Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In surfing You Tube one of the most popular of all entries is Bill O'Reilly's interview of Phil Donahue.  Considering the amount of meaningful substance distributed over an 8-minute interview span this enthusiasm is understandable.

O'Reilly on his home Fox News turf began by introducing Donahue as a supporter of one of the right's most hated anti-war symbols, Cindy Sheehan.  

As a veteran television moderator who regrettably lost his own MSNBC program when he dared, in the lead-up to the Iraq War interview experts who persuasively argued against invasion, Donahue knew the value of delivering short, pungent comments in the face of a host known to intimidate some guests through loud accusations and swaggering bravado.

O'Reilly unleashed his full bag of tricks and came up empty.  Donahue was successful in countering his host's anticipated propaganda tricks and reliance on blustery emotional by delivering a concise barrage of attacks that left O'Reilly initially shrieking, then softer spoken in the manner of a shouter who has lost his steam.  

In the November 26 Seattle Times, David Zucchino of the Los Angeles Times wrote regarding some injured Iraq War veterans who are fighting a new Pentagon definition of what is now considered a war-connected disability.

Zucchino explained:

"In a little noticed regulation change in March, the military's definition of combat-related disabilities was narrowed, costing some injured veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits and triggering outrage from veteran-advocacy groups.

"Pentagon officials said the change was consistent with Congress' intent when it passed a 'wounded warrior' law in January.  Narrowing the combat-related definition was necessary to preserve the 'special distinction for those who incur disabilities while participating in combat, in contrast for those injured otherwise,' William Carr, deputy under-secretary of defense, wrote in a letter to 1.3 million disabled American veterans."

Kevin Phillips, the conservative author who prophesied both the beginning and end of the right's political reign, delivered a salient comment during that period defining what is now happening in financial meltdown land.

"These people don't really create anything," Phillips lamented.

Phillips' comment bore on what has happened to a once proud U.S. economy with a strong manufacturing base, maintaining a strong work force and generating strong sales.  What has recently emerged is a propensity to substitute successful corporate management into a devil may care Las Vegas slot machine operation involving bubbles and financial sleight of hand.

The catastrophic mortgage blowout is one tragic example.  In the never never  land of specious credit reasonable value was substituted for the opportunity to achieve short term gain.

John Milovich of San Francisco in his letter to the New York Times editors had this to say:

"Thomas L. Friedman's comments were scathing.  Many became wealthy, indeed fabulously wealthy, on the ignorance of borrowers and the opportunity of lax regulations.  The risk was bundled and sold on down the line.

"But the damning fact remains.  The equity of the wealthy who profited from this consensus greed is going nowhere, while this winter promises to be colder and darker for the rest of us as we open our pocketbooks to pay for it all."

J. Michael Gatch of Birmingham, Alabama in his letter to the New York Times editors explains:

Listen, it will just take a little initiative and folks pulling together to get us out of this economic crisis.  In fact, we are hearing from some economic quarters that this can be accomplished by the end of 2009.

This rosy scenario smacks a great deal more of liberal helpings of Pollyanna prepared Kool Aid consumption rather than coming to grips with the solid reality of America's economic posture vis-à-vis the global picture.

The whole "no sweat, we've been in trouble before and we'll get out of it like we always do" is a type of Superman ultimately weathering the storm designed to create a "feel good" response to circumstances that multiply and carry a deadly ripple effect.

Many applauded at the time Richard Nixon in 1971 sent us on a calamitous road when he overturned the structure of the Breton Woods Agreement skillfully crafted by U.S. representative Harry Dexter White.  Nixon floated the dollar, removing its correlation to gold, which had been adopted as a means of protecting currency value.

Mary Anne Berkery of Brooklyn's November 23 letter to the New York Times editors stated:

"The reason most Americans supported an unknown, untested, thinly experienced Barack Obama as president was that they were desperate for real change.  His unequivocal mandate was to bring change.

"Instead, we watch as he appoints person after person from the Clinton political machine, creating a virtual third Clinton presidency -- the very re-creations many of us had worked hard to prevent.

"Instead of taking the mantle of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he has taken the mantle of Bill Clinton.

That is the question!  Exactly why is the U.S. continuing the Iraq War that everyone now knows, the world over, that it was launched on lies?

Can anyone explain why, under President Reagan, we put the most extremist Islamic government, the Taliban, in power?

And now, after training the Taliban with the latest U.S. high-tech weapons exactly why are we suddenly determined to overthrow the Taliban?  Could all of the botched Middle East series of battles have anything to do with oil?  Dare we ask?

When the "weapons of mass destruction" war cry hysteria proved phony, Bush suddenly declared that all of the fighting and dying was to deliver democracy to the Iraqis and it would spread to the entire Middle East.

Look in any dictionary and you will find that the word "stimulus" is connected to stimulate, meaning the act of generating a form of positive assistance.

This is the type of action that, by acting in a shrewd, timely manner, can prevent a negative response.  It makes one think of that old saying, "A stitch in time saves nine."

Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, speaking in Ottawa, is apparently working on a different operational definition where stimulus and the act of stimulation are concerned.  While Canada is headed for a likely recession, Flaherty said that he had no plans to introduce an economic stimulus package before next spring's budget.

"We've made dramatic tax cuts already," Flaherty explained.  He later added, "We're not in a recession right now."  While conceding that Canada is "not in a recession right now" he concedes that it is "reasonable" that the nation will be in a "technical recession," which is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, by the first quarter of 2009.

Media critic Brent Bozell III has for years been sounding the clarion call concerning a "left wing media" that controls American opinion.

In the manner of right wing colleagues, during the presidential campaign Bozell denounced Barack Obama as a leftist from the Marxist-Socialist school whose agenda was compatible with the ideas of William Ayers during his Weatherman Underground days and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

As soon as the election was decided Bozell made one of those infamous rightist U-turns.  Bozell had the answer on why Obama won.  He did so by running as a conservative.

Such contradiction amid fantasy fuels the far right.  It was therefore anything but a surprise when Bill O'Reilly showed up on Jon Stewart's show.  Not only was he plugging his new book; he was there to enlighten Stewart and his viewers about the election.

That is the U.S. economic nightmare now that the economic bubble burst.  In the Wall Street Journal November 20 Mark Maremont, John Hechinger and Maurice Tamman presented staggering statistics of the huge stock market crash and the millions and billions lost while the filthy rich waltzed away with from the economic meltdown.

Their article explains it all:

"The credit bubble burst.  The economy is tanking.  Investors in the U.S. stock market have lost more than $9 trillion since its peak a year ago.

"But in industries at the center, of the crisis plenty of top officials managed to emerge with substantial fortunes.

When Rush Limbaugh left his job as a nurse he switched to radio broadcasting in Sacramento.  It has been reported that a discovery he made prompted him to develop an approach that has served him ever since as a key to riches.

Limbaugh observed that when he turned into a sour curmudgeon spouting hate for the approval of the perpetually disgusted his ratings soared.  The rest is history as he achieved a radio standing in which he reportedly plays to an audience of 30 million listeners per week as delighted sponsors reward him with contracts involving millions of dollars.

Limbaugh's on the air blitzkriegs, while offensive to those of sensibility and sensitivity, provide a measure of comfort to those who delight in being uncomfortable.  

His non-stop gutter sniping at anyone to the political left of his listening audience, which might well be anyone other than his 30 million faithful along with those so busy watching Fox News that they lack sufficient opportunity to pay him sufficient due, is a two step approach.

That is the burning question!  As Alan Greenspan revealed in his memoir "Age of Turbulence", "It is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows, the Iraq War is largely about oil."

When one analyzes the horrifying death and destruction in Iraq, with 600,000 to a million Iraqis dead, 55,000 U.S. service personnel wounded and 4,195 dead, can Bush, who avoided impeachment, forever avoid any accountability?

You can rest assured that the 2 ½ million Iraqis who fled to Iran, Syria and Jordan are anxious to see if George Bush can escape any accountability, for all of the havoc his nightmarish eight year reign has been responsible for.

In an article by Charlie Savage in the New York Times November 13 datelined Washington, D.C., we gain an informative glimpse of the manner in which Bush has tried to keep his administration's secret rule permanently secret.  We quote the following:

Why not nationalize oil?  If the Treasury Department can bail out banks with $700 billion, to keep credit available, nationalize oil.  

Ex-fed chief Alan Greenspan stated in his memoir "The Age of Turbulence" on page 463 the following:  "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows.  The Iraq War is largely about oil."

The oil contract the U.S. has tried for years to get Iraq to sign is for long-term foreign leases on 63 of Iraq's 80 oil wells, leaving 17 in charge of Iraq.

So, it would appear that if what Alan Greenspan says is accurate, what is needed now, of course, to be 100% fair, is an impartial objective analysis of the individuals and organizations, including the entire media, to determine responsibility for the Iraq War and the driving motives involved.

It would be amusing but not for the tragedies involved and cumulative suffering of Americans who have been victimized by eight years of Bush-Cheney policies, but here they are, seeking now to squeeze off the hook by blaming those they ardently supported who followed policies that their ardent right wing preachers blessed and to which they vigorously assented.

The new interview of the moment Republican, Governor Sarah Palin, loudly lamented this week that last week's election victory by Barack Obama and extended majorities of Democrats in the Senate and House occurred through no fault of theirs.  It was that man Bush and his cohorts that she and John McCain were eagerly running away from who was at fault.

The reason why Bush was singled out after the election is that the preposterous tactic of seeking to blame Democrats for the meltdown and overall economic calamity the nation currently confronts.  Many of us have seen that patented right wing Republican "fact sheet" that has been distributed all over the internet.

That "fact sheet" lists all the economic tragedies that occurred in the past two years and concludes with, "What will it be like if the Democrats can continue to control the House and Senate while adding the presidency?" or words to that effect.

Amit R. Paley of the Washington Post in a November 11 article posted from Washington to the Seattle Times explains:

"The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush $700 billion bailout of the banking industry.  In the midst of this late September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

"But corporate lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: administration officials had U.S. banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

"The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill.  When they found out some legislators were furious."

Friday, newly minted Senator-Elect Energy Smart Jeff Merkley (D-OR) took the time to reach out to the netroots with a blogger conference call.  "The Netroots were critical to my election ... It is 40 years since an incumbent lost in Oregon and only the second time in 100 years that a Republican incumbent lost ... the Netroots put the campaign over the top."  

But, more important than any plaudits for bloggers ("Netroots Nation was one of the best things that I did during the campaign.") and promises to remain engage for the future, was Merkley's evaluation as to the election's mandate and visions for moving forward.

We have a very strong mandate for a progressive agenda. We have had two cycles in a row with winning six [at least] seats in the Senate.

Bush claimed a mandate when he didn't even win the popular vote.

We absolutely have a mandate and we should not be shy in anyway in claiming it.

If not now, when?  Our people need us, our planet needs us ...

Now make me do it.

FDR told activists in his own party, "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

Franklin Roosevelt was also famous for not staying bought, after he took huge amounts of money from the special interests of his day.  Modern politicians of either party would never do this after accepting thinly veiled bribes.  They stay bought, because they know the next election is coming up, and people will find ways to be nice to them after they are out of office and don't need to worry about campaign finance laws.

I voted for Obama, but I don't think he can fix everything unless Americans tell him how.  He'll have good advisors, but unless advisors read new things they may recycle the same old ideas.  I think the Democrats have better ideas than the Republicans, but I don't think they're quite ready for what's coming to Americans in the next few years.

This matters before Tuesday – since early voting continues through MONDAY in about 20 states.

It's going strong still in Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Wisconsin, Maine, California, Vermont, Arkansas, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Idaho, Montana, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, and Nebraska.

And you can turn in Absentee ballots still in most states. Even where the absentee deadline was earlier, as in Pennsylvania, the votes you mark for federal candidates, President and VP, will be counted for all absentee ballots turned in before Tuesday's poll closing.

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Learn the ID requirements -- they are not limited neatly just to states known as the so-called "VoterID states." In most states, it's important especially if you're a first-time voter and you registered by mail instead of in person. It affects processing of your absentee ballot too.

Note: The cartoon is the logo of the real Joe the Plumber in Amarillo. Send him some business, I'm told that he's an Obama guy. If his website takes off because of all this attention maybe he can switch from actual plumbing to an online plumbing advice column. Bob

The month began with Sarah Palin celebrating her campaign's close identification and long association with "Joe Six Pack," the mythic every man vision of America that he and they dream that they represent.

Then in last night's "debate" came "Joe the Plumber," a guy who claims that he wants to buy a business which "makes" 250k a year and he's worried about Obama's tax policies. Who's next, Joe Bananas, Joe Cool, Joe Mama?

Forgetting for the moment that I have strong suspicions that "Joe the Plumber" is a ringer. Yes, nefarious as it sounds I'm afraid that Joe may be, a not too carefully selected, and poorly rehearsed plant from the McCain camp. He was probably chosen by the same group of desperately drunken political geniuses who trotted out Sarah Palin.

During the 1968 election, one of the keystones of Dick Nixon's campaign was his "plan to end the war in Vietnam." Of course he had no real plan, or, if he did it was a poor one, evidenced by the fact that the war dragged on for seven brutal years after that sad election season.

It has been said in some quarters that the "plan" Nixon alluded to, but never spelled out, was a nutty scheme (nutty schemes seem to abound in the halls of power) to have Kissinger convince the Russians that Tricky Dick was just batshit crazy enough to use nuclear weapons if the North Vietnamese would not come to the table and end the war on his terms.

History has shown that Nixon was nuts enough. So was and is, Henry the K, but the Vietnamese, after fighting a collection of Yankees, French, Japanese and Chinese among others, for uncountable hundreds of years weren't impressed with new and improved threats, from new and unimproved enemies.

They had been hardened over the centuries to leave early for work knowing that they might have to bury their dead or rebuild a bridge or two on the way. They would not be cowed by threats of death and destruction; death and destruction was all around them, forever.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men~~George Orwell

Last chance! [Update to earlier article]. Register by OCT 14 in WEST VIRGINIA, NJ, MARYLAND, OREGON. And by OCT 14 in NEVADA (in-person only by this date; mail registration has closed).
By Sat., OCT 11 in DELAWARE.
By Oct 15 in MASSACHUSETTS.
For WISCONSIN, it's either by Oct 15 postmark by mail, or else by Nov 3 if in -person. For KANSAS, register by Oct 20.
For CALIF by Oct 20. Registering to vote closed Monday Oct. 6 in nearly 20 states.

Today, you can check online that your registration is active and your name  hasn't been purged from the rolls - as happened to Charles Coxwell of Cobbs Cty, GA because he hadn't voted since 2004, or hasn't landed on a challenge list like one that snagged Kevin Furey, a Montana Army reservist who, before heading to deploy in Kuwait, sent a mail FW card to the post office which triggered the state GOP's party challenge to his right to vote.

A lot of the states with October deadlines are critical and vote-rich. I've inserted below the last-minute registration procedures for some of the states. The states that had deadlines in the past week to register included:
COLORADO, OHIO, FLORIDA, LOUISIANA, INDIANA, GEORGIA, PENNSYLVANIA, VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, TEXAS, D.C., NEW MEXICO, KENTUCKY, MISSOURI , HAWAII, ARKANSAS, ARIZONA, WYOMING.

Now is the time to check on your existing registration, you can pretty much do that online from the database connections, either officially from here (left column),...

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Political debates are an excersise of vapid talking points, quips and body language. Substance is irrelevant. Candidates are programmed to hold the attention span of people that watch American Idol and read tabloids while sitting on the toilet. Yet even these over scripted, dumbed down, brain massaged events have revealing moments.

Yesterday, like most political bloggers, I posted my analysis of the Biden-Palin debate and referenced Palin's most memorable sound-bite:

For the first time in 26 years, Democrats in Congress are supporting offshore oil drilling and the presidential candidates agree. How have we suddenly come to this?

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Change is passé. Barack Obama squeezed all the juice out of the change orange since announcing his candidacy in February 2007. Personally, I never thought much of the "change you can believe in" slogan but there is no denying Obama went far with it.

However, Sarah Palin's selection as McCain's running mate has convinced the public change is coming no matter who wins. Even worse, the very same corporate media that complained Obama only offered "words" compared to Hillary Clinton's policy specifics during the primary season now argue that McCain's lack of specifics does not diminish his stature as a maverick. Is that fair? Of course not! But there is no sense whining about it. These are the cards we've been dealt.

So how do we change the narrative? The solution is to present the voting public with a stark choice: progress or calamity. Change vs. more of the same is stale and no longer resonates.

Several senators reportedly are using "secret holds" to block passage of anti-corruption legislation that activists, concerned citizens and more enlightened members of Congress have been working for eight years to pass into law. The identities of the stonewallers are uncertain, but suspects include eight Republicans and the Senate Minority Leader (names provided below the fold.

A bipartisan group of Senate offices has agreed on a reconciliation bill that they are hoping to pass and send to the House of Representatives for final passage. The bill is critical to restoring integrity and fiscal responsibility in our federal government and previous votes indicate that the bill would pass with flying colors - but only if it could be presented for a vote before Congress leaves at the end of the week.

With the United States finally deciding to go into Pakistan when and as it likes, it is setting up its former strategic ally - which morphed into a client state after 9/11 - to go the way of Iran in the future.

McCain campaign on McCain:

"There was one man who was presidential tonight, that man was John McCain."

Let's see ... McCain never looked at Obama during the debate.

Not looking at your opponent is "presidential?"

This very much was the "don't talk to your enemies - don't look them in the eye" foreign policy expert practicing his "presidential" craft for a nationwide audience.

McCain campaign continues:

In Bush's infamous "State of the Union Address" he dramatically declared that the U.S.A. was militarily threatened by Saddam Hussein.

Pausing, and speaking with grave, almost hushed tones, Bush defined the threat that was heard around the world.  Weapons of mass destruction, along with processing yellow cake Uranium for nuclear power, sent visions of a mushroom cloud above the land of the free, the home of the brave.

Pausing, and speaking with grave, almost hushed tones, Bush defined the threat that was heard around the world.  Weapons of mass destruction, along with processing yellow cake Uranium for nuclear power, sent visions of a mushroom cloud above the land of the free, the home of the brave.

This was enough to prompt a misled Congress to literally leap to their feet, robot style.  The Vietnam War debacle, where 55,000 U.S. service personnel sacrificed their lives, thinking the U.S. was under the much publicized threat of Communist domination, and all Asia might fall victim to a "domino effect" of first Vietnam, then all of Asia becoming Communists.

That is the burning question that has surfaced in the United States of America.

It all began when President George Bush was asked if he had consulted with his father, former President Bush, regarding Iraq.  Bush replied, "I consult with my other father (meaning God)."  

While Bush did not reveal precisely what the Almighty consulted him to do in Iraq, his actions seem to answer that emphatically as he has never once apologized for launching the Iraq War on the basis of lies.

Bush has continuously insisted that the U.S. is winning the Iraq War.  All this while the death, destruction and debt go up in the longest war in U.S. history in its 232 years.  The ugly reality of the real reason for launching the Iraq War is far removed from any godly direction in the opinion of many.