Careful, Mr. President

Mr. President:

Two things in the news over the last couple of days concern me. First, your proposal to Republicans on avoiding the fiscal cliff includes $1.6 trillion in tax increases and $50 Billion in stimulus spending. This seems like a bit of a “cram down,” as in something you cram down your opponents throat.

Given the stonewalling and muck Republicans drug you through with the avowed goal of making you in their words "a one-term president," I don’t blame you. Not one bit. Giving them a knuckle rub probably feels pretty good.

But is it right for the country? We are coming out of the recession. To avoid becoming guilty of everything the Republicans said you already were guilty of in terms of potential damage to the economy from fiscal imprudence, now is the time to think about going after the deficit in a year or two, not adding to the debt.

You rescued the ship, now steady as she goes. The deficit is not a single-generation problem, it is a problem for our children's grandchildren. Saving the country for them would be a legacy worthy of Lincoln, and only you can do it.

My second concern is you opposing the bill that would grant work visas for 50,000 educated foreigners who could greatly benefit the United States. Whoa… really? These are the very people who will build the very economy of the future that you have supported, another move that could cement your legacy. 

Please reconsider. Yes, different people make different contributions. A PhD from India will contribute more than a maid from Guatemala. That does not mean the PhD is worth more as a human being, only that their contribution will produce greater returns. If you have to give up one for the other, just do it, as we say out here in Oregon.

Finally, I am going to tell you to be wary of the advice of friends in your second term. Many will be looking for payback, others will be looking a political windfall. Success for you doesn't work like that. Yes, they stood by you and were often right. Smart people, they helped redirect the pendulum and were invaluable. But you are in danger now of being pushed too fast in a direction where we are already gaining speed.

Slowly, sir.

Oh, Mr. Ro-money

On Tuesday night I stayed up for the final election results and saw Gov. Romney's concession speech. I was impressed, actually, and for an entire day felt that America may have actually had a choice between two qualified candidates. And I was done with this election.

Then came Wednesday. Then Romney proved he was just as out of touch as has been written here, as he was portrayed by the Obama campaign, as voters finally decided. We got his unvarnished opinion, given with nothing to lose, nothing to cover. On Wednesday, Mr. Romney proved he was not right for America. Read it here.

According to him, Romney's loss was due to gifts of education to students, gifts of medical care worth $10,000 a year for them poor Mexicans, gifts of free abortions to women. Obama gave those gifts and that is why he won, according to Romney. Why, the responsible Romney couldn't compete! He had the interest of ALL Americans in mind when he guaranteed free money to the top 1%. My god, what a putz.

Romney lied when he apologized for the remark that 47% of Americans were freeloaders. That is exactly the fiction he believes and that is how he would have governed. He just repeated it to the nation through his disappointed campaign contributors. Romney planned to make life harder for the poor and decimate the middle class in the foolish belief that the top 1% are the only social class worth coddling.

Other Republicans are trying to put as much distance between themselves and Governor Gaffe as they can, but Ro-money has already given Democrats heavy artillery for the next election. That may be too bad, because by then we may need the austerity and good ideas from the right.

Good ideas, not the posturing, lies, half-truths, and misinformation spread by the Romney campaign and rejected by more than half the country in 2012.

America, we have much to be proud of this week.

Four reasons why Romney lost

Pundits across the political spectrum are analyzing, dissecting, and opinionating why Mitt Romney lost the election to be President of these United States.

They are making it far too complex:

1) No tax returns. C'mon, what's with the off-shore bank accounts?

2) No plan. Magical thinking is not a plan.

3) No honesty. Etch-A-Sketch was the only truth spoken by the Romney camp.

4) Obama won. The Dem's brought game and Karl Rove brought… nothin'.


It's time to move on.

What now?

Victory is sweet. No denying it. We won. And for all the right reasons.

But so quickly is that overwhelmed by the realization that we are still standing in deep shit and we are in it together. It does not matter, today, where that shit came from. It does not matter, today, who kept it from being cleaned up over the last four years.

What matters, today, is cleaning it up.

Conservatives cannot do it today. Any proposal for action makes stepping forward too risky for them, like a capitulation, an invitation to be abused. Their whole argument was that the shit will take care of itself, eventually it will drain away or get covered up or maybe we'll just get used to the smell. That's why the victory was for all the right reasons. America knew better.

That leaves it to the Left. The first task is to extend a hand to the conservatives and thank them for presenting their ideas. Because as our President said, we are lucky to be Americans and other nations fight with GUNS when they disagree.

Tax reform: Let's take Governor Romney's pledge and make it real. No loss of revenue. But at the same time, no increased revenue. The only way to do both and meet our obligations is to become more efficient and the first step along that path is reform of the tax code.

Please. Reform. The. Tax. Code. Flat tax, progressive tax, sales tax… I don't care. But simplify, please. 

Liberals, money comes from somewhere. Every dollar spent on consumption in lieu of investment is a dollar that does not multiply. Yes, the gamblers on Wall Street have to give up their "carried interest" dodges, capital gains should be taxed as ordinary income, mortgage interest capped so the middle class can still buy a home but the loophole limited for mansions. But let's fix the tax code. We can do this.

Medicare and Social Security need to cost each one of us more money. We need a serious co-pay program that does not discourage primary care but makes each of us is cost conscious. It will mean some hardship, but hip replacements in the last 30 days of life only happen because nobody is footing the bill. 

We need to have a serious spiritual discussion about the difference between saving lives and prolonging death. A. Serious. Spiritual. Discussion. Shut up, Sarah.

Education? C'mon, teachers. You're right, children are our future, but THEIR future is in your hands. You are NOT proud of the product.

Industry and jobs: Government employs a lot of people, but it is not government's job to employ people except in certain circumstances. We need roads and bridges, we need teachers and soldiers and battleships, the auto industry bailout was a very good thing.

But mostly, government needs to be a referee: markets need protection from oligopolies, our financial system must not be a casino for Goldman Sachs to play with other people's money, the military/industrial complex must not be allowed to poison our water and foul the air to compete with the Chinese. That's a cost shift, a market distortion.

But Liberals, profit is not a dirty word, income inequality is a great force of inspiration and there are many unintended consequences to the best of intentions. Maybe we can talk about taking the burden off industry for health insurance and pensions so when somebody loses a job, they don't lose access to basic  services? Maybe we can cut a deal, here, that might fit everybody's ideology?

Gays and lesbians, did you HEAR our President acknowledge you in that speech on Tuesday? It was wonderful. "Gay or straight!" he boomed out there at the end. Equal. But look: Marriages are contracts between two consenting adults. It is a contract for living, of mutual responsibility for obligations, rights etc. If we just get rid of the word "marriage," a lot of the animosity goes away. Man-woman, man-man, woman-woman, it's a contract. Why is this a government issue?

Abortion? Gentlemen, please turn this debate over to the women. They will figure it out without your help. Just ask them.

Marijuana? Do Americans 200 miles north of the Rio Grand KNOW what our drug war is doing to Mexico? The cartels control STATES down there now. Allow the market to work. It's a REPUBLICAN idea! Legalize pot, cocaine too, crack, whatever. Addiction is a naturally regulating behavior. Toughen up, let junkies clean up or die, get some taxes out of it and call it a day.

Liberals, we do NOT have a mandate. We have a job to do. And the first task is to turn to our conservative neighbors for help in solving some of these terribly difficult problems. We can't clean up all this shit by ourselves, and certainly not if they are standing on the shovel.

Salt Lake City Tribune endorses… Obama

For all the right reasons, The Salt Lake Tribune, of all newspapers, turned away from Mitt Romney and endorsed President Obama. Read it here. Every moderate, every undecided voter, hell, everyone should read this. It is one of the best descriptions that has been published about the choice that faces America.

How did Romney-Ryan DO that?

How did it come to pass that rich white men born into immense privilege are telling the rest of us we should just work a little harder, expect a little less, do a little more without? 

Where do they get off telling the rest of the country what life should be for poor white men and women, poor Blacks, Hispanics, single mothers etc.(some of whom actually had those kids that Romney-Ryan say all women who have sex should be obliged to have )? 

Oookay, I got all the "coal miner" symbolism paraded out by the righties at the GOP convention. Too bad nobody had a great uncle who was a logger up here in Oregon (whew!) or worked in the mills around here. Rather, the mills that used to be around here. I bet there would be some great family history of the Wobblies.

Speaking of which, all those descendants of miners at the GOP convention and not a word about horrendous conditions? About mines collapsing because adequate shoring took too much out of profits? About black lung disease so long hidden by the great coal companies? The United Mine Workers didn't send one kid to college? Ever seen a face macerated by a broken saw chain?

But, back to the rant. 

I don't get it. Romney-Ryan don't know and can never know what it's like at the bottom of the pile, and now they want to lower their taxes (when they already pay less of their income in taxes than their drivers, their maids, their cooks, etc.) and they want to raise our insurance deductible, they want to decimate our schools, they want to take away our retirement? While they hide their tax returns and their money in offshore accounts? While telling us we should trust them?!?!

What they really want is to destroy opportunity for the rest of us to get where they are, because we need schools, hospitals and homes we can afford. And clean water to drink. And clean air to breathe. And jobs that protect us instead of kill us. And we want our kids to have some opportunity to get what Romney-Ryan got.

Oh, please

Must we? Must we spend a precious week and precious energy debating whether President Obama dissed those with special needs on Jay Leno this week?

Get over it, Politically Correct Police. Obama was laughing at himself, his lack of skills at bowling. He used an accurate image, if not a particularly sensitive one. He was obviously not laughing at the disabled. Intent is everything.

Watch the interview here. It was smart, it was entertaining, it was informative.

There is no issue. The terminally serious, who believe all things human must be greeted with deep, long looks of uplifted anguish, are bores. Those who are working up their outrage are using the disabled to fulfill needs we can only guess at. That includes you, Palin.

We can laugh at ourselves and at each other and still love. We don't need "moralist gotcha guys" sifting every phrase for possible liabilities, when what we need is real work in this real life solving real problems.

Get over it.

Clintons lie and show disrespect

Bill and Hillary Clinton’s desperation has become repulsive. Their dishonesty shameful. They are now the source of bright light on why the nation needs Obama.

No Bill jokes, here. We all know his history. But the Clintons have now increased the shrillness of their spin, their slant, their denials and their lies. They do it as they breathe. It is time to push back.

As the Clinton machine squabbles and threatens over the votes of Michigan and Florida, more of us need to talk about the fact that last year Clinton, along with other candidates, agreed that disputed delegates should not have full representation if they violated party rules. Obama even took his name off the Michigan ballot. Clinton did not. Maybe because she didn’t mean it.

Now that they are losing, the Clintons want to “move the goal posts,” change the rules in the middle of the game, pretend that it is about the integrity of the process instead of about winning. The lousiest of Kindergarten behavior.

But this is quite typical of Bill and Hillary. Again we are confronted with the incredible arrogance that drove the right wing nearly insane in the late 1990s: It is not just the lies, but the clear belief that lies don’t matter, that the truth does not matter.

They will fan class warfare to get to the White House, by portraying Obama as the elite. By saying critics of Hillary are the elite, saying economists who dismiss her stupid plan to eliminate gas taxes as “elite opinion,” when it becomes clear her policies would make the nation worse off (read it here).

What unmitigated horse crap. What amazing cynicism. The bold, calculating manipulating arrogance of it is simply breathtaking. They are willing to damage the country to get to the White House.

Bill Clinton says those urging his wife to get out of the race don’t worry about jobs or health insurance. (Read it here). Hillary claims she ducked under sniper fire, then says she misspoke when video showed otherwise. Bill pretends to champion the poor while lying to the poor, misleading while pretending to be a friend, having made $100 million since leaving the White House.

At this point it is obvious they would offer help to a blind man to get proper change, then slip a $1 bill in place of the $5. Anything goes if it is for a good cause, and they get to decide what that might be.

They use the uneducated because the educated favor Obama. Does education matter? Yes, it does. It does not make one right, but it matters. The Clintons say the opposite, that education somehow makes one’s opinion less meaningful. This is an odd stance for a Rhodes Scholar married to a Yale Law graduate. But the Clintons will say anything, use anybody.

Clinton is of the old order: Lie when you have to, change the rules when you can, do whatever it takes, dirty politics. Nobody really wants that. A woman in the White House? Sure. That woman? No.

We don’t want people who will do anything to get power to have power. It really is that simple.

It is time for change. Obama in ‘08.