We, the PEOPLE!!

In a world of “have’s” and “have not”s, there is always a certain jealously and rivalry among those who don’t have against those who do have.  There is also a certain fear on the part of the “have’s” that the “have not”s want to take it away from them.  These scenarios are symptomatic of human behavior, and thus at least understandable.

But how does one justify a group of “have’s” who enjoy a government-provided, government subsidized, common sense, multiple choice, quality health care program, but refuse to support making it available to the “have not”s?

As blatantly selfish as that seems, it is exactly what every republican senator and representative in congress is doing.  They will unanimously vote against the democrats’ revised health care reform bills, despite the fact that every GOP member of congress and their families enjoy essentially the same health benefits they will vote against for everyone else.  These health benefits are embodied in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program (FEHB).  In fact, this plan is available to every single active and retired US Government federal employee and his/her dependents.

FEHB is a conglomeration of private health insurance plans which are negotiated yearly between the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the many participating insurance companies.  The program is administered and regulated by the federal government.  OPM sets minimum standards for the insurance companies to comply with. This is no different from the minimum regulation proposed in the revised health care reform bills which are universally opposed by the Congressional republicans.

In addition to national health plans, certain regional and/or statewide-only plans are also available to the feds under FEHB.    This is similar to the health insurance exchanges proposed in president Obama’s revised health care reform bill which is universally opposed by the GOP.

The US government pays approximately two-thirds of each premium under FEHB, and the employee or retiree pays the other third.  This is akin to premium subsidization proposed in the revised bill, which, to remind everyone, is universally opposed by the GOP.

FEHB does not permit insurance companies to refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions, nor does it allow cancellation of policies if someone gets sick.  Sick people do not pay more than well people.  These features are also included in president Obama’s revised health care reform bill, which, again, is universally opposed by the GOP.

Prescription coverage in FEHB is not subject to the “doughnut hole” of coverage suspension that seniors on other plans are required to pay out-of-pocket after reaching a certain amount per year.  This feature is also included in the proposed health care reform bill, which, as you know totally understand, is universally opposed by the GOP.

While FEHB is not perfect, it does allow folks to change plans yearly during a month-long “open season”.  That means that if you like your plan, do nothing and you are automatically continued in your present plan into the following year.  But if you want to change to a different insurance company, you may do so anytime during open season, and every year if desired.  Your new health insurance company then takes over your coverage effective the beginning of the new year.   Certainly, you know that this feature is also proposed in president Obama’s revised health care reform bill, which is universally opposed by the GOP.

The GOP congressfolk oppose providing these benefits, which they and their families enjoy and take for granted, to all Americans.  Yet, not one of them is declining FEHB coverage for themselves or their families; not while they’re active legislators, and not after they retire.

Thus, the democrats have no choice but to attempt to bypass the GOP and get as much of their health care reform plan passed through reconciliation.  The GOP is ranting over this prospect, but history shows them to be the majority users of the reconciliation process since its inception in 1974.  It becomes more and more apparent that the GOP’s practice of “do as I say, not as I do” is still going strong.

Yet, there now seems to be a new rule involved in the GOP playbook. That rule is that it’s okay for them to have a health benefit, but the rest of us are on our own.  Despite the FEHB benefits they enjoy, the GOP still insists that the democrats must scrap their already-passed plan and start over with the GOP.

Well…if the GOP is really serious about that, they can convince everyone (even We, the PEOPLE!!) of it by proposing the following:

Either all Americans will henceforth be covered by FEHB, the same health benefit program that every past, present and future GOP member of both houses of congress (and their families) take for granted, or FEHB coverage for all past,present, and future members of congress will end immediately.

Tag, you’re it, GOP….put your money where your mouth is.

On Thursday, February 25th, 2010, the long-anticipated bipartisan health care summit called by President Barack Obama will take place beginning at 10am EST in Washington, DC.  CSPAN and possibly other TV stations will covering it live.

In the run-up to this summit, both political parties have been managing expectations for their respective bases, telling them not to expect anything substantial to result from this.

The democrats are claiming that this summit answers republicans’ accusations that they were excluded from all previous health care reform actions.  The republicans  are claiming that the democrats are conducting this meeting for purely political reasons, and that if the dems were really serious about bipartisanship, they would entirely abandon the now-combined health care reform package that has already passed both the House and the senate.

The republicans are also front-loading the media against the legislative process know as reconciliation, which allows the majority party in either house of congress can avoid the obstructionist tactic by the minority party known as a filibuster (talking forever without yielding the floor).  Filibusters require a 60% “super-majority” to end, but are not permitted under reconciliation procedures.  Thus, under reconciliation a bill can proceed to a final vote, which only requires a simple majority (more than 50% of votes cast) to pass.

The GOP has used reconciliation many times when they controlled the congress.  Yet, the GOP is now claiming that use of reconciliation by the dems to pass a revised health care reform package is unfair and “arrogant”, according to Senate Minority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

In other words, when the republicans used reconciliation, which they hold the record for, by the way, it was acceptable.  But when the dems want to use it for the very first time in this administration, the GOP screams foul and runs around claiming that the dems ( the party which the voters chose to be the majority)  are arrogant.

What’s wrong with this picture?

The real answer is that the American people have allowed themselves to be subjected to this type of hypocritical irrational reasoning for far too long.  This has encouraged the GOP to scream that the sky is falling under the democrats, regardless of issue.  Rather than offer real workable, viable solutions to real problems, the minority party senate republicans have used the filibuster to block action on most major legislation since Obama took office in January 2009.

Note to GOP: Political Tip:  It’s a lot easier to trash your opponent than to out-perform him in the proposed solutions department.  If you can inject fear for and hatred of the opponent in the voter, you stand a better chance of getting elected/reelected, because many voters don’t do the research necessary to find out who’s telling the truth and who’s full of it.

As a result of all of this, no one is expecting any breakthroughs during the unprecedented five hour summit meeting.  In fact, the expectation is so low now that the summit will probably have mostly entertainment value.  It is undeniable that Obama has answered the GOP’s accusation of non-inclusion on health care reform by calling this meeting.  But the GOP is already setting it up as a dismal failure by demanding that the democrats abandon their position (in the form of legislation already passed by majority vote) even before the meeting starts.  In other words, the minority is telling the majority to surrender and how to do so.

And yet, all the democrats have asked the GOP to do is to show up and bring their ideas to the table.  Nothing else.

This is a very dangerous game for both sides, but the GOP has now desperately painted itself into a more dangerous corner than the democrats.  Unless they present clear, easy-to-understand solutions to the issue of the recent 40% health insurance premium increases such as those in California and Maine; unless they have a clear solution to the unpaid hospital emergency room bills incurred by the poor but subsidized by the rest of us through higher and higher medical costs….

…unless they can present an alternative plan that will clearly work, they will be left with only one choice:  either sign on to the democratic proposals to fix these things, or bad-mouth the summit, complain about the unfair democrats, cry “woe is me” to whomever will listen to such garbage, and stream endless propaganda about how the democrats are destroying America, Americans, and Americana.

The odds are that when the summit has ended and the theatrics are over, the GOP, having contributed little to nothing at the summit, will opt for the propaganda route.  Credibility will then be the underlying issue.  But in light of the summit itself, that might a huge mistake.  It could cause some moderate republicans stand up to their party leaders and say, “Not so fast…!”  Republican senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Scott Brown of Massachusetts come to mind.

Note to GOP:  Political Tip:  When you lose your credibility past a certain point, the lemmings that were following you over the cliff may begin to have seconds thoughts…as in “think for themselves”…without you.

Despite the fantasy-land message the Tea Party folks like to spout at anyone who will listen to them, tax cuts do not reduce budget deficits.  On the contrary, reducing income while the bills are still coming in is a formula for financial disaster, often leading to bankruptcy.  That’s exactly where the USA is heading.

Regardless of your political leanings, it is an undeniable historical fact that then-president Bill Clinton reached compromises with the republican congress in the mid-1990’s to balance the federal budget that resulted in budget surpluses for each of the last four years of his presidency.  By the time GW Bush took over the presidency from Bill Clinton in 2001, the budget surpluses for next ten years were estimated to be US$5.6 trillion (with a “t”).

Today, the budget deficit is approximately US$1 trillion a year.  That’s a huge change in eight short years.

What changed to cause this financial disaster?

GW Bush’s very first budget proposal returned the USA to deficit spending, and it just got worse from there.   The 9-11 attacks had a effect on federal spending that was universally accepted as necessary.  But far beyond necessary public safety expenditures,  Bush and republicans who controlled congress until January 2007 spent the taxpayers money as if they were drunken sailors.  This was coupled with a huge tax cut for the rich early in Bush’s rule, which dramatically reduced tax revenues while spending was going up.  The republicans, who claim to live by “spend less, then tax less”, violated that very same manta by spending more and still taxing less (if you were very rich).  Thus, the bills were not getting paid.

Bush’s tax cuts, which were a version of former president Ronald Reagan’s voodoo “trickle-down” economics, were supposed to stimulate the economy, which actually didn’t need stimulating, anyway, despite the dot.com failures of the late 1990’s.  Instead, by December 2007, the USA was in a worsening recession, the effects of which are still hurting the middle class today.

President Obama inherited this mess, and the democrats who now controlled congress should have taken advantage of their control to push through important spending cuts even as health care was being debated.  The congressional republicans could also have joined in to find compromises.  Instead the republicans, particularly in the US senate, adapted a single strategy:  Oppose EVERYTHING the democrats propose.  Stop at NOTHING to have NOTHING pass.  Make the democrats look totally ineffective, and piss everyone off everywhere.  People will get so disgusted that they will vote the democrats out of congress in 2010.  The republicans can then resume their self-appointed, self-adjudged, righteous place as the party in power.

And for what?  To spend more and tax less?

Let’s face it.  Even president Obama’s proposed three-year freeze on all discretionary government spending is but a tiny drop in the into the deficit-reduction bucket.  The Tea Party’s dreams of curtailing or even ending entitlements such as social security and medicare are unrealistic and won’t ever happen until we run completely out of money…then EVERYTHING stops.  The annual interest alone on the national debt is projected to be US$516 billion by 2014, which is more than the total projected domestic spending budget for that year.  After that, it’s only a matter of time before the USA goes bankrupt and the American dollar becomes totally worthless.

There is only one possible path to national financial solvency:  EVERYONE has got to “Bite the bullet“.

Both liberal democrats and conservative republicans have got to abandon their singular goals in favor of crafting joint legislation that will both effectively reduce spending AND pay the bills.  Liberals have got to embrace a reduction in spending.  Republicans have got to embrace higher (and fairer) taxes to pay the bills, especially those of the past eight years.

According to the latest polls, two-thirds of Americans are so frustrated with congressional gridlock that they say they will vote the incumbents out of office.  The National Republican Committee (NRC) likes this because there are more democrats in congress than republicans.  But isn’t the main reason for going to congress to do the public’s business, as opposed to making the other party look bad??

Thus, it’s a really tough sell.  The ultra-conservatives like the Tea Party and the ultra-right fringe will NEVER agree to tax increases, not matter what.  These are the same tunnel-visioned folks who will never accept any abortion even if it’s to save the mother’s life.  Even conservative talk show host Bill O’Reilly recognizes that some of these folks are “out there”.

The prognosis is not too encouraging.  The best case scenario is that it will take some very courageous people on both sides years to fix this.

So you just might want to start looking at properties in Canada or Europe, and/or turn your assets into gold or some other inflation-proof commodity.

Oh yeah…and you might want to learn Chinese, since China now owns a huge portion of our national debt.

After all…you’ve heard of foreclosure and repossession, right?

You gotta love Sarah Palin.  Besides being an attractive woman with nice hair, she is such a great entertainer.  No matter where you see her, she is never boring or dull.  She always leaves a lasting impression on all who see her, hear her, and follow her antics.

Take, of example, these photos .  If you look carefully, you will see that Sarah writes on her hands with black ink.  She writes words of reminder, much like a 5th grader might write answers for expected questions on a forthcoming test.

Of course, many politicians often use teleprompters when giving lengthy speeches to help them not have to look down and away from an audience to read the next several lines from a speech.  These helps in maintaining the continuity of the speech with minimum distraction to the audience.  Teleprompters are not designed to provide memory joggers to possible questions from the press, although it is conceivable that they could be used in this manner with some preparation.

However, when someone is in an answer & question session with members of the audience or the press,  he or she is expected to know answers relating to their own personal beliefs and opinions on a whole range of issues.  He or she is also expected to have essential knowledge about the basic programs and policies they support (or do not support).  They are not expected to have to refer to “crib notes” written on their hand to reminder them that energy independence, for example, is one of their own personal priorities.

But at the first-ever convention of the ultra-right-wing Tea Party last weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker.  She was also interviewed in numerous venues.  Take a look at the video featured HERE.  She is seen clearly having to look down at her hand to reminder her that energy is one of her priorities.  While neither the Tea Party convention organizers nor Sarah Palin’s staff would answer questions about whether Palin knew the questions beforehand, it is reasonable to assume that she did have that information.  Otherwise, she would not have written the exact words on her hand that would be used in her answers to those questions.

Shortly after the convention, Sarah Palin publicly announced that she was not ruling out a run for the US presidency in 2012, when, presumably, she would be opposing president Barack Obama’s bid for a second four-year term.  At almost the same time, the press got ahold of the story about Sarah’s writing job on her hands.  Timing, they say, is everything…

What, you might ask, is so wrong about someone writing reminders on their hands?  After all, millions write telephone numbers on their hands when they have nothing else to write on.  People may write shopping items on their hand when they all of a sudden remember them.

And besides, president Barack Obama, known as a master orator, uses teleprompters when giving speeches.  In fact, before the tea Party convention, Sarah Palin had criticized Obama’s use of teleprompters!  That’s interesting, since both former president GW Bush and her own running mate in 2008, John McCain, used teleprompters.  And in all probability, as candidate for US vice-president, so did she.

Sarah Palin’s need to refer to written notes from time to time is certainly acceptable and really not the issue.  The issue is her judgment.  She clearly had no idea that she would be seen as a 5th grader cheating on a test in school.  And worse, she didn’t realize that first criticizing Obama for using teleprompters, and then later publicly referring to her priorities written on her hand would look hypocritical, primitive and downright stupid.

Remember that this is the same person who claimed experience and knowledge in foreign policy issues because Canada borders her home state Alaska to the east, and she can see an island belonging to Russia off Alaska to the west.

What is most astounding, however is that some folks actually see Sarah Palin as president of the most powerful and complicated nation on Earth despite what she says and does in public; but then, there are plenty of people who simply are not very bright or not very informed, or both.  Sarah, herself, seems oblivious to how things she does and says make her look within the framework of her presumed presidential ambitions.  It just seems crazy.

On the other hand, maybe she’s crazy like a fox.  Maybe she’s doing exactly what some folks think the seemingly-lunatic-ultra-extreme-right-wing-fringe (but possibly closet-liberal) Ann Coulter has done, which is to market herself exquisitely.

Maybe Sarah is simply setting herself up for a career in the entertainment field…maybe as a talk show host….maybe…maybe…as Rush’s competition??

Wow!  Talk about turning your hand into a job!  

President Obama has finally submitted his 2011 budget to congress, and one item that generally sails through without too much hoopla is the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) budget.  But not this year.

A war may just break out in congress over Obama’s proposed budget for NASA.  The US space agency was formed in 1958 out of the old NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) by then-president Eisenhower,  in reaction to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik.

NASA brought together the national resources required for the USA to catch up to and surpass the Soviets.  It developed and oversaw all of the unmanned US deep space missions such as  the Mars orbiters, landers and rovers, the Venus imagers, multiple science missions to Jupiter, Saturn, the outer planets, asteroids and comets, the Hubble Space Telescope, most of the International Space Station.  It also developed the 29-year-old space shuttle program of 130 missions so far, among other programs.

However, the most attention and admiration was captured by NASA with its Apollo moon program of the 1960’s and early 1970’s.  On July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first stepped out onto Earth’s moon.  Through December 1972, another ten humans trekked to and worked on this alien terrain.  Additionally, six more NASA astronauts were scheduled to go on three more moon missions beyond Apollo 17, until then-president Nixon axed the NASA budget due to an increasing deficit caused primarily by the US$25 billion a year (in 1970 dollars) Vietnam war.  By comparison, NASA’s budget in its moon-exploring heyday was approximately US$5 billion a year.  And while the Vietnam war was a miserable failure, NASA’s success and accomplishments were the pride of the USA.

It’s hard to believe that it all happened 40 or so years ago.  It makes the idea of NASA withdrawing from human space flight unimaginable. But Obama’s 2011 budget plan proposes to do just that by ending the relatively new NASA Constellation program, which was initiated over five years ago by the Bush administration to return humans to the moon and then explore beyond while retiring NASA’s space shuttle.

Constellation, which has cost over US$9 billion so far, has been chronically underfunded.  The blue-ribbon Augustine Commission, tasked then-incoming president Obama to review America’s space program and suggest ways forward, reported that the underfunded Constellation program could not get humans out of low Earth orbit (LEO) before 2030 at the earliest, even if funding was suddenly  and dramatically increased.

Thus, by terminating Constellation and retiring the space shuttle program after its five final missions, all scheduled in 2010, the USA would for the first time since 1961 have no human space transportation system either in its inventory or even on NASA’s drawing board.

Instead, NASA would provide (and in fact is already providing) research and development “seed” money for private companies to develop their own private human-rated spacecraft.   No schedule or clear time-line to achieve this capability would exist. Accomplishments would be governed solely by the profit motive.

This is certainly feasible from an entrepreneurial point of view, since several private companies such as Orbital Sciences and United Launch Alliance already provide non-human-rated space transportation service to both government and industry. They are set to receive more R&D money from the US government through NASA.

But there is a huge problem with this plan:  It clearly leaves the USA totally dependent on foreign technology and foreign availability for transportation into space, with no clear idea of when that situation might change.  Earth is by no means a tranquil place. Both foreseen and unforeseen needs may arise that demand that the US government redirect and rebuild its own human space launch capability.

However, without maintaining its extraordinarily skilled and experienced space workforce, the US will lose its ability to react quickly to resurrect its human space launch capabilities.  That would leave the US very vulnerable to the whims of possibly uncontrollable sources.  And this doesn’t even address the loss of national pride, or the the loss of interest in a space industry career by young people, who previously were sparked by the most accomplished and successful human spaceflight capabilities on the planet.

There seems to be only solution to this dilemma:  End the Constellation program while funding free enterprise research and development, but still maintain the space shuttle until the private enterprise products are online.  That would mean maintaining at least one space shuttle launch per year until its replacement is operational.  It could take five or even ten years, and would add some budget costs to NASA.  But without keeping the space shuttle operational, the USA will be have to hitch all its rides into space, just like someone hailing a taxi in the rain because he or she doesn’t own a car.

But if the Obama plan is passed as is,in 200 years our descendants just might be hearing Captain Kirk say, “Beam me up, Scotty”…..in Chinese.

President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union Speech last night was yet another glowing example of his ability to outperform practically anyone who has ever delivered a speech in a public forum.  His skills as an orator are probably unmatched by anyone coming before him.  To some extent, that trait might have been the very thing that propelled him, first, to the democratic nomination for president, and then to a general election victory in 2008.

However, after being in office for a year, the record does not indicate that his words and his accomplishment are in lock-step.  In fact, the most important declared  goals vs. what has been achieved in his first year at US president tell a very different story.  It is therefore difficult to say at this point whether his speech did much to change the minds of those critical independent voters who got tired of waiting for the change they voted for to occur.

According to the CNN/Opinion Research poll numbers released after the speech, 48% felt “very positive” about what they heard the president say and 30 % felt “somewhat” positive about it.  Although the two add up to a 78% positive rating, a year ago the number of “very positive” listeners alone was 68%, or 20% more after Obama’s first address before congress.   That 20% deficit demonstrates that independent voters are shying away from the president and his domestic agenda after a year of endless partisan bickering in congress.

In reference to the extreme partisanship occurring on Capital Hill, Obama did say something pretty bold during his speech:

“And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, a supermajority, then the responsibility to govern is now yours, as well.  Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.

Those fighting words were directed at the GOP members of the US senate.  Since the beginning of Obama’s administration a year ago, the republicans in Congress have voted “no” unanimously (or nearly unanimously) on almost every bill in the president’s domestic agenda, including health care reform and the economic stimulus package.

With the election of republican Scott Brown last week, the democrats’ filibuster-proof supermajority in the senate is gone.  That means that as long as the GOP votes as a party block instead of individuals representing their individual states, they can essentially stop the senate from acting on the business of We, the PEOPLE!! dead in its tracks.

The tactic of seizing the moment to cast the spotlight on the opposition, as Obama did last night, is refreshing to say the least.  For too long this president has believed that if he just works hard on his agenda, everyone else will slowly but surely come to think as he does and believe in the domestic agenda he does.  That clearly has not worked.

Finally the gloves have come off and Obama is taking the political fight to the other side, who have never been reluctant to do the same.  The republicans are on notice that playtime is over and the fight will now be delivered to their doorstep.  If the Obama and the democrats had chosen to learn  and apply this lesson six months ago, Scott Brown might not have been elected to Ted Kennedy’s senate seat , and the democrats would still have hold of that 60-seat super-majority in the senate.

But on the other hand, as painful as it has been for the democrats, at least this has happened while there is still time to get the message and thus salvage their political existence.  Obama’s walk must now match his talk, because if he or it doesn’t, he’s facing a defeat for his party in 2010, and for himself in 2012.  The GOP has put out a mountain of lies about health care reform and other issues on the president’s domestic agenda.  They did so loudly and repeatedly until people started to believe them.  As long as Obama challenges these lies immediately, directly and continuously, regarding health care reform or any other issue, he will be okay and he will slowly regain the lost support of those independent voters who were instrumental with putting him into the White House to begin with.

We’ll be watching and frankly cheering for the president in the coming months.  And if the GOP still wants to continue in their roles as naysayers and obstructionists, we’ll be watching for that, too.

But will the majority of Americans watch carefully as well, or will they just believe the person who screams the loudest and the most?

In a dramatic political upset that was suspected only two weeks ago but should have been seen coming for almost two months, Massachusetts voters chose republican Scott Brown by a 52%-47% margin yesterday over democrat Martha Coakley.  Coakley is the Massachusetts State Attorney General who was considered to be the odds-on heir-apparent to the US senate seat held for 47 years by Ted Kennedy, and for seven years before that by his older brother, John F. Kennedy.

GOP pundits were quick to categorize this election as a referendum on President Barack Obama and the democrats in general, and health care reform in particular.

The White House responded that Coakley was simply a weak candidate who ran a lackluster campaign and made a ton of really bad mistakes which upset local citizens.  They claimed that her campaign manager didn’t pay attention to the strong and effective campaign being run by Scott Brown, neglecting to do adequate polling until just two weeks before the election.  The Coakley campaign staff blamed the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee (SDCC) for not supporting her strongly enough, early enough, and financially enough.

So which one was right?

The answer is:  All of them.

Coakley and her aides and staff believed that she would cruise into senate seat because it belonged to the democrats.  They also believed, as did the democrats at the national level, that it was impossible for a republican to win this senate seat in what is perhaps the most liberal state in the USA.  Coakley didn’t campaign very forcefully until two weeks before the election when polls indicated a rude surprise upset was in the making.

Scott Brown, on the other hand, ran a very effective campaign, consistently staying on the issues, and driving across Massachusetts in his pickup truck to meet with voters.  People were able to connect with him and with his message.

And then, of course, the GOP and big business played their respective roles like a fine Stradivarius violin.  The republicans kept up the hate & fear campaign against health care reform while the health insurance companies and related businesses pumped over US$10,000,000 into the Brown campaign. They fully realized that if he won, it would kill the democrats’ 60 -40 majority in the senate and allow the republicans to block any legislation proposed by democrats, including health care reform, with a filibuster.

But more than any other reason, this election was the democrats’ election to lose.  And they lost it.

One important reason is that people are still hurting from the economic downturn and resulting unemployment which started in December 2007 with the recession.  While the democrats were painfully developing their health care reform legislation, they didn’t accomplish much else.  New jobs were not created to point where they exceeded those lost.  Though all indicators are that the economy has turned the corner, that still has not translated into better conditions for the middle class.  Wall Street still hasn’t paid back all of the stimulus money, and yet Wall Street executives continue to receive huge bonuses.  The democrats have yet to pass legislation that would curb the Wall Street abuses that led to the recession in the first place.

And while the GOP has made a Olympic high art form of scaring the hell out of the American people with unending false and scary information regarding health care reform while slowing down the legislative process to the point where many people are just sick of it, the democrats have been absolutely AWFUL in correcting the record on reform and marketing it as a benefit, continuously or otherwise, to the American people.

Finally, President Obama promised during the presidential campaign to make government transparent for the American people, allowing them to be continuously informed of what the government of We, the PEOPLE was doing and why.  That simply has not happened.

Thus, the people of Massachusetts sent a clear message to the Obama Administration and the democrats, that they have got to change their methodology if they want to remain viable.  And their first lesson should come from the republicans who were considered to be moribund just one short year ago.

Yet, out of the last four off-season elections, the democrats have only managed to win a congressional seat in New York’s 23rd district, while the republicans have won the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, and now the US senate seat in Massachusetts.  That’s three out of four for the GOP.  Obviously, something they’re doing is working.

That something is their marketing.  They’re very, very good at selling sand to desert dwellers, ice to Eskimos, snake oil to health food enthusiasts and tobacco to cancer patients.  They do it by employing the same tactics used since forever by advertisers:  Making you live in fear life without it (or with it, as the case may be), and making you hate being without it (or with it, as the case may be).  They also made friends with entities that have a vested financial interest in the product and lots of money to finance the message over and over and over.

Politics is a dirty game and is won by the party that plays that game the best.  If the democrats want to be taken seriously and seen as the protectors of humanity they claim to be, they must learn to do what the the republicans do so well.  They must market themselves by repeating over and over that the GOP is the party from hell.  Instead of constantly being put on the defensive, they must attack as the presently GOP does.  They must repeat it over and over and over.  They must take the offensive and make the GOP continuously explain why they even bothered to get out of bed this morning.  “Making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it.  That, ladies and gentleman, is how you win elections.” (Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepard in the 1995 movie, “The American President“).

In other words, the democrats have to learn to play the GOP’s game.  Otherwise, our progeny might be reading about them in US history class along with the Tory and Whig parties.

Between Sarah Palin becoming a paid political analyst for Fox News which is like making the Pillsbury dough boy a nutritional analyst, Harry Reid’s poor choice of words over a year ago, the same-sex marriage ban challenge trial going on in federal court in San Francisco, and the closed-door negotiations to merge the House and Senate bills into one that president Obama can sign into law before his State of the Union speech in a few weeks, there’s not too much political news to write about this week.

Since We, the PEOPLE!!’s first blog article two and a half years ago, this week could very well be the week the more meaty political news forgot to show up.  The news outlets are full of stories (as they should be) about the devastating earthquake in Haiti. which is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, It will need a lot of help recovering from this tragedy.  Everyone can do something, even it’s just a small amount of money or energy.  To choose the best way for you to assist, click HERE.

In the meantime, We, the PEOPLE!! will continue to monitor the news waves for juicy tidbits of significant political bull$#!t, and will comment on them as they arrive in all of their hate-mongering and/or fear-mongering glory.  However, expect us to interrupt regularly scheduled life-activities to announce the winner of the “first person to catch Sister Sarah’s first use of the pseudo-political term “golly-gee”" on Fox News.  Extra credit will be given for a YouTube video of the climatic moment.  And if you can catch her saying “Gosh Darn It”, the award will be even greater.

Sometimes it’s best to simply sit back and watch from the sidelines.  This week seems the perfect time to do that.  Next week, on the other hand, promises to be filled with much more to comment on, not the least of which just might be a threatened constitutional challenge from the GOP to the democrat’s health care reform bill.

Yep!  Along with wanting a constitutional amendment banning certain medical procedures, namely abortion, and another one banning certain freedoms of expression, such as burning a flag in protest (which would bestow upon an article of sewn cloth more rights then on the American citizen who sewed it), these folks also want to prevent health care reform by arguing that mandating the purchase of health insurance by all citizens is unconstitutional.  In other words, make poor people have to use extremely expensive emergency rooms which they can never afford anyway for their health care needs.  The rest of us pay for that now, anyway, through higher health insurance premiums.  And what’s wrong with that system??  Nothing, according to Rush, who spent some time in a hospital recently and said nothing needed to change!

Hey, here’s an idea:  How about a constitutional amendment banning stupidity from politics?

We’re watching….

The USA seems to be a constant repeat target for terrorist attacks.  As a result, the terrorists have accomplished at least one of their goals, which is to foment fear in the heart and minds of innocent people.

Since 9-11, this profound impact on the nation’s psyche has caused some obviously effective anti-terrorist measures to be implemented, primarily in the more visible areas of the lives of citizens.  Regulations that restrict who and what can fly on commercial passenger airlines are well known to almost everyone, as well as the tighter control of all forms of government identification such as passports and drivers’ licenses.

But there have been some very ineffective measures taken as well, and certain measures that should have occurred but haven’t.

Perhaps the most ineffective of all the post-9-11 changes was the assignment of a Director of National Intelligence to coordinate all intelligence gathering an analysis in the USA under one central point.  It was implemented shortly after 9-11 by the Bush administration.  While the concept of placing all intelligence gathering capabilities under one roof was very sound, its implementation evidently hasn’t eliminated the inter-service rivalry and ineffective or even non-existent sharing and cross-referencing of “intel” among the various agencies of the federal government, such as CIA, FBI, Secret Service, military intelligence organizations of the army, navy, air force and the various commands throughout the world.   In other words, as President Obama put it yesterday, the information about the failed Christmas day attack on Northwest Airlines flight 253 was there in advance;  our intelligence structure simply failed to connect the dots.

There are those out there who would gladly give up your civil rights for their warm, fuzzy sense of security.  They insist that we should be physically/racially profiling every Arab-looking person trying to board a plane, whether internally in the USA, or externally for all flights coming into the USA.  They say this is the right thing to do, and critical to stopping any middle-eastern terrorist from attacking the USA (or any other country, for that matter).  They insist that the anti-racial-profiling folks are going to get us all killed.

What these emotionally driven folks don’t understand is that physical/racial profiling alone is simply discrimination, and does little to nothing to keep people safe.  White terrorists recruited by Al-Qaeda are just as likely to be the vehicles of terror on planes, ships, trucks, or in cities as any other people.  Profiling based upon physical/racial features alone simply doesn’t work.

Much more effective would be for the USA to take a lesson from the Israelis, whose national airline, El-Al, has never suffered a successful hijacking.  This is true despite the fact that Israel is probably the only country on earth that is more at threat from terrorists than the USA.  The reason for their success is that the Israelis have refined security to an extremely high and effective level, and they don’t do strictly physical/racial profiling.  What they are very, very good at is behavioral profiling, which includes pretty much the totality of how a person presents himself or herself.  It is exceedingly difficult to practice well, and cannot, by itself, be the sole determinant as to whether or not someone is a threat.  But somehow, the Israelis have become experts at it, and their record in avoiding hijackings speaks for itself.

Between behavioral profiling and assuring that all the intelligence gathering organizations in the USA and other friendly countries coordinate with each other and work in unison to share intelligence information in a timely and centralized manner, the entire world would be a much safer place than it is right now.  But it cannot stop there.  Nine years after 9-11, it is an incredible fact that most cargo entering the USA is still not inspected or even screened for possible radioactive materials that some lunatic could assemble in place into a rudimentary nuclear device, or even a “dirty” conventional bomb.

Furthermore, the controversy of electronic scanners that strip off your clothes, while understandable, is not being debated in the sunshine for some reason, most likely financial.  Many people don’t know that there actually are scanners available that eliminate skin from the scan screen, thus only displaying non-human material, such as explosives or weapons.  Of course, these “non-X-rated” scanners cost more.  After all, why spend extra money to get it right, if you can just get people to give up their rights??

Finally, every pilot and air traffic controller knows that anyone can take a private plane off from an uncontrolled airport with a load of…anything… and fly almost anywhere or into almost anything not in patrolled airspace.  That includes most cities and utilities.  Unfortunately, there are still gaps in US airspace surveillance and required electronic equipment in private planes operating outside controlled airspace that would greatly reduce that possibility.  But that requires money and stronger government regulation, something that the same people who support racial profiling are against.

Thankfully, however, it seems the Obama administration is committed to making changes to security policies based upon data and facts, versus emotion and shoot-from-the-hip reactions.  That is good, because it is more important to be carefully effective than carelessly demonstrative.

Clearly, the recent failures of the intelligence structure are going to be fixed.  Carefully.  Quietly.  Effectively.  The end result, which is the goal of intercepting threats before they are launched, is too important to play politics with.  One can only hope that the “other side of the aisle” does what democrats did with Bush and the republicans after 9-11…

Stand together.

Imagine if the following people made these New Year resolutions, and then stuck to them:

Rush Limbaugh:  “I will only tell the truth and always present verifiable facts.”

Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin: “I will actually do research before making comments on ANYTHING.”

US President Barack Obama:  “I will find the secret to getting republicans to like me.”

First Lady Michelle Obama:  “I will stay off Oprah’s show.”  (easy, since it’s ending anyway)

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:  “I will find the secret to getting republicans to like me.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:  “I will stop bashing health care reform”.

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid:  “If Mitch McConnell actually stops bashing, I’ll walk from Washington to New York, backwards, naked.”

Fox News:  “We will REALLY be fair and balanced…as soon as we find out what that means.”

CNN:  “If Fox ever does get fair & balanced, we’ll walk from Atlanta to New York, backwards, naked, in a snowstorm.”

Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay:  “I won’t go back on “Dancing With The Stars” and I will beat the bum rap against me.”

Hillary Clinton:  “I won’t run for president again, but I want my own TV show”.

John McCain:  “I won’t run for president again…but I don’t remember why not.”

Pamela Anderson:  “I will be back in “Barb Wire, the Sequel.”

AIG:  “We’ll never again take bailout money from the feds….”.

US Health Insurance Industry:  “We will fully embrace health care reform”.

US Pharmaceutical Industry:  “We will stop ripping off the American public with outlandish drug prices”.

US Auto Industry:  “We can build cars that last 20 years and run on water, and we will.  This year!!”

Ann Coulter:  “I’m coming out of the closet and declaring my true beliefs:  I’m really a liberal, and Obama’s the BEST!!”

Osama Bin Laden:  “I will spend at least four hours every day outdoors in the sunshine”.

Senator Joe Leiberman:  “I will decide what I am.  Again.”

Senator James Inhofe:  “I will admit that human activities cause global warming.”

Copenhagen Global Warming Conference:  “When Inhofe admits to the above, we’ll all swim across the Atlantic, backwards, naked, in a hurricane.”

We, the PEOPLE:  “If anyone walks or swims backwards, naked, we’ll be there…to provide commentary, of course.” 

Happy New Year 2010 to all!!

T’was the night before Christmas and all through the land,

The GOP was wondering if it really could stand

Any more of their losing their partisan fights

After health reform passed by the dawn’s early light

With votes being scheduled by day and by night.

The GOP became rabid and threatened to bite.

But it mattered not, health care reform was a fact

That they could not defeat even with the fat cats

Dumping millions and millions into their campaign funds;

The GOP, though grateful, wishes it were new guns.

In the meantime, giving credit were credit is due,

Sarah Palin received her well-deserved cue

from Politifact.com, the nation’s truth master,

for becoming the USA’s top truth disaster,

“Liar of the Year”, her new titled crown,

For prevaricating that seniors would be “put down”

by “death panels” she claimed, that would solely decide,

which seniors would live, and which should just die.

And while this was happening, the economy grew,

job loss slowed and stocks rose anew.

Personal income is up, while inventory shrinks.

Yet, the GOP claims the recession still stinks

As they deny and delay and they obstruct the dems.

What they yell and they scream just simply condemns

Each word and each action from the other side,

Attempting, it seems, to prove that they lied

Even more than Miss Sarah, so perhaps they can earn

“Liar of the Year” at Politifact’s next yearly turn.

But they’ll have to wait for a whole ‘nother year,

So they’ll crank up the mongering of hate and of fear,

For they have nothing else, no data or facts;

Thus, all they have left are their lie-spewing hacks.

But We, the PEOPLE!! are onto their tricks,

even though they may view us as dumb country hicks.

It doesn’t much matter, ’cause the times, they are changin’

and Titanic’s deck chairs don’t need more arranging,

a lesson the GOP, one hopes, will embrace,

If they ever again want to win a presidential race.

So during this season of good will and good cheer

We, the PEOPLE!! wishes GOP a very great year,

whether vying for a dubious liar award,

Or deciding to end it and fall on their sword,

Or maybe, just maybe, they’ll get the flick

That they have no need for playing a trick;

If they just use the truth when debating a bill.

They just might, someday, retake the Hill.

So for now only good thoughts we’re sending their way

Merry Christmas to all, We the PEOPLE!! wishes today!

PS.  The War on Christmas?  WHAT war on Christmas??  May your war be non-existent and may your Christmas be a very merry one!

As reported in We, the PEOPLE!! last week, the Copenhagen International Climate Change Conference is now in full swing.  The leaders of most countries and many of the brightest scientific minds on Earth are attending in an effort to somehow limit future green-gas emissions and reduce, or at least delay, potentially catastrophic global warming.

Of course, “catastrophic” may not be the description if one lives close to, or even north of the Arctic Circle, like, say, in Alaska.  Folks up there probably wish for warmer temperatures so that riding a motorcycle or even a snowmobile can be done without freezing one’s nose off.

As the Copenhagen conference gets underway and the debates get more heated, the entertainment heats up, too.  The likely attendance and saber-rattling of US republican senator James Inhofe, who intends to put those uppity scientists in their place by preaching real (pseudo) science to them, based upon his experience in real estate, was reported last week.  But this week, it gets better!

Enter California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, also known world-wide as the Terminator. He leads one of the most smog- and air-pollution-prone areas in the world.  Over the years, California has instituted some of the strictest anti-pollution laws on Earth in an effort to control this illness-inducing bad air, most of which is caused by car exhaust and the burning of fossil fuels.  So it’s no surprise that Arnold the Terminator attended the Copenhagen conference in support of any emission controls that can be agreed upon.  He also held a news conference during he specifically raised questions regarding Sarah Palin’s position on global warming.

Regardless of what one thinks of Sarah Palin, most people will agree that she is fun to watch.  She lives in Alaska, much of which is above the Arctic Circle.  From the time she was a vice-presidential candidate, this “rogue” (by her own description in the title of her book) republican has been entertaining people everywhere.  Whether it was her ignorance of the “Bush Doctrine“ as a vice-presidential nominee, or her belief that expertise in foreign policy comes from being able to see Canada and Russia from Alaska’s borders (though not at the same time), she has mesmerized people with her Idaho-drawl and her mystical beliefs and descriptions of policies and positions.

In 2008 Palin took a stand against humans having any impact on global warming.  Her education rivals that of senator James Inhofe, who earned a degree in business administration at the age of 38.  While Palin’s degree in journalism was earned much earlier at the age of 23, she did put it to good use as a sportscaster.  Thus, she could rival her buddy Inhofe as he shakes his finger and scorns those arrogant scientific PhDs in Copenhagen.

But back to the entertainment.  Commenting during his Copenhagen press conference about Palin position on global warming, the Terminator asked “What is she trying to accomplish?  Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the (Republican presidential) nomination?   You have to take all these things with a grain of salt.”

Of course, being the true entertainer that she is, Palin wasn’t going to pass up any opportunity to response to the Terminator publicly on her Facebook page.  She fired back, in part, “Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation’s only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change.“  She went on to say, “While I and all Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand, I have repeatedly said that we can’t primarily blame man’s activities for those changes (underline added)” and she concluded, “what I didn’t do was hamstring Alaska’s job creators with burdensome regulations so that I could act ‘greener than thou‘” (emphasis added), a reference to the Terminator’s strong support for anti-pollution-emission and green technology laws in California.

She also took on former US vice-president Al Gore, claiming that Gore is promoting “doomsday scenarios”.  She also wrote on her Facebook page  “Climate change is like gravity – a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it.”

Yes, indeedie!  It warms the heart knowing that humanity is protected by the likes of Inhofe and Palin.  And how silly of all those scientists who spent all of that money and all of those years earning their advanced Masters and Doctorate degrees!  That money could have been better spent renting helicopters to shoot at wolves from 500 feet, or on bigger gas-guzzling cars…and yachts..and private jets..and drilling for more oil in National Wildlife Preserves!

And it’s not everyone who gets to pull on Superman’s cape, or in this case, on the Terminator’s “green weenie”, and then live to talk about it.  With a big, fat smile, no less!  That’s why we love Sarah!

Coming soon…”Green Weenie…the MOVIE!”

* * * Special announcement 12-20-09:  Sarah Palin wins Liar of the Year Award from Politifact.com!!!  Check it out HERE and/or at Politifact.com

There are still people on earth who still think that the world is flat, or that believe psychics really do see the future with the exception of winning lottery numbers or really good stocks to buy (which is why they still work for $20 an hour).  So it’s no surprise that some folks still reject the concept of global warming and humanity’s role in it, despite tens of thousands of scientists world-wide with empirical data that repeatedly supports the science demonstrating the role of human-produced carbon and other heat-retaining “greenhouse” gases’ impact on the atmosphere, polar ice, and ocean heat-sinks.

Typically, the folks opposing the concept of human-induced or even human-aided global warming claim that it is a hoax, engineered by scientists just to get government grants as well as other money.  The detractors claim that  there is no credible scientific evidence to support human-induced global warming, any more than there is scientific evidence to support evolution.  They access all kinds of scientific ‘facts” of their own in support of their positions.  And occasionally, they will even insert religion into the discussion, as is the case when the creationists try to justify their beliefs by stating that the earth is no more than 6000 year old, and that approximately 3000 years ago, Noah put two of every animal on earth on his arc, including dinosaurs with modern day humans, and mammoths, and every living bacteria, amoeba, virus, mold, and all the other microscopic critters that today survive because of ol’ Noah’s efforts.

But regardless of what “evidence” these folks use, they are always lacking one thing:  Peer-reviewed scientific research that followed the scientific method (Ask a Question, Do Background Research, Construct a Hypothesis, Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment, Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion, and Communicate Your Results) and survived strong peer-review scrutiny of the final result obtained.

A classic example (and one that is going to by embarrassing to all Americans and to America itself) is the expected trip of US senator James Inhofe, republican of Oklahoma.  He made headlines as far back as 2003 when he announced that “global warming is the greatest ever perpetrated on the American People”.

Inhofe has since backed up his claim (so he thinks) that human-induced global warming is a myth by using either archaic, debunked or out-of-context scientific “facts” to support his claim.  They are specifically listed and then specifically disproven here.

Much of what he and his supporters do is similar to the boy standing on a beach on a clear day, seeing where the ocean ends and the sky starts, and determining based upon his “scientific and empirical observation” that the earth is clearly flat with an edge that just drops off precipitously at the horizon.  In fact, most humans before Columbus’ voyages to the new world believed the same thing.  Even the church propagated this miserable misconception based upon flawed “science”, just that they propagated that the earth was the center of the both solar system and the universe.  These examples do reinforce the edict that if you say something often enough, it will eventually become “true” to the people hearing it over and over.

Senator Inhofe, claiming to be a “one-man-truth-squad”, will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, where the world conference on climate change is occurring.  He will represent his political party, his philosophy, and also his country, since he is an American elected government official.  He will challenge every government leader and every scientist both attending the conference and working in the lab back in their own countries.  He will question their credibility and their personal and professional competence and integrity.  He will do so based upon all of his scientific expertise, achieved during a lifetime of real estate development and politics, and he will shine in the scientific brilliance of his undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which he finally achieved at the age of 38.

In Inhofe’s case, he is arrogant and self-deluded enough to think that he will somehow be given even the slightest amount of credibility by the many government leaders and the many real climatologists, geologists, chemists, microbiologists, anthropologists, physicists, mathematicians, and experts in a variety of other physical science disciplines that will be present, many whom have advanced college degrees in their scientific specialty, and all of whom have studied the evidence of human-induced global warming in their respective fields.

The very vast majority of these scientists from around the world have concluded the same thing:  Human-induced global warming is real, it is here, the effects are already with us, it is accelerating, and the ability to track molecules of human-induced greenhouse gases both in the atmosphere and in precipitation and in the world’s oceans, while a basic scientific capability, is universally seen and proven over and over and over.  But Inhofe will not be stopped.

In fact, if Inhofe tries hard enough, he just might be able to convince all those learned scientists the earth really is only 6000 years old, that Noah had dinosaurs and humans together on his arc, and the the earth really is flat.

Don’t just wish you could be there for the moment the scientific community has their “Inhofe” epiphany?  But if you do, here’s a word of advise for when senator James Inhofe from the USA is doing his “thing”:

Let everyone think you’re Canadian.

Warning:  This blog is gonna piss some people off.

As we pass the Thanksgiving holiday and get closer and closer to Christmas and New Years parties and family gatherings, most people are looking forward to the rest of the holiday season with anticipation and joy.

Yet, there are others who face the coming festivities with frustration and even dread.  These folks are often chastised for doing so.  As a result, many will accept their fate and suffer in silence, knowing they cannot fight a superior force of chocolate-dipped tradition wrapped in cholesterol-laden holiday bacon and baked in a pound of greasy turkey or ham fat, butter-saturated family holiday dinner events.  The pressure for them to succumb to the endless unwelcome temptations lying in wait at these gatherings is ultimately irresistible.  It is foisted upon them in a public setting, where they will be considered grossly offensive and anti-holiday, not to mention obnoxious and peculiar, unless they surrender to the bad health choices all around them.  Of course, this refers to all the folks who fight hard every day to maintain an healthy diet and/or lifestyle. They have either lost weight after a hell of a lot of hard work, or are in process.  They may either be or still are obese.  They may either already have or are desperately trying to avoid health issues.  Or any combination thereof.

People with such medical issues as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, and/or diabetes, and who are overweight or obese with a huge appetite they fight to control are in danger of serious health “incidents”, such as heart and/or cardiovascular disease and incidents, amputations, blindness, kidney failure, stroke, increased incidence of cancer, and other very unpleasant and ultimately life-shortening events.  While some of these conditions can be controlled or at least reduced with modern medications, an individual with any of these conditions is the only one who can really impact and ultimately reduce the damage caused by obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, at least to some significant extent.

Obesity is a national plague in the USA, which, by the way, is the most obesity-intensive nation among all the advanced western industrialized countries.  Certainly, the USA has an educational environment where the vast majority of children get continuing good health and disease prevention information early on and throughout their school years and beyond.

That being the case, why is the USA so fat?  And why does the average American live four years less that his/her European counterpart (besides a broken health care system)?

Part of the reason is that America is essentially a traditional country that preserves, more than most European countries, “old world” practices of “You’re in this family and I love you, therefore you must (and you shall!) eat my food;  you will let me feed you until you’re overstuffed; otherwise you’re saying you DON’T love me!”

This weird practice is most prevalent during traditional holiday family gatherings, when most people will throw all caution and common sense to the wind and indulge in all form of unhealthy food consumption, both in quantity and content.

In fact, the tradition is so ingrained in the average American family that any member whom attempts to somehow shield himself/herself from the high-calorie high-carb, high-fat, high-cholesterol food onslaught is chastised and treated like an unreasonable outcast.  This is often done by people who themselves are in  need a of a diet.  The health-conscious person, being only human and totally devoid of any support, will often ultimately give in.   Then comes regret for days on end, as the blood-sugar levels and body weight subsequently scream, “You’re an asshole.”  The unwanted gift that just keeps on giving, it could be called.

Even being in one’s own home is often far from safe.  For some bizarre reason which defies this writer’s reasoning capabilities, some people seem to feel that they can invade one’s well-controlled environment, bring in and cook tons of high-calorie, high-carb, high-fat, high-cholesterol, greasy and unhealthy foodstuffs for hours.  Their actions permeate every surface within 100 feet with will-power-destroying smells and aromas of artery-clogging, blood-sugar-level raising, prohibited goodies.  Then, after attempting to apply painful embarrassment for the healthy decisions one tries so hard to stick to at the dinner table, they leave tons of left-overs in multiple places in one’s kitchen to ensure that any hard-fought will-power still intact after dinner is utterly reduced to gumbo.

The guilt of knowing one caved in and ate this stuff, all in the name of family or tradition, or both, is ultimately inevitable.

But what is probably most amazing and least acceptable is how no one else seems the least bit concerned over what they’re putting you through.  They’re devoid of even a rudimentary understanding as to why you are acting like such a “miserable scrooge”, why you refuse to be a member of the “team”, and why you just don’t just “let yourself go” once in awhile.  They won’t or simply can’t see that “once in a while” actually becomes many, many more than “one in a while” during the holiday season, depending upon the size of the family and/or group of friends.   “Oh, so what!!?!!” they say to you.

Yeah.  So what?  Eat all that food.  Otherwise, you just don’t love them.  And that would be heartless of you.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a traditional US  and Canadian holiday during which many people gather to have a large family dinner and, theoretically, to give thanks for all the good thing in their lives, even though its origin is somewhat disputed.  Still, for many the holiday has evolved to generally include over-eating in large groups, and then sitting in front of a television watching sports because of the discomfort when moving around too much due to the large mass now inside the stomach.  And while many will remember what they’re thankful for in their lives, some will also count the things and events they are not so thankful for…perhaps to achieve some form of balance?

Accordingly, We, the PEOPLE!! has developed a partial list of events and items to give thanks for, and a list of events and items that do not illicit thankful thoughts and feelings.   Adopt any or all of the list as one sees fit.  The list is by no means all-inclusive.  In fact, additions are always welcome.

First, the positive:

Events and items to be thankful for include the following:

1.  Both GW Bush and “Tricky Dick” Cheney are no longer in office.

2.  Barack Obama won the 2008 election.  A distinct perk of that event is that Sarah Palin is not vice-president.

3.  The democrats regained control of congress (but also see the not-thankful list about this).

4.  First the first time in history, meaningful health care reform has passed the house of representatives and is to be debated in the senate,  and therefore, for the first time in history, has a real chance of becoming reality in the last national hold-out of all the advanced industrial countries on earth, the USA.

5.  NY23 voted a democrat into congress for the first time since the end of the civil war.  It’s a sign.

6.  The US Constitution is again fully operational (after eight years of abuse).

7.  The nation’s air traffic controllers finally have a fair contract after three years of unnegotiated abuse by the Bush Administration.

8.  The economy continues to improve, albeit slowly, but steadily.

9.  The war on science is over, and science won it.

10.  The Earth is located on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy.  Thankfully, as a result, the more advanced civilizations possibly located closer to the galactic center probably won’t find us.  If they did, they would probably make us the laughing stock of the rest of the galactic civilizations for being so primitive, destructive and hateful towards each other.  Or they might simply eliminate us as a threat to galactic peace and harmony.  In 2012.

11.  The “Star Trek” franchise has been rebooted and a sequel to Star Trek 11 will be filmed.  Logically, it’s Star trek 12.

12.  The music of ABBA endures.

13.  Gas isn’t back up to over $4 a gallon, or even $3 a gallon.  Yet.

However, some not-so-thankful events and items are:

1.  GW Bush And “Tricky Dick Cheney were ever elected in the first place.

2.  Democrats in the senate can’t seem to get it together, and their majority is razor thin.

3.  Big business, big health insurance companies, big “pharma”, and the ultra-conservatives they finance continue throwing massive amounts of money and energy into a totally dishonest and fear-mongering ad campaign bent on destroying any change to their profit-motivated (as opposed to health and wellness-motivated) health system, even at the expense of the truth, and despite the cost in human lives and suffering.  If that same money was spent on research, they could probably have cured cancer by now.

4.  The people responsible for implementing torture as “acceptable US policy” still haven’t been held accountable.

5.  Human beings are still allowed to go hungry.

6.  According to a blue-ribbon panel of experts who studied the US  space program at length, insufficient money has been budgeted over the next 10 years to allow us to ever leave lower earth orbit and/or return to the moon.  And forget about exploring Mars.

7.  In business, even though management is always directly responsible for any concessions they give to labor during negotiations, labor is always blamed for management’s concessions.

8.  Some who that cannot convince anyone that they are right by using honest facts and data, revert to lies, fear-mongering, and hate-mongering instead.  They even become talk show hosts making tons of money, or write books about being rogues, which also makes tons of money.

9.  Even with 500 channels available on TV, nothing worth watching is often on.

10.  No matter how frequently one buys a state-of-the-art-cell phone, it’s obsolete the next day.

11.  Diet and exercise can slow the aging process, but nothing stops it.

12.  We are still at war.

13.  Battlestar Galactica hasn’t been revived.

On balance, there is more thankful than not, although the non-revival of Battlestar Galactica is very hard to take. 

Still, for all who celebrate or commemorate the day, We, the PEOPLE!! wishes a safe and joyous Thanksgiving!

Just don’t eat too much.

US Attorney General Eric Holder testified today before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the decision to transfer five captured alleged terrorists connected to the 9-11 attacks of September 11, 2001 from Guantanamo Bay to New York City to stand trail in open federal court.  He was called before the committee because of the controversy some conservative see regarding bringing these captives to US soil after as much as eight years in indefinite (and often secret) US military custody, under direct control of the good folks in the Bush administration.

During Bush’s reign, these prisoners were denied both basic human rights and the most basic due process.  This occurred because the Bush group, led by “Tricky Dick” Cheney, saw them as “enemy combatants“, a term of art used as an thinly veiled excuse to deny them the basic right to a speedy trial as guaranteed in the 6th amendment of the US constitution.  It was also used by the Bushies to deny the rights of the Geneva Conventions to humane treatment. By the way, the US signed the Geneva Conventions, and of course, the US constitution.  But then, they’re just pieces of paper, right?

The GOP conservatives have been screaming ever since the decision was made to transfer decision was made.  They claim that this will give the terrorists a forum to spout their venom*.  They also claim that these captives do not fall under either US or international law*.  They predict that having a trial in New York City will simply traumatize the survivors of the 9-11 attacks*.  They even managed to get several hundred of those survivors to sign a statement to that effect.  And finally, they claim that this action tells the rest of the world that the US is soft on terrorism*.

Curiously, these self-same conservatives are the first to defend the justice system of the USA as ostensibly being the best in the world (primarily because they believe the USA is always the best at EVERYTHING!).  So if it’s so good, why are they so afraid of using it?

And when you analyze each of their complaints separately and in detail, they don’t stand up to close inspection:

*  Terrorists will spout their venom:  The most infamous terrorist to stand trial, confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has already spouted his venom at the military commission in Guantanamo, with press coverage.  No one complained back then, nor was there any perceivable impact anywhere.  Are we so afraid of what a terrorist might say at his trial that we would cower at the thought?  Wouldn’t it be better to let the entire world see this maniac for what he really is?

*  captives do not fall under either US or international law: Of all the reasons the Bushies offered to deny rights to these captives, this one was absolutely the most galactically stupid!  According to this idiotic “logic”, the captives are not covered by our constitution, federal law, or Geneva Conventions.  So, by following this twisted thought process, they don’t have to worry about being arrested if they commit murder, rape, theft, or even tax evasion, because our laws don’t apply to them, right?  And it’s okay if they torture captured US soldiers or behead innocent civilians, because the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to them, right?

* A New York trial will simply traumatize the survivors of the 9-11 attacks:  Actually, many of the survivors have stated publicly that seeing these prisoners finally being held accountable by facing justice in a court of law will help the healing process which, for over eight years, has not occurred because there has been no closure for them.

* tells the rest of the world that the US is soft on terrorism:  This one is almost as short-sighted and shallow as the one about terrorists being exempt from the rule of law.  The entire world had always (until stunned by the Bush actions) seen the USA as a nation committed to the rule of law, a land of  “justice for all”.  And even ignoring for a moment the truly tainted US history of justice over the past 230 years, including injustice to minorities, lynchings, mob vengeance, religious intolerance, and justice if you can afford it, the USA still has always projected “equal justice for all” to the rest of the world.

Besides, what on earth are we afraid of in trying these terrorists in open court?  Either we have a case against them, or we don’t.  Either the evidence is solid, or it isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.  Either a prosecutor can prove their crimes, or he can’t.  And if we do prove our case for all the world to openly see , we can fix the tainted image of the USA as a nation that bends the rules or makes up new ones whenever the going gets tough.

Despite the values upon which the United States of America was founded, over the past week We, the PEOPLE!! has heard several people say that we should just have “eliminated” or “disappeared” these terrorists after they “confessed” (under unknown conditions).

Gee.  Isn’t that why these conservatives thought it was such a great idea to invade Iraq?  Isn’t that what Saddam Hussein used to do?

Oh wait;  It’s so clear!  Do as we say, not as we do.

Still crazy after all these years….. 

American children are told in elementary school that the USA has perhaps the best and the fairest system of justice in the entire world.  They are instructed that the basic foundation of American justice is the US Constitution.  And that, in itself, is fair enough.

However, once these kids enter high school, or perhaps are in college, they become aware that the American system of justice is fraught with weaknesses, shameful historical acts of prejudices and discrimination, injustice, and even brutality.  They reluctantly learn of the protection of the financially powerful at the expense of the poverty-stricken, disenfranchised, and “undesirable” segments of the population.

The axiom that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is an unfortunate but nonetheless real human weakness that even the magnificent US constitution can’t prevent.  Thus, young US citizens experience disappointment when they find out that the US justice system does not always protect the rights of all citizens as much as it sometimes protects the interests of the powerful.

Consider the very recent case of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) deputies in court in Phoenix, Arizona.  These deputies theoretically ensure security against a violent act that might be committed by a defendant during a formal court session.  Because they are law enforcement personnel, they are entrusted by the public to serve and protect the citizens of Maricopa county, to obey and enforce the law, and to be above reproach in their conduct and integrity, both on and off duty.

But over the past two weeks, that’s not what happened in the Maricopa county courtroom, where a defense attorney was representing her inmate client who had gotten into a fight in jail.  The particulars of this court case are not at issue here.

Waht is at issue is that the defense attorney was at the podium with her client at her side, and she was addressing the judge.  At that point, behind her back, a MCSO deputy sheriff began illegally searching through her private papers which were in a folder on the defendant table.  The deputy found a particular document and then called another deputy over.  He handed the document over to this additional deputy.  The new deputy exited with the document, presumably to either keep it or copy it..  The defendant just happened to turn his head and witness the entire action.

More importantly, it was captured on video.

The defendant told his attorney what had just occurred.   She complained to the judge.  The judge told her to “take a deep breath”, and then attempted to minimize the deputies’ actions by explaining that they are present to provide “security”.  She must have considered the stolen document capable of somehow committing an act that would have threaten security, right?

We, the PEOPLE!! strongly urges that you now watch the actual videos here, here, and here, and read the story here and here to witness this unbelievable event for yourself.  Besides being absolutely shocking and disgusting, it demonstrates that none of us are really “protected” by the actions of some whose jobs it is to “serve and protect“, including the judge.  She witnessed the entire event but neither said nor did anything until the defense attorney complained.  Even then, the judge essentially did nothing.

During a later hearing held on this outrageous event, the judge STILL did NOTHING, claiming that the deputy would have to read the document in order to defend himself, and that would require a privacy waiver not granted by the defense.  Therefore, the deputy walked out of the courtroom a free as when he walked in.

No wait:  There’s more!

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) issued a statement that the deputy acted appropriately!  The sheriff, Joe Arpaio, seems to enjoy being put into the spotlight of the press, as witnessed by the many actions he takes that illicit a ton of negative press coverage.  Anyone interested can do a google search to learn more about this “shining example of law enforcement integrity”…quote, unquote.

The whole point of this article is:  With people like these both in law enforcement and in judges’ seats in courts, no one can really feel safe in this country if they just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and are not financially powerful and independent.  The fact that justice in the USA is largely based upon a citizen’s ability to hire the best legal counsel and finance appeal after appeal is not an definition of “justice for all”.

A classic example of this is the famous O.J. Simpson trial of 1995.  The very wealthy Simpson hired a “dream team” of famous, VERY high-priced attorneys who convinced the jury that members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tampered with evidence.  The jury subsequently acquitted Simpson, not because he was innocent, but because the LAPD violated the law.    Ten million dollars bought Simpson a lot of protection against lawlessness by cops, but a public defender would have been crushed.

In this case, the inmate who caught the MCSO deputy stealing documents from his defense attorney doesn’t have the financial capability to take his case higher. The MCSO knows this, and so does the judge.

But if it had been Warren Buffet, or even “Tricky Dick” Cheney…do you think the MCSO deputy sheriff would have even approached within 10 feet of those documents?

Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

Last night two off-year elections were held for governors in Virginia (VA) and New Jersey (NJ).  Additionally, the 23rd congressional dictrict of New York State (NY23) held an election to fill the seat left vacant by Rep. John McHugh, a Republican who resigned to accept the appointment of President Barack Obama as secretary of the Army.

In the lead-up to the elections, the GOP has been making all sorts of claims about these election being primarily a poll on Barack Obama and the democrats.  The democrats, for their part, have been as aware as the republicans that they this was a tough election situation for them.  They were reasonably certain that they were going to lose at least one of these races, and were claiming that these are simply local elections about local issues.

In point of fact, the republicans won both governor races.  And now the GOP is claiming the end of the democrats.  Unfortunately, as they often do, they neglect to mention some very significant facts:

1.  Since 1989, the party winning the White House has always gone on to lose the gubernatorial races in both states the following year.  This year was no different.

2.  In both states, an incumbent was running for re-election.  Based largely upon their lack of strong popular approval due to varying issues they’ve handled, both incumbents lost.

3.  In Virginia, both the democratic incumbent and the republican challenger had previously run against each other for state attorney general, and the the democrat lost that race, too.

4.  The only significant race where no incumbents were running was NY23.  In that race, the republican was forced to drop out of the race at the last moment because polling indicated that an extreme right wing challenger, running late under the banner of the “Conservative Party“, was way ahead of her for the conservative vote.  However, in this significant election, the republicans lost the NY23 seat to a democrat.  It was the first time since 1872, only seven short years after the end of the US civil war, that a republican did not win that seat.

What makes this race the most significant of all of last night’s races is that the ultra-extreme right-wing fringe of the GOP endorsed an ultra-extreme right-wing conservative named Hoffman because they did not like the moderate republican that the GOP leadership had endorsed.  The ultra-extreme-right political pundits on hate-radio also endorsed him.  And yet, he lost the race.

In this race, none of the candidates was an incumbent.  None had run against another in a previous race.  But when the day was done, a man who got tons of free advertising on hate-radio, a man who had the support of the Tea-Partiers, a man who somehow knocked the moderate republican candidate out of the box, a man with the backing of the ultra-extreme conservative wing of the republican party, lost.  He lost an election in a republican district that is not as much about local issues as national ones in congress.

So what’s the significance of last night?

First, it is clear that most registered republicans voted for republicans and most registered democrats voted for democrats.  They were not the folks that determined the outcome for these elections; the independent voters were.  It is also reasonable to assume that a very small minority of these voters in VA and NJ disregarded all local issues in favor of cast a “political statement” vote against Barack Obama, or for him in NY23.  But the vast majority of independents were probably concentrating on the candidates and/or the local issues in New Jersey and Virginia.  So these races probably mean absolutely nothing when it comes to a poll on Obama and the dems.

However, in the more nationally oriented election in NY23, they probably concentrated more on the issues that congress and the administration have worked or will work.  As a result, this election is incredibly telling, because this is yet another republican congressional district which, since the 2006 elections, has turned to  a democrat to lead it.

It’s also quite possible that had the republican candidate stayed in the race without an extreme ultra-right candidate muscling her out, she might have kept that seat in the GOP’s corner.  But the ultra-right, being as arrogant as they generally are, decided, as they tend to do, that brute force was more effective than negotiation.  In other words, shoot your way in, regardless of who gets hurts rather than dealing to get some of what you want instead of none at all.

Didn’t work too well, did it?

And if anyone somehow still thinks that the elections were disapproval of Obama and his policies, they should check the totality of all of the national polls, which can be done at PollingReport .com.  It carries every national poll conducted on every national issue, updated continuously as the polls are individually updated with new data.

According to pollingreports, President Obama has a very respectable 54% approval rating, exactly one year after he was elected.

So if the GOP and the hate-radio gang still want to push the “Elections = Poll on Obama” concept, perhaps they should join the organization known as “The Earth Is Flat Society“.

They’ll fit right in.   

US House of Representative speaker Nancy Pelosi finally unveiled the democratic proposal for health care reform today.

Beside the expected prohibitions against insurance companies refusing to cover pre-existing conditions and canceling coverage when a person needs it the most, it contained language for a public health option, i.e., a government-payer plan similar to Medicare.

However, the “public option” is not the robust plan the most liberal members wanted, i.e., Medicare pay plan plus 5%, in which providers’ only options are to take it or leave it.  Nor was it what conservative wanted to see, which is no public option of any kind under any circumstances for any reason.  Instead, it was a compromise that is intended to bring the more conservative “blue dog” democrats into the larger democratic fold.

Of course, it is somewhat baffling to consider that most of the folks who hate the mere idea of a public option, where the government is the payer instead of a private, Wall Street listed, for-profit insurance company, are also extremely satisfied with their Medicare coverage.   One is reminded of the woman who attended one of the health care reform “town hall meetings” held last August.   She shouted out at the congressman on podium in front of reporters and of television cameras that she wanted the government stay out of any health care reform because she absolutely didn’t want the government interfering in any way with her Medicare!

On the other side of the issue, the most liberal of the democrats will be lamenting the demise of the so-called “robust” public option, i.e., Medicare for all.  Ostensibly, this “robust” plan would at least be available to those who do not have health insurance, and later possibly to anyone who wanted it.  Doctors and other providers would be paid Medicare fees plus 5% for services, period.  That would keep the public option costs low and consistent, with no possibility of unusual cost growth.

Well, neither side got their first choice.  Instead, a “watered-down” version of the public option, wherein negotiations over pay with providers would be a critical part of the plan, is the way the house leadership intends to go.

The “blue dog” democrats are expected to at least accept this plan because the government would no longer unilaterally control the fees to the providers.  Thus, private insurance companies would more easily be able to compete.  By requiring negotiations with providers, the plan now starts to look more like the private insurance plans which are currently available to federal employees and retirees under the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program, as well as many union-provided plans.

In these plans, premiums go up each year after the government negotiates with the private insurance companies for premium rates.  This, in effect, neuters the ability to keep costs low, consistent, and within the rate of inflation because recurring negotiations with providers easily allows for large yearly increases.  This year, for instance, premiums are rising as much as 15%, depending upon the plan.  And for comparison, the rate of inflation for the past year was negative 1.3 %!

What speaker Pelosi and the house democratic leadership have done is craft a compromise that should bring in the votes necessary to pass health care reform in the House of Representatives.  If both the extreme right and the extreme left are dissatisfied, then it must be the most balanced plan that could be achieved.  And that’s important, because if the democrats can’t remain united behind the plan, it will fail to pass the house.  In that case, the disaster will probably eat up everyone, democrats and republicans alike, and President Obama as well.

If you’re a conservative, you still have a shot having the public option stopped when a similar bill is debated on the senate floor.  The senate is much more volatile then the house because the democrats normally only have a tenuous 60-40 margin to stop the promised republican filibuster, and that includes Joe Lieberman, (I-CT), who has already said he will actually join the republican filibuster if a public option is included in the senate bill.  That would bring the tally to 59-41, insufficient to stop a filibuster.  So it is by no means certain that a public option will survive in the senate’s final version of the bill.

On the other hand, if you’re a liberal, the watered-down version of public option in the house bill may be strengthened during floor debate, and even it isn’t, the separate final bills that pass both the house and the senate have to be reconciled and then re-voted upon before the final version go to the president for signature.  So, at this point, it’s still a crap shoot.

As a wise man once said, there are two things most people will never want to watch:  How a sausage is made, and how a bill becomes law.  Both will disgust and turn your stomach.

C-SPAN, anyone?   

A news item today mentioned that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will very soon be studying the issue of lop-sided talk radio in the USA, which has become overwhelmingly ultra-right-wing over the past several years.  In fact, this writer had been a liberal talk show host on a radio station in Rhode Island in 2005 and 2006, along with another liberal talk show host on the same station.  In December of 2006, both hosts were “let go” within a a day of each other when the station “suits” decided to swing the radio station over to the extreme right.

The FCC will hold a seminar to determine whether talk radio is reflective of predominant local attitudes, or whether the various talk radio stations throughout the USA have their agendas set in corporate headquarters, thus locking out opposing philosophies.  With that in mind, special investigative reporter “Secret Sam” was right on the spot and submitted this most timely report, exclusively for We, the PEOPLE!!:

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Fox news viewers were stunned today as they witnessed the live on-air arrest of a man that police say has been impersonating the popular afternoon television talk host Glenn Beck for the past 1 ½ years.

In the meantime, the real Glenn Beck will be returning to Fox on Monday with his guest, republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann.   They will discuss the topic:  “Man in the Moon: Always over us;  Always Watching.”  Beck says he will not dwell excessively on the fact that the man in the moon is black.

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So there you it.  And while it’s understandable that someone might try to impersonate a talk show host, what with all the perks these folks receive, there is only one question that really begs for an answer:

If someone is going to impersonate a talk show host, why on earth would he or she want to impersonate Glenn Beck (who describes himself as a rodeo clown)?

In fact, why would anyone want to impersonate any right-wing nut-job, who makes his money babbling at other right-wing nut-jobs??

One of life’s baffling mysteries.