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 11 Oct 2008 @ 12:43, by jazzolog. Politics
While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States---that is, prosperity.
---President Herbert Hoover - May 1, 1930
Losing a job is painful, and I know Americans are concerned about our economy; so am I. It's clear our economy has slowed, but the good news is, we anticipated this and took decisive action to bolster the economy, by passing a growth package that will put money into the hands of American workers and businesses.
---President George W. Bush - March 7, 2008
on news that the economy lost 63,000 payroll jobs in February.
The singular feature of the great crash of '29 was that the worst continued to worsen.
---John Kenneth Galbraith.
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D), Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio), Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) during a campaign rally at the Ross County Courthouse on Oct. 10, 2008 in Chillicothe, Ohio.
(Mark Lyons/Getty Images)
Barack Obama campaigned in Ohio before this week, but his emphasis consistently had been upon the cities in the northern part of the state. Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown. He had touched Columbus, in Central Ohio, and even swooped down for an invitation-only appearance at Hocking College in Nelsonville before the primary. I didn't get an invitation or even hear about the visit, as there was a huge push to get-out-the-vote that day at Obama headquarters in our town. I resented that his visit wasn't open to all and, even more, that he didn't make a surprise stop down here to cheer on the thousands of OU and Athens City students who were knocking door-to-door. It's a 10 minute drive, and would have made up a bit for ignoring Southeast Ohio.
I'm not stung because it's an ego thing. Southern Ohio is very different from Northern. Southwestern Ohio is dominated by Cincinnati but Athens, despite Ohio University's presence here, is too small a city to dominate anything. As my conservative friend at work reminds me constantly, Athens is a little blue island in an ocean of red. A couple hours drive 2 weeks ago along Route 50 from Athens west to Chillicothe took me past yard after yard, farm after farm, loaded with McCain-Palin signs, flags and spangles flapping everywhere. As Governor Strickland said in Athens last month, if Kerry and Gore lost Ohio it's because of politics right here.
It's true Michelle Obama appeared at OU during primary season, and I'll bet you it was one of the highlights of her campaigning. But that's not the same as the candidate himself showing an interest in the "West Virginia part of Ohio," and maybe providing a convenient opportunity for some Republicans to check him out. His 2-day tour of Southern Ohio featured spectacular appearances in Dayton, Cincinnati, and Portsmouth on Thursday, and Chillicothe and Columbus yesterday. It's a straight shot northeast from Portsmouth to Chillicothe to Columbus---and it cut us out completely...unless we wanted to take the time off yesterday for the workday-scheduled speeches, or stagger through Friday after arriving home past midnight from 2 hours of travel, which we did (if you drive the speed limit, which we didn't). More >
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25 Sep 2008 @ 17:25, by namakando. Politics
THE ECONOMIC MELT DOWN – DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S CATCH – 22
Yet again an event presents us with an opportunity to mishandle issues. My blood pressure would rather I did not remember how during the Georgian genocide in South Ossertia, Senator Obama was caught on camera vacationing in Hawaii licking on ice cream, while a potentially globally dangerous situation unfolded in the Caucases. In like manner, it would cost us way too much in popularity ratings at this crucial phase of the campaigns if amid the unprecedented economic melt down and the subsequent congressional debate on the $700Bn Bail out plan being tabled, Senator Obama is say, caught again on CCTV rehearsing his presidential debate speech in the shower!
It would benefit the Democrats greatly if they made it clear in the voter’s minds that their campaign choice ultimately is not between Senator McCain and Senator Obama as individuals but it had been scaled up to a toss up between the Republican Party policies (for which all the successes and failures of the current administration should be credited) and those of the Democrats. This then means we should, without let up, attribute the shocking ‘Domino effect’ in the financial institutions’ failure to the Republicans as a party. This is because to a great extent they are responsible for the formulation of these catastrophic economic policies, which have led to the current recession, which is what it is really as semantic gymnastics will not take us anywhere. It would be a waste of resources to even mention G.W. Bush in all this, as he has become very irrelevant in national and world politics.
The Democratic Party is truly caught between the Scylla and Charybdis, indeed a Catch – 22 of sorts! Truth be told, as far as the future goes, the whole mess should be heaped on McCain and the party policies he represents. It would therefore seem like a very obvious choice come November 2008 for Americans to choose between Democrats or Republicans that is, more of the same or something different. It is this case that has to be made to the electorate in no uncertain terms. We however, have to trade carefully and guard against blurting out some not so Kosher game-changing, not well thought through politically incorrect and socially sensitive similes like that of smearing cosmetics on facial appendages of an omnivorous Sus domesticus! The time is critical we should avoid blunders at this stage if we can help it, as resultant damage control will just sap our energy and blur our focus and momentum.
It is my sincere hope that some time in future Senator Obama will embrace the concept of bi-partisanship because whether correctly or wrongly the Republicans seem to have painted him as one opposed or not so keen on drawing from experience that may exist beyond the party divide. Senator McCain literally sings about how the surge he suggested had worked in Iraq and how that should make him president because he reads military strategy better. I always wanted Senator Obama to swallow his pride and just admit that yes it did work so as to put the whole matter to rest. It is only later that I have realized what a moral struggle it must be for Senator Obama to do this as it would mean accepting the surge which led to the death of innocent Iraqi civilians and freedom fighters defending the sovereignty of their country against occupying forces in an immoral and evil war that should not have been waged to begin with.
The McCain camp in a very calculated ploy have called off their campaign to supposedly address the economic crisis in a bi-partisan fashion and calling on democrats to do likewise. Except I may not exactly yet appreciate just in what capacity Senator McCain intends to do this. Is he for instance going to be actively giving valuable suggestions on possible ground breaking ideas on how to sort out the economic mess? For which I would recommend he be immediately nominated for the Nobel Prize for Economics (Which would make Adam Smith envious)! Or is he merely going to be a detached bystander waiting on the experts to do the brain-storming? Senator McCain by his own admission does not understand economics much. Therefore his action should be seen for what it is, a desperate political gimmick, which only the severely gullible would buy into. We should exercise caution here for what ever we do, or however we respond, it would be met with more critical scrutiny than McCain’s possible motives of spreading the blame and responsibility nationally across party lines in the name of misplaced Patriotism, ‘ A virtue for the vicious’. Thus effectively making every American collectively responsible and hence compelled to engage in its resolution. The truth however is that people were elected into public offices as political leaders and appointed CEOs of corporations. They were entrusted with the task of making sound decisions and formulating policies to safeguard the interests of the citizenry. In the event that they fail the nation like they have, something would have to give, heads need to roll .A hasty bailout plan as an elixir may not be an economically prudent thing to do as time will tell. We should make NO mistake though, this situation is a very serious national security issue NOT naively just economic. FACT: Senator McCain should be seem as representing a party on whose watch the disastrous economic policies, foreign policy blunders, American reputation abroad have taken the deepest ebb in living memory.
This economic recession is surely with us now, even when McCain and Republicans in general kept on insisting, like they did during the pre-Iraq War intelligence Gathering Phase, that the economic fundamentals are strong and sound, then boom this happens! The Republicans sure do seem to have a very dangerous knack for misunderstanding and misrepresenting issues by spin-doctoring facts to suit and further their ends even if it meant forcing a square peg into a round hole that is another Republican Party administration.
However, by Senator Obama insisting on engaging Senator McCain in a nationally televised presidential debate at this moment of crisis, the senator runs a real risk of being seen as one unwilling to reach out across the party divide in times of crisis. He will be caricatured as a desperate, heartless pugilist who goes for the jugular when the opponent is sprawling on the canvas, gasping for air and aims to strike him behind the head! Senator Obama should realize and I hope he does that his mistakes during the campaigns and through out his possible presidency, will in the eyes of the American people be magnified by a factor of X 10 compared to Senator McCain’s misjudgments. The reason?
“ The children of Africa are citizens of various nations in all the continents. We would remind them where ever they be that, arduous toil, strenuous devotion and untiring zeal in their glorious Cause is expected of them.” – His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I
We live in a world where some people need to work doubly as hard as others in order to be appreciated equally. Their wrongs and shortcomings are more serious than those of others. Oops! Is this a race card? Not that it would bother me! By also agreeing to momentarily disengaging on the campaign trail, he would be seen as lacking insight, very weak, easily bowing to pressure, already being dictated to by a McCain acting presidential and issuing orders. Senator Obama would be seen as desperately needing to win at all costs even if national survival was at stake. He would be seen as hell bent on an academic exercise of the debate when more serious issues needed attention first thus branded less patriotic.
The other school of thought holds that it is exactly at this point that the voters should see who is stronger on the management of the economy in a one on one debate. I seem to remember people saying Senator Obama is not combative enough and does not seem to have a killer instinct. What ever the Democratic Party decides on doing they should realize that theirs is not an enviable position as they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Namakando Nalikando Sinyama
Barotseland,
Central Africa,
namakando_sinyama@yahoo.co.uk
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 31 Aug 2008 @ 12:48, by jazzolog. Politics
Scripture says, "No one knows the Father but by the Son." Therefore, if you want to know God, you must not only be like the Son, you must be the Son.
---Meister Eckhart
Zen is like a spring coming out of a mountain. It doesn't flow in order to quench the thirst of a traveler, but if the travelers want to help themselves to it, that's fine. It's up to you what you do with the water; the spring's job is just to flow.
---Alan Watts
To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.
---Akhenaton
Sarah Palin sports a funny T-shirt during her college days at University of Idaho.
Credits: Heath Family/AP
Yep, I can hear Sinatra singing that tune, Nelson Riddle and his fiddles kickin' the arrangement along. "You make me feel 'sthough Spring has sprung!" We'll be voting with youth and age side by side. Young and tempestuous, old and experienced. Mixed races, mixed religions, the roles of women, Viet Nam, mooseburgers, what else could we want?
They say if you want to stay young, get yourself a younger mate. The younger the better. I know McCain still is the presumptive nominee at this writing, and therefore Palin is too---so the Convention still could change everything. Maybe they'll save money, surprise us again, and not even have a convention. Call it off and send contributions to New Orleans. It's all TV and they want us to stay tuned.
But anyway, if it is McCain/Palin, does McCain look younger to you now with runnerup Miss Alaska by his side? I think he does. How does Obama look next to Biden? If there's another Bush/Cheney situation it's these 2 guys. Joe can't help himself. He always looks as if he's showing Barack around. I even saw him, their arms around each other side by side, turn Obama in the direction of the most cameras. We live in such interesting times.
The press descended on Wasilla, Alaska Friday, and headed for the Heath's A-frame hunting lodge where they got handed the family album. As a result, we get all these candid shots of the small-town girl on the way to marrying her high school sweetheart. Even the Senior Prom picture. Sarah's husband, who works for BP (surprise, surprise!), has parents who know McCain's VP choice pretty darned well. "We don't agree on everything. But I respect her passion," said Faye Palin. "Being pro-life is who Sarah is." [link] (and don't miss the pictures) The Governor also sued Bush when he declared the polar bear endangered. Oil drillers prefer to shoot bears if they come around. Palin's mother-in-law had been thinking of voting for Obama. Maybe not everybody in Alaska is a Republican.
There's so much stuff in the Sunday papers this morning, it's hard to know where to start---or maybe you've decided not to bother at all. There certainly is a great list of assembled reasons as to the advantages and risks of the Republican choice. I can direct your attention to a couple of articles if you like. One is in this morning's Long Island Newsday...and the other is Maureen Dowd's hilarious piece today. More >
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5 Aug 2008 @ 20:08, by vaxen. Politics
With all the hype and hyperbola surrounding the so called 'election' of the next Fed Res, Narco Profits, lackey (The US President) I thought it moot to introduce, yet again, a few salient points for those of you who don't swallow the swill of it all that you may further be emboldened to free yourself from the Oligarcho-Fascist State called America, by some, the United States Corporation, by others, and the Legislative Democracy of Washington D.C. by a few of us. Ultimately a charade and an instrument, used for bludgeoning all who resist, of the fiends calling themselves the 'global elite.' I have no hope that the 'people' per se will ever wake up to what is really going on but...maybe a few will and in time a few more till one day...who knows? In the meanwhile just walk away. Stop voting. Know your rights under commercial, international, law. I.e. "Know who YOU are!" Enjoy... More >
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 24 Mar 2008 @ 20:50, by quinty. Politics
For Hillary Clinton to step aside? To “suspend” her candidacy?
A political analyst parsing the race the other night on TV claimed Hillary would have to acquire at least 64% of all the remaining delegate vote to top Obama. That numerically she can not win the primary race without a miracle. More >
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 29 Feb 2008 @ 06:49, by jazzolog. Politics
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
---Walt Whitman
I neglect God and his angels for the noise of a fly,
for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.
---John Donne
And if the earth no longer knows your name,
Whisper to the silent earth: I'm flowing.
To the flashing water say: I am.
---Rainer Maria Rilke
This photo of the Obama family clearly is a couple years old at least, but only over the March 1st weekend are we getting more recent pictures. "The Phenom" has become a tidal wave. The children are Sasha, in Mom's lap, and Malia on the right.
This peculiar title doesn't mean I advocate for Michelle Obama in place of Barack. It just means Mrs. Obama came to our town yesterday afternoon and took the place by storm. It means if we can vote Barack Obama into the Presidency, we get a package that includes a lovely family and this remarkable woman for First Lady. I hadn't studied the matter, knew nothing about her except those couple of media things, and was unprepared totally for one of the greatest addresses of any kind I've ever heard.
I was pretty much resigned to Athens, Ohio, being the place the candidate spouses come to visit. Hillary Clinton was here stumping for her husband back in the day, and now the former president showed up earlier in the week to give an energetic speech for her. I'd wanted to see Barack Obama before our primary next week, but I learned all we would get was a look at his wife. Oh well, my daughter and I went to stand in line.
The Templeton-Blackburn Auditorium---or Mem Aud, as it used to be called---holds a couple thousand people, so I thought if we got there an hour early we might at least get inside out of the cold. No tickets required, a quick frisk, and we soon were in the 12th row. The place has a magnificent sound system and mostly soul tunes from the '60s were banging away. Well you can't beat that stuff, and so pretty soon everybody was groovin'. Smiles began to appear, and as I looked around I realized I hadn't been in an audience of such racial, age, and gender mix maybe ever.
On stage was a bunch of people, but no obvious dignitaries or union T-shirts. My daughter said she heard folks were chosen at random to go up there. The active volunteers were being afforded the front rows as usual. The auditorium filled up completely from what I could see, and I suppose I'll read reports as to whether any were turned away or a sound system set up outside. A barrage of TV cameras, reporters, anchors and photographers was in the usual cluster.
We waited---but the hits kept on coming, so who cares? The spirit of hope and expectation was in the air. People looked happy but serious. We're not gonna get fooled again! The black woman next to me kept checking her watch. I heard her say she had kids that needed to be picked up. As it got to be 5 minutes past the hour, she said out loud, "They oughta have SOMEbody come out." I didn't want my first words to her to be discouraging, having waited hours at things like this, so I asked, "Do you know where she's coming from?" She didn't. But 5 minutes after that, out came the first of 2 introductory speakers...and we were off! More >
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 24 Feb 2008 @ 13:25, by jazzolog. Politics
We must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
---Indira Gandhi
If we knew that tonight we were going to go blind, we would take a longing, LAST real look at every blade of grass, every cloud formation, every speck of dust, every rainbow, raindrop---everything.
---Pema Chodron
An adult is one who has lost the grace, the freshness, the innocence of the child, who is no longer capable of feeling pure joy, who makes everything complicated, who spreads suffering everywhere, who is afraid of being happy, and who, because it is easier to bear, has gone back to sleep. The wise man is a happy child.
---Arnaud Desjardins
The photo of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, taken by Melanie Burford for the Dallas Morning News, held my attention this morning from the instant I saw it. I think it's a great American face there, worthy of Mt. Rushmore. I'm not kidding, and I'm not saying it's a stone cold face. I mean that's a presidential face we're looking at. There's no doubt in my mind this candidate could handle the job. Except...except...
What is wrong with that picture? This is a portrait of a person in conflict. Cover the left side of her face as you're looking at her. In the half you see there's even a flicker of a smile, an openness, a quality of friendliness that I know she has. Now cover the other half. Woe, there is a person you wouldn't want to cross. Something unforgiving there in someone who's been banged around a lot.
I attempt this crude and rather adolescent psychology on Hillary Rodham Clinton because a certain unpredictability has permeated her campaign as well. If you watched her in debate with Barack Obama Thursday night, you saw it too. I didn't know what she was going to do next. She seems genuinely to like the man when she's standing right in front of him, looking him in the face. But then she'll go back to the it-should-be-in-your-own-words thing, and draw a shudder of disappointment from Obama, and boos from the crowd. Who is this person?
Maureen Dowd goes after it this morning, and while I do some shuddering myself at the masculine/feminine behavior characteristics in the column, I think she's on to something. She thinks Clinton is calculating her different approaches to impress various voting groups. She wants to be tough and macho for some, and sensitive and understanding for others. I think I have to differ with Ms. Dowd on this, though I'm really glad she noticed the stuff and decided to write about it. I'm not sure Senator Clinton is in control of how she's coming off. I think she's reeling from blows received in the ring.
Bill Clinton will be in Athens tomorrow, and I'm afraid the announcement came too late for me to clear my calendar. I do hope to get to it before it's all over, trusting he'll be an hour late like most of these guys. Former President Clinton is the first, and I hope not the last, of the big names to get to this important corner of the state. As the rest of the Ohio continually reminds us, we're rather different here. Some people even refer to Southeast Ohio as the West Virginia part of the state. There's some truth to that, going all the way back to glacial times. But let's not get into climate change.
Or maybe we should. When ARE these candidates going to mention it? And did you see McCain's record of environment votes? [link] Check out the fascinating final part of that blog entry to see how the new legislators, who replaced NINE of the 12 so-called "dirty dozen" in the last election, are doing.
Here's the link to Maureen Dowd's column this morning. [link] Let me say in another criticism of it (and I'm grateful to my online acquaintance Elle for reminding me of this), while Shirley Chisholm's presidential run in 1972 may not have been taken seriously she definitely was a serious candidate. I supported her too, just as far as she could go. [link] More >
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 19 Feb 2008 @ 21:28, by weneedadream. Politics
Senator XXXXX,
Are you willing to take a leap of courage, faith, and vision?
Are you willing to challenge Americans to reach higher?
Are you willing to lead America to a higher purpose?
If so...
a few ideas:
1)Mission/Vision/Values for America
If co-created by "We The People", this could inspire, unite, and empower ALL Americans like never before.
2) WeNeedaDream.org
Offers many ideas to unite and inspire enemies on a shared vision, a higher purpose, a new American Dream... towards Heaven on Earth.
3) Nonviolent Communication
I've seen this process transmute "impossible" conflicts into win-win harmony.
4)America's Higher Purpose
Few Americans are aware of the higher (and spiritual) purpose behind the founding of this nation. You could champion a return to this purpose. More info in the attached paper.
5) Soul of America
A deeper perspective of who we are
6) Partnership Way
Possibilities for shifting our exhausted dominator paradigm to an energized partnership paradigm
7) Conscious Evolution
A higher perspective of what's happening
Yes, we can...
Carl Landsness
Madison, WI
"And so, my fellow Americans:
ask not what your country can do for you,
ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world:
ask not what America will do for you,
but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
JFK More >
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 18 Feb 2008 @ 10:26, by jazzolog. Politics
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
---Rumi
Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.
---Izumi Shikibu
Ultimately, let’s hope that the nation turns back to the task it abandoned — that of ending the poverty that still poisons so many American lives.
---Paul Krugman, in his column this morning, entitled Poverty Is Poison
[link]
It's so easy to not want the Clintons back in the White House. It's like that temptation to get with your old girl friend again from a few years back. It should have worked out, it could have worked out...but... There was all that nastiness, and stuff going on behind your back. The trust factor. Has she changed? Did she really do anything wrong? Yeah, ultimately everything got ruined. My whole life got ruined! Eight long years of hell while I tried to get over it. Now...do I want to risk going back to that?
We're a forgiving people. But worse, we're a forgetting people! We don't seem to learn from history. And we've become even more loud, pushy and obnoxious than we were accused of when we were only tourists. Now we insist of owning and controlling everything---and we dare to call that condition for others democracy and freedom. We only are interested in getting our own little piece of the pie...and then, shotgun in hand, bragging that America means no one can tell me what to do. The Clintons again? Isn't there another woman somewhere to run for this office?
And so we find ourselves turning around to see what Barack Obama is about. People ask and write What are his programs? Is this happening to you too? I've been replying that I'll wait to see if he wins the nomination and then get after the details. But how many presidents actually do what they say in their campaigns anyway? So what difference does it make? Well, we're having this primary in Ohio in a couple weeks. I've got to vote for one of them. Both families are running all over the state at the moment...but nobody's come down here yet. Bill Clinton was in Marietta last night, but we couldn't get up the stomach to go see him. They've got to get to Athens sooner or later.
And so it's with this kind of anticipation and disenchantment that I came upon a new website for me. It's called the Black Agenda Report, and it looks as if I'll be visiting there everyday from now on. The insolent montage illustrating this introduction comes from there. At the moment it's a place to go where people have had some history with Mr. Obama. The managing editor of the site, Bruce Dixon, has other issues to discuss, but right now he wants to share some concerns he has about this candidate. It think we may be hearing a lot about this site in coming days...and about these concerns. Here's Bruce Dixon last Thursday~~~ More >
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 4 Feb 2008 @ 19:45, by quinty. Politics
Has anyone seen John McCain on TV recently? He becomes violently passionate when he discusses "Islamo fascism," claiming the US under his presidency will never accept "defeat." He even beat his chest in one performance. As the piece below describes he still even thinks we should have 'won" the Vietnam War.
This is a scary guy. One whose finger on the button would make me very nervous since it appears he may actually use it. We live in a time of much fear and paranoia. McCain, I think, will only heat things up.
Yes, old mild mannered John McCain becomes quite violently passionate over the existential threat the Muslim hordes present us. And appears to genuinely believe "if we don't fight them there we'll have to fight them here." More >
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