Uh-oh ... Something Is Wrong Somewhere!

My apologies for the lack of regular posts over the past week. For reasons clearly above my threshold of understanding, my high-speed internet connection has not been working and I have been relegated to dial-up. It is so painfully slow that it has been almost impossible to check my Google Alerts for newsworthy blog fodder, let alone maneuver through the actual posting process.My computer-savvy son-in-law will get me back up to speed when he returns on Thursday from a holiday visit with his family in Canada. In the meantime, my best wishes for the New Year, for which there is indeed reason for hope and optimism. Haoli Makahiki Hou..

Sitting On Top Of The World

A tasty excerpt from a recent column by Garrison Keillor

We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor - he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."

The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes."

When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.

Twenty-Seven Days ... and Counting!

A month ago, Bush & Co. gave $150 billion to AIG and many billions more to the Wall Street bankers with no strings attached.Then last week they gave a measly $15 billion to be divided between Chrysler and General Motors, but only after a public beating up of their executives, squeezing still more concessions out of their workers, and demanding a full report on how they’re going to turn the entire industry around in 90 days.And now – did you see yesterday’s Associated Press story? – the bankers won’t tell us what they did with the money!Folks, the lunatics are running the freakin’ asylum!.

From the Mouths of Readers Oftimes Come Gems

One of my favorite web sites for items and discussions about government and politics is TalkingPointsMemo.com. Obviously, there has been a lot of discussion there recently about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. There was a funny, and probably incisive comment about the beleaguered governor posted there the other day from someone identifying himself as an Illinois native:

If someone told me, “Hear about Blogo? He dressed himself up as Elvis, highjacked an Air Yugo flight from O’Hare to Belgrade, and is now living under the protection of Serbia. And he’s formed an exploratory committee for 2016.”I’d pause for a minute and say, “Yeah, that sounds right.”

This Is How They Put 'Country First'??

Forgiveness: The Difference Between Left and Right?

The announcement that Rick Warren, the conservative evangelical pastor at the Saddleback Church in California, will deliver the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration has prompted howls of anguish and outrage from liberals and gays. My first thought was, why are these folks surprised? For over a year during the campaign, Obama repeatedly said he would work for a less-divided, more inclusive country. What a freakin’ nerve! He’s doing what he said he would do!The uproar also serves to illustrate a basic difference between folks on the right and those on the left.If a Republican candidate turns out to be a dud (Dubya) or an embarrassment (Palin), most conservatives will grind their teeth, clench their jaws, and vote for them anyway.But if a liberal even thinks that you might be straying from the left's ideological line, he’ll scream bloody murder and throw you out of the boat.Sheesh! No wonder we Democrats have so damn much trouble winning elections!.

Truman or Obama ...Some Things Just Never Change

To say that my paternal grandparents were rock-ribbed Republicans would be an understatement.In June of 1950, I was sitting in the parlour of their house – yes, that’s what they called it – watching a Red Sox game on what was then their primitive television set. Suddenly, the game was interrupted and a man appeared on the screen. He said the North Koreans had invaded South Korea and that President Harry Truman was about to address the nation in this hour of crisis.My grandmother was in the next room – the "sitting room" and, yes, that’s what they called it – reading one of her paperback detective novels. I called to her to come into the parlour and watch the president on TV.“There is nothing that damn Democrat has to say that interests me,” she snapped.

I thought about my grandmother this morning when I opened the CNN web site and saw that TIME magazine has named Barack Obama “Person of the Year.” Then I noticed the CNN poll, which asked the question …Do you agree with Time's choice of Barack Obama as Person of the Year?Well, of course! I mean, who else??

Then I checked the results. Of the 100,000 people voting, 30% don’t agree.

I’m quite sure Grandma Loomis wouldn’t either.

An Astute Observation On the Past Eight Years

"When the government is run by a political party committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Key priorities are neglected; key functions are privatized; and key people, the competent public servants who make government work, either leave or are driven out.”Paul KrugmanNew York TimesSept. 1, 2008.

Items From the What-the-Hell-Are-They-Thinking Department

The obsessive die-hards who insist that Barack Obama is not legally entitled to be president and his Hawaii birth certificate is a fake had a set-back the other day when the United States Supreme Court refused to hear their case.The birth certificate is genuine, of course, but the issue may not yet be resolved. According to Honolulu Advertiser columnist Dave Shapiro, “the conspiracists who brought the suit say they’ll appeal to the high tribunal on their home planet.”

Most Hawaii citizens are down on our Republican governor, Linda Lingle. She stepped into deep kukae (that’s Hawaiian for doo-doo) by declining to attend the National Governors Conference two weeks ago where most of the other govs met with Obama to ask for federal help with their states’ budget shortfalls.

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Hawaii has a budget crisis, too, but Lingle has already taken bold steps to address it. For instance, she’s not giving State employees the traditional half-day off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, a gesture that will please Republican ideologues, piss off 53,000 public employees, and not to a damn thing to fix the problem. Senators Shelby and McConnell (see previous post) were doubtless her inspiration.

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About Bail-Outs and Loans and Speaking With Forked Tongues

I don’t know if helping the auto industry is the right thing to do or not. It does appear, however, that the government loan may not go through and, unless Bush acts with money already approved, many thousands of autoworkers will likely be losing their jobs.Several things about this mess bother me.GM and Chrysler were asking for a loan of 14 billion dollars, while the Bush Administration gave $150 billion to AIG. That’s ten times what the car companies asked for!Opposition to the automakers loan comes from Republicans in the Senate. The most vocal of these are Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama (top) and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (bottom). Note, please, that both of their states are home to huge auto plants run by foreign automakers like Toyota and Volkswagen. To attract those companies, Alabama and Kentucky offered big tax incentives because of the jobs they would provide.

And that begs the question: Why is it OK to give up tax dollars through incentives to create jobs in Alabama and Kentucky, but not OK to use tax dollars for loans that will save jobs in Michigan and Ohio and Indiana and Illinois?Could it be because the southern autoworkers are not unionized, while those working for GM and Chrysler are members of the United Auto Workers? Well now… there’s a thought!With unmitigated gall (because they know it to be untrue), Senate Republicans continue to lay much of the blame for the financial problems of GM and Chrysler on the wages being paid to the union workers. In fact, when you combine wages and bonuses, the non-union workers in the South are making slightly more that the union folks working for GM and Chrysler.It would appear that Shelby, McConnell et al have seen an opportunity to damage or even break the United Auto Workers, and are willing to let many thousands of union families pay the price to do it.

Merry Christmas, y’all.

Some Smart People Need a Little Help To Stop Being DUMB!

Hello, my name is John Thain.I’m chairman of Merrill Lynch.

We lost $11 billion this year.It could have been a lot more,but I’m awfully smart.

So I want a $10 million bonus to thank me for doing such a good job.

Oh, wait! I'm hearing cries of outragefrom very important people.

Suddenly I feel your pain.

I guess I won’t take any bonus this year.

(But don't worry ... you can really thank me next year.)

Wow! The Illinois Governor Gets Really, Really Busted!

When was the last time a law enforcement official marched up to a governor’s mansion at 6:30 in the morning, knocked on the door and said “You are under arrest”? That’s what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald did this morning to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on charges, among many others, of trying to peddle the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.Several things about this astonishing bust deserve mention.Of course, the accusations are shocking, but I have also been dismayed by the number of Republicans – pundits, bloggers and emailers – who are saying that this means Obama, too, is corrupt. And, far worse, there are people so blindly partisan that they are openly hoping that is the case.As a matter of fact, there is indeed an Obama connection. According to political insiders from Chicago, Blagojevich approached Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest advisers, offering the appointment to her in return for a sizable payment. The word is, she immediately went to Obama’s chief-of-staff, Rahm Emanuel, and they blew the whistle on Blagojevich. Presumably, this will eventually come out in the trial. (The Obama haters will be so disappointed!) Also worth mentioning: the U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, is the very same guy who prosecuted and nailed Dick Chaney’s right-hand man, Scooter Libby. When that happened, Fitzgerald was shrilly attacked as an over-zealous and out-of-control prosecutor. (Shhhhhh. Listen ... Hear any of that talk now?)There’s a really interesting twist to this whole sordid business: What comes next? How is Illinois going to get a new U.S. senator? Legally, only Blagojevich can make the appointment. And who in their right mind would accept that appointment?Finally, take a look at the extensive allegations against Blagojevich. They are so egregious, so brazen, so just-plain-dumb that you have to wonder if this guy has both oars in the water. Let’s hope the prison psychiatrists can figure it all out … over the next 20 or 30 years.

Doing What He Promised Causing Obama Problems

I was watching one of the cable news shows earlier today and the subject was how some liberals are upset with Barack Obama because of the people he’s named to his new cabinet.Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State?

Retired Marine General James Jones as National Security Advisor?

And keeping Bush’s Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, for God’s sake??

Dammit, Barack, when are we going to see some fire-breathing lefties? We better start seeing some of the change you promised us!Have I got this right? These folks are ready to abandon ship because Obama is doing what he said he would do through the entire campaign – try to end divisive ideological politics and work for consensus?

Hey, if that isn’t a change, what the hell is??

They're Serious: Palin for President

In a CNN poll released today, 32 percent of Republican voters think Sarah Palin should be the party’s nominee for president in 2012.OK, seriously now … what the hell are you people thinking?Here’s what the candidate you prefer had to say about nuclear (not newk-yoo-lur) war:“Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period.”And here she is on the subject of Africa:“My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.”During the campaign, she extolled the virtues of John McCain, describing him as “… somebody very, very committed to policies that I believe will progress this country in the right direction.”Honest to God, if I have to listen to more of that semi-coherent babbling over the next four years, I will progress myself right into the loony bin, screaming all the way.As a Democrat, I should be rejoicing at the mere thought of Palin-for-President. But I can’t. I am dumbfounded that so many of my fellow citizens could seriously present this arrogant, ignorant, calculating, shallow, inarticulate, immature, incurious, uninformed, hypocritical and disingenuous person as the best your party has to offer our country..

Iraq: Getting In and Getting Out.

Revisionist history. Did you see the clips of the Bush interview when he declined to speculate if he still would have invaded Iraq had the intelligence reports said there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction there? Or the clip of Karl Rove saying Bush would not have invaded if only that pesky intelligence had been accurate?One small problem: While some intelligence said Iraq had WMDs, there was also plenty saying there weren't any there. But those reports were filtered out by Dick Chaney and George “Slam Dunk” Tenet, later the recipient of a Medal of Freedom. (He looks a bit embarassed, doesn't he?)And something to remember us by. A new agreement signed by both the U.S. and Iraqi governments, sets a deadline for getting our troops out of there … out of Iraqi cities and towns by the end of next June and out of the country completely by the end of 2011. I guess, by that time, the only thing left in Iraq will be the embassy we’re building which, last I heard, is going to cost us nearly a billion dollars. Oh, well ... easy come, easy go..

Today’s Employees Have No Idea …

Have you visited a typical office lately? Things are pretty informal, with employees dressing casually, and many working flexible hours or even from home. Smart employers not only pay well and provide lots of benefits, they also look for ways to make the work experience fun. If you don’t, you lose good employees. (We used to have afternoon pingpong tournaments on the conference room table.)One of my very first jobs right out of college was working for the Hartford Fire Insurance Company in Hartford, Connecticut.Companies like that had informal but rigid protocols that governed the careers of young men working for them. (I say “men” because, with very rare exceptions, careers open to women employees in those days were as stenographers and typists and secretaries. Period.)Sure, an ambitious guy had to work hard, but it was much more important to kiss up to your bosses and observe all the rules, many of which were unwritten.For instance, the higher you went on the corporate ladder, the more conservative you were expected to dress. Young male executives wore dark suits, white shirts, subdued ties (no bold patterns or bright colors), and black or dark brown shoes. Long hair or beards? Never!One guy I knew played by the rules in every way but one: He wore bright red socks to work almost every day. I finally asked him about it. “I’m waiting to see,” he said, “if anyone will actually be chicken shit enough to complain about the color of my socks.”No one ever did. But they fired him anyway.That was in 1962. That was also when I moved to Hawaii. And I haven’t owned a suit in almost 30 years..

Hawaii’s Governor: No Aloha and No Class.

Hawaii’s Republican Governor, Linda Lingle, campaigned across the mainland U.S. for the McCain-Palin team. OK … fine. Her Party. Her choice.Of course, she could have done that without saying that Barack Obama wasn’t really a native son of Hawaii and sneering that he never even bothered to call her when he visited here. (As if, indeed, there was the least little reason for him to do so.)But now the election is over and there is, at least for the time being, happy talk of non-partisan cooperation aimed at dealing with common problems.One problem common to many of our 50 states is budget shortfall. It’s certainly an issue here in Hawaii where, just to give one example, $24 million has been cut from the States Adult Mental Health Division.The nation’s governors are meeting in Philadelphia this coming week and our President-elect will be there to meet with the governors and talk about how the federal government might help states facing these financial difficulties.Well, not all the governors will be there. Our governor, Linda Lingle, says she has a scheduling conflict and won’t be able to be there for the meeting with Obama.Are you kidding me? Her administration is whacking millions out of critically needed social services, the new president is ready to meet with her … and she can’t fit that into her schedule?That’s petty, ridiculous and irresponsible. And it’s an embarassment to the entire state.

Lack of Health Insurance Impacts the Economy

I recently wrote how hospitals treaing patients with no health insurance are forced to pass along those costs to the rest of us, thus artificially (and, some would say, unfairly) driving up the cost of our health insurance.

On that same general subject, I came across an enlightening column in The New Yorker magazine which contained the following interesting and sobering paragraph:The accumulating failures in the country’s health-care system are a cause of profound weakness in the American economy; unaddressed, this weakness will exacerbate the coming recession and crimp its aftermath. A large number of the country’s housing foreclosures in recent years appear to be related to medical problems and health-care expenses. American businesses often can’t afford to hire as many employees as they like because of rising health-insurance costs; employees often can’t afford to quit to chase their better-mousetrap dreams because they can’t risk going without coverage. Add to this the system’s moral failings: about twenty-two thousand people die in this country annually because they lack health insurance. That is more than the number of Americans who are murdered in a year.Steve CollThe New YorkerNov. 10, 2008

Forty-seven million Americans without health insurance is a national disgrace. But it is also stupid because, clearly, the most expensive choice we can make on this issue is to do nothing..

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Another Good Reason Why We Liked Ike

As he was leaving office, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned us about the “military industrial complex.” Those guys are still around, but today’s version has an added player: the neo-conservatives.The latest ploy is a move to lock us in to a military budget that would be set by law at 4% of the Gross Domestic Product, which is the total value of all the goods and services this country produces. Obviously, the push behind this comes from the professionals in the Pentagon and the people who build weapons, aided and abetted by the far right.To require us to spend that money, year after year after year, regardless of circumstaces or other greater priorities, is just nuts.But you know what these people are calling this scam? “Four Percent for Freedom.”Get it? If you don’t think this scheme is a good idea, well, by golly, you’re against freedom!I guess that must mean Dwight Eisenhower was “anti-freedom”, too..

His Object All Sublime: Punishment Fits The Crime

I have a new hero. He’s Judge Paul Sacco from Fort Lupton, Colorado. Judge Sacco has come up with a perfect way to deal with the inconsiderate morons who go around playing terrible music at a volume that makes the fillings in your teeth vibrate.

He makes them sit in a room for an hour listening to Barry Manilow. I'm not kidding. You can look it up!

(Hizzoner looks a lot like Humphrey Bogart, don't you think?)

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Universal Health Care: The Most Expensive Option

What should be done about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance?These are people who work for companies that don’t provide it and/or they can’t afford it. Of particular concern: an educated guess would be that half of those 47 million are kids.Whether kids or adults, when these folks are sick or get hurt, the only real option is to show up at a hospital emergency room where they get the treatment they need. The problem is, the hospitals cover those costs by charging you and me more when we go to the hospital. Six months ago, my wife broke her wrist. Three hours in the emergency room cost more than $5,000. That included the cost of our care plus some of the cost incurred by the hospital for treating uninsured people. You think that’s not so? Ask any hospital administrator.It’s not fair, of course, but what’s the alternative? Somebody has to pay or the hospital will go broke. So to recoup the cost of treating patients without insurance, hospitals inflate charges to patients with insurance. Then, to cover those higher costs, the insurance companies inflate the premiums they charge to us … to you and to me. You think that’s not so? Ask any health insurance executive. The people who oppose universal health care whine about the cost and object to their taxes paying for some poor person’s health insurance. But the point is, they’re already paying!During the campaign, John McCain criticized Barack Obama’s health insurance plan as socialized medicine, saying it would “put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor.”You mean like Medicare?Let me say to all of you who aren’t old enough to participate in Medicare: When the time comes, you will be goddamn glad you have it. You will also find that it works beautifully … smoother and simpler and cheaper than whatever private health insurance plan you have now.Yes, cheaper. Administrative costs for Medicare are about 3 percent. Administrative costs for private health insurance plans run between 20 and 30 percent.So again: What should be done about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance?We can do something. It will work, but it will be expensive.Or we can do nothing. And that is the most expensive option of all.

Pardon Me. Oh, No … Pardon YOU!

In his final days in office, Bill Clintondisappointed a lot of people by giving pardons to a number of dubious characters, including Mark Rich who skipped the country after being nailed for evading taxes and tax fraud.With just under two months to go before George W. Bush becomes an ex-president, speculation is beginning to mount about who will (or will not) receive presidential pardons in the final days of W’s administration.Plenty of candidates have emerged over the past eight years, from Duke Cunningham to Jack Abramoff.But, if I were a betting man, I would wager the whole freakin’ farm that one name will be at the top of Bush's pardons list: Dick Chaney's former chief-of-staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Any takers?

Flip a Coin, Throw a Dart and Pick a Drug Plan.

Between now and the end of the year, I have to decide if I’m going to keep the prescription drug insurance plan I’ve been using or switch to another one. So I sat down yesterday to figure out which of the available choices would give me the best coverage for the lowest cost.I spent well over an hour at the computer plugging my medications and dosages into a program that promised to help me select the best plan for my needs.Guess what: There are no less than 65 plans available to me here on Maui and they all have different annual premiums that range from almost $400 to more than $1200.But with each of these plans, my out-of-pocket cost will be different for the medications I take. For example, the co-pay for a 30-day supply of one particular pill was $18 on one plan and $98 on another.Some plans cover all the drugs for the whole year; other plans stop coverage when you reach a certain level, then resume coverage after you hit another threshold.In all honesty, I could spend hours on all that and still not be sure of which is the best plan for me. And, of course, everything would change anyway if the plan I choose increases premiums or if I have to change medications or start on a new one. We have the lobbyists for the private insurance companies to thank for this.One more thing: We’re not permitted to legally buy prescription drugs from Canada where the cost is a lot less because – wink! wink! – they might not be safe … even though many of the drugs we get from our local pharmacy are manufactured overseas anyway. And we have the lobbyists for the pharmaceutical companies to thank for that!Folks, we are being screwed and it’s a damn outrage..

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This Could Explain Sarah Palin ... Among Others!

"… how has 'elitism' become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.Sam Harris

NEWSWEEK, 9/29/08

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