Cheney's Wishes

Cheney had been infuriated by Panetta's comments about how Cheney "needs" to have the U.S, attacked. No way any of us can tell who is right about this right now, but it sure would make Cheney look like a fool if we were never attacked again given the manner in which he keeps telling us that "his" way is the ONLY way to avoid such an attack. Meanwhile, if we were attacked, he would look like a real old-time patriot, and super smart guy who knows the only way to safety.

Of course, if we follow Cheney's instructions, we are only doing what George Bush did for eight years, thus things can only continue to get worse, never better. That is to ignore the lessons of history - especially those taught in the past eight years. That also would continue to cast a pall of secrecy over "what really took place" back then and there. Eventually, all that will surface and the sooner that happens the more likely that Cheney, Bush et. al. might actually be punished - at least, publicly shamed. Another attack though, would postpone those revelations for many more years. So you figure it out yourself, what does Cheney REALLY need?

I am not a fan of Cheney. I have only one good thing to say about him. This is it: Cheney was SO bad than not even a terrorist or a crazy fool, or even a misguided religious zealot would kill George Bush, which would result in making Bush a "great" president and redeeming his errors, and also promote Cheney to the presidency. For that I will always be grateful to Dick Cheney.

Lone Nuts? Not By a Long Shot

We have seen a physician gunned down for providing medical services to women, and now a killing in a Holocaust Memorial. The doctor was killed by someone who had been a frequent "visitor" to his clinic. The Holocaust shootings were done by a man who had tried to abduct an entire board of directors at gunpoint in the past.

Both of these men have been called "lone nuts", but both had a wide group of people who supported them and their intention to take the law into their own hands. They were not only supported by these groups but honored and exalted because of their "commitment" and their daring. Who know how great a role that support played in the subsequent and inevitable killings? What if their followers had urged restraint - and encouraged them to seek a different path? What if the strident public voices such as Limbaugh, Savage, Beck, and many others had backed off, and sought to find another way to deal with the problems?

After all, both the killers and their supporters are victims too. They are victims of their own ignorance and inability to understand the world as it really exists. Both groups are empowered by the religious concept that they know the ultimate truth to begin with, and all facts must be therefore be tailored to fit their own reality. To people like this, abortion is always evil, the holocaust never happened. Sure, they seem foolish when exposed to the facts of life. But they are not exposed, they are sheltered from true reality, and encouraged to act as if they are called by some god to kill the evil-doers of the world and scare others to "come around" and worship those same gods.

No, these people are not "lone nuts" who are acting on their own, they are members of viralent terrorist groups that are bent on bending the rest of us to their will through use of force.

Obama's Trip to Middle East and Europe

An important step. We're still defining Obama. He is still defining himself. Obama travels in a straight line, but always from side to side. He says something, then defines it as being a little different from what he said before. Later, when he clarifies that discrepancy, you will find something else has been left there - or maybe it is missing. He is either very, very, very good or very, very, very bad. Either way it will be amazing. Time will tell on him. Right now - I'm hoping.

ONE COMMENT - The most important job of the president is NOT the defense of America - that's important yes, but there is one thing even more important than that - and that is to protect the Constitution of the United States. And that sometimes gets lost in the rumble.

Fixing Republicans?

The Republican Party has problems.
A lot of them.
One is there is no leadership.
George W is in remission
Cheney is the mumbling bumbling Prince of Darkness, Lord of Torture, a certified human repellent.
Powell is the official Republican Jack O’Lantern who falsely and devastatingly testified in the UN about the soap powder he held in canisters, thus condemning thousands of innocent persons to death
Limbaugh is the obvious spokesperson for the party, and he says Republicans have to get nasty now, and those who won’t have to leave the party.
Rush now says they have to attack Democrats instead of Republicans
Steele says the “honeymoon” is over, now they will tear the Democrats up.
Rove, snapping like a Parana at democrats, is blossoming very turdly toward republicans.

So there is a problem in trying to find out what is wrong with the Republican Party and how to fix it.

But it’s worse than that. America is in terrible shape. Our nation is sick, our education system is disintegrating. Our criminal-”justice” system has more prisoners than any other country in the world. Our industrial system has basically quit producing - anything. Our medical care system has almost 20% of all Americans with no care at all, many others with poor care, while it is the most financially complicated system of any kind anywhere, and the costliest medical system in the world. Our highway system is crumbling and we have virtually no train or subway systems outside of the largest cities, We are fighting two wars, the only “advanced” civilization in the world fighting any wars at all. And there is even more.

And - oh yes - there is the Republican Party, too. Notice though, that it is trying to figure out how to get elected again, how to “fix” the Republican Party, and NOTHING about how to fix America.

Maybe if they could figure out what America needs, they could begin to get the attention of more Americans. But they never will as long as they are trying to “fix” their own party.

American Torture

We Americans didn't want to look at our torture crimes because we knew that was wrong AND we also knew nothing was going to be done about it. I had wondered for many years how the Germans could have gone along with Hitler's crimes and I used to feel smug about that. Not anymore. To the Germans there came a time when Hitler's actions became theirs, and now we Americans too have sailed under that same Arch de Acquiescence, whirling around and around in a whirlpool of profound and studied detachment. We can no longer say it was Bush who did it. Now it is America who did it.

All we can offer now in propitiation is that we were waiting for a saviour. And he is here - and we want him to cleanse us real quick. Problem is that the big boys are way out there beyond any retribution basking in glory and retirement benefits and we will never get any piece of bush, cheney, rumsfield, addington, yoo, gonzales, ashcroft, and many others including powell who sold his soul for a beaker of washing powder at the U. N. when he could have changed everything. So - all we can do - rationally - now - is to crucify all the poor bastards who carried out the orders of the Lords. If EVERYBODY refuses, because they know they will eventually be punished, then maybe someday nobody will carry out those damn orders.

President Obama versus The Law

Two stunning blows to America came out of President Obama’s White House on Thursday, April 16, 2009.

The first was the official recognition that the former president (Bush) had knowingly violated the American Constitution, and had not enforced the laws of the nation by directing American military and CIA personnel to torture captured war prisoners.

The second was that Obama, the current president, would also knowingly violate the American Constitution, which he had promised less than three months ago to protect and defend, and also that he would not enforce the laws of the nation as he had also sworn to do, since he will not punish those who carried out the torture orders or those who issued them.

There will have to be fallout from that.

First, in the United States military. Any military order MUST meet three criteria to be valid and enforceable: 1) it must be legal, 2) must be issued from competent authority, and 3) must be clearly conveyed. Obama has just wiped the first two of those requirements away. Now, instead of being required to follow only legal and authorized orders, military personnel must now obey ALL orders. The lessons learned from the Waffen-SS and Nazi Germany some of which involved the Jewish holocaust are vitiated and weakened to the point of uselessness.

Second, Obama says the nation can’t “waste time” seeing that this violation is enforced and that "error" is corrected. The protection and enforcement of the constitution and laws of the nation are not as important as the other things that Obama wants to do. This continues the process President Ford began when he provided a general amnesty to President Nixon for the crimes he committed while in office, and provides additional precedence to the concept that a president cannot be punished for illegal activities, or anything he does, while he is president.

Third is the inevitable implication that no law is to be considered valid or enforceable until the president has said it is one that he wants to have enforced.

Fourth is that America can no longer in good faith punish other nations that torturers captured American servicemen. Such actions will now be seen as selfish and vindictive.

Fifth, the fact remains and WILL remain that the laws of America have been broken and will HAVE to be enforced or ELSE the basic nature of the American government will have changed forever.

In short, by these two actions, President Obama has rewritten the United States Constitution. And nobody knows what it is now or what it means now. Perhaps president Obama will reveal this new law as time unfolds?

I have supported Barack Obama but I could also support impeachment. Let's see if we can find another way. BUT- action needs to follow this direlection of duty.

John Womack

The Pope or a Condom - Take Your Choice

Condoms CAUSE AIDS? Only in the mind of a snakeoil salesman. How bad can the pope make Catholicism (and Christianity) seem to be to the average person?

Out of touch with science, out of touch with reality, out of touch with problems, out of touch with people, out of touch with humanity.

By his words today, thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - of innocent people will suffer and die; perhaps hundreds of thousands of unwanted babies will be born in an overburdened land.

Your people were kneeling papa, hands outstretched in hope of receiving a fish from their papa, and their papa brings them a serpent.

Shame on you, pope. Shame! Shame! Put a condom on your own head, up over your bishop's miter. Put a condom on your head and pull it down. Pull it down. Pull it ALL the way down!

Help prevent the spread of disease.

AIG? Good Distraction!

Senator Grassly said he would appreciate it if these guys committed suicide. He was joking, he said later but ALMOST ALL of our congressmen and senators have got to LOVE the fact that AIG is a convenient target for our collective wrath.

That serves nicely to distract us from how badly they betrayed the public trust and sold their souls for the grateful coziness with AIG who in turn permitted them to gather up the crumbs underneath their great table. Like the Ibises who succulently pull ticks and other insects off of great beasts in the field, or the Egyptian Plovers that clean leftovers from the teeth of crocodiles, these annelidical things we call congressional representatives of the people have bled the American public again and again for the humble access to commercial power (i.e. political contribution potential).

Now they really appreciate AIG one more time - AIG is now serving as a great congressional heat shield as the Reaganomic Experiment re-enters the atmosphere of reality.

Welcome home - you make a pretty sight. And remember, whenever EVERYBODY is piling on, that's a sure sign that the real culprit has gotten away.

© John Womack, 2009. All rights reserved

The Pope Spoke - Again.

Pope Benedict XV brought into his position of power an admonition to the world, and especially to the citizens of Europe that now was the time for them to return to God, and especially to come back home to the church again. He castigated Europeans for becoming so secular that they were losing their spiritual bearings and their only hope was to come back and worship again and serve the church once more. Religion had made Europe great in the past and it's new Supreme Bishop was willing to forgive its wayward children - but they had to shape up!

Unfortunately the spotlight he turned upon religion has revealed some flaws not attributable to secularism. The 81 year old prelate apparently attributed the drifting masses to the wandering away of the church itself from some of its old traditional assertions. A return to the pre-ecumenistic services clearly pleased the pope even if it upset his Jewish "friends". He also shifted away from the distribution of the elements of mass to some who were not Roman Catholic, thus isolating that church even more. Then came the reinstatement of some ex-communicated priests who had made anti-Jewish comments. One of them had been tossed out of the church for denying the occurance of the hollocaust. Benedict pulled him back in. When cries arose that he should not have been ex-excommunicated, Benedict was dismissive.

Now finally comes the uproar across the internet. Apparently comments, even sermons, given by this ex-excommunicated bishop have become popular across Europe now show on YouTube. Benedict was blown-away. Last word we heard he was commenting to someone about having to start reading the internet.

Well, come on now. Popes have taken any sign of progress as indication of devilment. Birth control is seen as equivalent to murder and serious sin. It is even on a par with Darwin and his scientific theories. The Catholic Church has only recently - in the past couple of hundred years - accepted Gallileo and Copernicus as purveyers of truth. But Benedict was well on the way to banishing the telescope along with condoms and scientific thinking. Now comes the internet? No way.

Socialism Hooray? But. . . ?

So the republicans are screaming "Socalism! Socialism!"? And Obama is a undercover socialist? Well what IS socialism? Isn't that where the government controls all the major factors of production? Sure it is.

In a socialist government/economy the national government runs the railroads, press, airports, farms, food processing, factories, and all the other major enterprises. They set the objectives and plans, they organize the companies they put people in various positions and run the day-to-day operations. That's socialism.

What America has traditionally offered to the world is a different kind of government-economy operation. Under our form of Controlled Capitalism, that is, the way things USED to be, back before Reagan brought his "Voodo Economics" into our world, the large corporations ran their day-to-day operations the way they saw fit. They made their plans, they organized their operations, they hired and promoted their people, they ran their operations themselves. The national government played the role of referee and umpire to make sure the "economic game" was played according to the rules the American people decided it would be run. For example, there would be no child labor. Women and blacks would be paid equally for equal work. Taxes would be paid as determined. Food production would be uncontaminated by germs and mold, accounting would be audited and reported and conducted in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Corporations would stick to their chosen job and not take over unrelated work from other corporations.

These lessons came from a long history of boom and bust cycles, culminating with the Robber Barrons in the early part of the Twentieth Century, and creshendoing in the Great Depression of the 1930s. There would be laws. There would be rules to insure that our nation would never again be ripped apart by savage CEOs, and those rules and laws would be enforced by the might of the Federal Government.

Then Reagan said thing were SO good that we had reached Morning in America again, and that the corporations could be "trusted" and the market would take care of us all. And that was the beginning of the fall.

Republicans in Limbo?

Or is that Limbaugh? Doesn't really matter. They are thrashing about wildly now looking for blame. George Bush is easy to blame. He was a bad man. Brought up bad and empowered by demons. But it wasn't really his fault. There is almost as much blame as there is damage. The entire Republican Party is also easy to blame because they were so proud of their snorting, strutting stallion from Texas. And while we are at it, spreading blame, let's smear a lot all over the democrats too. There were some heros there, but most of them just stood silently around mumbling deprecatingly from time to time and shyly shaking their heads occasionally. They sighed when they should have screamed. So let's make sure they get credit for what they deserve too.

After blaming Bush for their decline, the Republican Party is now blaming Obama and the Democratic Party for taking over control of congress and the White House. That's like blaming the doctor for cancer after you smoked three-packs-a-day for 30 years. The bad news is only the beginning there too.

What can the republicans do? They can begin by talking with the American people. They need to understand that the Entire World has changed dramatically since the 1700's. America is no longer a group of states protected by a great wilderness and impassable oceans. And they need to listen first. Find out Americans don't ride horses anymore. We don't own slaves anymore. Some of us are WOMEN - bet they didn't know. America has changed. The Republican Party MUST change too or die.

Just remember this acronym republicans: "Where Has It Gone". Figure it out.

© John Womack, 2009. All rights reserved.

Speaking of Speaking.

A couple of interesting speeches last night. Obama, our new president and Jindal, governor of Louisiana seen as the GOP Obama, and the apparent heir of the GOP.

Obama was good. I was thinking back to the old ToastMasters critiques that we used to do so long ago. How would I have rated Obama? Really can't say because I got lost in the world he created in front of me. But in retrospect his message was strongly written, coherent, logical, forceful, direct. It sequed from point to point and carried emotion from anger to triumph to comedy to joy. I hate to say this, but it was probably the best public speech I have ever seen.

Jindal, first of all, had the extreme bad luck to have to follow this masterpiece by Obama. He failed miserably. He was not in control of his logic or his rambling points, much less in control of the entire world as Obama had just seemed to be. He looked worried in a couple of places and even, I thought, a little scared from time to time.

This is not enough to finish Jindal's career. Politics is a strange and illogical being. One week can heal all wounds and can also destroy that which is totally invulnerable. But his performance does open up the running for the GOP leader. Perhaps the greatest casualty in seeing this newcomer fall so badly is that it will tend to promote the "old heads". Not McCain, but other bad guys like Newt or Jeb!.

Meanwhile, Obama has now placed himself firmly in the position as President of the United States. If he can run swiftly and not fall and can lead the way clearly, many will thrillingly follow him all the way to glory.

Abstinence and Palin's Daughter

Just a couple of other things Palin got screwed up. The problem with abstinence is that it just doesn't work. It's nothing other than an easy way out for parents. This way they can put the blame on their kids and say it is all their fault.

Abstinence has never been easy for anybody. Parents get it wrong all the time. Preachers and even priests can't completely abstain as a group and these are people who have taken big-time, real serious vows placing their souls up to God as collateral for betraying a young one on sexual desire. But then they find a way to make it happen.

Easy to blame the Evil One for this. "The devil made me do it!" But I'm afraid that God is the guilty one here, because we are all clearly hard-wired to have sex, to have it repeatedly and with as many people as possible and as early in life as feasible. Darwin tried to get God off this hook by showing this natural selection process using random events would insure the continuation of life in a species and enable the most vigorous members to improve the product. But of course, like so many other "Christian Right" people, Palin believes that Darwin is the only human proven to have come from a monkey and all the rest of us were formed by an intelligent creator. So when I went to my parents for help and they said it was up me and God, and God made me, then God also made me do it.

Of course now there is a corollary to Darwin's theories. In this modern age, the really clever, ingenious, daring, capable, skillful, and resourceful young-uns who have the most sex with other students are the ones who DON'T have offspring. OK, so a clever blow to "Intelligent Design". But this is nothing new. This was widely known over the centuries. The great poet even wrote about how "Abstinence makes the hard grow longer", or something like that. But just ask ANY school kid.

Shoot the Chimp

As bad as it gets. That someone would “own” a “pet” chimpanzee is bad enough. That the animal would get sick, so sick that it would attack and seriously maul its owner’s friend is far, far worse. That police would have to come and shoot the poor thing dead compounds it into a grizzly cartoon of evil. And then there is the victim, a person who has had her life forever changed in a moment, and perhaps may not even live through this event.

THEN. Along comes Murdoch the Great, King of News, who contorts the issue, even trivalizes the issues involved, and compares it to the new president’s economic recovery plan. Of course Murdoch probably hadn’t noticed that the president is a black man, and he certainly could not have known that white racists for years have contemptuously compared black men with monkeys and chimpanzees. So we are to believe that Murdoch really didn’t know what he was doing? That it wasn’t his problem because he didn’t approve the cartoon? That he is now sorry that some people were so stupid that they were offended by the cartoon that he didn’t know he had published? Now - if ANYBODY believes that - then that’s news.

Some say Murdoch likes Obama. That’s too bad. Last thing Barrack needs right now is a 200 pound sick chimp that occasionally freaks out and is not responsible for what he does.

Sport? Oh yes, of course, ha ha.

After hearing about Alex ("A-Rod") Rodriguez, which comes after so many other "revelations" of other "sportsmen" who have cheated their competitors and their fans to the point where all serious people have decided that sport is simply a way to cheat people (fans and competitors) out of more money and make their various "games" much more expensive to attend, I looked up the word "sport" in a dictionary.

It said that "Sport" was an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess. Also it could be used to describe jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry: "What he said in sport was taken seriously". Also, mockery; ridicule; derision: "They made sport of him". It describes an object of derision; laughingstock or something treated lightly or tossed about like a plaything.

Oh, OK.

Dawn of the 21th Century

As George Bush sets in the east behind a young boy's head, the United States rises to greet the 21th Century. A little late is better than a lot late.

Much of the civilized world however, is holding its breath. They entered this century over eight years ago, and are not sure how long it will take America to even return to its position of the late 1990's.

As President Obama has already warned us, a lot is riding on all our shoulders now. Very well, all we need is the organizing of the movement. We won't have long to wait.

The Gaza Desecration

Israel's righetous hatered is the hallmark of its current flogging of Palestenian hospitals, schools, mosques, women and children. There's more of course, but these are the current images that rise and float like dead bodies on top of the confrontation. All this comes in "retaliation" for rockets launched by Hamas into Israel. The problem is that if Israel chooses military response to these attacks, that response will have to be largely absorbed by the innocent. That is what war became in the twentith century. The new century shows signs of war becoming the destruction of civilization. And even the "winning" nation finds that what it destroys in another country, it also desecrates in its own. This is Hitler's great lesson for the ages. The Jews certainly learned this lesson well and the current Jewish cruelty seem to reek of schendenfreude

This is Israel's only choice left when it refuses to negotiate with its enemies until they have agreed to the non-negotiable parts of its demands. Just like Condelezza Rice has discovered in Korea, Iran and other places, although her demands have been VERY selectively applied.

Israel has two main problems. One is that it's military and economic support comes from the United States and Israel is totally independent of how it might use those great gifts. Two, that it can "peacefully invade" Palestine simply by "not prohibiting" its "settlers" from simply taking Palestinian land. Then when confrontatons arise, the Israeli army comes in to "protect" its own people, thus forcing Palelstinians out of the area. Like a disease this conquest spreads until it becomes successful enough to eventually turn on itself.

˝John Womack, 2009. All rights reserved.

Gaza

This new war is a last-minute run by Israel to shred even little hope the Palestinian people hadk, and to render its governments hopelessly weakened, as well as to "welcome" the new American administration with a few dead albatrosses to hang around their neck. Bush won't even try to interfere and will cover Israel's actions. Hitler's hate still burns bright.

The only real hope to save Israel from its path of destruction won't happen soon. That would require America to cut off its financial and military aid. Not with a stroke, but as part of a plan to help Israel slowly reintroduce itself to its neighbors. This could be done with careful negotiations by all nations interested in peace, and perhaps under direction and assistance from the UN.

What the Obama administration CAN begin doing is the last part mentioned above - to assistance and encourage Israel to begin to live as a part of the world. But nothing will ever help ANY nation that gets more than it loses from fighting wars. If the gain from war is great, and your enemies suffer horribly , AND the price is paid by someone else, then war can be a truly glorious thing.

And let's be very plain. No one is more guilty here than the Bush administration. They taunted Arafat and glorified Sharon back in their beginning. These actions perhaps forged the attacks of 9/11 as an attempt to get the world's attention and also led to the election of Hamas. The Bush people also presented the Palestiniens with the fait-acompli that nothing could be done to achieve "peace" unless the Palestinians agreed to let Israel continue their long-term invasions of Palestine, with one Jewish settlement after another.

© John Womack, 2009. All rights reserved.

Barack The Magic Negro

All I can say about the Republican Party's new song, "Barack the Magic Negro", is to ask them "What part of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries did you not understand ?"

The Grand Old Party has finally revealed that it is actually the Rip Van Winkle Party, still advocating those principles that made the world so enjoyable for property-owning people with money and white penises

It also has revealed a brief but penetrating glimpse into the character of Mike Huckabee in as much as the "writer" of the "song" was also the manager of Huckabee's presidential campaign. Come on Mike, we clearly were watching the wrong hand - what we DON'T see is what we really get, huh?

And let's face it, anyone who gets a kick out of paradies, AND who is over 18 years of age, has to be deficient is a great number of ways. But why stop with just Obama? Why not "Lieberman, the Magic Jew, a Democrat and a Republican too, a political hermaphrodite Our congressman from Israel." Or maybe "Hillalry the Magic Female who Straighted Out Even Bill, she can fix the whole wide world, and you can bet she will", or "Mitt the Magic Morman, Given to Guide Our Way, He knows what we need to do and he will make us do it", or "Kennedy - the Magic Catholics, Born to Rule the World, now Caroline will light the way and we will just need to follow ", even "George the Magic Texan, who Lost his Silver Spoon, Again, Again, and YET Again, and now He's Lost Ours Too!"?

Oh well, since today is my 18th birthday I guess I will have to go on to something more inspiring. Sigh.

© John Womack, 2009. All rights reserved.

Former Governors Make Better Presidents? REALLY?

MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2008

It is widely known that people who have served their state as governor make better presidents than those who have not been executives in either state government of commercial business. This is because those people have experience in executive decision-making and administration building, staff leadership, direction and control.  But has this been true? Let’s check it out.

In retrospect, it seems that the effectiveness of presidents really turn on their mastery of "governing skills" rather than any "executive skills".  Being president of the United States is considerably different from being governor of any state or president of any large commercial enterprise, this primarily because the US president has to work so closely with congress to accomplish anything truly significant.  

Let’s look at some of our recent presidents, using those since World War II ended and leaving out Eisenhower because he served neither as governor or state legislator.

John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Truman and Nixon were senators prior to becoming president. George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford were former members of the House of Representatives.

Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton  and George Bush (43) came in as governors.   

The former governors all brought large numbers of their former state staff members with them because those were the people they were familiar working with.  But – that also meant there were many people who had to learn the D. C. procedures. The former congressmen however, all had many surviving relationships with other current congressmen, additionally they were all familiar with preparing issues for presentation to the president so they knew well the type of input they should expect - and demand - from congress. 

All the congressmen, and especially Truman, Johnson and Ford - took over from presidents who died in office or resigned.  They came into office at a time of great national trauma and national crisis. Nonetheless, they were able to immediately govern effectively. These former congressmen all had been well prepared to govern as president from the beginning of their administrations. 

On the other hand, the former governors in this period were unable to perform their duties well during the first two years of their service.  Carter, Reagan, Clinton and George Bush 43, all came into Washington and took office during times of relative peace. Yet the first two years they were in office they floundered. Those were years in which they and the large contingent they brought in from their home states learned the ways of D.C.

If past is to be prologue, then it appears that you wouldn't want to let any former governor move into the presidency, especially during periods of crisis.  Historically, they have not been able to function at the beginning.  Former members of congress, on the other hand, have moved in smoothly and began serving the nation well from the first day.

So, when you ponder who should be selected to run for the presidency, whether for a primary selection or the actual November vote, don't just take my word for it but look back over what has actually happened in the past.  Then we can all make a better choice. 

© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.

Auto Bailout?

The rational for letting them go into bankruptcy is that if they can't compete in the free market they deserve to go under. Senator Sessions says no need to subsidize companies that can't operate on their own.

Problems with that: Yes, the companies can and probably should go bankrupt but a lot of their workers will have to go bankrupt too. It is a lot easier for companies to go through that procedure that for individuals. The companies get rid of their pension plans, health care provisions, seniority rules and a lot more. Individuals also get rid of their their pension plans, health care provisions, and seniority also, plus their jobs, income, and houses too.

More problems: It's not just the companies being unable to compete in a free market. And it's not just the case that government IS the problem, as Reagan so impudently proclaimed. He made that statement when the auto industry was "struggling" under CAFE standards. Those laws would probably by now have American cars running 30 to 50 mpg, and probably burning only American-produced gasoline.

There's a lot more. Just remember the Bush tax rewards for buying a gas guzzler for your "business". You could buy a Hummer or a 4-door diesel pickup truck for almost ZERO dollars when you factored in the tax break for buying those vehicles. And while those are only two of the Roadside Bombs the republican party planted in the path of the American automobile free market, you can get the idea.

Sure government can't really run a large auto company, but it can regulate those things. Above all, it can do the ONE MAIN THING those companies themselves never will be able to do - that is to work for the long range good of the American people instead of simply chasing the big profit for the current quarter.

© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved

Blagojevich and His Prize.

Well, after six long years it appears the hell-hole on Cuba known as Guantanamo may finally be closed down. But now - along comes Blagojevich.

Maybe, just maybe, we could keep it open for a while longer. Blagojevich might be held in solitary confinement there but he would not be alone - at least not in the larger sense. We could fill the whole thing up. There's his predecessor, Ryan. And there's Cunningham too, and William Jefferson. Ted Stevens would probably enjoy the change of climate from Alaska. Gonzales might find the quietness a good place for reflection. Larry Craig wouldn't have to worry about tapping his foot anymore because they both will be shackled.

The U. S. Navy might have to add another wing or two to accommodate the flood of desperadoes. There would have to be room for Kilpatrick, Libby and Foley. Jim Wright and Gingrich could be roommates. Bob Livingston, Bob Ney and Bob Packwood could begin the "Bob wing". Adam Clayton Powell would probably be heard in endless monologues and Charles Keating and Neil Bush could try to finagle their respective ways out of here too. Dan Rostenkowski would make a good counsellor, and Tom DeLay could be the chaplin.

And the rest of the world could watch all this in awe. And envy.

© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.

Guilty at Guantanamo?

Five men held at Guantanamo announced they wanted to plead guilty to terrorism and other charges associated with the 9/11 attacks. Really? And on the very day that Obama won the election for the American presidency?

The old weekly magazines, from time to time, used to have cartoons which read: "How Many Things Can You Find Wrong In This Picture?" Remember? Well, it's no cartoon that is taking place at Guantanamo now. It is deadly serious - and not just for any foreigner who might be killed - because what has already happened there will result in the deaths of innumerable American servicemen captured by enemy forces for the next one-hundred years. Sunni and Shiite factions are still fighting each other over events that happened 1400 years ago.

This all smells strongly of Bush. It seem just one more feather for his personal cap, one more draught deeply drawn into his righteously-intoxicated brain cells. One more star to hang in his own texas heaven to hover there forever above crawfordville. Never mind that it could also promote this group of five men into their own "heaven" of martyrdom.

This also makes unimportant that these five men are all probably guilty indeed of some "evil doing". But whatever they might have done pales into unimportance compared with America abandoning its rich heritage of rights and laws, admitting smugly that it was all just a joke. It is the final gift of George Bush to the world that as he swaggers away from the corpse of American Ideals, he returns one last time to defecate and urinate upon the remains before he abandons them to whomever might come along later.

@ John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.

Palin

The stories are now beginning to come out. They are not good. They make Palin look like a total loser. But it is important to remember that the blame for being so close to becoming president of the United States is not Palin's fault. And the real problem is not by any means the amazing amount of money she spent on clothes - we need to forget that and focus on the important part.

To a substantial degree the fault is John McCain's. He screwed up. Bad. This means he was even LESS qualified to become president than even I thought he was. We can only infer from this that had he been elected, Palin would have been only one of many incompetents placed in positions of power to play games with, to irritate and try to outsmart each other. At least most of those others - cabinet members and department heads would have been subject to approval by congress.

That brings us to that problem referred to earlier: the REAL problem. And that is the constitution itself. It has never known how to handle the vice-president. The founding fathers awarded it to the person who came in second in the election. If that had endured, today Obama would be the president and McCain would be the vice-president. That would not work. Apparently George Washington - first president - and John Adams - first vice-president - did not get along much better than Obama and McCain would. That was taken care of by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. But the result of it all now has become that the person chosen by his or her party to represent them as their choice for president can simply pluck out of the bucket anyone who strikes their fancy. Hence Palin who did not know the VP did not "run" the Senate, or that Africa was a continent, or . . . well, let's skip the rest!

So, what to do? Well, the whole process is badly screwed up. Neither the president or vice-president of the United States is required to pass any type of mental or physical examination. You can't drive a bus or fly an airplane or practice medicine or be in the military without passing a series of qualifying standardized examinations. So if you should fail any or ALL of those, you could still become president. There is not any kind of a review board who can examine the legal history of the individuals selected by their party to represent them for the most public of all positions.

There is more. A LOT more. But this is a blogpost not a completed paper. Yet it remains for a fact, that no military officer can have any kind of access to nuclear weapons without EXTENSIVE medical, mental, background checks, while the person who might tell them to "bomb, bomb, bomb" some country could just fly in off of a wall if he or she could temporarilly lie to or somehow fool enough people. Plain's problems only serve to shine a bright light on this problem.

The Republican Wasteland

The Republican Party is in shambles. It’s last president, George Bush was soundly repudiated. Now he’s going out with two wars raging and the economy in shambles. Guantanamo is still stinking, the specter of special renditions remains, and the nation is virtually an outcast among the international community. The cowboy rides away into the sunset. Alone.

Its last standard bearer, John McCain is clearly beyond the age limits to be considered again. His final tally in his only presidential campaign was less than half that of his opponent. His only lasting legacy to his party will be that he claimed to be a “maverick” and had “fought his party leaders”.

His vice-residential choice, Sarah Palin of Alaska, certainly does not have a strong base even in her own small and isolated state. Her only claim to Republican Party fame is that she appeals the the far right Christian extreme elements. She can’t name any magazines, remember the three countries in North America, or find Africa.

Rudy Giuliani is forever pinned to a 9-11 mentality, Mitt Romney cannot escape the Mormon Church label - probably worse for him because of the Republican Party being in bed with the extreme far right Christian base. They won’t do Morman.

Gingrich is considered to be a clown, even by republican standards, Tom Ridge is still stuck on Duct Tape, Tommy Thompson never got the joke. Mitch McConnel and Boehner are just plain mean. Stevens is gone whether he leaves or not.

So there are still possibilities like Crist or Jindal and others too. but there’s also the specter of Jeb! Bush to run sometime soon (it’s now his turn?). The republicans have lost a big opportunity by supporting Bush. If you thought New Orleans was ravaged, just look around - look all around. He has let the entire nation collapse just like its roads and bridges. Right now the Republicans biggest hope appears to be that the democrats will do the same thing they did.

But they have chased out the moderate and progressive members of their party and replaced them with the extreme Christian right, and those Christians are not really concerned with the traditional interests of the Republican Party. Like Palin, they have seen that God has partly opened a door for them and they are going to “punch through it!”, as she said in a recent interview.

© John Womack, 2008, All rights reserved

YES!

The Great Divide

Once again America stands at the Great Divide. A doorway or threshold of sorts which divides the future from the past.

We were here during the election of Gore vrs Bush. Then the future was not seen so clearly and the past was more comfortable than it seems today.

We came here again after 9-11. The door to the greatest opportunity the world had ever had for peace was flung wide open and the rest of the world beckoned to us to come in. The Bush Administration slammed the door in their faces and even threatened them if they would not turn back with us.

Now again today, election day, November 4, 2008, America goes back to that great doorway. The choice is more clear than it was with Gore or even after 9-11. McCain wants to “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, and Palin looks forward to the return of the days of the frontier. Biden, regardless of what one might think of him, is a negotiator, a reconciler, a communicator. Obama, as Powell described him, is clearly a transformational person.

To me the choice seems clear. A vote for McCain is to fly back into the flame. A vote for Obama is a passport to a new world.

Can the Republican Party Change?

No longer a party that supports individual rights, it now seeks to impose almost parental power over people, reading their mail, snooping in their bedrooms and implementing radical new forces to keep the great corporations of America growing in power.

After Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Addington, McCain, Palin, McConnell, Stevens, Falwell, Boehner, Gingrich, and others, there's not much left in how it can reasonably hope to achieve anything constructive in today's world. These vengeful angels appear ready to drag down the ship of state if they can't get their own way which means no discussion, no debate, no new ideas and no compromise.

The Republican Party has always been a party of power. Now, with one war in Iraq, another in Afghanistan, and continuing drive-by shootings by American military forces taking place in Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, and maybe elsewhere, the party seems committed to long-term international policies involving pre-emptive political and economic force over other nations - more and more including our traditional allies. War and bombings seem to be always a ready alternative to solve all problems . The rest of the civilized world is trying to veer away from war, and now we wonder if the republicans can live in that kind of world? Will the American Repubiclan Party even allow such a world to develop?

In order to stabilize its quest for power the party has been forced to seek help from other groups. Religion has answered the call and is already moving to take charge. Which religion? Well, that won't be clear for some time. They will call it Christian, but it will be based on power just like the military and economic forces it plans to use. It will know Jesus' wishes and will intend to bring them to the entire planet, again by use of force if necessary.

So the Republican Party which emerges after this election will be "conservative" in political philosophy, but like its religion, that meaning will also require explanation on the part of its leaders. It will clearly attempt to take us back to what the new leaders of this movement think our founding fathers were trying to do when they wrote the constitution.

Economically, the new party will insist on the "Gospel according to Adam Smith". It will be raw capitalism - uncontrolled by any government. If the new economy should ever need governmental help, it will tell the government what to do, and when and how much it needs.

There will be no place left for intellectuals, or any form of "progressive republicans". This new Republican Party will be a construct of the 19th and 20th centuries, and will attempt to establish itself as the rightful leader in a world of military power, economic force and God with a cross, and America will be its supreme ruler, world policeman, inquisitor and punisher.

So now the election. If McCain wins, America will be in for a very long and disastrous period. There will almost certainly be a democratic majority in both the house and senate, and they will feel the call of a mandate for change. McCain and Palin will be firmly rooted in the past as the rest of the United States and the rest of the world move into a new era of international relationships.

If Obama wins there will be new challenges, new opportunities and perhaps a very different world will emerge. Sarah Palin apparently sees herself as the "republican winner" if McCain loses the election. But it seems clear that she will pull a large part of the most fanatical republican base out of the party.

Syria

Once again the Cowboy strikes. One more time he slaps down the blackguard who should have known better than to tweak his omnipotent nose. Syria has to feel the consequenches for insulting the Great One, and there is nothing they can do about it! America will strike again into sovereign soil and leave the blood to sink into the barren land. Once again the American president waves his stupidity into the air and shouts "I am the Leader of the Whole Wide World!" Then he retires smugly back his ranch. Well, we'll see. Again.

When will we ever learn? We think we can strike anywhere we want and kill without regard to law. No need to negotiate when we can kill at will and with ease and we think they can't do anything about it. And when they do we are always stunned.

The Corporate Contract

Like the old Social Contract, in which concept mankind allegedly surrendered some of his individual rights to a local sovereign in return for social order and collective protection, there has existed for the last one hundred years or so in this country a Corporate Contract. This Corporate Contract began with people offering to become company workers who surrender a number of their individual rights to a specific corporation and in return receive prizes of great value. The rights they surrender include the right to work elsewhere or at times they would prefer to work, or to receive a higher rate of pay than the corporation was willing to pay, or agree to be transferred to another part of the country. In return the workers would receive from the corporation a regular paycheck both in regard to amount and regularity of payment, medical care, vacation or time off from work with pay, even sick leave with pay, and ability to negotiate with the company in union with other workers. Most corporations had a provision called "seniority" under which a worker, after working a specified number of years with the corporation, could receive protection against layoffs and transfers, and then after thirty or so years of constant work, they would receive "retirement", a regular paycheck for the rest of their life without ever having to work again.  In truth, this "retirement" was supposedly a portion of that worker's weekly paycheck that was withheld and invested in a retirement fund by the corporation, so that the "retirement" pay was actually a portion of the wages already earned buy not yet paid.

And there was more. The workers remained in the country and so did the corporation, and so did the jobs. A great benefit that many workers realized was the thrill of finding employment for their own children at the same company they had worked at for the greater part of their lives. Large numbers of corporations prospered in this environment, and together they, and their workers made the nation stronger. And the nation became a more powerful, capable and respected member of the international community. Also, if war came to the nation, there was ready workforce able to quickly retool into the defense industry.

Now this contract has changed dramatically. It began to change as the civil rights protests and the war against Vietnam also pitted ordinary citizens against their governments. There was a subtle shift that also began to take place in the Corporate Contract fundamentals. The Carter administration was unaware of this shift and the Reagan administration began inserting new provisions into the old Corporate Contract - provisions that began shifting the cost/benefit relationship between corporations and their workers to "agreements" between the corporations and the US government. Today, most new corporate workers receive a temporary job at reduced pay. The health care they receive is whatever they purchse with their own money, so are their retirement provisions and most workers are less concerned they might be transferred to another state than that their company might transfer itself to another country.

Corporations have long enjoyed a special place in America. They have been defined by the US Supreme Court as a "person", with all rights and privileges pertaining to all other people. The only rights denied to them are the rights to marry and vote. They have protection provided by the government, tax relief denied to their own workers, and bankruptcy procedures that allow them to sluff off many of their obligations when they need to, and continue to operate. They still can't vote, but they can "hire" their own representatives, senators and even presidents by providing enormous "contributions" to the candidates of their choice. A corporation can feed money to someone running for representative in another state helping that candidate to win and then provide supporting legislation friendly to that corporation which is in another state. Many corporations use their state charter as a den from which they can roam the United States and the rest of the world as they are able to penetrate -truly citizens of the world, yet beholden only to regulations of the state in which they are chartered, and they compete with each other in a cannibalistic market, cutting expenses as well as services and product. Their workers are used as necessary and older workers and retired workers are shaken off when they become too expensive to the corporation.

Now governmental officials need the money of the corporations more than it needs the votes of the citizens (workers) so the "Corporate Contract" lives on - but as an agreement between the American president, senators and representates, and the corporate world. It reads something like this - "You pass the laws we need, and enforce the ones we want and we will give you the money you need to run for office - if not, we will withdraw our monetary support from you and provide it to someone else who will represent us."

End of an era.

It is obvious that a great era is ending. The capitalistic market has become a great spectre arriving just just a little early for Halloween. As it dies worldwide though, it is still sucking vast amounts of money from the people of many nations into hidden pools of unmeasurable wealth. The term "deregulation" has become a synonym for "gotcha", and now the survivors are having to figure out how to "bell the great cat".

The very concept of a free enterprise system requires a free market. Without a free market, there can be no free enterprise. No market can possibly be free if it is dominated by a single organization or a small number of very large organizations. No free market can exist in any economic system unless there is adequate governmental regulation and enforcement to protect it and keep more powerful companies from seizing that market and reshaping it for their own purposes. A free market is not a market that is free FROM governmental regulation but a market which is free BECAUSE it is strongly regulated by the government. It makes no essential difference whether a market is dominated by a communistic, dictatorship, or theological government or by a cartel of capitalistic corporations, in any of those cases the free and competitive market ceases to function and begins to serve its master.

It is not enough to simply pass strong regulatory laws and enforce them rigidly. There must be significant enforcement as well. If a poor man robs a 7-11 store and gets $13, the police will pursue him, and if found and convicted he may serve years in jail. However, if a rich man robs thousands of people of millions of dollars, no police will pursue him, he will not be tried for anything, and the worst that will possibly happen to him is that he will have to spend the rest of his life in luxury.

A New World

The next president of the United States will confront a very different world from the one George Bush used to vacation in eight years ago. The new congress will be heavily democratic, our international allies will be very suspicious of us and the rest of the world will watch every move we make with grave interest. Meanwhile, the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression will be rearranging the foundations of the world’s economies.

Our new president will have to help build a new world. Many of the old traditions can be salvaged, modified and used in different ways. Many new traditions will have to be created though, working with a heavily democratic congress and nations in Europe in Asia and the Middle East. This work will require leadership from people who possess skills in organizing and communication, and who have experience in reaching across many different aisles and oceans.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden seem to possess these understandings and experiences. On the other hand, John McCain would bring his belief that war actually works, an admitted ignorance of economic matters, and a trust in the ability of markets - like finance, healthcare, armament, energy, education and all the others, to regulate themselves. And if he dies or is assassinated, the former mayor of Wasila, Alaska, will have to work with the democrats in congress and our allies abroad, and those other people too, in a world that never existed until now.

Trickle Down Peters Out

The great idea behind the old “Trickle Down” theory was its prediction that if the people and government of the United States took care of the large corporations, those corporations would, after they had taken care of their own needs, take care of their workers and then all the rest of the people of America. There would be no need for a “new deal” of any “cards,” instead the great national economic “pie” would be increased so large that everybody would eat cake all the time. 

But the Reagan, Gingrich, Bush-Bush bit has tested that theory very thoroughly from the 1970s to the beginning of 2000. We found the pay of CEOs rose during this great Trickle Down Development Period from about 45 times that of the average worker to 300 to 400 times, even now passing through 600 times, that of the average worker. The “average workers” meanwhile, found out that what was really trickling down was their standard of living. They found that even two “average” incomes were not able to keep up with increasing costs as they experienced increasing personal debt, decreasing personal savings, and an income that by 2002, when adjusted for inflation, had actually fallen since the 1970s! (More Trickle Down!) 

The great CEO’s of the great corporations increased their profits by laying off workers.  Some of the more successful ones absorbed (“merged with”) some of the smaller corporations, thus “greatly improving service to customers” and laying off thousands of workers.  Some corporations declared bankruptcy, then “reorganized” (discarding their previous obligations to former workers in the form of retirement benefits and medical payments). Other great CEOs of the great corporations blew their bottom line beyond the realms of glory when they out-sourced the jobs of their American workers to Mexico, then to South Korea, then to Philippines and onward to China.  The “pie” became as large as the moon, and just as inaccessible to American workers who saw themselves falling out of the middle class as their retirement benefits vanished, their medical care was converted to an insurance game, and their pay dwindled in indirect proportion to the new hours of work then began to encounter.

So if anyone ever tries to tell you again, like John McCain did in 2008 for example, about how great the “Trickle Down” theory is, you could just tell them that after thorough testing it has been found to be an exact copy of what the military used to call the old “Slide Down Hill” theory, or without having to explain all those ramifications, you might just say that Trickle Down has Petered Out.

© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.

VP Debate, 2008

My first impression from the Biden-Palin debate was that the media has failed us again. I have always liked and respected Gwen Ifill, and considered her to be a good interviewer. But she dropped the ball again and again tonight. I wound up feeling that any member of the audience could have been chosen as the debate began and would have done as well as Gwen Ifill did.

Palin acknowledged that she can’t answer the questions AND she was saying that it just doesn’t matter. Her "opponent" was the only participant in the “debate”, trying to answer sometimes difficult and meaningful questions while she gave her stump speech, leaped into her memorized talking points and used numerous clichés and innuendo. The moderator did not try to hold Palin accountable for these practices. Palin twice referred to General McKiernan as General “McClelland”, and that was not picked up on by Ifill either, nor by Biden for that matter.

Palin falls back on her energy “expertise” ~ why no questions about that? what is her background on “energy”? what is her education, engineering qualifications, experience in distribution, pricing, dealing with pollution, etc.? No questions, just a general acknowledgment that Palin truly IS an expert on energy.

Palin Played the “sex card”. Winking, flirting. I personally found that insulting. It also led me to wonder how touched other people, like King Faisal, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown, Hu Jintao, Kim Jong-il, or Mugabe, among others, might be affected by such hustling behavior. Or maybe she would just reserve those irresistible flashes for Pelosi or Biden or maybe the CEOs of Exxon-Mobile, Shell, BP and other easily swayed people like those.

She referred to expanded powers for the VP, especially legislative powers! Wow. How will that play in truly conservative circles? And why didn’t Ifill pick up on that and ask her to elaborate?

Palin probably played well to her conservative base, but her unfortunate references to comments by Reagan (Morning in America, Shining city on a hill, etc.) only served to remind us how far she falls short of even that pathetic figure.

And as far as Biden goes, I got the feeling that Biden is there and always WILL be there. Regardless of what might happen, Joe Biden seems to be a steady performer and a person with a lot of contacts on both sides of the congressional aisle and beyond our shores. He looked very reassuring to me and I felt better about him after the debate than I ever had before.

John Womack.

Fey/Palin

The debate tomorrow night between Biden and Palin have already been skewed. This by Tina Fey's parodies of Palin's performances. People who never could have possibly seen Palin on the news responding to questions by reporters, although few in number, have certainly seen Fey's parodies on late night shows. So that is how many people know Palin - as an intentionally daffy, poorly informed and absolutely clueless mayor of a town of 4,500 people out on the far extreme end of America.

Tomorrow night when she speaks and performs as a normal human being - although still not by any rational means qualified to run for the position of vice-president of the United States - she will almost certainly look human, professional, knowledgeable and compassionate which will leave people in the country amazed.

As a result of Fey's amazing performances and Palin's debate, Palin will wind up looking amazingly good to the
American people even though she will not have earned the rating which will have been given to her by Tina Fey.

Darshan on Candidates

Listed alphabetically:

Biden: River pilot. Reads the currents. He comes along for the long haul, nothing quick, slow and steady, always ahead of where the ship is - no real destination, just navigating the current current. Master of digression; loves the slow, easy whirlpools. Keeps things ship-shape and upright.

McCain. Monk. Hidden. Withdrawn. Underground. Roots traveling deeply and slowly underground. Concentrating on old sounds. Distracted by current happenings. Vibrating to stillness - ready to lurch and attack. Swatter. Stomper. Clencher. Mad.

Obama: Child of the school. Educated man. Friend of people. Strangely clear vision - sees around corners - lives outside the box but comes back inside for friendship. Smiles sweetly as he talks, but keeps thinking and looking at "places" that don't yet exist.

Palin: Killer. Quick. Thrives in confusion. Loves chaos, especially her homegrown versions. While others try to think and understand, she strikes. Creature of great power. power based on speed and quickness and insight during distress. Knowledge? Important only if it can lead to confusion. Alarm bell ringer. Screamer. Face biter.

© John Womack, 2008. All rights reserved.

Fiorina the CEO Goes Down Again

Carly stepped on her - well, toe I guess. Poor gal; she’s clearly missing something or other. We know it can't be her brain, she’s smart, never any question about that, maybe her latest observation only goes to prove she's too smart for her own good. Of course I’m talking about her comment today that Palin is not qualified to be CEO of a big corporation.

OK, no problem - so far. Most people would agree with Carly Fiorina at this point. Seems a reasonable comment. Sarah Palin would probably shoot and field-dress half of her staff on their first meeting, and most people would probably agree with that too. Only problem is that Fiorini was considered a likely vice-presidential candidate to run with John McCain before he picked Palin. So, most people smiled, attributed it to sour grapes, yawned and turned the page.

But then. Fiorini “clarified” her comment. To show she bore no ill will against Palin, since they are in the same political party, she added that John McCain was not qualified to be a CEO of a big corporation either. She then added that Barrack Obama and Joe Biden couldn’t run a big corporation either. Of course, Carly Fiorina’s last job (before she was fired) was the CEO of Hewlett Packard.

Theoretically, there should be little difference between being CEO of any large corporation, a state, a church or a nation. All these people, after all, are Chief Executive Officers. They all are presiding officers who have staffs - accountants, finance people, lawyers, administrators, advertisers, and operational personnel who each have leaders who meet regularly with the CEO to provide advice, ask questions, give and receive briefings. This is the old (and now discredited) “McNamara Doctrine”. McNamara’s error was in not understanding that the Operational People have to be the ones who provide the critical guidance. It DOES make a difference whether it is the Ford Motor Company, the Catholic Church or the DOD.

But where McNamara, Fiorina, and all the others who contribute to this mess are on shaky ground is that they seem to be making the assumption that the CEO actually does run the organization. Most organizations I have seen, governmental or commercial, choose a “CEO” as someone who can "appear" to lead the organization. The CEO may even believe that he or she is really “the decider”, but that is only because they have been told that they are. Actually, the strings of power are pulled by people who are not “presidential” enough for public scrutiny - no one would ever vote for or select a person like that (Rove, e.g.). As long as the CEO does what he or she is "supposed" to do, they are kept in power, preened and paraded. If they won’t play their role they get booted. They can be fired, even killed, or simply left to rot in office as the action moves on.

Silence on 9-11?

Well, why not? That's what we got from our government on 9/11/01. All except from Rudy. Poor guy, but it was his day. This year it falls on an election year, so not too much silence. In an election year silence is not golden, talk is. That's why I think George Bush should read to the nation every year on 9/11 the story of "The Pet Goat".

No Party for the Grand Old Party?

McCain says he may shorten or even opt out of the Republican Party convention in Minneapolis as hurricane Gustav aproaches New Orleans, because it seems wrong to be engaging in festivities when "people are suffering".

Apparently he hasn't heard yet about the 46,000,000 Americans who have no health insurance, meaning they can't get any health care. He must have missed the bit about the home foreclosures being the highest in even his long lifetime. He probably isn't even aware of the fact that between wage restraint and inflation that American take-home pay is lower than it was in the 1970s. Probably he doesn't connect the problems foreshadowed by the number of people in this country who smoke cigarettes and also that the high-school drop-out rate continues to increase. He must have missed the bit about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and certainly no one has told him about the sad fate of many of the returning servicemen.

Well, there's more - a lot more, but to cut to the chase, now that a hurricane appears to be approaching New Orleans again, he seems to be looking for a way to get George Bush and Dick Cheney off the hook this Monday because they would be the ones hitting Minneapolis as Gustav hits New Orleans.

Pretty Penny.

Contempt of Congress?

So now Karl Rove is in "contempt of congress", right? Well, I never thought I would ever be on the same side with Rove, but there are an awful lot of Americans right now who are also in "contempt of congress".

And like many other Americans, I suspect, I am also in contempt of the ENTIRE administration, the supreme court, and most of the American press. Guys, you gave it away. You wanted to impress the president and you took it all in and laid it at his booted toes.

Jesse Helms

Jesse Helms died yesterday. Big man? Yes. Good man? Great man? Well. . . .

I must admire Helms for one thing. When he didn’t like what was going on he wrote about it, he got on the radio and talked about it and when it still didn’t go the way he thought it should he ran for office. That’s the heart of the American way, the way prescribed by the great political philosophers. So that is the good that I see in Jesse Helms. The problem I see is that when he was elected he represented only a part of his constituency, and rather than support and defend the constitutions of the State of North Carolina and the United States, he waged battle against both of them. He accumulated personal power and used that to accomplish his narrow tasks and abandoned both his authority and his duties.

Part of the reason that the democratic process is important is that it is the way in which civilization can hope to improve itself and learn from the mistakes of the past. People like Jesse Helms represent powerful forces which pull all of us backward into the darkness. Except for his change towards the treatment of AIDS, he seemed to be virtually the same person when he died as he was as a young man. In short, he didn’t seem to learn as he went through life, and remained the same man he had been programmed to be in his twenties and thirties.

As we close the door on Jesse Helms presence now, let us remember him for what he has to teach us.

© John Womack, 2008, All rights reserved.

Presidential Physicals - More Junk food?

All these presidential physical exams are just more junk-food for the American electorate. They are released at carefully chosen times in the selection process and usually by their own family doctors. John McCain even went so far as to restrict access to his records to a few people who could not record any information they saw, and they could only see the documents which were presented, and that release was only for one three hour period, the day before a major summer holiday.

It’s not like we haven’t had problems with presidents that physical exams might have detected before the voters were asked to cast their ballots. That’s been a fairly common occurrence over the past several occupants of the White House.

This is not a problem unique to politics. Any one aspiring to military service is required to pass a standardized physical exam. So are our policemen and firefighters. Bus drivers and airplane pilots are other jobs requiring standardized physical exams before the aspirant can even qualify to apply for those positions.

Being president of the United Sates is arguably at least as important as being a policeman, firefighter, bus driver or airplane pilot. It seems amazing that our country doesn’t have proper requirements already in place and require all candidates to submit themselves to such examination by qualified and INDEPENDENT physicians.

Dare we go further and suggest mental and emotional examinations? Why not? The military requires comprehensive physical, mental and emotional examinations (and passing them!) for any officer whose job will be connected with the delivery of nuclear weapons. All that “delivery”, by the way, is totally dependent upon an order from the ONLY member of that chain of command who has not passed such examinations.

Obviously we can’t put this is place before this election, not now, but we could begin such a national interest safeguard and require that it be in place some time in the future. The year 2012 might be good, or even 2010 as a trial run. We could even grandfather those already in office, but we do need to begin the process. Finally, should this be extended to members of congress and Supreme Court Justices? Why not? I like the idea.

Does the "R" Word Depress You?

The basic “Economics for Dummies” definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters in which the value of the Gross National Product does not grow. But what that REALLY defines is a “Corporate Recession”, and it’s occurrence depends very much on the spending habits of the consumers who pay for the goods and services the corporations provide for them to buy.

Let’s look at another kind of recession, one that's never talked about: a CONSUMER recession. If we use the same parameters as we used in the Corporate Recession then a Consumer Recession would begin when two consecutive quarters pass in which the value of our own individual Gross PERSONAL Product does not grow.

Let’s begin with wages. Wages are usually measured in dollars. But since we’re not talking about “income” we received, but the product we can buy with that income, then we have to measure the value of the products (and services) we can purchase with the dollars we have “produced” by our work and investing.

For example, we may be buying more gasoline and food than ever before. But that’s only if we measure those purchases in dollars. When you look at the AMOUNT of gasoline and the amount of the food we use, that can go down even as our expenditures in dollars goes up. In short, our cosumption in dollars could increase at the same time the “personal product” we realize is decreasing.

Managers though, don’t speak just about “wages”, usually they like to talk about “wages and benefits”, or “a wage and benefits package”. Can we compare the value of our wages AND benefits over the years? First, we can show that the average American's wages, once they are adjusted for inflation have actually decreased slightly since about 1970.

Now, what about those benefits? Benefits traditionally included retirement and medical care. These have decreased significantly over the past several years. Meanwhile the cost to the individual to buy or use any of these “benefit packagess” (i.e. medical insurance and retirement) on his or her own has soared. That means our actual wage and benefit package has decreased even before we compare what they will "produce" for us.

Another “benefit” consumers have received are various government programs which have provided money or services of value to the individual. These, of course, have also diminished over the past 30 years or so, and we find more and more programs being “privatized”, which means that the cost of those programs will always continue to rise while the services and products provided will always decrease.

Now, against the “income” of our total wages, benefits and governmental services, we subtract the “costs” we incure in procuring these items. these costs include purchases, debt and taxes. Let’s look at each of these.

Cost of purchases has gone up – really has to – that’s the basis for the American GNP, remember? Then there are the twin demons of inflation and cost of living adjustments (COLA). This is like the ancient battle between Good and Evil. In this battle, inflation always wins. Ever notice how the COLA is always called a “raise”, as if the recipients were being rewarded with “more” product? Actually, the COLA increase is always late, and always less than the increase of inflation. Therefore the COLA is always a loss.

Then there is the matter of debt, which does represent a product, however it always results in paying more dollars to secure a good or service that the original cost.

Lastly (for this discussion), there is the matter of quality. Do the things we buy last as long as they used to? Do they become obsolete quicker? Probably depends on what you buy, but if you find yourself buying more products to achieve the same level of satisfaction you used to get with fewer purchases, then you have encountered another decrease in the value of the product you buy with your income.

And what about "Imputed Taxes" - those contributions we have to make to lobbyist groups to represent us in congress. These keep going up, too. Our representatives are “supposed” to represent us. We “shouldn’t” have to hire “congressional mercenaries” to represent us to our own represenatives. But here is another place we are in competition with corporations. They spend much more money than we can to influence our representatives, and they use the money we have paid them to buy the goods and services they produce for us that we buy. Therefore, their payment to their lobbyists are also part of their expense of “doing business” therefore we pay that their lobbyist's costs as well as our own.

Well, if you figure all this out, and agree with me, then it is obvious that we are IN and HAVE been in a recession for some time. And if you look into these figures closely, they you may WELL feel a depression coming on.

True Fact.

So ~ the Clinton camp says that the only reason Obama is tied with Hillary is because he is a black male, right? I think they ARE right! My take on it is that if Obama were a white male, he would be WAY ahead.

And to think on the matter a bit longer, if Clinton were a white male, she would have been dumped along with Biden, Dodd, Richardson and the others a long, long time ago. Also, if her name wasn't Bill Clinton's Wife, she would have had to buy all the attention she has been given.

American Health Care.

After the death of Nataline Sarkisyan, in California on December 27, 2007 when CIGNA, the family health insurance plan, refused to cover the costs of a liver transplant we hear more people calling for an “European” type of health coverage for all Americans.

Right away, we hear others answer backt that that type of coverage is ineffecient and a waste of money and time. That seems to almost imply that our way is better.

Actually, we are not really looking for the perfect plan right now. We will gladly accept one that is inefficient, wasteful, arbitrary, confusing and down right stupid. All we want is that it be better than the one we have now.

As far as the costs - and it will cost money - we probably don’t care much about that either. Taxes will have to go WAY up. OK. But we will lose our insurance payments. I know a young lady with two young children who are paying $800 a month for their health care plan. They are all in perfect health and seldom use any of its services. They have to keep the plan though, because of the threat of a serious illness or sudden accident, also they need to get the plan and keep it when they have no medical problem. If there is a problem, and they are uninsured, they can’t get any insurance from anybody.

So, taxes would go up. How much? $10,000 worth? Probably not. Eurupe does it for a lot less.

Is Eurpoe’s health care as good as our own?

Depends on who is answering the question.

Presidential Duties.

President Bush has repeatedly said that the first job of the president is to defend the United States.

Now many of the presidential candidates are repeating that statement. They are all wrong.

The first job of our president is to support and defend the CONSTITUTION of the United States of America.

In final analysis the nation of the United States is not as important as its constitution is. There are lots of other nations but there is only one constitution of the United States. And if that goes the way of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib then it is all lost.

If we lose our constitution, it will not come back again. It is our child now, our responsibility, all of us. The president's job is to help lead us in this task. When we scrap it to defend the nation, we are giving away our birthright.

© john Womack, 2007. All rights reserved.

Armenia?

Why the fuss over Armenia? And why right now?

Pelosi said, in defense of that question from others, that it was never the “right time”, OK, but still, why choose what is possibly the WORST time to bring this up in the last 92 years?

Perhaps Karl Rove might have sneaked into Nancy Pelosi’s bedroom in the dark of night and whispered into her ear that he was unhappy with Bush and neo-cons for sending him “on down the road” and he knew exactly how to get even by bulldozing this condemnation resolution through the House of Representatives. That would surely embarrass George Bush, and might even lead to Turkey invading Iraq from the north, thus opening up another front in WWE (War Without End).

Of course, it simply plays into the hands of George Bush and provides the neo-con arsenal with some badly needed ammunition. It gives Bush an opportunity to look statesmanlike, and also shines a bright, international spotlight on the ineptness of the Democratic Party, and their organized lack of direction. It also gives unnecessary support to the old idea that only the president should deal with other countries, otherwise surly chaos will occur.

If passed, the resolution to condemn the obviously brutal slaughter of 1915 would make not a difference in anything except to stir up old hatreds. It would not “prove” anything or be any kind of a verdict from any widely respected court of justice, but only a political slam against people no longer alive by those who see the world as a tiny place.

This condemnation only serves to reinforce why the American people, as well as the people of the world, hold the United States congress in even greater contempt than they do the American president, and why, when in this time of great peril, whenever we look around us for someone to come to America’s help we find only the pitiful democrats.


©John Womack, 2007. All rights reserved.

Lee Bollinger, School Yard Bully

Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, introduced the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the student body Monday. The introduction consisted of a series of verbal slaps to the face and insulting kicks on the shin. I'm sure it made Bollinger look like a big man in his own eyes, but the images that will remain with the people of the world will be different. My feelings were these:
1) Bully - you agree to introduce a guest, and instead you insult him instead without warning.
2) Barbaric - Ahmadinejad is not an Arab, but he is Muslim and a player in that arena. To insult a guest in that culture is to demonstrate barbarianism.
3) Sophomoric - Bollinger's words were not those of an educator, one who is a seeker of truth, one who constantly tests and looks for new ways. Instead they were the words of a preacher, one who already knows everything important and knows all the facts.
4) Stupid - Ahmadinejad was known to be slipping badly in public opinion throughout Iran, the Moslem, and particularly the Arab world. Many felt he was through and finished. After Bollinger's insults, Ahmadinejad was regarded well, as handling himself properly.
5) Shrouded - Bollinger's tirade tended to obscure Ahmadinejad's true lack of understanding of critical factors.
6) Wasted - Instead of challenging Ahmadinejad to comment on several important concepts, Bollinger told him before he began speaking that he (Ahmadinejad) was not worth listening to.

Columbia University fell in my own estimation as a result of this sad performance, and Ahmadinejad did what he could to save the day, including his faux-pas about no gays in Iran, and yet, one was left to wonder how George Bush would have performed speaking to and entertaining questions from the student body of a college in Iran, or anywhere else, like – for example – any American university.

© John Womack, 2007. All rights reserved.

The Angel of Death Theory

The neocons seem near the end of a disastrous period of rule in the United States and hopefully they will be succeeded by saner heads. They are in such disgrace that nothing could possibly save them. Nothing that is, but the Angel of Death.

Who is the Angel of Death? It is George Bush of course, but wait – there’s much more to the story than just that basic fact. Think about what is at stake:
1) Many powerful Christian fundamentalists seem convinced Armageddon is near, that God’s Kingdom is at hand, and they have a role to play in that fulfillment of destiny.
2) Some Jewish fundamentalist seem to believe that there is window in time that is currently open, in which it will be possible to destroy not only Iraq, but Iran as well. Then, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will will be split asunder by New Israel which will expand to include Jordan, Syria and all of Palestine.
3) The American military is not in good shape. It may be near collapse and it now needs, according to some neocon aspirations, to be reborn as a great mercenary army. The current “surge” then would become not a temporary offensive but the beginning of a new invasion and a new military.
4) The Republican Party, which would be the “host” of these neocons, fundamentalists and mercenaries is in significant disarray. Its traditional leaders are in no position to confront these powerful members of its new core areas.
5) Nuclear strikes by the United States on several Iranian targets would render the United Nations helpless, and prove it to be useless.
6) The United States would then truly be the only superpower in the world and Israel would be free to control the Middle-east.
7) And this opportunity could be rapidly passing us by. If events run their normal course, and America begins a drawdown in Iraq, and the Republican Party loses badly in the forthcoming election, and the current administration is removed from power perhaps for years to come, then this great chance would be gone, and the neocons would lose an apocalyptic opportunity. It may well be now or never.
8) Last, and maybe most important of all, the American press and media are dying and continue to exist only on carefully fed bits of goodies dispensed from the government and are able to only broadcast crude cartoons and the most blatant sensationalism.

But you protest that the American people would not put up with any attack on Iran now, and the world community would see it as an outrageous invasion of a national sovereignty that would threaten them all. So how could such a sudden preemptive attack by America ever take place?

That’s where the Angel of Death comes in . It’s frighteningly simple. George Bush is assassinated. Willingly? Of course not. The assassin would be some member of the Neo-Con fraternity, perhaps one who seems poised for “greatness”. Someone with easy access to the president. He of course would be killed after the deed, along perhaps with other unaware members of the administration and they would become great heroes of a White House “shootout”. AND an Iranian would be produced as the villain, whisked off to Guantanamo, or elsewhere, never to be seen again as President Cheney took charge and immediately carried out the carefully planned series of missions, including carefully prepared leaks of false information about Iran’ s accelerating “preparation” to attack America.
© John Womack, 2007. All rights reserved.

Proud to be an American.

If we are serious about fighting a real War on Terror, and intend to win in Iraq and the middle east let’s MAKE the congress declare war. Let’s have the draft reinstated and take every American man and woman between the ages of 18 and 46. Let’s pick them up from their homes and from where they work and send them off: six weeks training and then on to Iraq for two to three or more years – no leave or vacations until the war is over. Let’s institute wage and price controls, bring back rent control and freeze the interest rates. Let’s begin rationing of goods, sell no more tires, restrict the sale of gasoline, put a 35 mph speed limit on all American roads. Let’s shutdown the auto industries and most of the other major industries in America and turn them into great war production machines. Let’s start collecting trash and converting it into war products, re-institute war bonds and let our kids buy war stamps in school. Let’s do all of this, IF we really believe George Bush when he says we are in the greatest battle of civilization’s history.

After all, that’s what Iraq is doing and that’s what al Qaeda is doing, and that’s what the Taliban is doing, and that’s what “Greatest Generation” of Americas did during World War II. But it seems like we don’t do any of that any more. We want to fight wars on the cheap, we think we are simply invincible and nobody can stand to fight us anymore. Besides, God is on our side and He will see we win in the end.

But this war in Iraq is lost in spite of God and everybody. It’s lost like the last few wars we “fought”. And for the same reasons. We lost Korea because the American people didn’t really want to fight it, they didn’t really believe in it. President Truman sent the troops in for an easy victory but the people had to be “sold” on the war later when the fighting turned tough. They didn’t buy it. We lost in Vietnam because the American people didn’t want to fight that one either – especially after they found out Lyndon Johnson lied to them about the Gulf of Tonkin “attack” so we could get rough with North Vietnam and the Veit Cong. We lost Afghanistan because we just simply quit there so we could go invade Iraq. We lost Iraq because the American people never did believe George Bush and they didn’t want the war in the first place.

After all, Bush wasn’t “just wrong” on every single issue from the WMD to the AlQuida in Iraq, to the Saddam Hussein planning the 9-11 attacks, to the yellow-cake thing, to the “MIssion Accomplished” thing, and the “bring them on” thing, and his cute little “what insurgency?” thing. He wasn’t just ignorant about Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman, Abu Ghraib, Walter Reed, and so on. He was lying. He was lying to the congress, lying to the American people, lying to the world. It’s his war, his personal war and he has only a few people really behind him, namely a few Bush patriots like Cheney, Libby, Gonzales, Perle who have sworn allegiance to Him, not the constitituion, and – of course – “the troops”.

So now this war has become a special kind of hell for a few Americans. Those are the “Troops” we just mentioned. They go and come and go again. We say we won’t forsake our “troops” there so we send them back again to relieve themselves. And we send them back sooner and keep them there longer. And again. And again. And again. And we still won’t forsake them there so we send them back again – too often they are the same guys – we did that in Vietnam, remember? Meanwhile, the rest of us are here at home, building our lives, moving up in our jobs, putting down roots, getting our kids through schools, moving to new neighborhoods, buying better houses, new cars, TVs, computers, and we won’t forsake our troops, either. We help them to rotate over again to relieve each other more quickly and help them to stay there longer to give “the troops” back home a break. We watch our own kids get married, we go to the high school football games, and watch the news occasionally. We put new bumper stickers on our new SUVs to show we really do support our troops. We wave the flag. We stomp our foot. We support our president! Hot damn! It’s good to be an American.

© John Womack, 2007. All rights reserved.

Fred Thompson

It is already apparent one of the approaches that Thompson will try will be that of the good ole southern gentleman. He will admire Hillary, and even hold a door open for her should the occasion arise, and he will make it clear that while he thinks she is fine and dandy that it is simply God's own words that the ladies belong in submissive status in someone's home. Of course he won't say any words that come close to stating such beliefs, but it will be interesting to see how he and his handlers approach that. As far as Barrak is concerned, Fred will again evidence admiration for the good boy, he will be proud of him and will make it clear – again without words to this effect – that Barrak is a credit to his race. Thompson's role will be that of the gentleman with the white man's burden, he won't say this but his actions will not be lost on his core.