic Punditry Borders on Alchemy

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

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I do find it a tad amusing how many of the Wall Street inside guys, big time investors, and analysts always provide cogent and varied reasons for why something happen in the past. Rarely do their pontifications or predictions for the future ever come true. No wonder they call it the dismal science.

Like all of us, they got swept up into the euphoria of the moment. Greed begets blindness. I do find it incredible how few of the most respected pundits and experts did not predict the seriousness and severity of our economic tailspin.

How Much Do You Love Rush?

“Hello friends, my name is Michelle Malkin, and I want to talk with you briefly about one of the best love forums on the web. It’s the new Limbaugh Intimacy Emotive Scale-LIES. I want you to know that I found my soul mate through LIES! It has changed my life. Mr. Limbaugh has hired some of the best and brightest minds from CPAC, the Heritage Foundation, and Drudge Report to develop a simple inventory of questions to determine if you are really in love with Rush. I mean not just like Rush, but truly worship the ground he walks on. LIES prepares a score and sends it to you so that you know in a very objective, unbiased way how much you love Rush. Please take a moment and visit RUSHLIES.COM. It will change your life.

Here are just some of the questions on the Limbaugh Intimacy Emotive Scale (LIES).”

1. I like Rush when he wears his black silk shirt: (Please check all that apply.)
• Wide open at the collar with two or more buttons unbuttoned
• With a wide white tie
• Open with a large sign of the zodiac medallion
• All the above

2. Rush Limbaugh is more intelligent than: (Please check all that apply.)
• Charles Darwin
• Ayn Rand
• Socrates
• Framers of the Constitution
• John Maynard Keynes
• All the above

3. Which of the items listed below truly defines Rush’s greatness:
Rush Limbaugh is greater than:
• 2 Bill O’Reillys
• 4 Sean Hannitys
• The Republican National Committee
• A multi-year addiction to hillbilly heroin
• Any black quarterback in the NFL
• All the above

4. If Rush Limbaugh was gravely ill and needed someone to make an organ donation, I would donate:
• A pint of blood
• A kidney
• A part of my liver
• One of my corneas
• My laparoscopic band
• All the above

“By answering these and a few other questions, you too will learn how much you really love Rush Limbaugh. Don’t delay. Go to RUSHLIES.COM and find out your Rush Love Score today.

If you sign on in the next two days, you will be placed in a lottery to go with Rush the next time he visits the Dominican Republic to boast the local hospitality industry in Santo Domingo. Remember everyone looks young in the Caribbean. It’s just the humidity!”

Jai Ho Good

Sorry folks but Fatboy is a sentimentalist. I loved "Slumdog" for many reasons. Its Preston Sturges, Frank Capra, Bollywood and Satyajit Raj wrapped up into one large cinematic bundle. It is a celebration of the human spirit overcoming incredible odds. Its a first attempt to create popular mainstream cinema by incorporating real images, smells and feelings of the Third World into a heroic story.

We are all Slumdogs!

The Reinvigorated Republican Party!

It seems to me that Michelle Malkin is "pallin" around with Nazis. The new face of the party of ideas.

Someone Explain to Me How the Germans Won the World Cup?

Instead of water boarding, sleep deprivation, and forced enemas, we should require our detainees in Guantanamo to watch this youtube video nonstop for 24 hours. I'd bet they would confess to anything. Killing Jimmy Hoffa. Bribing Steve Bartman. Writing the screeplay for "Lost."

Team of Buffoons (Baboons)

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s recent treatise “Team of Rivals” has become the du jour read these days given President Obama’s attempts at extending an olive branch to the Taliban, I mean, the depleted and exhausted GOP. He has tried very hard to invite them into the process to develop a stimulus strategy to help our ailing economy. He has extended invitations to some to become part of his cabinet. Frankly, it has been a losing proposition from the beginning. Good intentions and reading history books are not enough.

Senator Gregg’s recent do over is just another example.

I contend that the fundamental difference between the Democrats and the GOP in this country is not about spending. Both parties when given the opportunity will spend money like drunken sailors for their pet projects, slip in earmarks for their districts and try to find ways to help those who have donated to their campaigns. What do you expect? This is politics. It’s not pretty.

Isn’t it a tab bit disingenuous for the Republicans to cry crocodile tears about the size of the stimulus package? This is a party that ran up deficits for years, gave out tax breaks to their affluent friends, offered lucrative senior drug benefit programs to their benefactors in big pharma, wrote legislation to insulate credit card companies from damages they caused cardholders who were given more cards that they can fit into their wallets, and ultimately let Wall Street create investment products that were modeled on ponzi schemes dreamed up in Albania.

Now all of sudden they are heralding fiscal restraint and smaller government. How transparent and pathetic.

I believe the real difference between the GOP and the Democrats is a rather simple but a profound difference. The leaders of the Democratic Party actually believe that government should be about helping solve the nation’s problems. The Republicans recent track record speaks to a series of cynical attempts to pay back their financial benefactors, placate the religious right and win tactical victories with various constituencies in hopes that these efforts lead to electoral victories. Rove’s efforts to build a national Republican Party as the majority was grounded in this approach. Legislative initiatives, governmental appointments, energy policy and rallying country to fear terrorism were really a series of tactical steps to acquire voting blocks. And at the end of the day it failed miserably. Bush barely won in 2004 and lost the popular vote in 2000.

Now, most of the house seats held by Republicans are in districts so disproportionately older, white, religiously conservative, and rural, the McGuffey Reader, Nancy Drew Mysteries and Reader’s Digest are the most popular items in the local public libraries. To say they are from “safe seats” is an understatement.

The apparent leader of the new effort to combat federal spending and to return the GOP to its philosophical roots is Senator David Vitter from Louisiana. Remember Diaper Dave? He was the one who was caught in the DC Madam prostitute scandal. Apparently, he greeted hookers wearing adult diapers. His recent comments to a gathering of the Federalist Society in Washington, DC underscore the GOP new attack strategy.

The newly invigorated GOP as per Diaper Dave is once again railing against wasteful spending in the stimulus package, claims Obama wants to form a dictatorship, and hopes that the economy tanks so badly in the next few years they can win a few seats in the house and Senate.

Meantime. President Obama and his fellow Democrats are trying to use the levers of government to actually solve our nation’s problems. If both houses pass the stimulus package, this is an enormous victory for the American people. Again, it’s not pretty. But it is an honest and sincere attempt to use the power of government policy, programs and resources to help get us out of their very serious economic malaise.

President Obama will take on entitlements, health care; try to get us out of Iraq. And the Republicans? Well, let just say they are trying to find their voice. At a time they need to sing more in harmony. It sounds like the finger nails scratching a chalkboard.

The Faces of the Party of Ideas

It is rather amusing to believe that the GOP was once considered the political party of ideas. It turns out that the same political organization now is taking its direction from an unemployed plumbing apprentice from Toledo. It also is looking to a one term Governor from Alaska with an expensive clothing fetish to reshape the party in her image.

What's next? The GOP will ask a 3rd rate political hack from a congressional district in rural Ohio who apparently owns stock in the tanning bed industry to be its anointed talking head. Oops. My bad. That already happened.

Mandate=Bipartisanship

When W. won by 1 and half % in his bid for a second term, he indicated that he won political capital that he was going to use. Few pundits at the time demanded that he find ways to solve the looming problems of social security in a bipartisan fashion. He went out on the stump to convince Americans to hand over social security to the same fools including investment banks, brokerage firms, and money managers who are responsible for the recent financial crisis.

President Obama and Democrats won the largest victory since WW II and what do we hear from the taking heads and network sycophants? His mandate for change means nothing. He must seek out the support of all the remaining Republicans in the House and Senate before he can take action to solve our economic problems. When Republicans win by a nose hair, they have political capital. When Democrats win in a landslide, they must be cautious and find middle ground with Republicans.

Conventional wisdom continues to support the status quo.

Destroying the Fabric of American Democracy

Remember the Republican drumbeat before the November Presidential elections? Democrats had the advantage due to massive voter fraud. In an extraordinary fit of hyperbole, John McCain said in the third presidential debate that ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.”

Faux News, various right wing talking heads, the Wall Street Journal and elected Republican officials railed against the widespread voter fraud that was allegedly being carried on by nefarious groups such as ACORN or the Democratic Party. In Cincinnati, the local county prosecutor, the chair of the regional McCain for President campaign committee, claimed thousands of individuals without addresses or with false addresses were able to register and vote in Ohio. It was a scandal that was corrupting the overall election!

Well, what did we find after the dust settled and Obama was elected? There was no widespread voter fraud in the United States or Cincinnati. An independent prosecutor (A Republican) was chosen to investigate the voter fraud charges in the Hamilton County and he found NO evidence of widespread voter irregularities. There was one such case and the individual came forward to incriminate himself!

The Republicans are increasingly a political party of narrow minded, intolerant, prejudiced and mean-spirited individuals that are out of step with the demographic transformation of this country. Look at the remaining GOP representatives in the House. They all come from very RED, exburban, older or rural districts. They understand that the only way they can expand their successes at the polls is to suppress the vote. Crying voter fraud does many things. It rallies the right wing that is always looking for a grand conspiracy and it discourages the poor, the disenfranchised and new voter from exercising their rights.

How pathetic and tired. Let's remember these Republican tactics the next time we have a national election.

Justin Clark Morrill is Very Disappointed

After reading the recent Education Life in the Sunday New York Times, I do wonder what Representative Morrill would think about the present state of public higher education in this country. Representative Morrill was responsible for introducing the legislation to create the land grant university movement in this country in 1859 that ultimately was passed by the Congress and signed by President Lincoln in 1862. In his own words, "This bill proposes to establish at least one college in every State upon a sure and perpetual foundation, accessible to all, but especially to the sons of toil, where all of needful science for the practical avocations of life shall be taught, where neither the higher graces of classical studies nor that military drill our country now so greatly appreciates will be entirely ignored, and where agriculture, the foundation of all present and future prosperity, may look for troops of earnest friends, studying its familiar and recondite economies, and at last elevating it to that higher level where it may fearlessly invoke comparison with the most advanced standards of the world."

His was a revolutionary idea to transform the mission and purposes of higher education in this country. Unfortunately, the original concept somehow has become an artifact of a distant era. Most publicly supported universities are increasingly acting like private colleges in search of financial viability during very uncertain economic times. We have distorted Morrill’s call that these universities be “accessible to all, but especially to sons of toil.” Public universities claim that they strive to remain accessible and affordable. Yet there is increasing evidence that most land grant and other public universities are far more concerned about their competitive status among their peers as per the US News and World Report Rankings than finding ways to control costs or to increase financial aid to the most need sensitive students.

After controlling for inflation, the costs of attending a public four-year college has almost doubled over the last 20 years (96% increase from 1977-78 to 2007-2008). In the 1975-76 school year, Pell Grants covered up to 84% of the average annual costs of a four-year public college. Because of sharp rises in college tuition and fees, by the 2007-08 school year, the Pell Grant now covers only 32% of a student’s annual college costs. Not surprisingly, students with limited financial resources must find other means to meet college costs. They borrow and work. Total borrowing through private student loan programs grew by 900% in the 10-year period 1996-2005. Almost two out of three college students owes an average of more than $19,000 when they graduate.

While many middle and working class students struggle to meet college costs, public universities are in a Sisyphus like struggle to achieve higher ratings and status. To compete with their peer institutions for academically talented students and to improve their quality ratings, more and more public universities offer scholarships to high ability students in an attempt to increase their reported admissions standards, improve their rankings in the various rating journals, and to raise their overall profile to attract future students, parents and donors.

A practice once relegated to private colleges, tuition discounting, is now standard operating procedure at most public universities. An institution discounts a portion of the tuition and fees and offers that discount as a scholarship to recruit a high ability student. In a struggle to compete with their peers, public universities risk losing a significant portion of their potential revenue to attract better quality students. Many of those highly sought after students also come from upper middle class families that can afford the costs of attending public universities. In essence, public universities are in the business of buying academically talented students who could easily pursue their degrees without those discount-based scholarships. This overheated competition to buy highly able and wealthier students is occurring during an era when public university costs have doubled in 20 years and most federal grants barely pay for 1/3 the cost of tuition for the poorest students with the greatest financial need!

One could make the argument that discounting tuition at the front end may pay major dividends. Attracting better students increases an institution’s profile thereby increasing applications and attention that may lead to more gifts to its endowment. At a time when most states are reducing their support for public universities, this approach has some validity. Public universities must behave more like private universities to remain in business. The interest from endowments and tuition are increasingly paying most of the bills for public universities.

One does wonder though how many of a university’s direct and indirect resources are being directed at recruiting and “buying” academically talented students, particularly when there is a finite number to chase! At the end of day, do these efforts actually help public universities with their balance sheets? All those Garrison Keillor students who are “above average,” with major financial need and are the most cost sensitive suffer in this equation. They increasingly borrow and work more to meet college costs. Not surprisingly, they are most at risk at not completing their degrees. For every high ability student a college buys, another high financial need student is more likely to drop out. I don't believe such a status driven practice and unintended negative outcome are in spirit with Mr. Morrill's original idea.

Mr. Morrill would probably not understand the present enrollment practices in public universities. “The sons of toil” continue to toil working night shifts at UPS, serving Lattes at Starbucks, or stocking shelves at Staples. And the sons and daughters of the upper middle classes are pushing those poorer students out of their seats in the Physics labs. Not surprisingly, there has been a surge in community college enrollment simply due to these enrollment practices and higher costs at public universities.

I understand why public universities have adopted these aggressive enrollment practices, but I don't believe in them. Is one public university really better than another because the first one has more national merit scholars than the second one? Our country thrives on competition. Public universities increasingly are addicted to the adrenaline high that comes with buying high ability students to move up on the widely published rankings. I am not sure anyone has really taken the time to examine the human and financial costs of such a race.