New Phrase

The new phrase for today is “Pre-squashed” as in my daughter, on her way home from college last night, said,

“I hit a pre-squashed skunk and now my car stinks.”

Timidity?

I’ve been saying this for about eight months.  Now Arianna Huffington says it yesterday.  This is what I’ve been feeling and writing about

Plouffe’s book arrives at a crossroads moment for the administration — exactly one year after the election, and one year before the 2010 midterms. A lot has happened in that year, as the audacity of winning has given way to the timidity of governing.

If the dumb ol’ Chief from East Podunk can see the timidity, we know the electorate voted that way last Tuesday.

There is no doubt that whatever policies that the Obama administration pursues, the Repubs will be against them.  Bi-partisanship is fine, but not at the expense of your soul.

Wall Street companies that are “too big to fail” sends the wrong message to the public.  Nationalize Goldman-Sachs, AIG and all those overgrown problem children.

Get the troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.  Following the failed policies of the Bush administration – bad idea.

Health care.  Should have been forcefully for a “single-payer” then settled for a robust public option that anyone can get into.

Jobs.  The stimulus was a half-measure.  Needed to be a bold, FDR-like stroke.

The demographics of the gubernatorial races in NJ and VA as compared to last November showed that the under-30 crowd stayed home.  Let’s hope that the White House reads the tea leaves the same way I and others are.

Not Surprised

On the ten o’clock version of Countdown last night O’Donnell was interviewing  Howard Fineman whose basic interpretation was that the electorate was upset that the folks on Wall Street that caused the problems with the economy, were still in charge, still getting exorbitant bonuses and being hired by Obama .

While he said it much more succinctly than I could, I have for months been flogging that line.

Obama was

• not bold enough in his responses
• hired Wall Street insiders
• continued far too many of the Bush-era policies
• lacking in transparency in his policies
• any health care reform has been much to slow in coming

The voters neither like nor dislike.  They are just disappointed and feel that they have no reason to go to the polls.

 

Peter Shellem, R.I.P.

This is a story about tragedy on many levels.  In the end, it comes down to the inability of some humans to even come close to being competent.

I know that our criminal justice system is imperfect.  I have sat on two juries, one a 12-person criminal and the other a 6-person civil.

The criminal trial involved the death of a person.  It ended with a hung jury  11 – 1 to convict.  I was the 1.

I don’t presume to be all that smart, but when I saw a retired state police accident re-constructionist testify for the prosecution, the message I was hearing was, “I will tell what ever lie I have to, to get him convicted”  I knew I wasn’t hearing enough of the truth.

Today I come across this piece from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The immediate tragedy is the death of Mr. Shellem.  The larger story is what a hero he must be in the eyes of those who got exonerated.

Another is all of those public officials who cut corners and did not do their job, who were lazy, who didn’t care who got convicted, just as long as someone did.

Rest In Peace, Peter Shellem, an anonymous reporter, who made a difference in so many lives.

 

When You Are . . .

a hammer, every problem becomes a nail. The military is called on to solve problems using military force. Guns. Airplanes. People die.

A Victory for Common Sense and Humanity

For over two decades, HIV-infected persons have been banned from coming into the United States for either travel or immigration purposes. Today, Pres. Obama announced the end of that ban:

History / Poly Sci Majors

Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Anonymous

From Matt Hoh’s resignation letter:

Our support for this kind of government, coupled with a misunderstanding of the insurgency’s true nature, reminds me horrible of our involvement with South Vietnam; an unpopular and corrupt government we backed at the expense of our Nation’s own internal peace, against an insurgency whose nationalism we arrogantly and ignorantly mistook as a rival to our own Cold War ideology.

Afghanistan may not (yet, anyway) be exactly analogous to Vietnam.  That is not the point.  The point is that after seeing how much damage Vietnam did to the United States and seeing how the Soviet Union’s nine years in Afghanistan caused a break-up of the country, why, oh why, oh why have we not been able to apply those lessons to our activities in the Af/Pak Theater?

The Soullessness of Sen. Joseph Lieberman

There is an explosion of blogger reaction to Lieberman’s announcement today that he is willing to sink health care reform over the public option.

Health Care

What I am hearing on MSNBC and what I am reading is

• The ‘public option’ will take effect in 2013
• If  your employer provides health insurance you will not be eligible for the public option
• Only about 10 – 30 million people in the country will be eligible for the public option

Have a Heart? Not These Folks.

This must be where that myth about heartless Republicans comes from: