“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.

Lordy, Lordy, Our Senate's in Homophobic Overload

Our good Republican Senators want to keep not asking and not telling, and OMG we can’t “out” these warfighters! They might… what?  Resign? I don’t think so. What then, not fight as good? I don’t think so.  Our military is ready to accept people for who they are, but our good Republican senators are not.  They seem to be very content with the notion of having high quality soldiers, regardless of their sexual preference, as long as they all pretend to be straight.  

As soon as a gay or lesbian warfighter does speak up, as if they were a plain ole American living under all sorts of Constitutional rights, like free speech, etc., they’re banished back to the last century, living under defacto Jim (or Jane) Crowe social laws. How stupid is that?! Pretty stupid, but look who’s leading the charge, ready to filibuster if needed to keep our warfighters in the closet- none other than Senator John (I don’t want you in my fox hole) McCain. 

With enough bad press he may very well back off from his filibuster threat, but the gas has already been thrown on the fire. The President wants DADT overturned. So does the military. The House of Representatives has already passed the law. Forty-one holier than thou Republicans seem to know what’s best for America in marked contrast to their mantra- keep big government out of people’s lives – oops, unless you’re gay. 

Achtung, May I See Your Papers?

I’ve been ignoring the Arizona immigration law until I had time to really think about what it means and what the consequences could be.  Besides being a clear line in the sand between how conservatives and liberals (what else is new…) view the issue, the conservatives are railing on President Obama for showing support of President Calderon’s strong opposition of the new law. Many conservatives are accusing Obama of being un-American for not standing up in support of Arizona’s pro-active immigration stance and the recent Calderon exchange threw more gas on the fire.

Obama has been consistent is stating that people immigrate to America, not Arizona, and immigration is a federal issue. Conservatives complain that Obama and the Democrats are not moving fast enough on this issue, but they’ll do everything in their power to stonewall or filibuster any changes the Democrats propose. By the way, isn’t this just another issue that sat on the back steps for eight years under Bush like a large bag of overripe Zucchini in August??

People say unless you live in Arizona you can’t appreciate the “problem” that exists there.  We’ve had Canadians coming into New Hampshire forever and they haven’t created a problem. In fact, they’re an integral part of the social fabric in New Hampshire.  They make New Hampshire special. People say, yeah, but they were legal aliens. I wonder. The New Hampshire border was very porous until 911 came along. My son in law grew up in Colebrook. They could drive across unpatroled country borders like you’d go to a Seven Eleven.  I’m sure many Canadians made a life in New Hampshire “illegally”.

Arizona is the same. Arizona would not be Arizona without Mexicans. The culture and the social fabric of Arizona is defined by Mexican heritage as much as by Native American heritage. By not acting with empathy toward these people and their plight, Arizonians are rejecting themselves.

Least we forget, the US Government took Arizona through a war with Mexico in 1848, ending 300 years of Spanish domination in the southwest. If we take a long view of what happened in history, just who are the illegal immigrants, the Americans or the Mexicans??

I believe we should have an open border policy- let everyone come to America who wants to come here. That’s what made us a great country.  We should stand behind what is inscribed at the base of Lady Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Give Me Liberty and White Only Restrooms too?

Rand Paul, Republican Primary winner for the senate race in Kentucky and love child of the Tea Party, has a good point. The libertarian in Rand can’t let go of the idea that the best government governs the least. He was genuinely sincere in his views opposing Jim Crowe laws and institutionalized segregation. He squirmed badly on the issue of segregation in private enterprise though. He never answered the question put to him, would he support allowing lunch counters to ban people from being served for any reason they choose?  No answer. He ran around the question by asking should we enforce the 2^nd amendment on private enterprise, by insisting that guns be allowed anywhere?

He just can’t stand to see government getting in the way of private enterprise- even though he abhors actions such as white only restrooms at gas stations. So there you have it. Government intrusion into private enterprise is more despicable than all acts of hatred and bias toward people for whatever reason. 

There were 10 titles in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He endorsed nine of the ten. The one title he would not have endorsed if he were in Congress in 1964 prohibits discrimination in dealing with the general public. Rand Paul endorsed the continued segregation of lunch counters, white only water coolers and restrooms, white only hotels, white only taxi cabs, white only restaurants. He doesn’t like the ADA either. They can stay on the first floor… businesses shouldn’t be required to install $100,000 elevators…

His principles toward less government outranking all else will have a lot of friends in Wall St, oil, gas, coal, nuclear power and many Tea Partiers can iron their white sheets and “take back the government”, what ever that means…

Spill Baby Spill!

We all hate regulations. When we’re very young, rules are everywhere- don’t lean back in your chair, chew with your mouth closed, keep off the lawn, etc. As we grow our rules and regulations become bigger too- don’t speed, conduct yourself with discretion and courtesy, don’t hurt others, etc. Then we have the behavior of groups and companies- be kind to mother nature, don’t pollute the air, ground and water, etc. Group cheating is the worst of all- don’t be Enron or what’s his name, the pyramid investor.

Thirty years ago Exxon spilled oil that took a generation to recover from. Now we’re facing another catastrophe that could well take another generation to mend. President Obama’s recent lift of off-shore drilling got a cold slap in the face with the recent spill, and maybe the wake-up call we needed to remind us all why the drilling ban was imposed in the first place.

We worry about leaving our future generations with unpaid debt. We should also worry about leaving our future generations with a place to live.


Published on Monday, May 10, 2010 by Agence France Presse
BP, US Search for New Fix to US Oil Spill
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - BP officials desperately searched Monday for a new fix to the enormous Gulf of Mexico oil spill after efforts to cap a gushing leak with a containment dome hit a perilous snag.


British energy giant BP, which owns the lion's share of the leaking oil and has accepted responsibility for the clean-up, is facing the jaw-dropping possibility that, failing a swift fix it has yet to deliver with a containment dome, the crisis could spiral into an even worse environmental calamity.


The White House also was scrambling to contain fallout from the massive disaster threatening to take a toll on President Barack Obama's political and energy agenda.


In Washington, Obama on Monday "will meet with a number of Cabinet members and senior staff in the White House Situation Room to review BP efforts to stop the oil leak, as well as to decide on next steps to ensure all is being done to contain the spread, mitigate the environmental impact and provide assistance to affected states," a White House statement said.


Meanwhile the Minerals Management Service (MMS) said it "continues to work with BP to explore all options that could stop or mitigate oil leaks from the damaged well."


The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank some 80 km (50 miles) southeast of Venice, Louisiana April 22, two days after an explosion that killed 11 workers.


The riser pipe that had connected the rig to the wellhead now lies fractured on the seabed a mile below, spewing out oil at a rate at some 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day.


Sheen from the leading edge of the slick has surrounded island nature reserves off the coast of Louisiana and tar balls have reached as far as the Alabama coast, threatening tourist beaches further east.


Sea life is being affected in a low-lying region that contains vital spawning grounds for fish, shrimp and crabs and is a major migratory stop for many species of rare birds.


The 2.4-billion-dollar Louisiana fishing industry has been slapped with a temporary ban in certain areas due to health concerns about polluted fish.


BP, facing a barrage of lawsuits and clean-up costs soaring above 10 million dollars a day, had pinned its hopes on a 98-ton concrete and steel containment box that it successfully lowered 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) down over the main leak.


But the contraption lay idle on the seabed as engineers furiously tried to figure out how to stop it clogging with ice crystals.


Still, if efforts fail to make the giant funnel system effective, there is no solid plan B to prevent potentially tens of millions of gallons of crude from causing one of the worst ever environmental catastrophes.


Untold damage is already being done by the 3.5 million gallons estimated to be in the sea so far, but the extent of that harm will rise exponentially if the only solution is a relief well that takes months to drill.
Admiral Thad Allen, head of the US Coast Guard, suggested they were considering what he called a "junk shot" to plug the main leak.


"They're actually going to take a bunch of debris, shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak," Allen, who is leading the US government's response, told CBS television.


This could be risky as experts have warned that excessive tinkering with the blowout preventer -- a huge 450-ton valve system that should have shut off the oil -- could see crude shoot out unchecked at 12 times the current rate.
There are also fears the slick, which covers an area of about 2,000 square miles (5,200 square kilometers), could be carried around the Florida peninsula if it spreads far enough south to be picked up by a special Gulf current.
"If this gusher continues for several months, it's going to cover up the Gulf coast and it's going to get down into the loop current and that's going to take it down the Florida Keys and up the east coast of Florida," warned Florida Senator Bill Nelson.
"You are talking about massive economic loss to our tourism, our beaches, to our fisheries, very possibly disruption of our military testing and training, which is in the Gulf of Mexico," he told CNN.
On the dome front, clearing out the slushy crystals is easy -- the chamber just has to be raised to warmer levels, Suttles told reporters. Keeping the crystals out so that a pipe can be lowered into the dome to suck the oil to a waiting barge is another matter.
BP began drilling a first relief well one week ago, but that will take up to three months to drill -- by which time some 20 million gallons of crude could have streamed into the sea and ruined the fragile ecology of the Gulf.
© 2010 AFP

The Conundrum of the Tea Party Complainers

Tax day is upon us. The Tea Party activists are churned up into a media frenzy led by the great orator and stateswomen – Sarah Palin. Yesterday she made the point that people should be able to keep more of the money they earn so they can spend the money how they wish and not how the big bad government wishes. Well, thanks to Gail Collins of the NY Times, a conundrum is indeed before us.

Stay with me on this one. According to the Tax Policy Center 47 percent – the lowest income American households – did not have to pay any income tax in 2009. This was largely aided by the Obama stimulus plan that included tax credits for families with income under $50,000. But taxation is the core issue of the Tea Party, right? One would think so, but wait, there’s more…

According to Gallop Polls 45 percent of the Tea Party members have income below $50,000. Stay with me here. According to a NY Times/CBS Poll, The Tea Party is the only organization that has a majority of members who think their taxation is unfair. So we have maybe millions of pot bellied, middle aged white folks, who largely pay no taxes driving around the country complaining about their unfair tax burden!!

As Gail Collins eludes- clearly this is not the core reason for their existence, not the rag they treasure chewing more than any other. These patriots of the Tea Party crawled out of the woodwork in mass only after Obama was elected. They were conspicuously absent for eight years while Bush spent trillions on war like a drunken Yale freshman, and even treaded lightly on Clinton for eight years, despite his immoral behavior.

The Obama administration has exposed them to what they really are- good ole racial and homophobic bigots still smarting from the reality of being governed by a black man, with an Arab sounding name, who they believe was not even born in the US. They proudly carry their “Kill Obama-care” signs and yell profanities at politicians in the name of lower taxes, liberty, freedom, and taking back America. Yeah right. They all seem to have lost their sheets and don’t know where to find them.

Strategic Arms Insanity

Ok, let’s all get up and do the happy dance. Come on- out of your seat! President Obama has signed a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. Each side will reduce their nuclear warhead count to 1550 over the next seven years. We need to celebrate, right?

Before we get too excited, we should reflect on just how meaningless this all really is. These are really big hydrogen bombs- a thousand to ten thousand times more powerful than the bombs we dropped on Japan. One of these bombs can wipe out New England. Ten to twenty of these bombs can kill all life in the continental United States. Having 1550 of these dooms day weapons still sounds like “overkill” to me- which, by the way- is the source of the saying.

Yet we are asked to do the happy dance. I’m afraid this is much ado about nothing. Until all nuclear weapons are buried we have nothing to celebrate- except less “overkill”- what ever that is.

President Obama Endorses the Tea Party

In a rare meeting with Sarah Palin at the White House following the announcement to open offshore drilling in Alaska, President Obama has decided to endorse the Tea Party. He plans to address the Tea Party at the gala assembly on April 15th in Washington. Sarah Palin will introduce the President He’s expected to make another landmark speech denouncing same sex marriage rights and reversing his position on abortion.

Minority Leader John Boehner immediately renounced his support for the Tea Party calling it a Green Tea Party, and warned of President Obama being a sheep in wolf's clothing, who will undermine everything the Republicans stand for by agreeing with them.

Rush Limbaugh has decided to go to Costa Rica as promised, but he did refer to the President as “two faced” for giving up his long held liberal beliefs to follow the Conservative agenda.