DADT Repealed!

So there we have it. The Senate repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"  today by a vote of 65 to 31.  This is truly a civil rights milestone, and the President redeems himself to me for many of the recent disappointments. Over 14,000 troops were expelled from the military during the 17 years the law was in effect. From now on military personnel will have the freedom to declare their sexual preference, or not, without fear of retribution.

I can only imagine how these servicemen and women must feel tonight.  I didn’t expect this law to be overturned with the impending GOP majority in Congress next month. President Obama must have negotiated for more than we thought when he gave into Republican demands to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires.

America has closed one more chapter on our ugly past of discrimination and public persecution of our people. America is a better place today. Thanks Mr. President.

Obama- The Great Compromiser

The art of compromise is finding a solution that everyone hates, but they vote for anyway.  The President seems to be on track as “The Great Compromiser” of all time.  Early on he compromised on his pledge to end the war in Iraq by delaying the withdrawal of troops and leaving 50, 000 troops in Iraq after he pronounced the combat to be over.

Then, after promising to close Guantanamo, he now sees no immediate closure in sight.  After supporting the public option as an alternative to private, for-profit health insurance corporations, he compromised by giving the health insurance industry 32 million new “consumers” of private health insurance, rather than fight to include the public option.

Now we have the greatest insult of all, the President caved in to the GOP’s position and agreed to continue the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. This comes after he already gave up any hope of a Climate Change bill, slow rolled on DADT, and completely ignored Union Reform legislation. He must have nothing more to give. He’s all compromised out.

I’m beyond being tired of defending the President. My faith in his ability to bring change to America is gone.  He’s become a DINO- Democrat in Name Only.  We are truly being ruled by Demopublicans.

Best New England Clam Chowder

Everyone in New England has a recipe for clam chowder. This recipe has evolved over the years. The flavor is very strong and the taste is heavenly. This photo was soft shell steamer clams. Any type of fresh clam can be used with equally tasty results. If you live on the west coast, razor clams, manila clams and gooey ducks can be used, but you’re on your own for how many to use. Manila clams are very much like littlenecks. You could probably make the whole chowder from one gooey duck.

Preparation time: Soak clams 2-3 hours, prep 1 hour

A Forward on Buying and Selecting the Best Clams:

The best clams are the clams you dig in the clam-flats at low tide. Ok. We can’t all do that. So the next best clams are the clams someone else dug that same day and they’re willing to give you some or sell them to you. The next best is a trustworthy fishmonger. I’m fortunate to have a fishmonger who digs his own clams and sells them out of his truck every Friday. Now I know fishmongers are going to say anything to get you to buy their fish, so you still have to be careful, but this old guy has been selling seafood for a long time and he has a loyal clientele, including my very seafood finicky gourmet cook cousin, so he has a good reputation.

The next best way to get clams is to pick them over yourself at a fish market where you can select the clams that look happy and healthy. If you are at a supermarket and the clams are prepackaged, you can still test them by giving a little squeeze. If the necks move, you’re ok, but you will still have to sort them individually before you steam them.  If the seafood person selects them for you ask him or her to make sure they’re alive. High volume supermarkets generally have good quality and high turn over so they’re generally pretty reliable.  I’ve only had to return clams to the supermarket once because I had so many dead clams it was disgusting, but that only happened once. If your fishmonger has more than one variety of clam ask which is the freshest or select the freshest looking variety. If you see a lot of dead clams on ice, avoid them entirely.

All clams must be alive, not just living, but very lively happy clams.  The shell should be closed tight. For soft shell “steamer” clams, if the neck is sticking out, tickle the clam, it should retract the neck and close up tight.  If the neck is limp, the poor clam is on it’s last legs. Discard it. If the shell stays open when you squeeze it, he’s dead, say a few kind words and discard it too. Test every clam you have before you steam them because a dead clam can spoil the taste of the broth and give you digestion problems.

A medium shell clam can be found in Maine. They’re called Mahogany clams. They are yellowish brown.  Mahogany clams are very inexpensive, but they have a short life and tend to spoil quickly. When I can buy them in the supermarket, many are dead on the ice, so buyer beware. I avoid them, especially when the price is too good to be true. They’re probably trying to get rid of them before they spoil.

Hard shell clams come in different sizes (and ages).  All hard shell clams should be closed up tight. If the shell moves at all when you squeeze it, don’t select it, and if you already own it, discard it before you steam them. The best hard shells are gray to grayish white in color. The youngest are called “littlenecks”. They’re about an inch to inch and a half in size. The next larger size is the “Cherry Stone”, they’re roughly 1.5 to 2.5 inches in size, and the largest size is the “Quahog”, 2.5 to 5 inches size.  There are even larger deep sea clams, but not something you’d see in the clam flats and in local markets.

(Just an aside- Quahogs were a staple of the early Native Americans in New England. They prized the purple color on the inside of the shell and made beads with the purple shell and called it wampum. The wampum beads were used as jewelry and currency because they took a lot of labor to make. When metal drills were acquired from traders, the process to make them became very efficient and the wampum beads became devalued as they became more numerous. Early settlers would buy large parcels of land in Massachusetts with a handful of wampum beads.)

Ingredients:

4 pounds of steamer clams, or 4 dozen  “Little Necks”, or 2 dozen “Quahogs”

3-4 medium red potatoes

1 large sweet onion

2 tbs butter and additional 2 tbs optional for creamy chowder

4 tbs sea salt

crushed pepper to taste

1 cup of water

1 cup of store bought clam juice

1 cup of cornmeal or polenta meal

1 cup of heavy cream (optional)

2 tbs flour (optional)

Optional- 1 strip of uncooked bacon (chopped) or 2 tbs sized cube of salt pork

Preparation Time:  2-3 hours of soaking & 1 hour of prep

Preparation:

The clams can be cleaned before they are cooked by placing them in a pot covered with water with sea salt and cornmeal. Stir and place in the fridge, or add ice cubes to keep the water cold. After about 2-3 hours they digest the cornmeal and the bellies are a white and clean. This produces a clearer broth. The only downside to this process is some flavor is lost. If the clams are freshly dug, the taste of the ocean is preserved by not cleaning them with cornmeal. If they’ve been lying around on ice in a store for a few days that fresh ocean aroma is gone by then, so you may as well feed them cornmeal. The bellies taste sweet and they aren’t as gritty.

Remove the clams from the cornmeal solution and rinse well. If they haven’t been soaked in cornmeal, give them a thorough washing to remove the residual mud and grit.

Add 1 cup of water to a large soup pot and a steam grate to keep the clams out of the water. Add the clams. Place on high heat covered. When steam forms, turn down to med-high and cook for 7-10 minutes or until the shells open. Small clams cook faster. Large clams take longer. Leave the cover slightly ajar to prevent the foam from boiling over. For chowder, undercooked clams are ok. They’ll be cooked again when the other ingredients are added.

Remove the meat from the clams being careful to retain the liquid, and set the clams aside.  If large clams are used, dice the meat into smaller portions. Steamers can be whole or separated into necks and bellies. Dice large necks if you prefer smaller pieces. The steamers have a long neck with a skin. To remove the skin pinch the clam at the base of the neck with one hand and strip the skin off with the other. The littlenecks are much easier to clean, but all clams have some skin that has to be removed.

Dice the potatoes and onion. Slowly drain off the broth from the clams into another bowl, rinse the pot to remove the grit. If you use bacon or salt pork, add to the pot with 1 tbs of butter and onions, and simmer until onions are translucent, then replace the broth in soup pot. Add the potatoes, and enough clam juice to cover the potatoes if needed, and crushed pepper (it’s best to take about 2 tsp of whole peppercorns and crush them coarsely rather than milling the pepper) if you grind the pepper, use much less- 3-4 twists). Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are soft (approx 10 minutes)

Add the clams and 1 tbs of butter to the pot and allow 3-4 mins to cook in on med-low heat.  Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. This makes low fat, clear clam chowder.

If you want creamy clam chowder, melt 2 tbs of butter in a sauce pan on med heat, add 2 tbs of flour, stir quickly until blended and bubbling as a roux, then slowly pour in 1 cup of cream, stirring until thick and creamy. Stir into the chowder and simmer for 2-3 minutes before serving.

Serves 6-8 generously

One Nation Rally- An Opportunity Lost

People from all over the country came to Washington Saturday, Oct 2, to demonstrate support for jobs, social justice and education. President Obama went to Camp David.  This comes just a week after Vice President Biden scolded liberal Democrats, told them to stop whining and Obama said "buck up".  So the party faithful came to Washington from all over the country and the President gave them brush off.

His lack of support is cause for more than whining. The President obviously thought this was a whining fest, and so, why should he coddle to these people?   I’ll tell you why. They elected him and if he doesn’t start acting like a Democrat, they’ll turn against him in 2012.  The jobless rate is still 10%, Obamacare is a failure, and the war rages on. These are not good one-liners to get re-elected on.

He lost an opportunity to reel in some supporters. He could’ve been the keynote speaker. He could’ve gotten everyone fired up. He could’ve boosted his supporters through media coverage. He could’ve restored some hope. He could’ve given people a reason to believe. He could’ve spoken out for real change, but instead he went to Camp David. 


If President Obama keeps steering the bus of state to the right he'll be off the road in a ditch by 2012 without these whiners.

UFOs, Neanderthals and Republicans

On Monday, September 27, 2010, a former Air Force officer, Capt Robert Salas, who was stationed at a Minuteman silo in Montana in 1967 will give a press conference at the National Press Club.  He’s coming out, so to speak, from his government imposed silence of events that occurred there. He claims that on March 16, 1967, a large, brightly lit, disk shaped UFO, presumably piloted by aliens, hovered over the missile silo and disabled all 10 nuclear warhead missiles. His story is collaborated by other witnesses, so it must be true.  OK! Exhale!

Meanwhile in Italy, a researcher, Riel-Salvatore spent seven years studying Neanderthal sites. He conjectures that Neanderthals may have been the first “techies” in the human race. He found tools they used 42,000 years ago- long before any use of tools by “modern” man. Furthermore, he asserts they were not conquered and driven into extinction as commonly assumed. Rather, they were absorbed into the larger society of Homo sapiens through mating. Evidently their population was very small in comparison to the Homo sapiens, and well, they must have been lonely and vulnerable to a good pick up line.  

And in Washington, we have “back to the future” going on as the Republicans dusted off their 16 year old plan for fixing America and launched a serious, no kidding, re-run of the plan that got us into this mess we have today- all under the audacious presumption of making a “fresh start” to put America back on track. “Let’s toss all that regulation overboard. Who needs it? Health care? We don’t need no stinking health care.” They’re sure the American voters will support them this time.  Honest.

So I suppose if people can believe aliens from outer space can disarm nuclear warheads, and primitive homo sapiens can have a “love-in” with Neanderthals, then people could believe that Republicans can dust off the old failed plan and make it work this time. As this all unfolds though, I’m beginning to wonder if there's a dormant Neanderthal gene lurking about here, and were these legal or illegal aliens?

Congressional Debate Highlights Need for the Green Party

The first debate for the 2^nd Congressional district in New Hampshire between Republican Charlie Bass and Democrat Ann Mclane Kuster was predictable.  Kuster accused Bass of being in Washington for 12 years when all the deregulation was enacted, while Bass said after nearly two years in office, President Obama is responsible for our unemployment today. Both are right. Maybe it’s time to look for a third party- like the Green Party.

Democrats point out that without Obama’s actions unemployment would be worse than it is, and the bank bailout and stimulus bill (better known as re-pave America) averted a second depression that could’ve pushed unemployment to 20% or 25 %.  We’ll never know if that is true. Economists have computer models that may be accurate predictors, but yawn… the average American wouldn’t believe that any more than they believe Obama is a Christian.

One thing is certain though. If Obama didn’t take the action he did, and unemployment did soar to 20%, the Republicans would be on the eve of election victories of landslide- no, of avalanche proportions, and the Tea Party would account for 80% of the electorate.

The Republicans want to bet all their economic recovery hopes on tax relief. I don’t believe that tax relief is the answer. No one wants to point the finger at the true culprit- the banks. For the last two years banks took taxpayer money at bargain rates and invested it for their own profit rather than loaning it to businesses. The investment banks had record profits in 2009, while Joe the Plumber couldn’t get a loan for a new roto-rooter.

As long as the banks horde the money for their own gains, the economy will remain mired down regardless of who is in office, and both parties are letting us down for not addressing this.  People need to wake up to the fact that both major parties are essentially the same, and they argue vehemently around the edges.

I like the Green Party. I like what it stands for. I don’t think I’m alone.

“Pledge to America”, More like a Contract on America

Where’s Bill Murray? Is this Groundhog Day?  Why do I feel like I’m reliving a nightmare from 1994?  Furthermore, since when does leaving the womb of Capital Hill and being videoed at a hardware store in nearby Virginia make you an outsider? This whole charade smacks of a hillbilly Tea Party gathering complete with pitchfork and overalls.  Is America really this gullible and stupid? Let's take a little quiz. Who really benefits from this pledge?

Not the children who are sick and could lose their health coverage

Not the people with catastrophic health care bills that will have lifetime limits restored

Not the 32 million Americans who couldn’t get health insurance before the reform

Not the people who will be dropped by their insurers if they get sick

Not the young people under 26, who will lose their insurance through their parents

Not the people who depend on Social Security

Not the people who depend on Medicare

Not the workers who would like to organize, but can’t because of corporate veto.

Not the gay/lesbians who want to be treated like citizens

Not the workers who lose their jobs overseas
Not poor immigrants trying to eek out a living

Not the troops killed in needless wars

Who then?

The Wall St Banks

Food factories 

Oil, Coal and Nuclear power

Defense contractors

Millionaires

China and every other country that steals American jobs

New? This sounds like old time GOP religion to me.

Glenn Beck - Our Modern Day Father Coughlin

In the depths of the Great Depression FDR initiated wide sweeping programs to stimulate the economy and put people back to work.  His programs were praised by his supporters and railed by his opponents, often describing him as a socialist, Marxist and Communist.  Father Coughlin had a massively popular radio program.  He and his followers were the tea party of the 1930s, staunchly anti-communist, and because “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, Father Coughlin befriended fascism and was sympathetic to Hitler and Mussolini.  He even fomented their anti-Semitic campaign and blamed the Jews for atheist communism.

Today we have a Great Recession.  President Obama has attempted to put people back to work while private industry continues to throw people overboard. Unemployment stands at 9.5 %.  Some experts say that without the stimulus package unemployment would be closer to 11.5% . He has also taken unprecedented action to correct the flaws in our system that allowed disgraceful exploitation and ruined the lives of millions of people.

Our problems all came on the heals of unbridled growth under President Bush when the FDA, FAA, EPA, FCC, SEC, BLM, BMM and countless other agencies that were established to protect Americans and the environment were told to “get big government off the backs of industry” and went on an eight year sabbatical. 

With nobody watching over our interests we got shoddy oil rigs, shady investments, robbed pension funds, mountain top removal, two wars, unsafe airplanes, unprecedented employment of illegal aliens, drugs that cause heart attacks, unsafe cars, cell phone- wireless network interference, E-coli in our beef, and salmonella in a half billion eggs.

Now after all that has happened, Glenn Beck wants to “Restore Honor” by desecrating the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of the MLK “I have a dream speech” by parading his racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, tea party zealots on hallowed ground.  If he were protesting the disgraceful actions of President Bush to restore our honor, it would almost make sense.  But I don’t think that’s what our modern day Father Coughlin has in mind. 

380 Million Eggs Recalled for Salmonella Poisoning

Looks like we had more than a minor oversight in our regulatory oversight here. How does Wright County Eggs of Galt Iowa ship 380 million eggs before being caught violating health laws?  That’s over 31 million cartons of eggs.   The numbers highlight how our food supply sources have been consolidated down to a few centralized food factories- in this case a monopoly on eggs.  How can any small farmer compete with this operation owned by Jack DeCoster who hires illegal immigrants, houses them in rat infested trailers, pays them below minimum wages, harasses and intimates the workers, and repeatedly pays huge fines to the Federal Government while maintaining the status quo of his operations?

They can’t. And as long as consumers buy the lowest priced eggs, these factories will flourish and small farmers will continue to die off. Our locally produced cage free Nellie's Eggs are humanely raised from happy chickens. They are a dollar  more than factory eggs, but I’ll gladly pay the extra buck to keep a fellow NH farmer in business. And I get much better and healthier eggs for my money.

You would think that one benefit of a centralized factory farm ( and I use the term "benefit" loosely) would be a robust FDA presence. After all, rather than hop-scotching around the country checking up on hundreds or thousands of small farmers, strong oversight at one mega-egg factory would be easier and quite justified by the potential risk to our entire population. Something this big should even bring in Homeland Security. What a great epicenter to launch a bio-attack on the homeland.

As far back as 1997 Mr. DeCoster has been cited for numerous violations. Robert Reich, Labor Secretary under Clinton, called Mr. DeCoster’s operation an “agricultural sweatshop”. I can’t wait to hear all the fall out on this fiasco. Obama will be blamed for running a shabby FDA, turning a blind eye to flagrant and repeated employment of illegal aliens, allowing an unsafe product, and unhealthy work environment. While this deplorable company managed to operate under both the Clinton and Bush Administrations, maybe President Obama should take some heat on this one.  This is happening on his watch too.

Beyond the Point of No Return

I remember refillable bottles. Most people under the age of 40 wouldn’t know what I’m talking about.  I worked in a dairy as a teenager. The empty bottles were picked up at each home and came back with the milkman in the afternoon. They were washed that evening and refilled the next day. Simple.

No one can convince me that reusing a bottle uses more energy than recycling a bottle, yet recycling has evolved to be our moral imperative and reusable bottles are just about extinct. We can credit the departure from “refillable” to “no deposit-no return” as the beginning of the end. That step began to fill our dumps. Further transition to use plastic containers for literally everything we purchased made the problem untenable.  In fact, our wasteful, throwaway society filled dumps and littered roadsides because no value was placed on the bottle or the plastic.  A few states tried to stem the throwaway mindset by paying for returns, but so few states pursued the policy it just died from neglect. Thankfully, we at least pursue a voluntary recycling ethic today.

When the dumps filled up with glass and plastic, communities pursued recycling, not with the objective to save energy, but rather to avert a costly, over capacity dump. We’ve gone almost full circle now. Today the really “in thing” is to support local businesses and nurture a sustainable local economy. So people are starting to look for milk in glass bottles again, and use other symbols of conservation like reusable grocery bags. Unfortunately, we may be beyond the point of no return.

I can recount the history of landfills in Bedford, NH as a typical example of what occurred in the aftermath of  “no deposit-no return” bottles, plastic and the Clean Air Act. Bedford was founded in the early 1700s. For more than 200 years a dump was maintained on a small 2 acre site almost in the center of town.  The refuse was burned. It was burned because the items that were deposited at the dump would burn.  Largely an agricultural community, organic material was composted at home or fed to the animals, and all glass bottles were returned to their source and reused. People “canned” their meats and vegetables in reusable glass jars. Plastic didn’t exist. The dump was not a very busy place.

The clean air act banned municipal burning at the dump. So a landfill was required.  We converted from polluting the air to polluting the ground.  Along with landfills came tons of “no deposit- no return” glass and  plastic bottles and containers. Within a few years the dump was full. In less than 30 years the  land was essentially turned into a “superfund” waste site and closed.  Little Bedford is but a microcosm of what happened throughout the country. Today we have a “transfer station”. I liken this to putting something in the toilet and flushing it down. After it disappears it’s no longer my problem.  These transfer stations have become collection points for massive centralized Walmart style landfills at far away locations. Think of the energy that's wasted in just moving the trash around the country. Someday they’ll be super-superfund sites.

Opponents of reusing bottles say that the process uses more energy and is more costly. I agree with the cost argument, but only because we built a worldwide business model around a throwaway product and we shouldn’t expect that model to work for both.  For example, at one time there were over 2700 Coca-Cola bottling plants in America.  Each bottler was franchised and served a local community.  We had a locally based, sustainable community business model. Shipping both ways was efficient because the trucks that delivered full bottles picked up the empties and returned them for reuse. The supply chain management was simple and locally based.   Milk delivery was even more localized, sometimes confined to neighborhoods.

Contrast that with a bottle of Sam’s Cola that might originate from Arkansas and be transported in trailer trucks to a regional distribution center. From there the cola is packaged with other goods, put on another trailer truck, and delivered to a local Walmart or Sam’s Club. The empty trailer truck returns to some other place to pick up another load.  The interstates are full of truckers pulling empty trailers. If the empty bottle is lucky enough to find its way to a recycling center- again more trucking involved- then the plastic is converted to some other product- like Polar Fleece for blankets or the like- more energy is consumed, and we’re supposed to feel good about that. Remember wool? It only needs  grass.

The attached article got me going on this issue as it highlights what could be the final demise of refillable beer bottles in America, and possibly the last sad and unfortunate victim of our "no deposit-no return" economy.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/18/national/main6783391.shtml?tag=stack

ST. MARYS, Pa., Aug. 18, 2010

Reusable Beer Bottles Facing Extinction

Only 2 Pennsylvania Breweries Still Take Empties Back to Reuse; 1 Is About to Quit, It's All Down to Straub

For years, it was the way breweries did business: sell bottles, then take back the empties. It just made sense, especially to folks weaned in the lean days of the Great Depression and World War II, that bottles should be scrubbed and refilled, not thrown away. 

These days, in a culture where nearly everything is disposable, recycling is a rite and energy costs are high, the decision of whether to toss tradition into the trash heap lies with one brewery about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. 

The 138-year-old, family-owned Straub Brewery is begging customers - mostly in Pennsylvania, but also some in Ohio, New York and Virginia - to return thousands of empty cases. If enough customers do, Straub will keep selling cases of 12- and 16-ounce returnable bottles past year's end. 

"It's not that we're totally into 'green,' but we think it's the right thing to do," said Dan Straub, great-grandson of company founder Peter Straub and the brewery's semiretired vice president. "Our philosophy is, 'Why recycle when you can reuse?"' 

One other brewer - the nation's oldest, D.G. Yuengling & Son of Pottsville, Pa. - still sells and gathers returnables. But it expects to phase them out by summer's end, leaving Straub as what experts believe is the last holdout in the U.S. 

Returnable bottles need to be cleaned, requiring extra energy. They are heavier so they won't break and must be shipped both ways, meaning fuel use and costs are significant for all but the smallest regional breweries. The larger breweries - Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors - gave up on returnables years ago because their costs multiplied with national distribution. 

Straub customers pay a $1.50 deposit per 24-bottle case and can get it back or just buy another case when they return the bottles to the store, distributor or brewery. 

The brewery spent more than $900,000 about five years ago to buy 150,000 cases of returnable bottles, and most of them are gone - some broken, some thrown away, but, brewery officials suspect, most retained by customers unaccustomed to returning them or filled with home brews. 

The brewery has so few bottles left, it's affecting production. 

Straub can produce 1,500 24-bottle cases of 16-ounce returnables and 2,100 cases of 12-ounce returnables in a day. But one recent batch of 16-ounce returnables was just 753 cases - because there were no more empties. 

"When the system of returnables works, everybody wins," said Bill Brock, Straub's chief executive and great-great-grandson of the founder. "We're just not getting that glass back." 

Soda companies are doing the same thing. LeRoy Telstad said his Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Winona, Minn., is one of only two bottlers in the U.S. that still produces Coke in returnables. The other is in New Mexico. 

"We're where Coke came from," Telstad said of his company, which serves four counties. "There used to be 2,700 bottlers of Coke in the United States, so it really was not just regional - it was local." 

The returnable-bottle model still works for Telstad because he serves an area less than 70 miles across and because returnable bottles of Coke and a few other flavors with the regional "Sunrise" label are a small fraction of his business. Ninety percent is soft drinks or juices sold in nonreturnable bottles and cans. 

"It's become so much of a niche now," Telstad said. "Customers like the nostalgia of it." 

Straub doesn't consider returnables a niche product but also doesn't need them to survive. Canned beer, added just last year, has been "flying out the door" and sales have never been better, Brock said. 

"If we were a public company, it would be like, 'Dump that line,"' Brock said. "But it's our customers. Their fathers drank it, their grandfathers drank it. It's not just a business decision." 

About 12 percent of all U.S. beer was sold in returnable bottles in 1981. Since 2007, the percentage has been negligible, according to statistics kept by the Washington, D.C.-based Beer Institute. 

In Pennsylvania, more than a quarter of all beer sold in 1981 was in returnables. The state's antiquated liquor control laws required most beer to be sold by the case through distributors, so returning empty cases wasn't particularly inconvenient. 

That has changed as convenience stores and supermarkets have increasingly gotten the OK to sell six- or 12-packs - which come in nonreturnable bottles and cans. 

About 20 percent of Straub is sold in kegs, and the brewery will produce about 45,000 cases of bottles and cans this year - with 20 percent of that in returnable bottles, Brock said. 

By contrast, Dick Yuengling said the 30,000 cases of 12-ounce returnables his brewery, founded in 1829, will churn out this year is too small of a percentage for him to figure out. 

"The consumer's been indoctrinated; we're a throwaway society," he said. "Everybody's environmentally conscious, but if you put a case of returnable bottles in front of them, they say, 'What's that?"'

The Twenty-eighth Amendment to Repeal Citizenship?

No (non-religious) document is more revered than our US Constitution. At 221 years old, we’ve seen fit to amend it only 27 times. One of those amendments, the Eighteenth, was a frivolous imposition of religious morality into the lives of Americans. The Twenty-first Amendment undid that act of imposed morality, so we’re only left with twenty-five that mean anything today.

Now with so much animosity toward undocumented aliens, conservatives would like to amend the Constitution to not recognize the citizenship of people born in the United States if their parents are not citizens or legal aliens. This seems ludicrous, yet elected Congressmen and Senators are talking about this seriously, but I think they’re just riding the latest anti-Obama wave, and looking for campaign fodder.

I assume (and hope) this amendment has no chance of being adopted by Congress or ratified by the States, yet the right wing talking heads will likely ruminate on this till the cows come home.  What they’re doing is creating new campaign fodder to highlight the difference between Democrats and Republicans- as if we needed another gene to be identified in addition to homophobia, racialphobia, Moslemphobia, Obamaphobia, taxphobia, carbonphobia, climatephobia, terrorphobia, warphobia, Obamacarephobia, and debtphobia- now we have immigrationphobia.

The Numbers Speak Volumes

70% of the people polled object to the proposed mosque being built so close to ground zero. Frankly, I’m encouraged that 30% do.  After all, what’s the percentage of Islamic people in the US?  3%? 5%?  That means a lot of non-Moslems-- maybe 25%-27% of the people -- upwards of 70 million people-- have an understanding of our constitution and an understanding of the difference between religion and terrorism.

I’ve been amazed at how many people blame Islam for 9/11.  Would they blame all Catholics for the Oklahoma City bombing because of Timothy McVeigh?  When are these opponents of freedom of religion going to get it straight? Religions are not terrorists. People are terrorists.  I can’t think of a more fitting way for Moslems to pay respect for the tragedy of 9/11 than to erect a sacred place of worship representing one of the three great Abrahamic religions of our civilization.

To the 70 million of so non-Moslems who have no objection, I’m proud of you. To the 210 million or so non-Moslems who oppose the mosque- I suggest you exercise your freedom of religion, go to your church or synagogue, pray to the same God Moslems worship, and try to seek an understanding of both issues.

“One (Homophobic) Nation Under God”

The struggle for civil rights has been way too long and way too heartbreaking.  The ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker on August 4th overturning the California Prop 8 ban on same sex marriage is uplifting, if for no other reason, because a little hope leaks back into the lives of people who have too long been denied equal protection under the law. Few issues are more inflammatory than same sex marriage. Homophobia, like bigotry, seems to be taking way too many generations to leach out of our society.

I suggest this is because the people who run city hall still all go to the same church on Sunday. They can’t separate- no, they don’t want to separate their religious convictions from their human rights moral compass. Politicians point with pride at being guided by religious doctrine. “God Bless America” ends every speech with an “Amend” reverence.

Our deep-rooted bond of civil law and religious doctrine continues to dominate our lives despite our kindergarten image of church and state being separate. Yes, we have managed to take nativity displays out of some public parks, and public schools can’t start the day with prayer, but we remain “one nation, under God”, where Moses and the  Ten Commandments are chiseled into the United States Supreme Court Building, and Congress starts every day with a prayer, thank you.

Until we actually separate church and state, and follow the wisdom of giving unto Caesar what is Caesars, our lives will be dominated by the fire and brimstone of the religious zealots.  What we really need is an amendment to our Constitution that explicitly forbids religious doctrine from denying civil rights. Marriage should be a civil contract first, and a religious contract if they choose. Abortion too, is a personal decision, not a religious decision. Religious zealots point to our heritage of Euro-Christian domination with pride, while ignoring the millions of people who are affronted daily because another person’s religious doctrine is imposed on their lives by law.

But for now we have another small step forward. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Playing Natives

Post war Maryland was an expansion frontier for Washington’s wartime employees converted to peacetime employees. Little box houses went up everywhere faster than babies were being born.  I was born in a maternity hospital, Columbia, and there were so many babies coming out  I remember my mother saying that I was born in the corridor because all the rooms were full. Actually, the war was still going on when I was born, but Germany surrendered three months later. I was at the leading edge of the baby boom.

Growing up in the baby boom generation meant one thing- you had a lot of friends your own age. You also had a lot of strangers your own age.  In fact, all my life I’ve felt surrounded by many people my own age. We’re growing older now and some of my dear friends and relatives have departed.  Living with so many good friends has a down side too- we have to say goodbye to them someday. But that’s another story.

When I was young I loved to play natives.  Don’t ask me what kind of native. I don’t remember. My native was a rich portrayal of what I saw on the Buster Brown Saturday morning Jungle Book, sprinkled with what I saw on Jungle Jim and Hopalong Cassidy. I knew one thing- natives didn’t wear a lot of cloths and sometimes they painted their faces and bodies. They usually carried spears or bows. They were stealthy and communicated with birdcalls and other animal impersonations. That was so cool.

Our neighbor had a bamboo thicket. I was always intrigued by bamboo. It grew so fast and straight. We’d sneak over and cut several long stalks every summer. We never asked if it was ok, but I’m sure it was. He had a lot of bamboo. They made great spears. I never was able to fasten a good stone point, but I tried. (In my heart I wished a native would come along and show me how it was done. I made do with my own recollections from books and movies.) We used to spend hours in a near by creek bed looking for flint and other stones that could knapped into arrowheads.  We found a lot of quartz crystals and lots of garnets embedded in sandstone, but sadly, no flint. The spear points we did make didn’t really make the spear stick into anything, but in hindsight the weight of the small stone did provide aerodynamic balance to make it fly straight and graceful, like you’d image it should.

I was standing in the front yard one hot sticky summer day with my brother, wearing a bathing suit, and painted lightly with a few stripes on my chest (war paint) holding our spears when an older boy walked by and asked, “What are you?”. I said,  “Natives”. I don’t think he believed me. He shook his head and walked on. For a split second I felt a little foolish for sharing my fantasy with a stranger.  We had convinced ourselves we were natives, but in one passing inquiry our play world was exposed for what it really was- the pleasure of imagination.

Playing natives never had the same thrill for me after that day. I grew older and wiser too. I could see the flaws in the game we played. It wasn’t real anymore, but while it was real, we had fun and we were natives.

Protect Thy Image at Any Cost

Sure, Breitbart is a right wing scum bag who lied, cheated, and deliberately defamed the character of Shirley Sherrod, an amazing, intelligent woman of rich character and humility, simply to embarrass the President and seek revenge against he NAACP for stating the obvious- the Tea Party displays racial bigotry at most of their rallies. 

But the Administration was equally unethical in their actions as they aided and abetted the lynching of Shirley before the truth was known. The President is so fixated on being scandal free, no member of the administration is beyond a risk of the being tossed under the bus when perception is reality, and truth is just too slow and too politically damaging to endure while being sought after.

Van Jones and ACORN are off in the ditch as well. Rather than stand up to the lies and fight these slanderous scum bags, the President appears to see these temporary embarrassments as collateral damage that must be tolerated to keep the ship of state on course for the really important stuff. Well Mr. President, I disagree. Nothing is more important than seeking the truth and debunking slanderous attacks against people, especially friends and colleagues. By repeatedly throwing his team under bus, his core leadership skills are brought into question. Someday, he may turn around and find nobody standing behind him.

While the press hasn’t even hinted at a similarity to the Reverend Wright fiasco, I’d like to bring that sordid affair back to point out that it may have been an early warning indicator of how Barrack Obama manages his image while thumping over the people he tosses under his bus. Rev Wright was summarily denounced by then Senator Obama when a 10 second clip of a video showed the Reverend saying, “… not God Bless America, …God Damn America…” Few, if any people, took the time to watch and listen to the entire sermon.  Sound familiar? The outcry of disgust from all political directions for Wright daring to utter a profanity against America was beyond repair, and the sound bite was just too politically damaging for the young Senator to even attempt to come to the defense of the man who married him.

I watched the full video of Reverend Wright's sermon. It was classic fire and brimstone black rhetoric, aimed at an audience of African Americans who understood the message, and who had lived the words of his message. And what was the message?  Simply this- a country founded in slavery, where slaves were 3/5ths of a human, where white people fought and died for preservation of slavery, a country that wrote “Jim Crowe” laws to institutionalize a post slavery two class system for over a hundred years, a country that denied free blacks even the right to vote, and lynched them for trying- is not righteous behavior. And Reverend Wright asked the congregation- can God bless America for those injustices? Is this behavior and actions of a people that God should bless? No, God damns America for those injustices and so should every American. 

That was the message that earned the Reverend national disgrace with Barack Obama leading he charge. He was the first body thrown under the bus, and Shirley Sherrod won't be the last as long as the ethic of political image trumps the ethic of truth.

GOP Stealing from the Poor and Giving to the Rich

On July 11, 2010, Republican Senator Minority Whip John Kyl went on record stating that he believes the Bush tax cuts for people making more than $200,000 a year should be continued.  This comes after all GOP Senators voted to end an extension of long-term unemployment benefits. There you have it in the simplest terms. The GOP is an anti-Robin Hood- stealing from the poor to pay the rich.  The GOP leadership must think all unemployed workers are Democrats. 

Unfortunately, the voting base of the GOP isn’t rich, they’re average Americans, but they cling to a party that gives them hope- even a dream-  that unbridled regulation and tax friendly free markets will someday be their enabler when they hit the mother load. They believe their party will be kind to them too, and even reward them with more money with a tax friendly philosophy.  They cling to their dream even when they are laid off from an impersonal non-union employer, even when they find themselves unable to pay medical bills, even when they can’t find work, even when their unemployment checks stop coming in the mail. I wonder…

The cry from the GOP is the Democrats are increasing big government and taking over our lives.  I’m sympathetic to a libertarian view that less government is good. All government restricts freedoms. The role of government should be applied with the utmost discretion. The bigger our country gets, the bigger government gets. There is no escaping the inevitable, but we should extend government’s role in our lives only when the greater good is being served- to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare.

The debate rages on as to how much government is needed to uphold the great Preamble of our Constitution.  What is unexplainable is how average American GOP victims “of less government is good” continue to believe they are better off under Republicans as they stand in the unemployment line and file for bankruptcy.

Our Wacky New Central Command Leader (pending a rubber stamp from the Senate)

Geez- I think we were better off with General McChrystal.  Is General Mattis the best the Dept of Defense can do? This guy thinks it's fun to kill people! (see the story below)  No wonder we have been in Afghanistan for 9 years. The leaders don’t want the “fun” to stop! If we leave Iraq and Afghanistan, the poor General won’t have anybody he can go shoot. This reminds me of the Vietnam General that executed a man on the street- (he was last seen operating a restaurant in Virginia.) 

If we can ever get out of these countries, maybe we can get all these Generals a job at McDonalds flipping hamburgers. I can’t see them doing anything else with any credibility. Only in the military could a ranking executive put his foot in his mouth and continue to be promoted.  I feel badly for the troops who must obey and follow a leader of such questionable character.

This video is unbelievable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkXtWwNDSdA&feature=player_embedded

Here’s a CNN story on the General:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/09/marine.commandant/index.html?hpt=Sbin

'Tough talking' general up for Iraq, Afghanistan command

By Mike Mount, CNN Senior Pentagon Producer

July 9, 2010 5:33 p.m. EDT

Gen. James Mattis would replace Gen. David Petraeus, who takes over command of the war in Afghanistan.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Gen. James Mattis recommended as next Central Command leader

He is known for his leadership in the 2004 battle of Falluja

His blunt talk has gotten him in trouble

Defense secretary: Mattis will speak "in an entirely appropriate way"

Washington (CNN) -- A controversial and leading U.S. general is in line to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis -- if he wins presidential and Senate approval -- will move from being the outgoing commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command to leading the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The command also monitors Iran.

He would take over the post left open by the departure of Gen. David Petraeus, who was asked to take over command of the war in Afghanistan.

Mattis was an effective leader in the Marine Corps, in the eyes of the Pentagon, while commanding troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Known for his straight talk and hard-core leadership of Marines in the 2004 battle of Falluja, Iraq, Mattis is considered a dark-horse pick by many in the halls of the Pentagon.

His blunt talk has gotten him in trouble: In 2005 he said, "It's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them," referring to Afghan fighters.

Asked if the general would be an effective leader for the Central Command region with the shadow of the comments still lingering, Gates said Thursday, "Appropriate action was taken at the time. I think that the subsequent five years have demonstrated that the lesson was learned."

"Obviously, in the wake of the Rolling Stone interview, we discussed this kind of thing. And I have every confidence that General Mattis will respond to questions and speak publicly about the matters for which he is responsible in an entirely appropriate way," Gates said.

The Rolling Stone interview led to the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the commander in Afghanistan, because of negative comments about Obama administration officials made by him and his aides.

Mattis' comment in 2005 was made when the then-three-star general was in a panel discussion before an audience.

"Actually, it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," he said, prompting laughter from some military members in the audience. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling," he said.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," he said. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

The commandant of the Marine Corps at the time, Gen. Michael Hagee, counseled Mattis about the remarks but defended him publicly, calling him "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders."

Video: New Central Command head announced

RELATED TOPICS

Afghanistan

David Petraeus

Robert Gates

"While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war," he said in a written statement. "Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor."

Mattis also was the commanding general overseeing the case of the now-infamous slayings of civilians by Marines in Haditha, Iraq.

Some 24 civilians were killed on November 19, 2005, in what a human rights group and military prosecutors said was a house-to-house rampage by Marines after a roadside bomb killed one of their comrades.

Eight Marines were charged, and all but one were cleared, some of them by Mattis.

Mattis also was the overseeing authority in the murder case involving eight Marines found guilty of taking part in a plot to drag an Iraqi man from his home, kill him and then make it look like the man was an insurgent. That incident occurred near the western Iraqi town of Hamdania in April 2006.

Mattis later cut the sentences of at least two of the Marines involved in the plot.

Mattis had been preparing to retire after finishing his latest command, Gates said.

"General Mattis is one of our military's outstanding combat leaders and strategic thinkers, bringing an essential mix of experience, judgment and perspective to this important post," Gates said.

"General Mattis has proven to be one of the military's most innovative and iconoclastic thinkers. His insights into the nature of warfare in the 21st century have influenced my own views about how the armed forces must be shaped and postured for the future."

Taking out the Trash

Post War Maryland was like all of America- new suburbs were everywhere, exploding with new found consumerism- new homes, new roads, new cars, and new families- all living the American dream. Some people had new air conditioning. We didn’t have air conditioning.

The summers were almost unbearable, but we didn’t know that.  I remember the railing in the stairwell being wet with condensation in the morning.  Many nights were so hot and humid, as children we slept in our tent in the backyard. That made the nights bearable and fun. I remember the smell of the oil canvas tent and reading comic books by flashlight. I would also occasionally catch a whiff of our garbage in the backyard  too.

We kept our trash in the backyard- way back, far away from the house where the stench of rotten meat and vegetable garbage could not be detected. (We didn’t have a garbage disposal and composting was unheard of.)  We had town garbage pickup. I always felt bad for the garbage men for what they had to endure. These black men, more old than young, wore bright yellow raincoats to protect themselves from the dripping garbage that oozed out of their canvas tarps. They lived in town, in an all black neighborhood called KenGar. That was short for Kensington Gardens- our trash men all lived there. I remember driving through the neighborhood one afternoon with an older friend who had a car. I couldn’t believe the poverty and the small size of their homes.

Later, when I attended Junior High, I got to know some black kids for the first time. They lived in KenGar. Some guys were nicer than others- like all people. I remember two black friends, Tick and Boojie. Tick was intimidating, a Joe Frazier type, but Boojie was kind hearted- my own fat Albert. Our schools were integrated, but our neighborhoods weren't. One day after gym Boojie pressed me up against the locker. I felt like a beached whale landed on me. Tick stood by and laughed. I was glad Boojie was picking on me and not Tick. Tick had an edge and scared me. He was a trouble maker. Looking back, I admire his edgy personality. I hope he fought like hell to change things.

Getting back to the trash--like all southern communities, it was socially unheard of for white people to carry their garbage cans to the curb. This was clearly not our station in life. These poor black garbage men had to go far into the backyard of every home and dump the trash into their wet, smelly canvas tarps, gather up the corners, and carry it back to the street where they would fling the dripping tarp into the back of the truck. They’d roll the trash off the tarp, give it a shake, and walk to the next house. Plastic trash bags had not been invented. The smell was revolting.

I moved to New Hampshire when I was 14.  My first and most shocking sight was a garbage truck in Manchester with white garbage men riding on the back of the truck. They didn’t have tarps either. They didn’t wear yellow raincoats. They looked like a typical service station attendant, dressed in their clean blue Dickies and wearing baseball caps. I also noticed that white people were required to carry their trash cans to the curb for pick up. Everybody did it- mill workers and doctors. I realized then that carrying trash to the curb wasn’t so bad, even egalitarian really, and I felt sad for the poor black garbage men back in Maryland, and everywhere south of the Mason Dixon Line.

Elena Kagan- You go girl!

Elena Kagan will inevitably be confirmed to the Supreme Court despite the rantings of Senator Sessions - the singular self-appointed GOP hatchet man. Senator Graham tip toed into politically incorrect territory with his innuendo question, “You are a Jew, right?” by asking her what she did on Christmas. She tactfully replied, “Like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant”. Funny thing is, I don’t recall any senator asking Chief Justice Roberts what he did on Passover… A most bazaar question, but I loved her reply!

Congress would be an empty chamber if Congressmen had to undergo a similar grilling before taking their seat. Unlike Congress, getting to the Supreme Court takes a lot more than obscene amounts of money or personal wealth to purchase mindless TV ads,  many years of clawing your way through the party machinery, all the while leaving most of your integrity behind as collateral damage in exchange for political capital.

By contrast, the Supreme Court just takes talent, great education, intelligence and luck- the kind of luck that gets you into Princeton; the kind of luck that gets you into Oxford; the kind of luck that gets you into Harvard Law School; the kind of luck that gets you a clerk position on the Supreme Court; the kind of luck that gets you a position as legal counsel to the President, and oh yes, the kind of luck that gets you approved by the Senate as the first female US Solicitor General.

Elena Kagan has been very lucky, but that much luck is no accident. America is lucky to have her.

Toward the End of Anonymity- Privacy’s Most Treasured Attribute

Cameras are everywhere today. All the TV crime and terror shows continually make use of cameras, private and municipal, to solve their cases and catch the bad guys.  But what about the 300 million or so good guys?  Are we expected to reside passively in the soup of the system, like it or not, waiting to be plucked out when we commit a transgression?  The answer appears to be yes, and we seem powerless to do anything about it.

The DHS has announced a new policy to photograph all vehicle license plates and track them via the thousands (or possibly millions) of cameras, ostensibly to monitor drug traffickers along our border.  Orwell must be rolling in his grave. The day is soon arriving when our personal whereabouts and our identity is known by government officials 24/7. 

Staple this new capability to the existing self-declaration of who and where we are via the cell phone we all carry around in our pocket and this pretty much seals our fate. At least until now we could think about tossing the cell phone on the side of the road to preserve our whereabouts, but now we have to toss the car to, and thumb a ride if we wish to remain anonymous.

Here’s Janet Napolitano’s announcement:

Janet Napolitano, "We’re partnering with the Office of National Drug Control Policy to implement Project Roadrunner, an automated license-plate recognition system. Project Roadrunner was conceived to target both north- and southbound drug trafficking and associated illegal activity along the Southwest border."

In Apple’s Rush to Make Money on the iPhone4- What About the Phone?

I want a new iPhone 4, but can I stand to hold it a certain way as Steve Jobs suggests to avoid "dropped calls"?  Apple’s antenna on the iPhone4 is obviously a poor design. The only mitigation may be to wear gloves or purchase the optional rubber bumper ring (which may actually be the fix in disguise). Clearly, phone calls take a back seat in the design priority to the more hip “apps” and web usage.  What most people don’t realize is these services actually need much less signal power to operate effectively. They can operate in weaker signal conditions than plane old phone calls. The reason is digital signal processing. 

Taken at the most basic level it’s akin to saying the same thing over and over, averaging the result and presenting the averaged result to the user.  For example, think of a number, say 5. In a phone call you would say “5”. The person on the other end might say, “I didn’t get that would you please repeat the number”. Then you get it.  With digital data in today’s cell phones, the system may actually say, “please repeat that 1000 times” and then average the answer. It works great for messages because they aren’t conveyed in real time and delays are accepted.  All cell phones are data interfaces first and phones second. The iPhone should have been named the iData.  Phone service was obviously not the priority.

As an electrical engineer and antenna designer I can say for sure that using a bare metal rim around the phone as the antenna will have profound sensitivity to how the user holds the device and how and where bare fingers come in contact with the antenna.  I’ve always been amazed that cell phones work at all given the way they are used. People expect them to work regardless of how they held, where they happen to be- while riding inside a metal cage (car, plane, etc) and even in tunnels.  We’ve all become accustomed to walking around the house to find a good signal in places where the service is on the edge of failure.

The telecomm industry knows that users expect high quality service and “drop free” operation. They try to account for this wide variability of user environment by providing very large margins of signal power needed to maintain a good connection. They’ve done amazing advances in performance with sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms and modulation schemes that minimize the impact of weak signal conditions, but user volume has continued to far exceed the cell phone network capacity. Until the telecomm industry increases the number of towers, upgrades the existing towers, and deploys a 4G+ network with capacity margin, people will rant about poor performance and walk around the house looking for a good signal- we’re humans- we adapt.

We Should Pull Out of Arizona

The great state of Arizona has seen fit to anoint itself to be superior to the Federal Government by placing higher importance on cleansing the state of their undocumented immigrants than all the essential elements of the US Constitution. A proclamation  of state sovereignty of this magnitude should not be taken on lightly. Maybe Arizona should step up to the problem more fully.

I propose the Federal government should follow their lead and abdicate its responsibility of border patrol along the Arizona/Mexico border.  Let Arizona take care of that. If Arizona is willing to take on the responsibilities of the Federal Government on immigration, why not let them go all the way?  Then the Federal Government can place checkpoints on the border of California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico.  The Border Patrol could stop all traffic coming out of Arizona and demand proof of citizenship. 

I wonder how long the Arizona law would stay on the books if they had to carry the full burden of border protection and simultaneously be treated as a weak and untrustworthy border state within our country at the same time?

Will Republican Representative Joe Barton Apologize to the “Small People”?

Joe Barton, completely unable to separate himself from his big oil financiers, having sold his soul to the devil to stay in office, started his grilling of BP CEO Hayward with an apology for  the "shakedown" President Obama was forcing on BP (the largest corporation in the UK). An apology ostensibly from the big oil companies he’s married to, but certainly not from the “small people” who elected him who are dripping in oil and dead fish. Come on Joe, where’s your apology to the “small people”? You know, those little munchkins along the coast who have been eking out a living, proudly maintaining their stewardship of the gulf that gives them life? How about apologizing to them on behalf of the big oil companies that bank roll your election? Bye, bye Joe...

To add further insult, after meeting with the President, BP Chairman Svanberg finds the worst possible word to describe the gulf coast people, then clumsily apologizes, claiming he used a “clumsy” choice of words. Even the word "clumsy" seems to have stumbled out of the mouth of this high born aristocrat. What is missing from his retraction is a clear understanding of what he really meant, because “small people” probably sounds better than “insignificant people”, or “bottom line collateral damage”, or “peasants”, all much closer to what this aristocratic head of the UKs largest corporation was thinking. But at least he had the poise not to be “super clumsy” and say what he really meant about this burr under his saddle that’s causing him to lose sleep, spend endless hours in the New World, and off the polo field.

Hayward and Svanberg will be lucky if they only lose their jobs over this fiasco, and not end up in jail for their culpability in what is certainly America's worst peacetime manmade disaster in history.  Neither will likely come to pass. The “small people” will suffer, but not he “big people” who are paid millions to make profit, and oh yes, prevent disasters that might nibble away into their profit. Justice will be served if they are forced to feed the “small people” and then go out of business in the process.

Why I Fell Asleep During the President’s Oval Office Address

I anticipated the President’s address with a measure of hope and skepticism. I hoped there would be some new and refreshing actions to bring relief to the people of the gulf coast, and to somehow accelerate the process of stopping the leak- now estimated to be as much as 60,000 barrels a day- 12 times higher than initially estimated. Is this the last new estimate? Could the problem get much worse?  

I was skeptical that he would do or say anything new. I was right.  All I heard the President say before I fell asleep is BP screwed up and we’ll make sure they pay reparations to the good folks in the gulf coast who are devastated by the spill.  The President also made an audacious claim that “in the coming weeks and days” 90% of the oil leak will be trapped, but if PB isn’t successful the President will be further assailed for not being on top of the problem.  

Then my eyes started to glaze over when he declared a renewed urgency to wean America from dependence on oil.  As a Democrat and supporter of the President, even I winced at the political bent of the discussion. While I agree with him, his emphasis diverts attention from the immediate problem.  He should have focused on just three things:

1)     Stopping the weak

2)     Cleaning up the mess

3)     Assisting the people of the gulf

I’m all for weaning America off oil, but let’s plug the leak before we do anything else. If this gusher is not plugged soon, Obama will be another  Jimmy Carter- quick to identify solutions, but completely helpless or unable to implement them. What started out as a disaster born out of a poorly regulated industry, largely under Republican encouragement, is now seen as a national brush fire the President can’t extinguish, and the Republicans will get yet another boost in the mid-term elections as a result of this fiasco.  He will likely lose control of both the House and the Senate to the very Republicans that were instrumental in creating the problem with laissez-faire oil regulation. 

He needs to step up his actions, not words. He needs to be quick, directive and decisive. First address the national emergency, then address our longer term energy needs. The oil spill is languishing longer than we can tolerate and without clear actions, and soon, President Obama will be painted with Jimmy Carter naiveté and a curse of ineptness will haunt him and his entire agenda for his remaining term of office.

“The Greatest Generation”- A Reflection on Memorial Day

The Great Depression left a mark on every American. They were a fiercely independent lot. The depression was a sucker punch to the gut of everyone, but not a permanent calamity; everyone worked through the hard times doing whatever they could to raise their children and pursue a life of happiness. FDR gave them hope and he spoke eloquently to the people, and they loved him because he had sincere empathy for their plight, but these Americans were not downtrodden by nature. The great American dream was still alive. 

Then Pearl Harbor unified Americans as nothing else could. The selflessness of every citizen to work for the war effort was beyond description. My mother had just graduated from high school. She moved to Washington DC, got a room in a downtown boarding house, and took a job in the Pentagon as a secretary. She was 18. She was typical of her generation. Every man, woman and child was dedicated to the war effort- the men and women went to war and women went to the factories making planes, ships, tanks, and trucks.  Children scoured the neighborhoods for recyclable products- metal, rubber, glass, tin cans, even string and rope.  They lived with everything rationed- food, rubber, gas, silk- if it had a war use it was rationed.  They made many sacrifices and they did all this willingly without whining or protesting.

Their bonds to each other were sealed strong and deep through all this common adversity. For the Greatest Generation every day is Memorial Day. They live a modest life modestly- rooted in their depression era upbringing, war rationing and unthinkable sacrifices of lives. They hold their lost loved ones close to their hearts and memories- in their own private way they continue to mourn discretely and without being noticed. For everyone else, Memorial Day is our remembrance of their sacrifices. We owe them our lives. We owe them a Memorial Day.

Why Sarah Palin May be the Next President

The pendulum of political power swings back and forth, not on perpetual energy, but fueled externally by the negative energy from the political party out of power.  Small swings occur when the party in power is moderate or centrist. When the party in power is more activist or more conservative, then the swings are wider and the resulting backlash is more dramatic.  Look back a President Hoover.  The Depression occurred because a 10 year bubble on Wall St broke, and Hoover was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Hoover was a conservative and a minimalist toward government intervention, and that raised the ire of every American who saw their American dream become a nightmare. Roosevelt won a commanding victory, not for what he stood for as much as being- not Hoover. 

Obama won the election largely on the resentment of Bush, and not because Bush opposed Education, Health Reform, financial regulation, or environmental regulation, or even because he invaded Iraq.   Iraq started out as a campaign issue, but the economy was tanking in 2008 and McCain was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once he was even considered a moderate Republican and shunned by the conservative right.  He lost because he is a Republican and the problems of the economy were widely blamed on too little regulation of major investment banks, not unlike the great depression scenario. Try as he may, McCain couldn’t shake free of the Republican culpability for the sinking economy.  If the economy hadn’t crashed I would venture that Obama may not have won. Obama won largely because he was- not Bush.

So now we see the pendulum swinging back to the right, the far right I might add.  The economy hasn’t recovered.  The 85% of Americans who have health insurance, and like what they have, only see their taxes going up and the government going deeper into debt. The environment, civil rights, energy independence, financial regulation, education, health reform, and immigration reform are all points of great disagreement, but they are not the core reasons why people would vote Obama out of office. Clinton was told, “It’s the economy stupid”. The state of the economy wins and loses elections. Everything else is just a distraction.

If the economy isn’t back on track by 2012, and unemployment isn’t down to at least 6%, Obama will lose his re-election bid, even if he’s running against Sarah Palin.  Voters will be blind to her incompetence because they won’t be voting for her, they’ll be voting for- not Obama. I truly hope I’m wrong.

The Blockade of Good and Evil

Israel lives in fear, surrounded by people and countries that would deny them their right to exist. While we’ve lived with the aftermath of  911  for almost nine years, this has been there way of life forever.  Everyone in Israel lives in constant awareness of kidnappings, suicide bombs, and random shootings, not to mention rockets lobbed into Israeli settlements.  I spent a lot of time in Israel back the in the early 1980s. Twenty-five years ago they were living in more constant fear of their safety than we could ever imagine.  We have no frame of reference for the constant threat of terrorist actions they face everyday since their country was born.

Since the holocaust and end of WWII these people have banned together with very little international support, except from America, and they tenaciously have held onto a dream of living in peace on their homeland.  Sure, they act without hesitation when they are threatened, and they can be unmerciful in their treatment of their enemies, but really, can you blame them? If Hamas took a more peaceful approach to their relationship with Israel three years ago when they took power in the election, the invasion of Gaza in 2008 and the blockade would never have happened.  A blockade of good intentions has attempted to squeeze Hamas out of power by turning popular support against them from within Gaza. Is it working? Hardly. Israel is now holding a smelly wet dog and nobody wants to come near them- even the US.

Israel made a tactical error sending Commando Troops to stop the humanitarian aid flotilla. Diplomacy would have surely worked and they may have even garnered more international support for their actions.  They didn’t do that. Now the images of black clothed commandos boarding the ship and the unfortunate deaths of civilians has all the air of Kent State, and the action is condemned by the world regardless of the provocation or why it all happened in the first place.

Israel doesn’t want to cause pain and suffering to civilians in Gaza, but they are. There is no logical reason for Israel to foment more hatred by Palestinians. The Palestinians have brought the situation on themselves by supporting the terrorist Hamas government that is determined to wage guerilla war on Israel. But the blockade does hurt innocent people and the people are growing up to hate Israel more than ever, and Israel is growing a new generation of Arabs who will fight for their cause against Israel. This is the blockade of evil.  This is where Israel is shooting themselves in the foot.

The US is stuck in the middle. If we support Israel we damage our relationship with the Arab world. If we follow the world opinion in condemning Israel, then Israel will be isolated and precariously closer to war- even a nuclear option if their backs are against the wall. Militarily, Israel has no equal in the Middle East. We can’t let the tensions continue to grow. Our only option is to pursue diplomacy in a way that relieves the tension.  We need to be neutral, but supportive of both countries. This may well be the test of President Obama’s presidency. How he handles our role in this affair will shape his presidency in both domestic and international circles. This could become the test that Vice President Biden referred to, or maybe it’s the BP oil spill. One thing is certain; his job just keeps getting harder, not easier.