What a Wonderful World.

I just got finished watching Barack Obama talk to the men and women in Fort Myers, FL and like yesterday's town hall there were no dissenting voices (of merit) in the crowd.  There was a single dissenter in yesterday's crowd, but the exchange was so charming on the part of both parties it simply doesn't qualify as negative.  It has been talked about endlessly, so I won't bother repeating it here.

But as I listened to the same old rhetoric in Fort Myer something magical happened.  In the question and answer sessions a woman got a hold of the microphone and in a delicate voice pleaded for help.  She and her family seemed to be living in dire poverty, and here she was begging the President to help her family.

I will not lie to you, the obvious pain and suffering in the woman's voice was too much for me to bear.  I turned the volume down as this sort of pain is too much for me.  The President of the United States set down his microphone, walked off the stage to Henrietta Hughes and kissed her on the cheek while she tried to control her emotions.  He said he would have his staff talk to her after to see if there was anything they could do to help.

Here it was finally, having been hidden in the hateful rhetoric of the Right for far too long, here was that HOPE we voted for.

It was a stunning moment of simple human kindness.

Update:  Here is a link so you can watch this moment yourself.

 

Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World

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Take a Bow (Part 2)

Okay, yesterday was fun but now I need to roll up my sleeves and do a little swinging for sanity with regards to this Stimulus Bill.

In case you have been hiding under a rock, the economy is shedding jobs faster than hair jumping from the top of my head.  The current economic indicators assure us of double digit unemployment with projections reaching near Depression era levels.  For those of you unfamiliar with those numbers: 1 in 5 and quite possibly 1 in 4 will not have a job by the end of 2010.  The foremost experts on the Depression era economics are now sitting at the top of the Treasury food chain (this is so bad that tax cheating scum get a free pass based on skill set versus current problem).

President Obama is attacking the crisis in what I would like to call a four pronged attack:

1)  The first prong of our economic offensive was and is the stabilization of the banking industry.  The US government injected nearly $400B dollars into the banking industry to prevent the wholesale collapse of major banks.  While many can certainly argue about the socialistic, communistic and fascist elements of this move by our government; and others could decry the mismanagement of the effort - bottom line folks, it has worked.  The banks are still failing but at a rate far more manageable than before.  Please note, this does not solve the underlying problems, but rather gives us some breathing room to work on how best to resolved these more significant and little understood issues.

2)  The second prong of the economic offensive is aimed squarely at the American people.  The so called "Stimulus Bill" is designed specifically at getting the American people back to work.  With over three million jobs lost in the last eighteen months, President Obama and Congress are working to insure that people can get back up and provide for themselves and their family.  Again this trillion dollar injection of capital will not resolve any problem at all, but like a jump in a car where the battery has gone dead, it will keep the car moving toward help.

3)  The third prong of the economic offensive is aimed squarely at the underlying economic problems.  The particulars of this plan are scheduled to be released later this week, so my apologies for not being educated on those elements yet.  However, speculating it is my belief that the Treasury is going to buy up all of the toxic assets from banks (or a goodly portion of them).  This will allow banks to regain their positive cash flow and hopefully domestic markets will recover rapidly.

4)  The fourth prong of the economic offensive is the logical conclusion of this mess: regulations, litigation, and a few people sent to jail.  I am not going to discuss this too much, as it would all be speculative at this juncture.

There you go, the economic war succinctly summed up for you in hopes that you can push that I believe button and start helping us out of this problem.

 

To the dear old Republicans and Democrats who are trying desperately to stall, obfuscate, and otherwise negotiate the economic war efforts into ineffectual puff because you think it will put your party back in power in 2010, you are going to hell.  In the event that you have no idea what I am talking about, read this and feel disgusted.  We have a great many people suffering, we are going to have a heck of a lot more, and efforts by you for the purposes of political gain at the expense of American families is odious at best.  It will not take long for people to wake up from their slumber, start equating your politicking with "well, just let them eat cake" comments, and trust me, it doesn't end well.

To those Republicans and Democrats who are working together to try and provide the best solution - you may not feel it now, but you are doing the right thing.  Hang in there, and know that we are counting on you to do the right thing.

 

Finally, Rush, I am just a minor player in the blogging world, but please hear my plea: please cut out the self indulgence, plays for power, and help the American people.  Find that good person that we know is there, and let him have that microphone just for a day.  For just one moment, look past the politics and see the suffering.

Peace.

Take a Bow by Madonna

Madonna - Take a Bow - Video

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Take a Bow (Part 1)

Well I have delayed that little talk we were going to have over the Stimulus Bill long enough, and it is time to take a stand one way or the other.  But before we begin, I would like to use a pretty simple analogy to explain my perspective on this mess in hopes that while we may disagree, you will perhaps understand the rationale behind my thought processes:

An Analogy.

My car is dead on the side of the road again, and I am on my way to the auto shop to decide which of the myriad of solutions out there would be best to fix this problem.  Now it should be mentioned that my car has been in the process of failing for over eight years, and twice before the manager of the auto service store gave me some money and told me it was mental and to stfu.

This time the atmosphere in the shop is different, and definitely a lot more panicky.  Having purchased a rental car (abused by previous tenets), I get these sorts of looks all of the time, but having the minister give my car last rites was a first.  After a quick huddle, I am presented a two estimates.

The first estimate wants to give me a discount on my repair bill.  I ask how that will actually fix my car, and they say that the savings will allow me to buy other things (like food I suppose).  They assure me, that giving people back money on their bills will allow them to create jobs and that this success will trickle down to my car - and presto, it will work better than before!  Having heard this before, I skeptically ask if that would give me a good job in the next few days.  They now refer to me as comrade Beagle (not really, but with a dog type as a last name - well you get used to the usual change when I piss people off), and insist that the auto shop can't fix everything for me!

Why in this story do I have the knuckle draggers from the last mechanic still working on my car?  I dunno, its a weak story, but if I was any damn good I wouldn't be typing this drivel.

Anyhow, the new manager comes over and starts talking to me about the car.  He knows I am a little low on cash so he offers to give me a helping hand.  What I really need is a new car he says, but we both agree that this isn't possible.  After consulting with all of the mechanics and asking them to identify those items that would help my situation immediately, he presents me with a pretty hefty estimate.  I point to the first group of mechanics and ask if they were part of the process too?  He says yes, but warns me that they are terribly unhappy that we didn't just use their ideas.  I lean over and confide that they call me comrade Beagle.  He leans over and says they call him the anti-Christ. 

While we are discussing the estimate, we are constantly interrupted by the tantrums of these old mechanics.  There is one particularly fat one in the corner popping pills making a huge ruckus.  I am surprised to hear that he doesn't actually work in the shop, since the old mechanics go to him often and kiss his butt.  At this point, other than the random tantrum, this set of mechanics have stopped working on my car altogether.  Odd, but since they called me comrade, it just seems to all fit nicely in a freakishly "Nightmare on Elm Street" sort of way.

Gasp, I notice that the hippy from California wants to put a condom around my car?  The manager is livid, apologizes profusely and gets it removed immediately.  This of course causes the old mechanics to start up their tantrums again, but we manage to go though the estimate line by line.  After seven hundred pages, I ask him if all this will actually fix my car?  He shakes his head and apologizes that despite all this effort, this will only work temporarily.  Sigh.

More tomorrow!

Take A Bow (by Rihanna)

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