Vibrant Erosion
Hawk on the Roof
Every Which Way But Loose
Keep it Flowing There is one thing that is more disappointing and sad than a missed opportunity: No opportunity.
I am thinking about this today. This week's political upset in Massachusetts is a disappointment on several levels. I am most concerned with the impatience and frustration of the voters in this country. I feel their pain, but I'm not willing to let a republican relieve this pain, not after eight years of economic thumbscrews and evaporating opportunities. Do voters really believe that the political opportunism and sound bite thinking of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are the way to create opportunity and solutions to America's problems? Six years from now, will Massachusetts voters think that going backwards with Scott Brown and his beautiful, bare cosmo body is a solution?
Take it from a citizen of California, the state that elected the charismatic and body beautiful, Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, the answers are no, and no.
California voters bought into the governators "power to the people"/ "no new taxes" publicity stunts and watched as he and his corporate backers destroyed the vehicle license fee that would generate almost 40 billion dollars in revenue and balance the state budget. Fast forward six years, and California is bankrupt, missing the 40 billion that would have averted this disaster.
I don't blame the Schwarzenegger, or his corporate sponsors. They are predictable in their mission which is to make money for their shareholders and campaign contributors. They are consistent opportunists and whenever a problem arises, they politicize it, and try to score points for their side. There is no "public good" in their calculations. The "public" is the adversary. I see the ancient bones of feudalism and wealthy excess in these machinations. The rich get richer while the rest of us pay their way, grist for the mill, ...you get the picture.
So, citizen beware! And, last week the U.S. Supreme Court gave us citizens another opportunity to beware of corporate opportunism. Did you hear the one about the Supreme Court of the USA?
"The court ruled that corporations should be given the same right to free speech as people, which is — I mean, corporations are not people, and if they were people, they’d be real jerks." –Jimmy Kimmel
I'm not surprised at the outcome of Citizens United vs The FEC this week. This is just another reiteration of America's golden rule: "he who has the gold, rules."
The American public has an opportunity to regain balance and dignity over the next few years. President Obama has managed to slice off a few of Hydra's heads, despite getting bit by the ones he still needs to lop off. But, there is a long way to go to repair the damage caused by a sleepwalking populous and congressional partisanship. One year is not enough time to do magic and Obama and his team are not magicians. They need to be more present, to advertise, to spin, to spend money on convincing us that they have a plan and it's working.
Obama needs to recognize that we must hear the sane voices of productive leadership and those voices need to drown out the crazy wignuts that have gotten a choke hold on the public airwaves. And, it wouldn't hurt if the voices had faces like Barbi and Ken. Hmmm, maybe the President should pump iron, or bare all in Cosmo. Voters may be distracted from those annoying wars, bank failures, job losses, medical expenses, corporate bribery, and media propaganda if he flashes his washboard abs.
