Shut it Down? The Kids in Washington Continue to Act Up

A few hours until your government, led by children fighting over the Tonka Toy truck in the sand box, shuts down. Arguing not over budget cutting, but posturing for the next presidential election and their own home-state fans, congress can’t get out of its own way, move off agenda-based cuts and riders attached to cuts and get the job done. The job you are paying them to do. So, troops don’t get paid, hundreds of thousands of government workers don’t get paid, parks and museums get closed and you suck wind.

Here's a novel idea . . . instead of shutting down the whole government. Let's start by making sure politicians don't get paid if the government gets shut down. After all, our troops won't get paid . . . so why pay a bunch of hacks in Washington if the men and women in harm's way aren't getting paid. Sheesh.

We're talking about two-tenths of 1 percent between a shut down and no shut down. Are you kidding me? That's a mac and cheese dinner instead of a steak once a month. Republicans need to strip the political issues (does anyone else seem to think funding or not funding Planned Parenthood is a political not a budget issue?) out of their financial papers and get back to what people said they wanted in the last election . . . make it work. And Democrats need to understand that cuts are coming and they ain't all gonna be pretty. We're broke, folks. A few months later, it's as broken as ever. Bullies in the play ground won't work, and I'm guessing there will be hell to pay for all of them if the government shuts down.

Then lets take down the names of those who manage to piss us off the most with their political rhetoric and 30-second sound bites and make sure they are told to go home in the next election. Thus far, the election changes haven't worked . . . I'd fire all of you and start over. The machine is broken, and tightening a bolt here and there isn't going to work. The Tea Partiers are shooting themselves in their collective feet if they press agenda-based riders (although reports seem to indicate it’s old-line Republicans hanging on to the riders and not new Tea Party folk) . . . the attack on Planned Parenthood is agenda-driven. Federal funds don’t pay for or subsidize abortions, so that argument is out . . . despite the fact that many conservative insist (and show their ignorance) that Planned Parenthood should be cut because some centers provide abortions and nothing more. It’s an attack on women and women’s health, plain and simple. And, personally, I find it more than a bit off-putting that a bunch of middle-age white guys are leading that charge.

The problem is there are no real consequences for politicians . . . they vote for this cut and that cut or to spend this much or that much, but their pay doesn't get cut (in fact it rises regularly and automatically with nary a vote, let alone my say or your say . . .  their benefits and perks are among the best in the country and they enjoy huge staffs and free travel . . . oh wait . . . that is free travel on your dime. So, as I said, let's start with cutting salaries if they vote to cut yours, making them pay for healthcare . . . cutting staff (after all, your secretary was let go in the recession) . . .  no travel outside the country and no travel outside commercial coach. There's no need for some congressperson from bum wherever to take a jaunt with his staff to Aruba for a week, especially in this climate.

Solve the problem . . . don’t delay it with half-baked delays, continued extensions and endlessly raising the deficit ceiling. The people who pay you are ticked off, and failing to do your jobs isn’t going to help . . . You want to tell us how great and hard-working you are? . . . Stop the sand kicking, lock yourselves in your offices and get working. We’re watching.

Pisses me off.

Republicans Start Eating Their Young Again; Target Agendas, Not Dollars

Years ago a friend gave me a button that read “Republicans Eat Their Young.” Kind of funny, and I suspect he was more Republican than Democrat, though we all tended to float in and out of both platforms. But now, one has to wonder if Republicans are starting to eat their young again.

With their attacks on public radio and television and their defunding of Planned Parenthood, they are clearly making politically and agenda-driven budget cuts. Marching like Sherman through hot topics like abortion and government-assisted, supposedly liberal-biased, programs like public broadcasting turns the Republicans into the party of “I don’t give a crap about anybody or anything unless they fit into my narrow-minded view of life” party. I know, that’s not really fair, but I don’t care.

With politicians throwing money away faster than (pick your own cliché . . . I was going to go with the sailors at a hooker convention one . . . ) it seems to me they’re ignoring the obvious, trying to spin the cuts into “budget only” decisions. Oh please. I know politicians think we’re all idiots incapable of seeing through their fluff and sputter, but with thousands of bloated programs funded at least in part by our government these attacks on women’s programs and public broadcasting (oh let’s just haul the Cookie Monster into Washington Square and shoot him) seem especially vicious.

Newly neutered Democrats are flopping around on the Washington beach without a clear message and seem to have forgotten that there are new bullies in town now and they ain’t Democrats. Welcome to the world.

Clearly Planned Parenthood was targeted because they provide abortion counseling and abortion services. But more importantly, they provide all kinds of services and counseling to a wide range of women. Rich, poor, black, white, young, old, etc. Pre-natal care, birth control counseling, and on and on. Millions of women go to Planned Parenthood for reasons other than abortions, and many women go there because Planned Parenthood provides them with services they need and want at little or no cost. Working on a five-point sliding payment scale, Planned Parenthood provides ob-gyn services, a wide variety of counseling, including birth control and pre-natal health,

An attack on Planned Parenthood is, simply, an attack on women, and the Republicans, not known for their open-mindedness when it comes to women and their rights, need to take a broader view of the world before starting to hack at so specific a target. I get the abortion issue and agree that federal funds shouldn’t be used to fund abortions, but this is a much bigger issue that Republicans don’t get, and we should all be ashamed they don’t.

Ok, thought I forgot about public broadcasting? Nah. It’s the one that really irks me. I get the liberal-bias argument, but with these folks agenda-driven cuts seem to be becoming the norm and not the exception. While arguments have been made that public broadcasting doesn’t need the federal dollars, I’d argue that needs-based government funding is a myth and often more reliant on political friends rather than viability of the program or need. Farm subsides? Ethanol production? (That worked for a few days until food prices started rising and some genius figured out that corn is used to feed farm animals . . . sheesh).

Of course top NPR execs didn’t help their cause by bad-mouthing conservatives to a group of fake Arab money guys in a video sting, but again, the bigger issue of “cherry picking” agenda-driven cuts over more significant cuts remains. And you can’t tell me Washington is serious about cuts until Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are on the table.

Everyone there needs to buckle up, because it is going to be a bumpy ride . . . no federal employee raises, nothing but commercial travel for politicians (no military planes and no overseas travel . . . stay here, folks and work), let’s take a look at your benefits (since you want to take ours and make us pay more), and on and on. You’re pissing money away and, frankly, it ain’t yours to piss.

You all may bitch about private companies, but the simple truth is that is you worked for one you’d be fired because they need to work to stay in business . . . and Washington hasn’t worked for a long time, and the fact that Republicans are starting to eat their young again won’t help.

A Super Super Bowl

After reviewing over 80 hours of coaches’ tape beamed directly to my football center here in New Hampshire, listening to 430 football pundits, watching 3,800 hours of ESPN analysis and interviewing 420 current and former players, our analysis of today’s Super Bowl is . . . it’s a toss up.

Ok, we mostly did none of that, but today’s game sure looks like it will be a classic. Two hot quarterbacks, both great outside the pocket (unlike Manning and Brady, both of whom will be watching from somewhere comfortable and safe), solid defenses and great receivers put both the Packers and Steelers in Dallas in the first place. Forgetting the quarterback match up, keep your eyes on the defense, especially those two lovely hair guys Pittsburgh strong safety Troy Polamalu and Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews. Wherever the ball is, that’s where Polamalu will be . . . outside, inside, cover, blitz . . . he’s a nightmare. Matthews (Thor without the freakin’ hammer), rushing, covering, blitzing, is a monster inside and a nightmare for a sometimes dicey offensive line.

They are the two best defensive players in the NFL and their big defense plays later today may tell the story in the end.

If the Packers can continue to move the ball on the ground like they have the past few weeks, it’ll give Aaron Rodgers his downfield chances both in the pocket on set pass plays and on play-action. Ben Roethlisberger may not have the stats of a lot of quarterbacks, but he’s a beast who seems to make every big play he has to. If it’s close and you’re a Packers’ fan, don’t walk away in the final few minutes if Green Bay’s leading.

Like I said up front, it looks like a toss up . . . being the guy I am, I’m taking Green Bay 28-24, but my buddies in Vegas aren’t going to hear from me to drop some cash on this one.

Illinois Pols Blow Up Their State

Hard to believe, but if you paid $2,000 in state income taxes in Illinois last year, you’ll pay nearly $3,400 this year, thanks to the politicians who passed a “temporary” 66 percent hike. Ouch. Boom.

While much is being made of the fact that other states have higher individual and corporate tax rates, the simple fact is that mismanagement, overspending and lousy oversight led to the increase. Politicians, always good at spending and always bad at managing, found themselves in a lose-lose situation (one they put themselves in, of course) of having to cut virtually every state program to the bone or jack up the people that are paying for those programs. So, pay more taxes, folks.

Politicians voted to raise the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent and the corporate tax rate from 4.8 percent to 7 percent. Both rates were adjusted to carry through until 2015, when they would drop to 3.25 percent and 5.25 percent, respectively.

Sure . . . ever meet a “temporary” tax increase before? Me neither.

Clearly a tax increase was needed, but also as clear is the fact that the Illinois legislature had failed to address its financial quagmire before it became a financial disaster. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: underfunded pensions, growing deficits, delayed bill payments. Ok, let’s say a $13 billion deficit, some $8 billion in unpaid bills and around $78 billion in underfunded pension liabilities. Of course when all that starts hitting the fan, bond ratings fall and the state has to pay more to borrow money and pay more to service the debt they already have.

Despite the fact that states around the country are reporting higher tax collections recently (Illinois’ revenue has increased from $57 billion to $68 billion during the first six months of the fiscal year), apparently there was no choice but to blow the state up. I’m guessing there were plenty of other choices, despite cuts and layoffs already made.

What will be interesting to watch is the impact on jobs and businesses in the state . . . Some are predicting the tax increases could cost the state more than 250,000 jobs over the next few years. Part of the problem is that what business will extend itself to make new hires if there isn’t a predictable tax pattern from the state?

Government, no matter the size, local, state or federal, needs to learn to run lean. Save money when it’s pouring in so when the bad times come, they don’t have to gut people when times are tough. Unemployed people can’t pay higher taxes, and businesses can’t hire people when the economy tanks. We need long-term predicable policies.

With an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, it hardly seems the state is interested in attracting new businesses or encouraging the ones they already have. Too bad, I heard a story once about things rising out of the ashes . . . I’m thinking Illinois has just blown up the Phoenix.

Three Shut Ups and One WTF

I try to be nice . . . really I do, but sometimes things just tick me off. And when they come in bunches, it kind of makes my head explode a bit. Ok, so, since I live alone, I’ve been know to vent at my computer screen, but that’s ok, since there’s nobody here to hear me. Well, except that occasional squirrel in the wall. So, bear with me a sec and let me just issue three quick “shut ups” (trust me, I had a bunch more) and one wtf.

Shut up: Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen. Generally, evoking Nazis during political speeches doesn’t work well unless you’re giving an actual history lesson. So by comparing Republican criticism of the new health care plan to Joseph Goebbels’ Nazi propaganda  strategy  . . . "They say it is a government takeover of health care, a big lie, just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually, people believe it."

Shut up.

Shut up: Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. If you’re not black, it probably isn’t a good idea to tell someone, particularly the President, that his position on an issue is “surprising” because of his race. Santorum (who has also fallen into the Nazi trap by comparing Democraic filibusters to Adolf Hitler) disagrees with Obama’s pro-choice position. No problem there, but “ . . .  I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, 'No, we're going to decide who are people and who are not people.'"

That doesn’t work. Disagreeing is always fun, especially on divisive issues like abortion. But to be surprised he isn’t pro-life because he’s black? Nope.

Shut up

Shut up: Rev. Franklin Graham. There are six people dead, including a 9-year-old girl. A congresswoman is lying in a Houston Hospital critically injured from a bullet tearing through her brain, and you’re all pissed off because the Tucson memorial service wasn’t Christian enough? Shut up.

I hate this argument: You aren’t Christian enough, black enough, whatever enough. It’s simply a way of saying, “You aren’t Christian enough for me. And, thus, you can’t come to my Christian party.” Wasn’t the time or event to spew your concern that we don’t have enough Jesus in our lives. Fair enough, but besides trying to assert yourself as the Jesus Police (I believe this so I am a better person than you), you managed to piss off even those you might well agree with you.

It’s a big tent, and I don’t want in to your darn tent anyway. You aren’t better than I am, so please stop acting like you are. Your ignorance showed when you called a Yaqui Indian from the “Yuppie tribe or something. I didn’t quite get it.” Sometimes it’s best not to say a thing. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Shut up.

And finally, my WTF.

Robert Burton, a big fan of University of Connecticut football, wants $3 million of his donations back because he feels he wasn’t adequately consulted prior to the hiring of a new football coach, Huh?

"I know more football coaches than the majority of Athletic Directors in America. … I am fully qualified to assess coaches and their ability to match up with the university's needs," Burton wrote. He also threatened to pull his ad dollars out of the football program, cancel his suite at the football stadium and pull the money he contributes to the summer football program. Could this guy get any more pissy?

Sheesh get out a big pin to pop this guy’s head. Take his name off the new football training facility as he’s demanded, keep his money . . . it was a donation after all. And cut this booster loose. Boosters are a big problem in college sports and this guy’s a perfect example. As was said on PTI, $3 million doesn’t even buy a parking space at Nebraska.

Get over yourself. Nobody thinks you are as important as you do.

Politicians and the Media: It ain't a Love Fest

What’s with politicians and the media?

Palin says all press is evil. Obama thinks Fox is destroying the free world. You’ve got to love it, don’t you? I mean, in essence, the press delivers news to us. Ok, sometimes there’s spin and dodging and weaving and the line between news and opinion is so blurred you can’t tell it’s a line. But the media, in all its 24-hour news cycle forms, is, at least , a necessary evil, especially for politicians.

After all, suppose they gave a press conference and nobody came?

That’d be kind of cool, and would, of course, point out the obvious hypocrisy of any politician’s stand on the issue. They need the media. What they don’t like is people asking tough questions, like those killer Katie Couric questions about Palin’s reading habits. . . let’s review, shall we?

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

Oh I know, it’s not fair to pick on her. And in a fair fight she’d probably drop me like a moose on opening day, or at least have her husband Todd try. But don’t you think she could have come up with an answer? You could have, and you weren’t running on a presidential ticket. 

Obama said, "Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition -- it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”

Fox is destroying the world? Oh my.

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton went even further. "If you're on the left, if you're somebody like [MSNBC's] Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow or one of the folks who helps to keep our government honest, and pushes and prods to make sure that folks are true to progressive values, then [the president] thinks that those folks provide an invaluable service."

Keith Olbermann “keeps the government honest?” Hardly. He’s consumed so much Kool Aid he’s turning green. And why should the press “make sure that folks are true to progressive values?” I guess that’s important if you’re a progressive. I’m not.

As I’ve said before, these aren’t news people, they’re commentators. And politicians embrace those commentators who agree with their point of view. Of course. Always have and always will.

We need an active media that looks at and covers issues from all angles. We need commentators who express their points of view. We need both sides. You don’t like what someone is saying, turn the channel, read another paper, find another site.

Gather the information from everywhere and make up your own mind. Palin’s disdain for the media will eventually cost her. But that is her right, and really, the press probably overuses the old “right to know” argument. The struggle for some comes as they become celebrities, and Palin certainly is that. By the same token, bitch all you want about Couric’s interview with her (the end result being that we saw that Palin knew little about anything), but I’ll bet she could answer that “what do you read” question now anyway. Whether her defensive prickliness will carry her forward we'll see. Personally, I find it one-dimensional and tiresome.

Politicians, whether they like it or not, need at least a working relationship with the press. It’s a mutual need. And, frankly, I want to know what these people are saying, even in that modern, 24-hour news cycle 30-second sound bite world in which we live. So suck it up, nobody forced you into the public spotlight.

After all, what if they held a press conference and nobody came? I still think that would be kind of cool.

Politics . . . as usual

So the Great Leader called all his chiefs to his house and they met. And talked about the future and how they should rule this great land. And, as usual, nothing got done.

We're getting a bit far away to blame Bush for all the evils of the world, but in this age of "it's not my problem," New Orleans still doesn't have the equipment on site in the event of another major hurricane, there's no more emergency equipment in the Gulf then there was before the Deepwater Horizon blew up, people seem to get poisoned from hamburgers, eggs and greens more than ever before and our freakin' government spends money faster than frisky frat boys at a Nevada cat house. What the heck are they doing in Washington?

Democrats took a beating, but don't hold your breath for the Republicans or Tea Partiers who replaced them to do much better. After all, Republicans held office for years and managed only to bloat the budget, grow government, pass pet projects, undermine minimal oversight and pretty much piss everyone off. Only in the movies, though, does the bully eventually get his ass kicked by some good guy who rides off into the proverbial "life is wonderful now" sunset with the babe.

Eh . . . it's politics, after all, that Washington-based sport where none of the participants seem to understand anything except the desperation they feel when re-election is near. They can't make any real tough decisions because then they won't get re-elected. They can't say anything but the standard 3-second sound bite mush because then they won't get re-elected. They can't really try and change the way things are done because then they won't get picked for any important committees . . . and then won't get re-elected.

Come on, these people get headlines when they tell the press they aren’t going to fly in military jets any more? They shouldn’t have been flying in them in the first place. Get on a damn commercial flight you people. Pay for your own healthcare, freeze your pay, do your own taxes, anything else that might give you a sense of how people are really living. Trust me, if we voters had a chance to lay off a bunch of you we’d do it in a heartbeat. And if any private big business person performed as badly as you have you’d be calling for his head. So you shouldn’t be shocked people are calling for yours.

Clearly the system is broken. . . ok, completely dysfunctional . . . and it has nothing to do with Fox News or MSNBC or anything other than the flaccid impotence of our politicians, who can't even agree on what to disagree. They need a reality check and maybe the elections shook up the status quo a bit. Now I’m a cynic, so I’m not holding my breath, and we may be looking at the modern version of the fall of the Roman Empire.

What’s clear is that half the cars in the convoy have gone off the cliff . . . now we’ll have to see if the others go off as well.