Saturday Night Special

You can thank Glenn Beck for bringing the churches together. Tonight 25 Catholic theologians and evangelical leaders endorsed the health reform bill. The Catholic Health Group and the organization of Catholic hospitals approved on the abortion language in the bill. The U.S. Conference of Bishops and the Catholic Alliance for the Public Good also endorsed it. Seems the "social gospel" has some teeth after all.

One beef with classic Christians on this Glenn Beck flap--they have requested a dialogue with him. How Christian. Maybe the strict Calvinists have the right idea--Burn him at the stake.

Paul Krugman does his own analysis of Glenn Beck on "Born to Run" with a view that the unemployed Vietnam vet in the song is frustrated about finding work is what annoys Beck. Clearly, he would have gotten a job if he really wanted one. Hence, the vet is unpatriotic.

The other great "American artists" Beck defamed were The Beatles! Is that great? Maybe he was thinking about John becoming an American citizen. At his Rally To Restore Honor, Beck should call for the burning of all Beatle albums because John said the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." Apparently, it takes Beck that long to catch up with popular culture.

Our condolences to Keith Olbermann and his sister for the loss of his father today. Theodore Olbermann (1929-2010) was a self-taught architect, who at one time designed literally every one of the Baskin-Robbins stores around the country. During the prolonged illness, Keith Olbermann used his experience with our health care system to dramatize the need for its overhaul. He pointed out that he and his father were fortunate because he could afford to pay for his father's illness, while a childhood friend he met in the same hospital literally had to sell his farm to care for his sick relatives.

Later, as the illness progressed, he used the occasion to talk about living wills and families discussing the options for the last days. This information was valuable and should be heeded by everyone. As Keith pointed out, these medical directives are really "life panels" not the death panels discussed by Sarah Palin and others. Having had to executive two medical directives for both my parents, it is emotionally hard but at the same time one is carrying out their real last wishes. And the decision was made for you. It was not yours alone to make. These are decisions made by the living as they consciously reflect on what medical measures should or not be taken to artifically extend life.

Despite all the pundits claiming Nancy Pelosi doesn't have the votes to pass the healthcare bill--the Hill, Firedoglake,Politico among others--she told the AP today she is confident she has the votes. So the vote has been scheduled for next weekend-- as of now.

I wondered how Republicans are going to run in the 2010 campaign. First, like good film directors, you edit out the bad scenes. And you run on the present circumstances without reference to how we got here. For instance, I watched the new ad by Carly Fiorina against Barbara Boxer. "Carly" is running against a tired political hack who is more interested in herself. A Clever projection. Boxer as a liberal Democrat is characterized by her past behavior of raising taxes. There is no mention of voting for the largest middle class tax cut in history. The stimulus-- that was Boxer wanting more Federal Government spending, while California suffers from X percent unemployment. The stimulus is then linked to the Federal Government's $12 trillion deficit. So--raising taxes,no jobs, deficit and thinking of herself. Then while Terrorists plot to blow up airliners, Boxer thinks climate change is a threat to national security. She is for a climate change bill which The Wall Street Journal claims is the "biggest tax hike" in history. But, why don't we have A Change from the tired old career politician. Carly is a self-made women, who worked her way up and "only in America" could she run one of the world's largest corporations and she created tons of jobs. (Where she doesn't say and the Democrats should ask--since it wasn't in the United States.) So all the coded messages are there. Naturally, Carly doesn't say what she would actually do. A person who could make large profits for their company is a success and obviously will make government a success.

This seems to be the line of attack. Republicans are the premier marketing expert. Remember Making of a President by Joe McGinnis about Nixon's controlled media campaign. You have this controlled media campaign right now in Meg Whitman's run for Governor of California but in today's world there is Youtube. So, it's best not to throw a reporter out of a fake press conference or be caught turning a rally into an informercial without the audience's consent.

Today Scott Brown answered President Obama's morning radio address with an attack on the President "bitterly pushing healthcare reform while the country needs jobs." The line is he and the Democrats have wasted a year and a half doing nothing but working on healthcare reform while the rest of the country is unemployed, begging for jobs. This has been the refrain from John Boehner.

And, gentlemen, what would you do to create jobs? Given that you have opposed the stimulus package that has created 2.1 million jobs and the new jobs bill itself. Why, Cut taxes on corporations --those great job creators? And, they stress also tax breaks for small businesses. But here they are far behind the Obama Administration as more details about the President's program will come forth in the next few months. And, how do you reduce deficits? Why, adopt our man Ryan's plan to cut all entitlement spending.

After seeing the Carly ad, I'm convinced the pitch for new faces in Washington with private sector experience and the broad pitch without specifics can be effective. I expect you will see the same in the future from Mitt Romney.

Charles Cook, who believes the Democrats will lose the House this year, answered the DailyKos, who criticized his position. Cook recites all the negatives for Democrats and invokes his conversations with Beltway Democratic operatives. He accuses the Left of acting like The Right did in 2006 when he predicted heavy losses for the Republicans. His critics listed all the times he has gotten things wrong this century. To which he replies you have to compare that with predictions of others and he sniffs he makes a living at this. And we admittedly are all rank amateurs whatever your party.

But I'm still skeptical, even after seeing what I believe are the broad lines of the Republican attack. In 1994, when Republicans took the House for the first time in,I believe, forty years, there was a perception that the House had become one-party rule. There were a series of scandals for the Democrats that outweighed Republican scandals, which would come later. And there was one very important fact, which Democrats at the time would not admit, the Republican Party had become for the first time in my life the predominant party in American life. Party identification with the GOP surpassed identification with Democrats.

Today, Democrats far surpasss Republicans in party identification. The GOP is at the lowest levels since Goldwater lost in 1964. Also, the Republican Party is also the farthest right it has been in history. Having the House switch back after the Democrats have only been in control for four years and only had the Presidency for one seems pretty peculiar. Maybe recruiting people who were a success in the private sector is a way to proceed but I am very skeptical.

One thing you can be sure of--the Republicans will not campaign on what they truly believe or will do once in power. There will be no transparency about policy. It's all about power, not policy. And whatever policy there is, just watch who will financially profit.

An FYI--I have long held that business people are unsuited to politics. I don't believe they understand the woof and weave of politics and how to handle and persuade people. They have too much of a command-control mentality that quickly turns to disaster when they exercise political authority. They lend themselves to the authoritarian mind of the Republican Party but would be a disaster running a country. And recent private sector people lack all sense of proportion--witness the salaries that granted themselves. They didn't even consider the long term consequences for the well-being of their own corporations.

White Stripes new album next week.

Labor Day Thoughts

Would anyone have objected if Bill Cosby were to speak to the American schoolchildren? Responding to the kerfuffle about President Obama's speech, Education Secretary Arne Duncan pointed to the amazing 30% dropout rates of America's high school students as maybe one of the reasons the President wants to deliver the speech. Combined with the growing number of college dropouts, this is a dangerous sign of a country who has to compete globally.

The great Nate Silver over at www.fivethirtyeight.com commented on the growing Republican demographic of angry seniors. While a long term detriment to the GOP's chances on a national level, it is a benefit for the 2010, since seniors tend to vote in higher percentages than other groups. Will this see a Republican wave as Washington pundits predict, over at the Dailykos, there was a look at all the by-elections to date and Republican have not fared well, even when they tried to nationaliz the election by tying the Democrat to Obama's health care plan or to gay marriage. That's why I think the governors' elections in New Jersey and Virginia will constitute a false dawn for Republicans. At this writing both Republicans are leading in the polls but are now drawing flak for past deeds and actions. Even if victorious, it's going to be hard to justify any national trend.

I happen to subcribe to the Bill Clinton theory that if health reform is passed, President Obama's approval ratings will climb and the Democrats might dodge a bullet in 2010 elections. It's hard to see what a Republican vote would accomplish except to re-enforce the party's message of "No". If the elections go as the past, the President's party should lose between 15-20 seats in the House. That still will not be enough to fulfill Newt Gingrich's Dream Number 2 of replaying 1994.

Look to see Harold Koh as the leading contender for the next slot on the Supreme Court when Stevens retires. The former Dean of Yale Law School and a defender of human rights globally, he will draw the fire of the right as he has recently. Koh is a very decent and very likeable man and accomplished man but that won't stop anyone.

Glenn Beck tasting blood over the resignation of Van Jones wants to go after Cass Sunstein, the former law professor from the University of Chicago and friend of Barack Obama. Dr. Sunstein is a very peculiar target for Beck. During the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama disappointed his supporters for his support of the FISA bill. Sunstein gave out interviews on why Obama did this. In the interview, he recalled that during all the Bush maneuverings on civil liberties Obama consulted him and asked him to lay out the soundest legal arguments one could make in defense of the Bush actions so he understood them. It seems to me that someone who could actually make these arguments--even if he didn't support them--is hardly material for attack. In particular, Beck wants to expose Sunstein's writings that concern the possibility of using organs from the deceased without a family's consent. A theoretical article about a theoretical situation--something professors are apt to do. But it would fit into the death panel-death book-euthanasia themes that are so popular among the Beck audience. I can see him now--Obama-Sunstein-Chicago-Ezekial Emmanuel--Socialism.

Keith Olbermann seems to have sensed that Glenn Beck is no longer the joke he enjoyed while explaining the symbolism of Rockefeller Center. He has put out a request on his Daily Kos blog for all leads, tips, informants on Mr. Beck's past and present. I hope he comes up with some good stuff.

Van Jones wounded himself with signing the 9/11 petition. However, I found his tape about Columbine truthful and interesting. He said that only white boys shoot up schools, while black boys don't. Since I can't find anything that disputes this, it actually is a subject worthy of analysis. Naturally, this tape was to show how racist he was but I found it disturbingly accurate.

The NAACP criticized President Obama for letting Van Jones go because of criticism from the right. The Washington Post, the company newspaper, said that this showed the problem of vetting in the Administration. Unfortunately, it reminds me of the loss when Tom Daschle could not make it as Health Secretary, a blow to the health care plan. Van Jones had a compelling personal history that led him naturally to the place of being a Czar for Green Jobs.

Old Governor Sunbeam--California's Attorney-General Jerry Brown--has opened up an investigation into the abuse of health insurance companies who demand employees attend townhall meetings to voice talking points against reform. Brown said that, while this practice may be legal in other states, it is not in the state of California and represents a specific abuse of workers' rights, according to the statutes. Well done. The insurance industry has ordered employees out in every state, armed with talking points created by their lobbyists. Some news reports put this figure at 47,000 people placed in these various townhall meetings.

The oil companies thought this astro-turfing ideas is so great that they are now mobilizing protests against the Cap-and-Trade bill before Congress. This is a fantastic moment in our democracy--American corporations are organizing street protests--what a concept?! Billionaires for Weathfare--one of more favorite protest groups--should appear at these protests with a new chant,"We all want to shop at the Company Store!"

My friends in the Natural Gas industry constantly complain about President Obama, mostly I think because they are all from Texas. But underneath the radar, it has been the Coal Industry lobby on the Hill blocking the expansion of natural gas, which is cheap, plentiful and clean.

On the book front, I received notice from Amazon that Bill Burroughs' Evil River will not be published this September. Now the due date is September 2010. That means four years since I first ordered it. Now, Burroughs has been dead for years, the manuscript has been in the hands of the publisher for at least five years. Certainly, there is an editor around by now.

The one book I look forward to is Ralph Ellison's Three Days Before the Shooting about the assassination of a biracial Southern politician who passed as white but was raised by a black family. But with the current climate of hate rhetoric against President Obama,I'm not so sure I'll be as receptive to it as I might be.

The stupid award goes to Hank Williams, the descendent of the great Hank Williams, who proclaimed that "We all know that President Obama is only President because of the electoral college. The electoral college is the problem." Maybe, he's President for receiving the largest amount of popular votes in American history. Or, maybe not.

While Washington braces for Glenn Beck's 9/12 project, some of us are anticipating the 9/9/09 project--the release of all the remastered Beatles albums. I'm usually skeptical about these re-issues of the classics as some new money making proposition. But, the exercise looks like it might actually contribute something to finally obtaining the "real sound" of the Beatles. I'll report in due time.