and no time to say it. I’m off at 8:45am to the Eyecare Medical Group in Portland for my left cataract removal. I sit here with no breakfast rather grumpily. And I read about Obama’s three year freeze in discretionary spending (I guess John McCain agrees — how nice) and note his lack of leadership on health care. I’ve about given up on Obama. His plans for solving the job problems in America are piddling, in addition to the budget freeze not helping jobs at all. The Republicans will take over. But I’m looking forward to getting this cataract removed and doing without glasses, although they say I’ll need them for reading. OK, now I gotta go and start taking eye drops. Kate will be over soon and the three of us, Kate, me, Cynthia will head out for Portland at 8:45am.
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Tags: cataract removal, discretionary spending, eyecare medical group, glasses, Health Care, jobs, john mccain, Obama, republicans
More Juan Cole stuff this morning. He’s making a good argument that these new Obama administration airline passenger screening measures are casting too wide a net and will end up alienating people. Also, they tell al-Qaida which countries not to send bombers from. For example, Indonesia and India aren’t on the list. And why is Cuba on the list?
It’s hard to find a discussion of these issues on the American media which is so scared it might be called ‘liberal’ that it constantly bends over backwards to appease the republicans, who are mostly right wing now, with vanishing numbers of ‘moderates’. So, it was refreshing to hear, thanks to Juan Cole, a different analysis of these new screening measures brought to us by, yes, you guessed it, AlJazeeraEnglish.
Here’s a 24 minute video from AlJazeeraEnglish with the title, “Inside Story – New airline security measures: Safe or discriminatory? – 5 Jan 2009″
So, if Obama’s rhetoric is high minded and progressive, are his actions more like a continuation of George W. Bush’s policies? In other words, is Obama becoming W-ized?
Tags: airline security, al qaida, aljazeeraenglish, Cuba, george w bush, india, indonesia, juan cole, Obama, republicans, screening measures
Juan Cole has a nice piece on the contrast between the two Joe Wilson’s, one called Bush a liar for stating Iraq bought yellowcake uranium from Niger, and the other called Obama a liar for stating that the health reform would not cover illegal immigrants. Well, the first Joe Wilson was right: Bush lied when he said Iraq bought yellowcake uranium, and for pointing out that lie Joe Wilson was vilified by his government. The second Joe Wilson was wrong: Obama told the truth when he said illegal immigrants will not be covered. (In fact, the illegal immigrants will pay but will receive no benefits, just as happens when they must pay into social security.) Obama accepted the second Joe Wilson’s apology. Bush, especially Cheney, never accepted the truth and tried to destroy the first Joe Wilson’s reputation. Read Juan Cole’s excellent analysis of this, and see the funky graphics by Befunky.com.
Tags: bush, cheney, funky graphics, health reform, illegal immigrants, Iraq, joe wilson, juan cole, niger, Obama, social security, uranium
Gail Collins in her Op-Ed today goes after the middlemen who are ripping off the students and making it practically impossible for young people to get a higher education today unless they are already Super Rich.
Here’s a couple of comments on her Op-Ed that I agree with:
The mess that is our student loan program is yet another legacy of the “Government is not the solution, Government is the problem” mantra bequeathed to us by generations of Republican (and all but Republican Democrats) “free market” fanatics: The same folks who brought the private health insurance catastrophe that has made our health care system the most expensive and least effective in the world. It’s time we cut that particularly hoary old Gordian knot and started to rely upon efficient and much less expensive government programs instead of the inefficient and horrendously expensive mess that “private enterprise” has handed us.
— calyban, fairfax, california
Well said, calyban!
Hello out there. White working-class ethnic here–from family with no interest in education, and no money to provide one to any of their five children (no birth control means lots of kids and no money for most people, FYI)-but I got a college education, thanks to scholarships, my own never-ending hard work, and low-interest loans, and graduated from college in 1981.
Anyone notice that this country is destroying its future, and any idea of reasoned discourse, in the name of fundamentalist capitalism, which is no less zealous and insane than jihad and Islamofascism that the phoney “All-Americans” claim to deride?
What would be All-American: to stop subsidizing the rich by taxing the poor. Education for all. A strong base for our future.
Stop the insanity of fundamentalist capitalism now. The right wing calls Obama “socialist”? What they mean is, they are afraid that the “socialism” that benefits them–that’s called insane capitalism, folks–has been revealed for what it is. A tax on our future, socialized risk, privatized gain.
America–let’s wake up together.
— Mother, Brooklyn
Right on, Mother! Down with socialized risk and privatized gain! TAX THE RICH!
Tags: college education, Gail Collins, government programs, low interest loans, middlemen, Obama, private enterprise, private health insurance, student loan program
Taxes are way too low in this country. They need to be raised, but only on the high income groups, and raised somewhere around where they were during our great post-World War 1 economic boom.
Here’s why:
Bob, while I agree with you, and respect Felix Rohatyn greatly, his being “one of the biggest supporters of the creation of an infrastructure bank” does not answer the question of whether the government (we) can afford it.
I’ve recommended readers subscribe to John Mauldin’s weekly E-Letter before. http://www.frontlinethoughts.com… While I disagree with Mauldin’s politics (Republican) and almost of his socioeconomic policies and prescriptions (e.g., blasting Obama on national healthcare), to get economic facts he offers a concentrated and readable dose for free. This past Friday’s letter begins: “As of this week, total US debt is $11.3 trillion and rising rapidly. The Obama Administration projects that to rise another $1.85 trillion in 2009 (13% of GDP) and yet another $1.4 trillion in 2010. The Congressional Budget Office projects almost $10 trillion in additional debt from 2010 through 2019. Just last January the 2009 deficit was estimated at ‘only’ $1.2 trillion.” Mauldin goes on to explain why this is an optimistic set of estimates, followed by data on Europe and “The Global Recession Gets Worse” that reminds of Mr. Brooks’ image today of the “disembowelment scene in ‘Braveheart.’”
Mauldin asks where is the money going to come from?
“The world is going to have to fund multiple trillions in debt over the next several years. Pick a number. I think $5 trillion sounds about right. $3 trillion is in the cards for the US alone, if current projections are right.” He then talks about why bond rates are rising in what appears to be a deflationary period and concludes this thought with “I think the bond market is looking a few years down the road and saying that $1-trillion deficits are simply not capable of being financed. And if the debt is monetized, then inflation is going to become a very serious issue.”
As much as I dislike Republicans, sometimes we have to know what the analytical and thoughtful among them are saying. Mauldin is not a Bush, or Cheney, or Limbaugh. The irony is that while his facts appear to be sound, and pale yours today, he never seems to even realize that he’s making an argument for national healthcare, a wealth tax, slashing military spending, and in various ways coming up with enough funds for such as an infrastructure bank.
Way down deep — perhaps not all that deep — guys like Mauldin and the superrich (he’s more their advisor than one of them, as best I can tell) are worried that when the music stops they will no longer have a chair. And they’re correct, I think. We simply cannot have a nation in Great Recession I and almost in depression — sure to come if we don’t act — that does not take some drastic steps. Since there is no surplus at the bottom, and consumer-spending our way out of the crisis cannot be done, there remains only the top to pay for getting us out. Given that they got us into this mess, why not require them to bail us out? Yes, I know, the American consumer went a little crazy. Perhaps really nutty crazy. But who aided and abetted them? And who gained from consumer madness? We all know who, including our politicians in bed with these irresponsible and greedy Masters of the Universe. Bring ‘em down, before we all go down.
— Butler Crittenden, San Francisco, CA
My man, Butler Crittenden is at it again. See my earlier post, Response to Krugman.
The “Bob” who Butler is replying to is Bob Herbert who has a great Op-Ed, Our Crumbling Foundation, in the NYT today.
Butler agrees with Bob that it would be great to have a national infrastructure development bank to turn this economy around, but asks how are we going to pay for it? So why not increase taxes on the super rich who got us into this mess, and who are way under taxed compared with those in most industrialized countries?
And I agree with him! In fact I think it’s time for a mass revolt in this country!
Here’s another sobering response to Bob’s article:
How many times have we heard these concerns voiced before? Add them to the lengthy list of things we know we need to do in the U.S. that go unaddressed while we save the skins of corporate bankers with trillions in taxes on current and future generations. It is interesting how what now look like insiginificant tens of billions were unthinkable sums to spend on education, health, transportation and infrastructure, while all it took was one weekend’s thought to cough up hundreds of billions, trillions, when it came time to save the banks.
One of the lessons the right wing took from the rebellions of the 1960s is that a populace that is well paid, educated and free is a danger to their wealth and position. They will bring the whole house down on our collective heads rather than risk masses of Americans who are free from fear and ready to ask that the resources that they produce be put to good use rather than merely fill the coffers of the wealthy.
— Vincent Amato, New York City
Right on, Vincent!
But in reality what will we do? Sit back and do nothing.
Boy am I pissed. Is anybody else?
Let’s rise up, masses, and fire calls and letters at our senators and reps, form community groups of like minded people, send barrages of letters to our newspapers (newspapers?), hit the incredibly stupid right wing talk shows. Blast Limbaugh, Cheney, and all the other idiots on the right. Blast the mainstream media as well. As we know, they just go along with their corporate sponsors!
Boy, am I pissed. Is anybody else?
OK, I’ll let CJGC have the last word:
The question is whether good sense and an acknowledgment of our obligation to address our social and physical structural problems to prevent even more dire problems in the future is going to prevail over the small-minded bean counters who can’t see beyond the ends of their noses and those politicians who want nothing more than for Obama to fail.
It’s touch and go. A perfect example is serious reform of health care financing by offering a single payer option. It’s the only way to cover everyone and bring costs under control. So far only the health care industry and the health insurance industry have been invited to participate and Senator Baucus assures us that single payer will never pass.
“Yes we can and change we can believe in” have morphed into “No we can’t. The comfortable hold the reins of power so the rest of you just sit down and shut up.” Of course the comfortable are also going to fall into the holes they think they are just digging under our feet.
Are there special bridges for the defenders of the status quo so they won’t fall in the river too?
Yes, it should be a no-brainer. Sadly, many sitting in comfortable chairs don’t themselves have enough brains to notice. Too smug.
— CJGC, Cambridge, MA
Tags: bob herbert, bond market, bush, Butler Crittenden, congressional budget office, felix rohatyn, global recession, inflation, john mauldin, mainstream media, national healthcare, nytimes, Obama, single payer, trillion deficits, world war 1
OUTRAGE, Outrage, outrage, oUtrAge, outragE, … etc., on and on, if you watched the Jon Stewart show the last couple nights you’d hear and see this in vivid technicolor emerging in captions from the many cable networks and network news shows.
Well, give me a break!
I agree with NYT Op-Ed columnist, Gail Collins, who said in her column today, Let’s complain about Barack Obama. Why doesn’t he sound angrier? Doesn’t he understand that his job right now is to be the Great Venter?
Sure he keeps saying he’s mad. But you can tell that he secretly thinks it’s crazy to obsess about $165 million in bonuses in a company that’s still got $1.6 trillion in toxic assets to unravel. “I don’t want to quell that anger. I want to channel our anger in a constructive way,” he said on Wednesday. Everybody knows constructively channeled anger doesn’t really count. It’s like diet pizza.
OK, where are the pitchforks and torches? If Congress, the Talk Show crazies, and the American People are really that angry, instead of just enjoying themselves spouting and fulminating, how come they aren’t taking to the streets like they do in some countries, and like they often did in this country back in the last century?
The sad result of all this overwrought outrage is that the friggin Republicans will be more likely to gain the political clout to block health care reform. “You’ve got to balance the budget, you tax and spender, Obama!”, they will scream all the louder. And the outraged American public may go along with this, thus yet again railing against its own best interests and preventing a much needed reform.
UPDATE: Joe Nocera has an even better piece than than Gail Collins’ above describing not only how overwrought this outrage is but how dangerous and distracting it is: The Problem With Flogging A.I.G.. There are real problems to be solved and the retention bonuses are negligible by comparison. C’mon Congress, let’s get back into the real world before it collapses!
Tags: budget, Gail Collins, Joe Nocera, Obama, outrage, populism
Who is ahead? Who’s on first base? 550 people killed in Gaza versus 5 in Israel. Those poor Israelis!
The New York Times has an editorial, Incursion Into Gaza, this morning which many find sadly out of touch. I’ve been reading the comments and have selected two, the first from Valenciennes, France, the second from Chicago, Illinois, which capture my views better than I myself might express them.
Are you joking? How can you honestly report these opinions? Essentially, what I gather from this article is “Well, Israel has killed an obscenely disproportionate amount of people, but now it’s time to use caution. But only if Hamas rocket fire stops.”
Why does no one speak of the cause for this rocket fire? Namely, the humanitarian crisis imposed on Gaza by the Israeli blockade. Food shortage. Mass unemployment. Blame Hamas, blame Palestine, but facts are facts. People are starving. Children are starving. There’s sewage in the streets. And now people and children are dying by the hundreds. Hospitals don’t have NEARLY the capacity or the medicine. And even if they did, there’s no electricity or running water.
That’s not to say that I support Hamas’s rocket fire. I think it’s counterproductive, stupid, and wrong, and it should be stopped.
We often hear about Israelis in Sderot developing trauma related disorders. A few days ago I heard a story about a young Palestinian boy, 14 years old, in the Gaza strip. He died of shock. Had a heart attack. A 14 year old boy.
Please, NY times, please reconsider
— Ed Caddell, Valenciennes, France
The Times has waited for several days before sharing its “wisdom” on Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and out popped a mouse. It would have been better not to say anything.
First, what is an “incursion”? Israel has invaded Gaza, and even the Times is forced to admit the gross disparity in death (550 Palestinians and 5 Israelis), although it mentions not the destruction, wounded, threats to public health, etc, to the Palestinians. Nor does it mention ambulances being destroyed, medical personnel being killed, assassinations, etc., all by the Israelis. Where I come from, that’s called “terrorism.”
Where is the demand that Israel cease and withdraw immediately–and more importantly, where it the demand that the United States cut off all funding to Israel? As long as the US gives a blank check to the Israelis, no possible just solution can emerge.
This is not to say Hamas have been saints. Rocketing Israeli civilians is not acceptable. Period.
But let’s recognize that Hamas is an Israeli invention, initially intended to undercut the sectarian PLO. Oops. And when Hamas competed in democratic elections, Israel and the United States rejected the outcome–we didn’t like the outcome.
Israel has created the world’s largest prison, and just cannot understand why human beings wouldn’t like being forced to live in those conditions.
Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians has failed for 60 years–or more. It’s clear that more repression will not work.
Israelis won’t be safe until the Palestinians are safe. The Palestinians won’t be safe until they have true equality with the Israelis; where the Israelis don’t have power over the Palestinians.
Any “solution” that does not address the extreme power differential is a joke, whether by the Bush Administration of the new Obama Administration. And only hinders a real solution that is just for both sides.
But the Times’ complicity in covering up the atrocities, and blaming Hamas for ordering those Israeli tanks and aircraft to attack, is beyond despicable.
— Kim Scipes, Chicago
Well, maybe Obama can get them all to sit down in a room together and talk, talk, talk, until a solution is reached, and then talk, talk, talk some more until the solution is refined and peace is achieved. Simple? Take a century? Maybe.
Tags: bush administration, Elections, gaza, hamas, heart, Israel, israelis, Medicine, nytimes, Obama, Palestinians
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