Monday, December 22, 2008

Sarah Palin Queen Wingnut


Our right wing adversaries have been working hard to resurrect the Republican brand and have anointed a new "Conservative of the Year.
And who better to bestow such a dubious honor than Ann "kill them all" Coulter, who has a few words to say toward bucking up the troops for the big comeback.


The entire presidential election year was kind of a downer for conservatives. Once the “maverick” John McCain won the nomination, the rest of the year was like watching a slow motion car crash. Except at least a slow-motion car crash is occasionally entertaining. So it was going to be a long yea


If Sarah Palin was the highlight of the this years Presidential election, then democrats can breath a sigh of relief that the GOP will remain a minority for some time to come.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Greed, What Is It Good For?

Yes, I have flippantly used the word greed to describe what the basic problem is, even though it doesn’t accurately describe my thoughts on the matter. It’s a single word and connotates a negative, but I also don’t think greed is bad in the context of what business entities should be about.

My own reflections on the current state of affairs has more to do with a kind intellectual and moral laziness brought about by prolonged periods of prosperity, such as we’ve seen since WW2. It was the trauma of the Great Depression that brought about the reforms of how free enterprise should be carried out and is what brought about a large and productive middle class, pretty much unfettered since. It is the illusion that total freedom is the way to go in economic matters and has been championed by the so called Free Trader mentality mostly of Republican Conservative ideology. But I think it was Nietzsche who said something like Total Freedom is the Ultimate Prison. We are learning today of that truth. Nothing like the prospect of an empty pot to focus the mind, and many more people in American are truly afraid their pot may go empty. This is a good thing, as any country, even one as successful as ours, is put in jeopardy when it’s citizens are complacent and take success for granted as permanent.

It is the people who vote for their leaders, who watch the Chicken Coop to keep away the wolves who are most responsible for our current plight, IMHO. And the old maxim of No Pain No Gain will once again prove to be ,hopefully, our friend in the end.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Auto Maker Mess


I believe we have a chance right now, if it’s not too late, for providing Ford and Chrysler a bridge loan, with a reform structure where they can save themselves. Just throwing TARP money at them, might get the job done, until they can reform themselves, but that is questionable. As for GM, there are signs that they are far more in dire straits from the amount of money they have requested, at least 15 billion I think at one point, and their draconian plan to stop most production for a period of time. And I agree that they cannot be allowed to just fold up and disappear. The small bridge loan to tide them over seems to me not nearly enough to see them through this, even for a short period of time. They are so large and their tentacles reach so far into about every nook and corner of our economy, to let them go under is not an option, imo.

My prediction is at some point the federal gov is going to have to nationalize at least GM for some period of time to prevent them from vanishing. And Cole is right, you can’t screw the retirees out of pensions without it being a national crime. I know the taxpayers made no promises, like it has with the military thru our elected reps to fulfill the constitutional duty of raising and supporting armies, but putting old folks in the poor house is not an option, unless we truly want to return to the 1890’s. Though wingnuts would be tickled pink with that prospect.

We are currently going thru the motions of reviving a dying lifestyle of unlimited prosperity, until we realize that for national survival, we are going to have to make changes at least temporarily to a large degree in the socialist model. Unfettered capitalism is best imo, but without the unfettered part that has brought us to this point. Maybe we will get back to the rational version at some point, but not for some time.

Sunday, December 7, 2008