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January 31, 2009

President Obama's half-brother, George Obama was arrested in Kenya for possession of marijuana.

And can someone tell me what the heck this has to do with anything of concern to anyone in the world with the exception of maybe George, and George's family? The Main Stream Media trying to pull another "Billy Beer"? I'm sure Rush will be blowing farts over this all next week.

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January 29, 2009

Mass Layoff actions went through the roof in December, with over 226,000 laid off in December alone.

More are planned. Eastman Kodak: 4,500. Boeing: 10,000. Corning 3,500. That doesn't even include the 45,000 job layoffs announced Monday from Caterpillar, Sprint-Nextel, Pfizer, Home Depot and GM.

The Unemployment Rate is estimated at around 7.2%, or approximately 11 MILLION people. Teenagers and African-Americans have an unemployment rate in the double digits. 4.8 million americans are getting unemployment checks and other government aid.

Arnie is putting California state workers on unpaid furloughs. Roads here in Virginia that are normally pretty well maintained are deteriorating rapidly, and it is getting rare to see a road crew. The Richmond Virginia Police department is facing budget cuts and a reduction in officers on duty. Richmond, once one of the infamous "murder capitals" cannot afford for this to occur, but occur it is.

The Postal Service is considering cutting Saturday mail deliveries, because it is in the hole to the tune of $3,000,000,000.

All this occurred this week alone.

Meanwhile, the republican idiots in the House, who still don't get just why they do not have a majority anymore, continue on in the same, partisan, "Let them eat cake" way they always have. They decided to "assert" themselves today by killing off the Digital Delay. Every single republican in the House voted against it, even though nearly every single republican in the Senate voted to pass the delay to Digital TV. Every single republican in the house voted against it for one reason, and one reason only: They wanted to stick it to Obama. What they don't seem to realize is that they are all from relatively poor, rural areas. A lot of rural areas don't have cable. Most have a lot of old people, who wouldn't know a digital TV from a Prius. They will have snow on their televisions come mid-February, because they are not ready, and will not be ready. Why? Because along with all these "coupons" for converter boxes, along with all those tickers on the bottom of the local channels day and night, there was absolutely no mention that oh, by the way, if you have an older antenna, like most people with antennas tend to do, you will need to buy a new one. We don't give out a coupon for that, either. Good luck to you.

There will be a lot of unhappy old republicans sitting around watching snow when Alex Trebek is supposed to be giving out the answers. And they just might not be very happy with their House Representatives who took away Wheel of Fortune and Judge Judy.

The House, at least, did pass the Stimulus, after Obama had to make some concessions to the delicate sensibilities of the republicans by removing all reference to family planning, because it would be a terrible sin to tell the average poor people that a condom will keep them from getting sick or pregnant. Heaven forbid we should try to do anything at all about the AIDS and STD epidemics, much less the population problem. Most of the House republicans still voted against the Stimulus, but in the end, it did pass.

Now it will go before the Senate, where the republicans and some so-called "blue dog" democrats don't like that the stimulus is aimed too much at...average people. It's just not going to put as much money into the pockets of the companies that hire the Senate republicans owners, the lobbyists. Because to them, noone deserves one red cent except those that already got. And they just don't get why they don't have the majority position and complete control anymore.

Well, let me tell the republicans, who are so self-delusional that they actually think that they have something to say concerning the economy, why. Because your buddies on Wall Street took billions of dollars in bonuses last year, all while holding their hand out for the corporate welfare check known as the First Stimulus Package. And they thought that was OK, because they had to work hard to get that public handout, and by-god, they deserved those bonuses! That's only one reason why We The American People Don't Give a Rat's Ass What You Think Should Be, Or Should Not Be, In The Stimulus Package. This is a fix to your massive screw-ups for the last eight years, so you just don't really have anything to say that any of us out here on Main Street want to say.

Obama tried to work with the republicans in the House, and they mooned him. He will try to work with the republicans in the Senate, and they will probably moon him too. Next time, he won't be so willing to not just unleash Rahm on them until they cry like infants, all the while pouting out that lower lip and whining "he's so partisan! We only voted en masse against him a few times, and now he won't listen to us at allllllll....waaaaaaahhhhhhhhh."

So the republicans, both in the House, the Senate, on Fox News and on Main Street can can just know this: all their petty wants, and fake-worries, failed trickle-down economic policies and tax breaks for the filthy rich are just self-indulgent fantasies and petulant daydreams now. The country changed. It finally, mostly, woke up and got a clue. It started to change when Obama won the nomination to run for president. It really started that snowball of changed ideas when the economy really started to go down the toilet last September, and that change is really picking up steam now. Welcome to another New Deal or Square Deal, because that's what is coming, and it's about high-time. I for one am sick and tired of having a government that doesn't give a squat about it's citizens, and only cares to make another buck for the already wealthy. I, and many others like me, are sick and tired of the diversionary tactics of dragging out the moldy old "values" crap. They've had their 15 minutes of fame, and now look like Rosie after a mud-fight with Donald Trump - silly and irrelevant.

So, Republicans, Sit Down, Shut Up, and Get Out of The Way. Now is most definitely NOT the time to try to assert your "authoritah," because you no longer have any.

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January 26, 2009

Since when it is failure to pay a utility bill subject to the death penalty? Since Bay City Electric Light & Power decided it was just punishment. That is the only way I can think to sum up what happened to Marvin Schur after he failed to pay over $1,000 in electric bills to the electric company. Mr. Schur was 93 years old, and he froze to death in his own house in Bay City, Michigan.

When Mr. Schur failed to pay his bill, the electric company put a "limiter" on his meter, which as the name implies, limits the amount of juice flowing into the house. Turn on one too many electrical appliances, like a furnace or space heater, and the limiter cuts off the flow of power completely. The limiter has to be reset, or the power stays off. Only noone knows if Mr. Schur knew about this, because the electric company "didn't know if anyone had made personal contact with Schur to explain how the device works." Someone at Bay City Electric Light & Power needs to go to jail just for making a statement like that.

The Bee is betting dollars to donuts that one of two things happened here: 1. the company employee who installed the device did not explain anything to Mr. Schur, and the company did not bother itself to follow up, or 2. Mr. Schur didn't exactly have his elevator going to the penthouse floor due to advanced age, and Mr. Schur did not understand what was being told to him. Therefore, Mr. Schur's furnace didn't come on, and Mr. Schur froze to death.

Freezing to death is a pretty bad way to die. First, the body pulls the blood from the extremities to keep the core organs going. Second, ice crystals form in the cells of the extremities, which is frostbite. Third, to keep the heart going, the body starts to pull blood from the brain, which leads to severe delusional states. Bodies of mountain climbers who succombed to the cold often are found partially clothed - because as a certain point, the body starts to feel unbearably hot, and the delusional start to strip all their clothing off. Once that happens, death is not far behind, as the blood begins to freeze until even the heart, surrounded by cold blood, cannot pump anymore.

This is a terrible way to die, and the electric company in Bay City Michigan sentenced this poor old man to death just because he was behind in his electric bills. Did I mention that Mr. Schur was 93 years old? This is a man who lived through the depression and a world war, and is sentenced to the death penalty by his electric company.

The company doesn't think it did anything wrong. Guess again, Bay City Electric Light & Power. What this company did was absolutely unconscionable. Wrong is wrong is wrong, and it was wrong for this company to let this man die this way. Debtor's prison would be preferable to what they did to this old man, whether through sheer greed, or incompetence, or simple disregard for the welfare of their citizens and neighbors.

There is no excuse that the electric company can invent to wash this stain away. I don't care if this man was the meanest bastard to ever walk the streets of Bay City, he did not deserve to die by freezing just because he owed the electric company a few bucks. Not at the age of 93, with no other options but to sit in his house while his cells crystallized and burst and the blood stopped flowing and the ice formed on the inside of his windows.

Let this be a lesson to all who wield this type of power over the old, the poor and the sick: This will NOT be tolerated. This type of predatory behavior by a power company in the dead of winter is offensive to the bone, and cannot, will not, should not be tolerated.

I will be complaining to this company about it's blatant disregard for the lives of its elderly customers. If you would like to join me, be warned - their website is crap, and I could not get an email through. However, follow this link for a nice phone #, fax # and snail mail address. Let's bombard them with nasty-grams, shall we? Who's in?

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January 25, 2009

President Obama's inauguration speech contained language that was inclusionary. He said "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers." Some just are not very happy with that, though.

Every religion has it's fair share of fringe. The christian fringe, who evidently are not happy unless they are waving the banner of theocratic totalitarianism at every perceived slight, have found themselves a perceived slight in the inauguration speech.

What is this perceived slight? The inclusion by President Obama of non-believers in his speech.

One preacher is quoted as saying "The overwhelming majority of Americans identify as Christians, and what disturbs me is that he seems to be trying to redefine who we are."

On the contrary. He is not trying to redefine who we are, but rather remind us of who we really should be. This country is a melting pot - and that doesn't just mean a melting pot of colors. It also means a melting pot of beliefs - and lack thereof.

In 1953, the overwhelming majority of americans thought it was perfectly fine and dandy with their localities enacting "sunset" and Jim Crow laws. That didn't make them right - in fact, they were so very, very wrong that there is no synonym for "wrong" that accurately describes just how wrong they were. In the 1850's, the bible was regularly quoted in justification of the continuation of slavery. I cannot think of a good synonym that accurately describes just how wrong that was, either.

So, a quick history lesson: The Founding Fathers were not mega-church believers. They believed in a higher power, certainly - or most of them did. This higher power, though, was an impersonal force in the universe that really did not give a whit about what the human species was up to, and certainly didn't bother itself with our petty human problems. However, if one could bring the founding fathers back in a time machine and plop them down in a mega-church during a worship service, the service would be unrecognizable, and probably horrifying, to them. Particularly Jefferson - he did "edit" the bible, and a copy can be bought both online from any bookseller and at the Monticello giftshop. It is called "The Jefferson Bible" and in it, Jefferson removed anything that seemed "miraculous" or just plain impossible to a rational mind.

Benjamin Franklin would probably sing and clap his hands, put on a good show, all the while inwardly laughing his head off in delicious enjoyment of the drama of it all.

While this country does, on the face of it, seem to be overwhelmingly christian, that christianity comes in more flavors than Baskin Robbins. You've got your baptists, southern baptists, methodists, presbyterian, church of christ, united church of christ, episcopal, reformed episcopal, catholic, evangelical, lutheran, evangelical lutheran, pentacostalists, jehovah's witness, morman, seventh day adventists and that's not even half. A few of these will more or less agree with each other over just about anything save operational matters, but the overwhelming majority do not agree, on any single thing. Ever. Sometimes out of principal. However, that overwhelming majority isn't the only horse in the corral. You can throw into the mix bhuddism, hinduism, islam, zoroastrianism, paganism, voodoo religions, shinto, and a near infinite number of ideologies, not to mention modern incarnations like wicca and new-age goddess worship.

It is not suprising that the christian fringe thinks that the President made a grievous error in even aknowledging that non-believers exist. To some, you see, non-believers are the devil incarnate, indeed satan worshippers, which is strange, because since the non-believers do not believe in a higher power, that means they do not believe in the devil variety anymore than they believe in the god variety. They believe that one can be a good person, a productive citizen and a benefit to society without the fear of hellfire and damnation motivating them. I have heard noone explain, with any degree of believability, why this should be feared and hated so much.

Like it or not, non-believers do indeed exist, to the tune of around 12 - 16% of the population. The Bee suspects that this number is actually a bit higher, but given the climate of distrust and loathing that non-believers have to deal with from the overwhelming majority, some non-believers will say they are believers, just to not have to take the flack. Most non-believers want nothing more than to be left alone, and to not have the overwhelming majority legislate and codify into law their own personal and particular beliefs.

And, like it or not, most believers, I am convinced, want pretty much the same thing - to be left alone, and to not have another believer's personal and particular beliefs legislated upon all. Frankly, if communion were to ever be legislated as the law of the land, the baptists would probably take up arms in response.

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January 22, 2009

Obama is poised to reverse Bush (and Reagan before him) policy of denying funding to foreign clinics that even think about abortion, much less counsel their patients on it.

This policy, created by Reagan, reversed by Clinton and re-instated by BushCo, basically denies family planning, AIDS and STD treatments to women in third world countries. The Global Gag Rule not only relegated them to a complete lack of education regarding reproduction, it threatened their health with high-risk pregnancies, disease and poverty. Obama is set to reverse it again, so women all over the world can breathe a sigh of relief.

On the National Mall, Anti-Abortion protestors showed up on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I believe that their actions are futile in this time of economic upheaval and massive job losses.

Making the argument, as one man at the rally made, that “Love always finds a way. There’s a way we can find for every pregnant woman to have a child or give it up for adoption,” just falls flat. The fact is, the anti-abortion crowd have been saying this for decades, but what happened when Nebraska enacted a too-vague "Safe Haven" law, dozens of kids up to the age of 17 years were left on the hospital doorsteps. One widower left several of his children at a Nebraska hospital out of desperation, not having a clue how to care for several and not having family willing to step up to the plate until he had already abandoned his kids. People drove from other states, to abandon children at Nebraska hospitals. So many so, that Nebraska had to amend its law to only apply to newborns.

So, where were the anti-abortionists then? In the news, of course, decrying these depraved parents who would abandon their kids, because the anti-abortionists are hypocrites with a bible in their hand and their head up their ass.

Their arguments fall flat in a time of economic hardship as bad as the one we're all experiencing now. Adopt the baby of of the woman whose husband was just laid off from his job, cannot find another, and they just don't know how they will feed one more mouth. Adopt the baby of the teen who sees that her mother got laid off and just cannot afford to feed another mouth, or her grandparents are slowly starving because the cost of food is just too much, and they cannot afford another mouth to feed.

Arguments like “Love always finds a way. There’s a way we can find for every pregnant woman to have a child or give it up for adoption,” really start to sound like a self-indulgent luxury in times like these, when an unwanted pregnancy can destroy a family in more ways than one.

Arguing that women should not even have the right to choose whether to take on the challenge of trying to feed another mouth during a depression or to simply end the pregnancy and hope for a better future for herself, or the children she already has, just sounds like a petty and childish indulgence.

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January 20, 2009

I did not have the nerve to go to Washington D.C. today to join in the inauguration festivities. I have spent the entirety of my adult life no farther than 2 hours from DC, so I know what a madhouse the city can be when besieged. To stand there in the midst of a million others would have been wonderful, if a logistical nightmare. So, I did the next best thing, and watched it on television, where I had a front row seat to one of the momentous occasions in the history of this country.

What I saw on my set today astounds me. I saw the sheer, amazing numbers of visitors to our Capital, there not to protest against their futility as citizens with representation that does not represent them, but to rejoice and to encourage a new administration that does care about them and that does look like them and sound like them and has promised that while the road ahead will be hard and long, while the sky will be dark and the seas of progress stormy, progress we will.

For the first time in my lifetime, people care about their leadership. I believe that this is because for the first time in my lifetime, we finally have leadership that engenders care and respect. For the first time in my lifetime, we have a leader who can truly rally the people to the correct side of history, and maybe even help us stay there. For the first time in my lifetime, an elected leader speaks to all of us, and not just to moneyed interest.

Barak Obama entered office just a few minutes ago with a clear mandate from the American People - we want, need and must have progress. The old guard is gone, the king is dead, and there must be no going back.

This is our time to wipe away the old ideologies that have been proven time and again not to work, and replace them with the ideals that define us. Compassion for those in need. Willingness to serve in time of need. Ability to stand strong and tall in times of need. Respect for all, despite skin color or class or creed or religion or lack thereof. The knowledge that none of us lives in a vacuum, and our actions do effect others. Knowledge that government is only the problem if we let it be. Understanding that the old "business model" america is no more, because there are some things that simply should not, and can no longer be subject to the laws of profit and loss. Education, healthcare, hiring equality, gay rights, reversing global warming, technological advancement - these are things we must decide we are simply willing, as a people, to pay for, without the shareholder's traditional requirement that such endeavours turn profits or be scrapped, because these are things that should be paid for simply because they benefit all.

This is our time.

For the first time in a very, very long time, I am happy and proud to call myself an American again. If that is all that President Obama manages to achieve in his first term, then that alone is vastly more than I received from his predecessor, and for that, I am grateful.

This is our time.

Celebrate tonight like you might never celebrate again, because tomorrow the real work begins.

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1/18/2009

Eric Cantor (R-VA), the new House Whip, issued a statement prattling on and on about how Obama will need to work with the republicans on the economic stimulus package, because the republicans have some good ideas, and Obama did "point out recently that no one party has a monopoly over sound ideas."

That may be true, but I know of one party that definitely has the monopoly over bad ideas. Hint: It starts with an "R".

Cantor: Costing at the very least a hefty $825 billion, the plan's potential for taxpayer waste and special-interest-driven giveaways is enormous.

Bee: Yes, I'm sure it would, if Bush & Paulson were still calling the shots, with the spineless idiots in Congress still following right along. Times change, and I doubt this one will go as badly as the first.

Cantor: Rather than presenting an obstacle, House Republicans intend to use the full force of our ideas to help Democrats produce a better package to help pull the country back from the economic abyss. Specifically, we want to keep the stimulus bill -- as well as all other future economic "rescue" measures -- limited in scope and transparent.

Bee: So, when did the republicans say that when the first bailout debacle was being passed? Now, though, since Obama already said that the stimulus would be subject to unprecedented transparency and earmarks would not be tolerated, suddenly the republicans agree? Fine, I suppose, better late than never, but please do not try to make it sound like it was your idea all along. And what exactly does "limited in scope" mean? Wait - I know, you don't want any poor people getting any money. Or any middle class people, either. Because, well, your wife makes $400,000 a year as a director of Dominoes, and screw those unkempt pizza delivery drivers!

Cantor: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a sobering report that this year's deficit will likely climb to over 8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, or $1.2 trillion. That's higher than at any point since World War II -- and those figures don't even account for the forthcoming stimulus.

Bee: Eric, Eric, Eric. It's a little late to start worrying about the deficit now, isn't it? Really, you should have been worrying about that when the thank-great-googly-soon-to-be-former-President Bush started that little war in Iraq that has, all told, cost us roughly a trillion dollars, so there's your trillion. Without that war, the deficit would only be 2 billion. But it wouldn't be, would it? Even if there were no war, you and your ideologue fellows would have found something to spend that kind of money on. Something like, well, wasting time trying to pass laws to keep Terri Schiavo on a ventilator for the next 30 years.

Cantor: While deflation may be the more immediate threat that the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are correctly focused on, uncontrolled spending and borrowing could easily necessitate much higher Treasury interest rates to keep foreigners financing our mounting debt. Especially given the looming entitlement crisis, this poses heavy danger for businesses and families alike.

Bee: What "entitlement crisis" would this be? Is this code word for "Main Street" - the middle and lower classes who most need the help? Are we now the "entitlement crisis" in your republican lexicon? That doesn't quite hold water, Eric. Let's talk about entitlement crisis. Blackwater. Halliburton. Every other No-Bid contract that was put forth for one purpose, and one purpose only: to make a wealthy buddy more wealthy. Let's talk about entitlement crisis: Top-heavy banks, some of which your wife used to work for, getting billions of dollars to keep them from toppling over and crushing us all under their own behemoth weight, with the reasoning put forth as "if we throw money at them, they will start lending again, and the credit crunch will disappear, and the foreclosures will stop, and cross your heart and hope to die the problem will be solved!" We didn't buy that then, we don't buy that now. Those banks basically reached into Main Street's back pocket and snatched what they wanted so they could made "acquisitions" and could doctor their balance sheets before the SCC gets ahold of them come March. So who is the real entitlement crisis? Bank of America just got another 20bil, and I will lay odds that they will be back next quarter with their hands in our pockets again.

Cantor: Our preferred strategy is to provide meaningful tax relief directly to middle-class taxpayers and the small businesses that they operate or work for.

Bee: Sounds suspiciously like another "Bush Appeasement" like that $300 we got several years ago, which we had to pay back over time and with interest in future tax filings.

Cantor: Particularly in down times, tax cuts can lift an economy by encouraging work, investment and business expansion. That should be the aim of the $300 billion in tax cuts the president-elect has pledged -- an apparent recognition, however overdue, that tax cuts are in fact stimulative for the economy.

Bee: Obama tried to have that in his plan - you republicans didn't like it (and some democrats who had better figure out what side their bread if buttered on) unless it is tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy, and then it can trickle down, and spare us please. Been there since Reagan, it hasn't worked yet, never will, and is that really all you guys can get fixated on?

Cantor: The Democrats have proposed additional spending for infrastructure and the like, ostensibly to compensate for stagnation in the private sector. Like bears sniffing out food at a campfire pit, those looking for a piece of the multi-billion dollar pie have flooded Washington with a cascade of requests, some capable of spurring immediate and lasting growth, others falling hopelessly short.

Bee: Hey, BooBoo, I notice that you don't name who those bears in the pic-a-nic basket are. Couldn't be some friends of yours - maybe your family, who is into real estate developing, and really, bridge building is only a hop skip from that line of work. Or maybe your wife, who was also in the development business? Or some rich buddies looking to break into road building?

Cantor: First, we need to reconcile the American people's demands for swift action with the fact that a good bill requires time -- time to hold hearings, read the bill in painstaking detail, and root out waste.

Bee: Like that deliberation and investigation that was done before you all ran willy nilly to sign off on the Patriot Act? Or all that time that was spent on the October Bailout? Funny, as I remember it, it was a couple of republicans who were screaming in September that the "Paulson Regime" had to be created immediately, over the weekend, with no forethought and no deliberation. As I remember it, criticize them though we might, wasn't it mainly the likes of Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi saying "Whoa there partner, let's think about this a little bit first?"

Cantor: ...any new spending must be introduced with the clear understanding that it is temporary rather than permanent. It is not always easy to terminate spending programs once they have been funded, but our bleak long-term budget outlook requires significant sacrifices over the coming years.

Bee: Don't say "any" and have it mean "all." There are plenty of avenues of spending that can, and should be, long term and permanent. Nationalizing healthcare. Improving and sustaining improved public education from pre-school to 12th grade. Programs that allow those who wish for a college education to get it without going into hock for the rest of their lives. Creating and sustaining a green energy initiative, and getting off of foreign oil and extricating ourselves from the middle-east teat for all time. Passing legislation which makes it easier for workers to unionize so that it is more difficult for employers to treat them mercilessly. Creating and sustaining monitoring divisions within the federal government whose sole purpose is to keep watch over the other divisions, in order to avoid traps like those that Bush & Cheney & gang have been setting over the past eight years. Those would all be worthy additions to the federal budget, and would be well worth whatever tax dollars they would require, as they would benefit all, not just the wealthy few.

Cantor's letter is a farce, at best. Every thing he warns the democrats against is exactly what the republicans have done, and will continue to do given their druthers, because their ideology of the "bootstrap" myth keeps them shackled to their own inequities. Some of them have to know, deep down, that noone pulls him or her-self up by the bootstraps. Rising above requires the help of those down below.

If Obama needs to remember anything, it is that on November 4, he was given a mandate. The mandate was to end the stranglehold that the republican ideologues have had over us all for the entirety of my lifetime, starting with Nixon. Carter and Clinton were merely blips on their radar, and easily done away with through lies and fear-mongering.

Obama needs only to know that he must be courageous, because the congressional democrats will not be unless they are led to be. He must stand tall, and be willing to tell the republicans "we can do this with or without you, so if you will be a hindrance, just stay home on the day of the vote, or just abstain." I'm all for reaching across the aisle for the unimportant motions that seem to take up an awful lot of congressional time. Things like "national milk day" or "national butter churners day." That's fine, let them come up with the new "month," such as "United Chess Club of Peoria" month. Otherwise, let's actually leave them out of the loop as much as possible. Noone is really all that interested in what they have to "bring to the table." The last thing they brought to the table was a dead duck that had gone over days before. I doubt they have anything better to produce now.

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1/17/2009

If it weren't just like Georgie Porgie to take the credit for the non-fixes of his screw ups, I wouldn't believe it. But it is just like him. Bush will probably be quoted soon taking credit for winning WWII.

The boob actually believes that he can take credit for the economic recovery that he thinks will happen in the second half of 2010.

That's funny, and not in a ha-ha way, because I heard just yesterday from an economic forecast here in frigid Richmond VA that the economy is in the outhouse, and will be until probably 2011. Maybe. Then again, it could just get worse and stay that way for years.

What economic recovery, Bush? Circuit City couldn't make it through Chapter 11 and is liquidating its american stores starting today. This is going to be a big, fat, painful, pussy, putrid mess for Richmond.

Bank of America is getting ANOTHER $20 bil in bailout money. This after BofA pulled a few stunts which don't sit well with the Bee. When Republic, a small, union, door and window manufacturer in Chicago was having trouble meeting it's debt obligations, Bank of America so solicitously said "screw your employees, you close up shop and pay us first, or we'll break your credit kneecaps." I personally know of a young man, with a young wife and a new baby, who was laid off from BofA a few months ago. He went to work as a temp with the company upstairs from my workplace. Nice fella, everyone said he was a hard worker and a quick study. He needed benefits, though, and temping just doesn't cut it. So, when BofA made him an offer to come back, in a different position for better pay, he jumped at it. And landed right in the fire. The minute he quit his temp job, BofA rescinded the offer. "So sorry, we don't need you after all." I have to wonder just how many personal stories out here on Main Street there are about what wonderfully socially conscious and caring organization Bank of America is.

Let's not forget that it is quickly becoming obvious that BofA is essentially insolvent. In other words, count on their hand being put out again sometime soon. Probably in April after the first quarter numbers are released.

Chrysler just got 1.5 bil in bailout funds. Tell me again why we need a Big 3? How about a Big 2? Or even a Big 1 and a bunch of Little 3's?

It looks like the GAO finally figured out that Big Corps, including some of these banks we've been bailing out, such as...drum roll please...Bank of America, have been hiding their assets in Off Shore subsidiaries so they don't have to pay taxes to the U.S. The rest of us knew that 20 years ago. At least the GAO finally figured it out. Better late than never, I suppose. Only they didn't really figure it out. They have known it for at least as long as the rest of us on Main Street have known it. They've only just now gotten the courage to admit it.

How about this idea: We the people, in order to preserve our life-blood and well-being, call those bailout funds loans, due in full, first thing Tuesday morning, with interest retro-active to the date of the issuance of the Treasury check, with interest compounded daily at....oh, 28.8% sounds good. That's about what BofA charges on credit cards for people who get a tad bit behind. Once the money has been taken back, in blood and corporate jets if need be, we instead lend that money to individual homeowners who are in the midst of, or facing imminent, foreclosure. I actually think that would be a better investment than keeping BofA afloat. Perhaps it is time to go back to the "community" bank model, and forget about the behemoths that collapse under their own weight.

Bush thinks he can take credit for the economic turn-around. He thinks he sees signs that things are already getting better.

I don't see it, and he can instead take the credit that is due to him - for contributing to the culmination of a 30 year ideology which led directly to this American Financial Verdun.

At some point, he cannot keep blaming Clinton for every stupid mistake he and his administration has made. Neither can he alternately take credit for anything going well, because nothing really is going well, save for the fact that in a few more days, the Error will be over, and, I hope at least, a new Era will begin.

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1/16/2009

That would be a good idea.

Israeli losses: 13 dead (3 civilians), 233 wounded.

Palestinian losses: 1,100 + (total unknown), 5,015 wounded (total unknown).

I am well aware that Hamas poked a stick into a hornet's nest. However, the hornets are humans, and are out of control.

Israel launched another offensive last night, and bombed a UN relief supplies warehouse.

I am not impressed, particularly when learning of this after I hear earlier in the week that Israeli soldiers were firing on, and destroying, UN and Red Cross relief trucks to the point that both agencies stopped trying to cross into Gaza to...help. To help people whose world, which was never that great to begin with, is now a big bombed stinking waterless rubble.

I find it difficult to sympathize with a country that should, by all accounts and by all rights, know better. Olmert and Ehud want the rest of the world to believe that this is some biblically proportioned war against the terrorists of Palestine who are hell bent at destroying Israel.

The thing is, I find it difficult to sympathize with Israel disproportionately firing back with both hammers cocked at the equivalent of a sling-shot hit.

I do not believe that Hamas will stop poking the hornets nest, but perhaps the hornets should find a better way of dealing with Hamas. There is always another way. Always.

Israel would be well served to learn that lesson.

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1/13/2009

Obama is pressing for the second half of the $700 billion bailout be released and put into action to try to give mouth-to-mouth to this flagging economy. Now he has to scramble around and try to convince the morons in Congress to back his plans. Plans, by the way, which make a heck of a lot more sense than Bush & Paulson's original plan to just throw money around with no oversight, no controls, no regulations, in the hopes that the banks would comply with the snivelly request to "Please, sirs, may we have another....loan?"

The banks, of course, pocketed the money, bolstered their own financial statements with this ill-gotten capital, and are not making the loans. In fact, I don't really see how they have done anything constructive with OUR money, and then had the nerve to tell US that they don't have to tell us what they did with our money.

Enough.

Senators: the Bee has some news for you, and you might want to listen. We all stood in line for hours, voted early, voted in the rain, in the cold, sick, well, disabled and non-disabled, in order to give the new President the political capital he needs to get some of the job done. I don't care if you're upset "that the Bush administration rushed the bailout through Congress and then badly mismanaged the program. Some lawmakers were upset that no help came for struggling homeowners. Others said banks and other financial institutions that have received money have failed to resume lending." Consider that first $350 billion as having been pissed away on comic books and candy, because that's basically what happened. And you, Senators still sitting on capital hill, allowed that to happen, so enough with the snivelling and fear. Get off the stick and back the man, already. The majority of the American people told you to do just that on November 4.

I do not see the $3,000 tax break to small businesses which save/create jobs as a problem, but Obama has already scrapped that to make your sorry selves happy and to get you on board the change train. I do want to see some of the foreclosures stalled, because while I'm a typically greedy human and I don't like to see others get what I will not get, I still know I'm not getting it because I don't need it...yet. The more foreclosures, the more headache and heartache and heartburn and butt-ache for the rest of us down the road, because this kind of thing becomes a never-ending spiral down the great toilet of class inequity.

Enough.

Democratic Senators, stop the whining, stop the hand-wringing. You have a plan before you that you don't seem to think is "detailed" enough. It is infinitely more detailed than Bush & Paulson's October "Trust Us" plan. You have the majority, now get off the stick and use it. There are problems facing this country that just cannot wait for "bipartisan" support, and the economy is one of them. It worsens with every layoff, with every foreclosure, with every citizen left with no healthcare and the prospect that god help them if they get sick, because with the mess the republicans have left, noone else is going to help them. Stop being afraid that you might take blame for something if everything does not end up roses and popsicles. Everything never will. Some things will though, and that's what you should be focusing on. We voters repudiated the republican ideology en masse for a reason, and we expect you to be ready for the challenge of finally wiping it and it's failed endeavours away for...all time if possible, at least 8 years if not.

Republican Senators, you can stop right now. Your knickers are in a twist not because the banks received a ton of money they now refuse to put to good use, but because your buddy Bush gave some money to Chrysler and GM. You may not like that the Obama team's plan contains provisions for helping out Main Street, but don't even think about blocking. Obama might be willing to make some small concessions, but don't even let the word blocking cross your wormy little minds. I understand you still just don't comprehend (and probably never will) why We the People booted most of your colleagues out on their collective behinds, so just do this: Shut up, Sit down, and get out of the way. If you don't like the motion on the floor, abstain.

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1/12/2009

Ford and Buick think they can revive the American made sedan market by revamping the Taurus and the LaCrosse. And they just might be correct in that assessment. Ford might be, anyway. The so-called "jellybean" tauruses of the 1980's (and 1990's, and 2000's) really were in every other driveway - because they were decent, comfortable and trustworthy sedans. Ford can't help but sell a Taurus. It was, after all, one of the perennial best-sellers for years, and you can't throw a dead cat without hitting a Taurus. I have a Taurus station wagon, which is more stable, easier to drive and more comfortable than a mini-van, and has about the same cargo space as a pricier and more gas guzzling SUV. Gets better mileage, and if you buy one off the side of the road and it has "salvage" on the title, you got yourself a pretty good deal. If GM really put a heated steering wheel and heated wiper fluid in the LaCrosse, I would seriously consider buying one the next time I lose my mind and decide we should have a car payment. If they don't fold, that is, which would play hell with a warranty. Sedans with heated steering wheels and heated wiper fluid - now those are good ideas, and useful drains on the battery. If they had thought of that 10 years ago, we might not have to throw money at them hand over fist now.

Which leads us to this not-sosuprising "bombshell" - GM will ask for more bailout money. Who is suprised? Raise your hands and yell "screw me more, please, Mr. and Mrs. Congress!" Buick can't save GM. The boomers lost too much cash in the stocks collapse, and who is going to buy them? We thirty-somethings? Not likely, Buicks are just too expensive. Maybe GM should just wither on the vine, and its resources moved to upstart car companies, along with GM's workers and union contracts.

Another WFT? moment is the FDA still stalling over recalling infant formula tainted with melamine and cyanuric acid. In fact, they are not just still stalling, they say that the products are perfectly safe. As long as those two industrial chemicals are not used in tandem, that is. The FDA claims that it has not tested one sample of infant formula yet which contains both chemicals. The problem is, different formulas are often used in tandem by parents with colicky babies.

The Bee has a message for the FDA: GET OFF IT! Do you expect us to believe that if you don't lay down the law now with the manufacturing companies, that the companies will just voluntarily comply with the american public's wishes for safe infant formula for thier kids? Yeah, right, just like Wall Street played it straight with mortgage bundles. Get off the stick, FDA, before we have a China incident here. When that happens, the Bee herself will be out forming the mob that will tar and feather the whole lot of you.

TV - it is our lifeline. Morning news weather forecasts, evening Jeopardy, and 24. Only for those without cable and who still use analog sets, many of them will not be getting their shows at all come February. The Obama transition teams says the FCC has not done enough to prepare people who still use the antennas and analog sets. At first, I thought "sure they have, it has been scrolling across the bottom of the screen on every network news show for 2 years now, and they give out government coupons to defray the cost of the converter boxes." Only now we learn that not only will many people with anntenas need the converter boxes, but they will probably need new antennae too. That I didn't know about, and I consider myself pretty aware of the general happenings, so I have to agree with the assessment that the FCC has not done enough to inform the general public of that it needs to do to prepare in the short soundbites that we are used to. The government ran out of coupons, too, and now the FCC is asking for a few million more to fund more coupons. The FCC had how long to prepare for this? Some change for the FCC would serve its purpose.

And finally, WTF?? Joe the plumber in Israel as a WAR CORRESPONDENT???? My evil twin is about to speak: maybe he'll get fragged by mortar fire and we just won't have to see his mug in the mainstream media anymore, because the guy is just too stupid to live.

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1/7/2009

For a bank real estate paper pusher who isn't doing any closings, I have been busier than a one-armed drywaller lately.

If the email I received from the New York Times is any indicator, PE Obama has had a tough week, too.

First, he had to tell us that this nation will incur record deficits, and that eventually it will have to be reduced. He is correct, of course - with the state of the american economy right now, not to mention the state of the world's economy, the government is going to have to so some serious investing. I'm not talking about investing in banks again so they can refuse to lend the money they are given but then run around buying each other out. I am talking about the kind of investing that can work - investing in people and infrastructure. I have no problem with extending the unemployment benefits to main street. I have no problem with investing in infrastructure in an attempt to avoid future New Orleans style debacles. I have no problem with investing in education, from pre-K early education to college education.

I only have a problem when the money is thrown at Wall Street and High Street, with the recipients acting like they deserved it, and the throwers (we, the taxpayers) deserve no explanation of how the money is being used. Or when we might expect to see it paid back.

Some interesting happenings have happened this week, though, in the never-ending saga we call "the days of our lives - political chaos."

Burris is probably going to be confirmed to Obama's old Senate seat. That's fine with me, also, since Blago hasn't been indicted for anything, much less found guilty, and Burris hasn't been indicted for anything either. So, Senate Dems have found a way to not block Burris' confirmation. How convenient - not to mention spineless - now if they had just come to this conclusion to begin with, instead of making it look like a great big sideshow attraction, complete with the worlds only brain donors.

Obama and his team are defending the choice of Leon Panetta as head of the CIA. Dems are "divided." Not so much, I think. Panetta is as good a choice as any - he has been critical of Bush policies of torture and rendition but also able to reach across the room to republicans to get done what needs to be done. I do not see Panetta as a bad choice at all. In fact, he might walk in and kick some asses into gear. After eight years of the "wild wild west" mentality in the higher echelons of the intelligence community, it seems like it is time for a practical-minded outsider to put the house in order.

It seems that CNN's chief medical reporter, Sanjay Gupta is on the shortlist for Obama's choice for Surgeon General. Another choice that I do not have a problem with. The guy is charismatic, looks great on camera, and is a brain surgeon. He should fit the bill of "doctor to the public" well. I'm betting he won't be wearing Koop's old uniform, though.

Finally, Jeb Bush will not be running for the senate. Oh, how I hope he hasn't read his daddy's interview (see below) about running for president. If I have to watch another Bush mangle the entire world, I might just have to move me and mine to the rainforest where we can run naked with the natives and moon nosey camera-laden helicopters.

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1/4/2009

As if the first humdrum presidency of George H.W. Bush wasn't enough, as if the deadly failures of the presidency of George W. Bush wasn't enough, now HW seems to think his younger son Jeb Bush would make a good president.

ENOUGH!!!

It took 8 years, but the Clinton administration, despite the diversions of blowjobs in the oval office, managed to pull this country out of the hole that 12 years of Reagan/Bush had dug for it.

Since the hole that W dug is infinitely deeper than the previous, it will, most likely, take far more than 8 years to dig the country out. It's not even just this country this time, it's the entire world economy. Even China is passing out stimulus packages - you know it's bad when China has to put out money to it's own economy.

And HW has the stones to actually say in public that we should be wishing and dreaming for a 3rd Bush Presidency? He might be marginally smarter than W, but Jeb is just as crooked as his big bro.

At least HW had the decency to admit that "...right now is probably a bad time, because we've had enough Bushes in there."

You're not kidding, old timer, because let me tell you how right now is a bad time to present this little stinkbomb to the country. Got a couple of years? It might take me that long to summarize all of the horrendous mistakes and deliberate untruths that your older boy foisted on this country. The repercussions of his utterly failed presidency will resound for years across the globe, and his misdeeds will most assuredly not be forgotten anytime soon, no matter how much he tries to re-write his own history.

And don't think for one minute, old man, that we will forget just who was governor of Florida in 2000 when Katherine Harris was scheming to make sure the governor's big brother won the presidency despite not having the votes. No Sir, we will not forget, and will be happy to throw it in Jeb's face every time he rears that ugly mug to pander to the camera.

Enough of the Bushes, for now and all time. Just let this family sink into the mire of dead history, and let us finally be rid of the lot of them.

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1/1/2009

Rhode Island Democrat Senator Claiborne Pell diedlast night of Parkinsons. He was 90 years old, and his legacy is the Pell Grant. The Pell Grant, which began it's legislative life in 1972 under the name "Basic Educational Opportunity Grant," have helped over 54 million middle and low-income students attend college and get their higher education.

I wonder what Sen. Pell would think of the fact that banks have been preying on college students for years with offers of ridiculous marketing ploys such as towels and kickbacks to the colleges and universities to get students to take out credit cards they cannot afford?

According to today's NYT, Michigan State has a 84.5 MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT - yes, you read that correctly, a multi-million dollar contract, with Bank of America which allows BofA which gives the Bank "...access to students’ names and addresses and use of the university’s logo. The more students who take the banks’ credit cards, the more money the university gets. Under certain circumstances, Michigan State even stands to receive more money if students carry a balance on these cards."

Michigan State is certainly not the only university to cash in and jump in the sack with the Banks, to the detriment of its students. In fact, hundreds of such "contracts" exist. These students, on average, graduate with approximately $2,600 in credit card debt, at exhorbitant interest rates. Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Reiss stresses that BofA caps the available credit at $2,500 per card. What a coincidence. So, in other words, what Ms. Reiss is saying is that these students, on average, graduate with maxed out cards.

Many of these students are facing the very real, and very ugly fact, that there may very well not be jobs waiting for them when they graduate, and they might very well end up working at Target. Working at Target - while saddled with credit card debt with interest rates in the 20-some percent range, and student loans in the tens of thousands, with payments which begin upon graduation.

This is a travesty, and a sham. When college costs so much to attend that students come out saddled with debt which may take them all or most of their adult working life to pay off (not to mention those who die with those debts. Some I'm sure because of those debts), then perhaps college isn't quite worth the money anymore.

Students are smacked even before they get to college, though - particularly if they are lower or middle class. With nonsense legislation like No Child Left Behind, where "standards of learning" tests have to be passed by the students or the public school loses accreditation and federal funding, students are taught to the test, and nothing more. There is no teaching of critical thought, of insight into the various sciences and humanities studies. There is only simple rote memorization. The poorer the school, the worse this wicked scenario gets.

Inner-City and rural schools will most often be poor school districts. When the students cannot perform at the level of the richer districts, the goal post is lowered until they can pass the test. This is a travesty, and strikes me as a possible conspiracy on the part of the republican hierarchy for the past 8 years, at least, to "keep poverty in its place - anywhere but my neighborhood." Why else would the deck be automatically stacked against lower/middle income kids in such a heinous manner?

To ice the cake, SAT is changing the rules, so that students can take the tests multiple times and send to their prospective colleges only those scores they like.

Practices such as these only stack the deck even more against lower to middle income students, for the simple fact that they cannot afford to take the SAT test 20 times until they score that 780. Once again, the rich outweigh the poor-to-middling, because they can afford to have their kids take the tests over and over until they get the score that will score them the scholarship to the school they want. Not to mention that while the poor-to-middling kids are working their behinds off at McDonalds, the rich kids are taking the electives, playing the sports, campaigning for class president and serving flapjacks at the local homeless shelters for the sole purpose of bolstering their college admissions forms.

Nobody in the mainstream media seems to want to make the logical conclusions, that colleges and public schools themselves have become the battlefields of class warfare. Make no mistake, class warfare is exactly what all of the above amounts to. As long as the wealthy can keep the system stacked against the poor-to-middling kids, their own children have less competition.

This class warfare is not just confined to the colleges and high schools. Think about every time you have heard a republican railing against one more dime of funding to pay for breakfast or lunch for younger kids in poor school districts, where that breakfast and lunch may be the only meal those kids get that day. Think about every time you have heard a republican railing against anykind of federally funded public preschool for the 3-5 year olds, despite the fact that early education has been definitively proven to be of incalculable value to the development of all children, but which is currently only available to those who can afford it.

Class warfare. Pure and simple.

It is time to fight back, or many of our own children will not stand a chance of having a future that is fulfilling and enlightened. They will be fated to lives of servitude to the rich kids whose parents can afford to pay the bucks.

It is wrong - quite simply wrong. I believe that PE Obama understands, but he must have the courage to follow through and right the wrongs that are being perpetrated on the entire nation, if not the entire world. Our job is to remind him constantly why he was elected - for just these types of changes, and to change the course of the class war that has raged for too long now. Our job is to give him, his cabinet and the Congress the courage to do what it takes to enact these changes.

It is also time for the students now in college to get a clue: The Banks are NOT your friends. You are a money-making machine for them, nothing more. They do NOT want to help you - in fact, the more you fail and rack up misery-inducing debt, the happier they are with you. Your ancestors once kicked the CIA recruiters off of their campuses. You can do the same with the banks - kick them out. You pay to attend those schools - YOU have the power. Go to your deans and threaten to transfer to schools which do not entreat themselves with contracts with the debt-devil. You will be doing this not just for youselves, but for every future student who stands to be swallowed up in the perpetuation of the debt culture created by the banks and credit card mongerers.

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