Tag: labor
Four Problems with Perfessor Gingrich’s “American Schoolchild Janitorial Initiative”
November 24, 2011
“You’re going to see from me extraordinarily radical proposals to
fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America.”
Newt Gingrich speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government,
last Friday, November 19, 2011.
Yes, sir. That’s what we’re afraid of . . .
Here’s the well-reported gem from the Perfesser’s comments at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government: “It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”
The story being highlighted in the media is, of course, the one about children acting as junior janitors at public schools in the “poorest neighborhoods,” what we might call the “Newt Gingrich P.S. America Schoolchild Janitorial Initiative.” Yet, that’s not all that is there – contra Gertrude Stein, “There’s a lot of there there.” Closely read, Gingo’s comments reveal a cornucopia of bigoted and often downright wrong perceptions about these “poorest neighborhoods.” His underlying conceptions about the poor and the not-so-poor reveal his well-known failure to dive very deeply into facts and their consequences. He creates a mishmash of facts and not-even-conceivable non-facts like wake behind a cruiser going full speed through a small marina.
Here are four items to consider from his three-sentence backwash:
1. “first of all, child laws. . .” The Perfesser starts out his observations with a perception that we entrap children in the poorest neighborhoods. My guess, he’s referencing African American and Hispanic urban neighborhoods. Surely, it would be difficult to negate the not merely metaphorical entrapment these children face. Yet, look at what Gingo picks as the first way in which we entrap these children – “first of all, child laws.” That first: Laws that benefit and protect children.
Gingrich neglects the 16% and 13% unemployment rate for African American men and women (respectively), with an underemployment rate that approaches 25%. Also unmentioned is the 11+% unemployment rate of Hispanic men and women. Add to that the low wage status of those who are employed in primarily dead-end jobs. The Census’ September 2011 publication, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010, reported that household income for African American ($32,068 ) and Hispanic ($37,759) families distantly trailed white family incomes ($54,629), and in urban areas the margin is worse. Poverty rates approach 27% in urban areas for African American and Hispanic families. Moreover, a recent study found that poor urban neighborhoods are rapidly growing in population and becoming more isolated from other neighborhoods.
These, far from a complete array of those available, are missing from the Perfesser’s just-throw-it-out-there “analysis” of urban education and labor issues, they always have been. He often simply lofts these half-baked “ideas” into the mediasphere seemingly without fear of pushback, although pushback always comes (today, he tried to revise his statements at Harvard). For a self-admitted genius, he doesn’t seem to learn much from experience. Perhaps, with more time at MENSA . . .
Tackling the historic trend of inequality in the United States would take a 1960’s type effort. The attack would be aimed at strengthening, not weakening, laws that helped end child labor and other labor abuses. We’ve been there before. Yes, Perfessor, times have changed since the Gilded Age, some nibbling around the edges of minimum age laws may be in order. Unfortunately for most of us, Gilded Age standards are what you and the GOP have in mind. You’re a certified “Historian,” Perfesser, how did you miss U.S. child labor history?
2. “the poorest neighborhoods . . .” There is more to just suggesting that children work as janitors, or in any other occupation, during their school years, particularly when speaking of kids in the “poorest neighborhoods,” as Gingo put it. The federal and state programs that support these children of the working poor are primary targets of Gingrich’s “anti-poverty” proposals. For example, he once proposed disallowing children of legal immigrants access to federally subsidized school lunches. He favors block granting education funds to the states. One can only imagine what Texas or Arizona would do with those funds. In reply, I suppose that the Perfesser would point to the wages the children would earn as part-time janitors and suggest they spend that pittance on their lunch. Again, another brilliant idea, but no thanks. And Gingo’s ignorance goes much deeper than opposing school lunches, pushing draconian workfare programs, etc. He simply makes no connection between a child of poverty and his or her environment, particularly the lack of sustenance that begins in utero for many inner city children.
3. “ought to get rid of the unionized janitors . . .” Next, let’s turn to the Perfessor’s mini-lecture on labor, in particular, his reference to union labor. He begins (and ends) with this, “Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors,” and, of course, hire one “master janitor” and his pre-pubescent minions. This is nothing new for Gingo, he’s long detested unions. In any event, this small parenthetical gives us a look into Gingo’s . . . heart. His plan is, as we’ve read, for schools to, first, fire all but one adult janitor and then hire school children as his work force, and all non-union. In general, why do people like Gingrich advocate union destruction? Freedom of contract? As they say, “not so much.” Destroying unions is all about reducing negotiating powers that can only be found in workers’ numbers, and, most importantly, then having the corporate power to reduce benefits, safety expenses, allied costs, and wages. So, under the vaunted Perfesser’s “P.S. America Janitorial Initiative,”
- Adult janitors would be fired right and left, presumably to take positions at Goldman Sachs,
- their unions, should they exist, would thereby be weakened or destroyed,
- young children at each “retooled” school would then be employed in their stead, and,
- the entire janitorial staff could then – and would then – be paid a pittance for their labor, thus helping drive down labor costs throughout the industry.
Once again, although with due respect for your braininess, Mr. Gingrich, I disagree.
4. “they’d begin the process of rising. . .” Next on the list of Gingrich’s hit list of “thoughts” is work qua work. When going on about how much his national cadre of child janitors would benefit from his Janitorial Initiative, Gingo’s final words point to the future of these children, “they’d begin the process of rising.” Here he reveals a prejudice as old as our nation’s earliest days, derived from its unfair economic advancement through the labors of enslaved persons, particularly in the south. The notion that people of color must have an incentive to “begin the process of rising” is still afoot, assuredly in Gingrich’s world view.
The work “incentive” he implicitly references is not merely an add-on to an individual’s natural propensity to work. The “work ethic,” according to the longstanding prejudice, is missing in some, particularly in persons of color. By dismantling Gingo’s phrases for their genesis in racial bias, it’s clear he’s not talking about wage or promotion “incentive” here. He’s talking about force: forcing a naturally indigent population to, as he says, “actually do work.”
To push children into the work force who are already disadvantaged by the poverty of their elders, and the concomitant undersupply of nutrition, health, and emotional resources that their poverty brings in its natural wake is certainly enough to commend Gingrich’s idea to the rubbish. But, still dissatisfied, the Perfesser – his presidential contestants, and the GOP base then propose gutting or rendering fictional through block grants the federal programs that help mitigate the real disadvantages among school children and their families.
That’s not inspiration Mr. Gingrich, that’s plain and simply ignorance driven, as it ever is with you, by your inherent nastiness, and the racial and class bias you are not smart enough to shed. Perfesser, just like when you were denied tenure at West Georgia College in 1978, you are dismissed, with prejudice.
No Tax Credits for You, Senator DeMint Tells Veterans
November 11, 2011
Yesterday, the terribly ineffective U.S. Senate agreed on something, and astonishingly, it was a jobs bill, heretofore a non-starter. However, in a nearly unanimous vote on the “Vow to Hire Heroes” bill they agreed that it just might be good policy – and just plain decent – to offer a tax credit to businesses that hire veterans. Furthermore, the bill contains far more than the tax credit provisions ($5,600/veteran; $9,600/disabled veteran). Here’s how the tightfisted House GOP Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee wrote of what this bill would provide:
• Expanding Education & Training: To begin moving veterans out of the unemployment lines, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 provides nearly 100,000 unemployed veterans of past eras and wars with up to 1-year of additional Montgomery GI Bill benefits to qualify for jobs in high-demand sectors, from trucking to technology. It also provides disabled veterans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits up to 1-year of additional VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment benefits.
• Improving the Transition Assistance Program (TAP): Too many service members don’t participate in TAP and enter civilian life without a basic understanding of how to compete in a tight job market. Therefore, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act will make TAP mandatory for most service members transitioning to civilian status, upgrade career counseling options, and job hunting skills, as well as ensuring the program is tailored to individuals and the 21st Century job market.
• Facilitating Seamless Transition: Getting a civil service job can often take months which often forces a veteran to seek unemployment benefits. To shorten the time to start a federal job after discharge, this bill would allow service members to begin the federal employment process by acquiring veterans preference status prior to separation. This would facilitate a more seamless transition to civil service jobs at VA, or the many other federal agencies that would benefit from hiring our veterans.
• Translating Military Skills and Training: This bill will also require the Department of Labor to take a hard look at how to translate military skills and training to civilian sector jobs, and will work to make it easier to get the licenses and certification our veterans need.
• Veterans Tax Credits: The VOW to Hire Heroes Act provides tax credits for hiring veterans and disabled veterans who are out of work. “
It’s that final Veterans Tax Credits that set DeMint’s pants on fire.
Senateloon Jim DeMint, One Is a Lonely Number. Even I, a longtime non-supporter of DeMint, was surprised by his vote against this bill, the single vote that stole unanimity from the Senate (of the 95 voting Senators). Here’s what he had to say about the Vow to Hire Heroes bill: “We’re pandering to different political groups with programs that have proven to be ineffective. All Americans deserve the same opportunity to get hired. I cannot support this tax credit because I do not believe the government should privilege one American over another when it comes to work.”
Let’s hope the Senate doesn’t bring up a vote on a bill called “Tax Shelters for Corporate Golden Toilet Seats,” or “More Handouts for Citizens Who Lost More Than Two Hundred Million Dollars in Fiscal Year 2010.” Mr. DeMint would surely again oppose federal intervention like that as well, would he not?
GOP/Tea Party — Heavily Employed in Lying About Unemployment
October 23, 2011
From our nemeses in the GOP, we constantly hear how the Obama administration has during its tenure failed to create any jobs whatever. Of course, that’s patently false. This, in turn, proves to already-made-up GOP and Tea Party minds that Keynesian style stimulus does not work. Of course, that too is patently false. Are you sensing a pattern? . . .
Here’s a bit of outright lying beamed to us by FOX News, the GOP/TP’s media outlet, FOX Business’s Follow the Money, October 19, 2011:
BOLLING: All right, very quickly, guys. This is Harry Reid responding to Senator McConnell’s blame-game accusation.
REID : “The massive layoffs we’ve had in America today have, of course — are rooted in the last administration, and it’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine. It’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers.”
BOLLING: First of all, can I just point something out? Public-sector jobs have increased by almost 160,000 since President Obama took office. What is he talking about?
STEPHEN HAYES (Fox News contributor): Yeah, you’re going to hear that clip again and again and again.
Yeah, Mr. Hayes, we are going to hear that Harry Reid clip again and again because it is true. And yes, we will hear and see the Bolling/Hayes palaver again and again because it is bombastically false, even for FOX News.
It’s interestingly wrong. Here we have Bolling and Hayes, FOX minions, insisting that public sector jobs have grown since 2009. This is from the network who has been first in promoting the firing of nearly every public sector employee in the nation. It is false that Bolling and Hayes do not know the numbers – public sector jobs have fallen since early 2009, and precipitously so since the end of the Census uptick in Jan. to April 2010. Bolling and Hayes simply lie, as does nearly the entirety of the GOP/TP. And to lie so bluntly when they firstly, know the truth, and secondly, they also know that the public sector job statistics are available to anyone who can reach the DOL netsite. The GOP/TP through its concerted effort has destroyed more than 550,000+ public sector jobs primarily in those state governments they control. Witness Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine, and Florida.
An August 30, 2011, the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll, provided its most up-to-date public sector data. It’s summary: “The 90,740 state and local governments across the country had 16.6 million full-time equivalent employees in 2010, 203,321 fewer than were employed in 2009, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The majority of these employees, 9.0 million, worked in education, followed by those working in hospitals (986,471), police protection (946,196) and corrections (731,692).
Part-time state and local government employees numbered 4.8 million in 2010, a decrease of 27,567 from 2009.
Local governments — which include counties, cities, townships, special districts and school districts — accounted for 12.2 million full-time equivalent employees in 2010, while state governments employed 4.4 million. Both figures showed decreases from 2009. The number of full-time equivalent employees is equal to the number of full-time employees added to the number of hours worked by part-time employees divided by the standard number of hours for a full-time employee.”
“Public-sector jobs have increased by almost 160,000 since President Obama took office,” Mr. Bolling?
Lies About Private Sector Job Growth Also on the GOP/TP List. Also, Republicans nearly en masse claim the Obama administration has failed to produce private sector jobs. In fact, since the Recovery Act took effect, the private sector has gained 1.4 million jobs. So urgently do they want to bury Keynes and communitarianism forever, they are desperately trying to keep this fact hidden from the electorate. However, the Department of Labor’s official blog, (Work in Progress) produced a stinging rebuttal to GOP/TP claims with a chart produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Program.
Well, last week the Democratic Senate was halted in its attempt to pass a portion of the American Jobs Act, i.e., that portion that would help create hundreds of thousands of state and local jobs for teachers and first responders. Craven to the ‘enth degree, the GOP voted unanimously to prevent the measure from being voted on (joined, unfortunately, by Democrats John Tester (OH) and Bill Nelson (NE), and so-called Independent Joe Lieberman (CT)). Here’s Reid’s response: “By asking millionaires to pay an extra half a penny on the dollar, this bill would have created jobs by keeping our communities safe and ensuring that our children continue to have access to a high-quality education. Unfortunately, protecting millionaires and defeating President Obama are more important to my Republican colleagues than creating jobs and getting our economy back on track. Democrats agree with the overwhelming majority of Americans that teachers and first responder jobs are worth defending, while lower taxes for millionaires and billionaires are not.”
Unfortunately, we suffer from GOP capture of legislative business.
Here’s The REAL “Texas Miracle”
August 14, 2011
What Texas Miracle . . .? Jobs miracle . . .? Well yes, if you consider that Texas sports among the lower median hourly wage in the country ($11.00/hour) . . . and that wages have grown less that 3/4% in the last four years, as opposed to around 4.5% nationally . . . and that Texas has the highest number of workers in the U.S. making the minimum wage ($7.25/hour) . . . So much of Perry’s miracle employment – the jobs miracle he boasts – results in very low paying jobs.
Check it out: the median Texas wage is $11.00/hour. That means half of all workers make $11.00 or less per hour, and my guess is there are a lot of folks making less than $11.00/hour since Texas, on Rick Perry’s watch, leads the nation in the number of workers making minimum wage. Well, a 40-hour week at $11.00/hr. yields $440/week/pre-Federal taxes (there’s no Texas income tax, that would be socialism). One can eke out a living at $440/week but recall that Texas also boasts the highest percentage of people without health insurance, 25%. So, even with Texas’s somewhat low cost of living and housing expenses, how far does that $440/week go? What jobs miracle is that? There’s a lot of wage slavery, and that’s no miracle.
Rick Perry, now, in what passes for “legitimacy” in the GOP, is a legitimate contender for the GOP nomination. I’ll follow him here like a foxhound on a hunt because I think he’s the front runner. So, the Governor is very proud of his miraculous touch, but the data doesn’t lie. Governor, you should know that in Texas, they say, “You can put your boots in the oven, but that don’t make em biscuits.”
On Wisconsin – Three Reasons to Reject Republican Framing of the Senate Recall Results
August 11, 2011
Two of six intransigent Wisconsin GOP state senators were recalled successfully, creating a 17 Republican to 16 Democrat Senate. Note that I didn’t write, “Only two of six intransigent GOP state senators were recalled . . .” The results are disappointing, surely. Hopes and expectations were lofty: We’d take back the Senate. Then, union rights had a chance, sensible budgets would finally be implemented, including tax revenue raised from the wealthiest individuals and corporations. Candidly, though, we also knew that to get past a veto pen those aims had to be reinforced by a recall of GoverNO Walker. Not likely.
The media largely has (again) accepted the GOP framing of the meaning of these results: a smashing defeat for those union thugs and their Democratic enablers. For example, from the L.A. Times: “While strategists in both parties resisted reading too deeply into the national political mood based on Tuesday’s results, the outlook for Democrats does not shout, ‘Yes, we can. . . It’s clearly a big loss for labor, given the time and money devoted to it,” said Doug Heye, a GOP strategist in Washington.’”
GOP talking points 101. To the contrary, the recall is nothing at all if not a solid win for Wisconsin, public sector unions, and Democrats. Here’s three reasons why:
- One of the Dem wins, Jessica King’s, was in a hotly contested, but generally Republican district. Three Dem losses were in similarly Republican areas. The exception, the now former Senator Dan Kapanke, the GOP Caucus Chairman, represented a democratic-leaning district. So, five battles were on the GOP’s home field. There was no easy race in any of those five. It’s not at all surprising that four of these districts went Republican, they have almost always done so. Any Democratic win was remarkable.
2. Since any win was an uphill battle, two wins is doubly remarkable, not as reported almost everywhere, a “failure to replace the GOP majority in the Senate,” or a “huge loss for labor.”
3. Most importantly, Senate Dems are one senator shy of the majority. How is that a Democratic “failure”? On important issues legislative deals will need to be made. The GOP Senate cannot again take their heretofore three vote lead as a sure road to victory. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Senate GOP needs the Democrats now. Here’s why:
— Longtime GOP Senator Dale Schultz has dealt well with Democratic senators, and is considered a bipartisan thinker, a contrarian. For example, he introduced an amendment to Walker’s budget bill to substantially soften the adverse financial impact on public employee union members. In the end, he reluctantly voted for the Walker budget – especially the collective bargaining provisions – while nearly all other GOP senators literally jumped for joy. In a sense, Schultz is now the most powerful senator in either party. In a 17 to 16 Senate, Schultz is the swing vote, and his pleasant ties to Democrats will be a plus going forward.
— When compared to Walker’s 2010 vote percentage, the GOP lost ground. In the recall, GOP voting percentages declined in five of six districts. While not dramatic, this is good for 2012. This trend is our friend.
— There are six newly minted senators, elected in 2010: Pam Galloway (29); Frank Lasee (1); Terry Moulton (23); Leah Vukmir (25); Van Wanggaard (21); Rich Zipperer (33). Luckily for them, under Wisconsin recall rules, they are immune from recall since each has not yet served one year in office. They will take note of the slippage in GOP support, however, and conclude that this trend is not their friend. Perhaps, a moderation of their stubbornness may be in order? Hey, you guys, talk to Senator Schultz . . . A 17-16 Senate gets every GOP member’s attention regardless of what they say publicly.
Hell, this even got the cocksure Guv’s attention. Although full of mischaracterization and misinformation, it’s as close to an admission of discomfort as Walker seems capable of. Here’s his statement: “Last November, the voters sent a message that they wanted fiscal responsibility and a focus on jobs. In our first months in office, we balanced a $3.6 billion deficit and our state created 39,000 new jobs. It’s clear the voters also want us to work together to grow jobs and improve our state. With that in mind, earlier this evening I reached out to the leadership of both the Republicans and Democrats in the Assembly and State Senate. I shared with them that I believe we can work together to grow jobs and improve our state. In the days ahead I look forward to working with legislators of all parties to grow jobs for Wisconsin and move our state forward.”
So, to sum up, Wisconsites who care about Democratic ideals can be optimistic about the recall results. Democrats not only scored in the GOP’s stadiums, but these underdogs also got their opponents’ attention, and even roughed them up a bit. Their owner, Mr. S. Walker is a bit chagrined. And the first half is not even over. On Wisconsin!
The Wounded Stock Market and the Political Abandonment of the Working Class
August 4, 2011
Today, I’m not simply referencing the equities market collapse over the past week, including today’s significant losses as of 2:30 p.m. There are many other reasons for this week’s swan dive. So, eager as I may be to do so, I can’t put this entirely at the door of the GOP and its maniacal dancing monkeys, the Tea party. This week, though, undeniably, the debt “deal” is among the forces decimating equity prices and Americans’ confidence.
The deal’s unrelenting tight-fisted approach seems, at present, to rule out any fiscal stimulus emerging from Congress. The independent Federal Reserve’s “according to Hoyle” monetary stimulus efforts seem to have done little good stimulating employment growth and lending so far, and it shouldn’t be expected to be helpful in the future. The fed funds rate has for a long time been as low as a snake in a cesspool, and, today, the Treasuries that were almost a pariah two days ago are rallying across the board, sending interest rates lower than low. To what avail after four years of recession? (Note: We never emerged from it in 2009 . . .) And now, without fiscal stimulus, the country and the equally shaky world faces a likely killing dose of American “fiscal austerity” and the further unemployment it brings with it. Who will be able to buy cars, refrigerators, computers, or bubble gum? Who, then, will be able to provide the earnings that could revive this critically sick stock market?
Well, no one, it seems, in D.C., thought about that very much. The Tea Party wrecking crew pushed our overly accommodating President and most of the Democratic and Republican parties into a final package that will pummel employment at all levels and in all sectors. The debt ceiling deal just signed into law will, perhaps radically, worsen employment, lessen personal income, and diminish already anemic personal spending. If we avoid what would be remembered as the 2nd Great Depression, we need to make some WPA-type Hail Mary passes, and soon.
For now, though, the Tea Party and the GOP it commands stand stolidly and stubbornly by the windows in their House and watch all this destruction without so much as offering the tiniest ray of hope that we, as a nation, will pull together again as we did in the 1930s. Unfortunately, the President, an apparently conflict averse leader, as well as much of the far too “civil” Democratic party, also watch from afar as well. Just watching, it seems, deeming it too uncivil or uncouth or strenuous to fight for the country. The unindicted co-conspirators.
The Debt Ceiling Fight – Tea Partiers’ Job Descriptions Include “Create Mayhem!”
July 26, 2011
“They all step back and say —
‘The president needs to get this done.’
At a certain point they need to do their job.’”
President Barack Obama, press conference, 06-29-2011
For many years people have demanded, “Congress should just do its job!” Often, they mean “Why don’t you partisan hacks just sit your butts down and compromise? That’s a legislator’s job, isn’t it?” It’s time to recall that a significant portion of the present 112th Congress was elected to do just the opposite, particularly the Tea Party freshmen. So why now do so many voters, beltway pundits – and members of congress themselves – believe the primary “job” of Congress is to compromise, canoodle, and concur? Well, frankly, that’s a false belief. Even without the present debt ceiling controversy, in most truly important matters the real “job” of this Congress is generally to not compromise; rather, it’s to embrace partisanship like a five year-old squeezes her favorite stuffed bear.
Remember too, another strong belief among us is “Elections have consequences!”, and it’s here that Tea Party high-handedness is best understood. In fact, arrogant pigheadedness is their job description precisely because, firstly, they are who they are, and, secondly, “elections have consequences.” Let the devil take the hind-most — and, especially, the debt ceiling.
‘“Being a Member of Congress Is a Diagnosis Not a Job Description” (paraphrasing Anna Quindlen). Folks often believe that Congresspeople, like any other working stiffs, have an official job description that includes a phrase something like “get stuff done.” Yet, no “official” job description exists for members of this presently besotted congressional occupation. Of course, there are constitutional provisions setting out the powers and limitations of the legislative branch (Article I), and there are internal congressional rules and ethics requirements that apply to their members. But job descriptions? Nada.
Whenever, as now, these major fiscal controversies come to the fore, most of us “default” to citing a job requirement that compels those pesky legislators to get together and schmooze out a compromise. Last November, though, our country engaged in another historic slash and burn campaign to see who could most abrasively shout down their least favorite candidate. Back then, we viewed our political rivals as bums incapable of rational thought, and quite possibly unable, without heroic staff assistance, to pull on their underpants in the morning.
Just Be Business-Like and Do Your Jobs! Somehow, now, however, after a massively divisive election, we ask these folks to sit crossed legged on the ground around a fire, to powwow reasonably, and deliver us from evil. Indeed, many of us contributed to the rancor now existing, yet, clearly, none so much as the Tea Party. They court rancor. They attract it, seemingly merrily. It’s their wheelhouse. The Tea Partiers led the way with fact-free notions of fiscal responsibility that basically amounted to cutting the federal government back to a slimmed down Coast Guard on jet skis.
My Job Description Is Four Words “Block, Hinder, Whine, Snort.” If you want a job description for the Tea Party, that’s about it. As Gertrude Stein said in 1935 about her ancestral home in Oakland, “There is no there there.” These Tea Partying dingbats came to D.C. almost uniformly undereducated in virtually every essential subject matter and deeply “under-moralized” regarding the hopes and needs of most of their fellow citizens. Regrettably, these amoral legislators were shunt off to D.C. by a group of matching constituents. Here’s their “job description” for these winning TP candidates: remain as hardheaded and uncompromising as Hitler (sorry, Mr. Godwin, but here he actually seems to fit): regarding the debt ceiling, the deficit, and the budget. These TP’s have not disappointed (although, unsurprisingly, a scattering of U.S. securities-owners among their own voters are a bit nervous). The country at large, though, is plainly disgusted, but not nearly enough.
I’m Just Talkin’ ‘Bout My G-g-g-generation . . . Instead of attacking these intransigent Tea Party dunderheads as incessantly as they deserve, the D.C. beltway’s journalistic twiterati, with few exceptions, misinforms a country famished for analysis. Primarily, they unctuously opine, it’s “the GOP,” “the Dems,” “politics as usual,” and, remarkably, “the President” who are the primary stumbling blocks to a debt ceiling/deficit cutting compromise. They, we are told, resist compromise; they won’t just sit like adults and do their jobs.
Indeed, the Tea Party is often mentioned as intractable, yet there’s unbalanced “reportage,” by and large, as reporters and t.v. newsertainment readers give the TP a pass. They barely attempt to hold them truly and publicly accountable and fail to investigate and report the utter economic idiocy of the Tea Party’s so-called alternatives. And truth telling is desperately needed. After all, what these back benchers are doing is not simply blockading an earmark creating a U.S. Goat Racing Team. They are quite simply – and aggressively – throwing the nation into the abyss with a deranged Plan A, and with nothing more than “let’s see what happens” as its Plan B.
In a real sense, the TP’s have already won a major battle, if not yet the war. These back bencher kids with the beanies on their heads have, with their simplistic “job descriptions,” brought both houses of Congress and the presidency to a loud, screeching halt. Nothing offered by President Obama, Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, or Speaker Boehner meets the demands of this sniveling band of punks. Although utterly unlike the generation The Who helped usher in, the Tea Partiers’ rantings remind me of my generation’s anthem,
“My Generation” . . .
Why don’t you all f-fade away (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
And don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
If this TP “generation,” the Tricorn Topped Congressloonies, succeed in their goal of violently deconstructing the national government with nothing but fractured history and a rigid belief system to replace it, we’ll be in an America that, truly, the Founders could not have foreseen. The country they shed real blood for, courted public hanging for, and carefully nurtured, is now brought to the brink by a rabble of misinformed and misguided individuals who call themselves the Founders’ true believers. Would the Founders not reject such economic recklessness with the national debt and disdain for the common good?
Perhaps, though, should the debt ceiling collapse on their watch and cause what many believe will be a worldwide financial meltdown, the prime movers of this event, the Tea Party generation, will meet a comeuppance. Believers as they are in our history, they just may be reacquainted with another old American tradition:
Egypt Interior Ministry Fire: FOX News, After a Full Four-Hour Investigation, Names the Culprits, Because They Can
March 22, 2011
CAIRO — An Egyptian security official says police protesting in front of Egypt’s Interior Ministry have set fire to part of the downtown complex. TV footage shows flames licking up the building’s top floors and a huge plume of black smoke filling the sky. The official says protesters lit Tuesday’s fire in the building housing in the ministry’s personnel department. It then spread to an adjacent building. The fire followed a protest by thousands of low-ranking police officers calling for better wages and working conditions. Mass demonstrations that toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11 have set off frequent protests by laborers seeking to improve their lot.
As of 2:15 pm (EDST) the investigation of the fire at the Ministry of the Interior in Cairo concluded. FOX Newsiness announced its findings after nearly four hours of digging through its predispositions. FOX pinpointed the culprits as the “police protesters” who had assembled earlier in the day to demonstrate for better wages and living conditions. FOX positively named an unnamed Egyptian “security official” as their source. This compelled the closing of their investigation.
FOX also exposed that this latest example of criminal and civil disobedience fits within the larger conspiracy of those continuous mass demonstrations by other ungrateful “laborers seeking to improve their lot.” FOX has completed so thorough an investigation that the thousands of police and interior ministry protesters at the ministry site today will soon be apprehended and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. For the less disobedient among them, re-education will follow so that each learns how well off one is when compared to many others, such as those lost for years in caves in the Sinai.
Wisconsin Governor Walker Diagnosed With “Outsider Induced Allergy Syndrome” (OIAS)
March 8, 2011
“I’m not going to be intimidated, particularly by people from other places.“
Scott Walker, NYT Interview, February, 19, 2011
“. . . there’s a much smaller group of protesters—almost all
of whom are in from other states today.”
and
“The guys [protesters] we’ve got left are largely from out of state,
and I keep dismissing it in all my press conferences saying,
‘Eh, they’re mostly from out of state.’ “
Gov. Scott Walker speaking to the Buffalo Beast’s Ian Murphy
February 22, 2011
As more and more protesters come in from Nevada, Chicago and elsewhere,
I am not going to allow their voices to overwhelm the voices of the
millions of taxpayers from across the state who think
we’re doing the right thing. This is a decision that Wisconsin will make.
Governor Walker during his “Fireside Chat,” February 22, 2011
During a February 23rd press conference about his chitchat with the fake David Koch, a seemingly humbler Scott Walker clarified his feelings about pro-public employee union protesters, “I appreciate the protesters from Wisconsin who are here.” Then he spoke more kindly of those people who he normally seemed to think of as a plague of locusts: “I welcome those who’ve come from other states.” Wow! From outside agitators to welcome guests. For someone who touts the consistency of his views, that’s quite a turnaround.
Of course, this newly outsider-friendly Walker is the exception, by far. For Walker, distrust and disdain for the “outsiders” protesting alongside Wisconsin’s state employees is the norm. Moreover, his anti-outsider comments quoted above point to a general dislike for “out-of-staters” who try to influence Wisconsin politics, not just those who “invade” Wisconsin in support of government unions. It’s hard to see it any other way. After all, Walker is consistent in applying his principles; for example, he points with pride to his record as Milwaukee’s County Executive where he reduced public employees by 20%. He’s constantly pushed an austere version of fiscal responsibility; is an unwavering anti-abortion advocate; and always gets “tough on crime.” Obviously, he doesn’t like unions very much. . . Oh, yes, and “outsiders” give him hives. Perhaps that’s a clue.
“I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.” James Thurber. Like those allergic to cat dander, but not to cat noses, allergies are mysterious. I’m allergic to some cats, but not others. I can spend hours petting our cat, but wind up wheezing and weeping within minutes with my friend’s. It occurred to me, perhaps Governor Walker’s apparent moral inconsistency about out-of-staters is a serious allergy, beyond his control, even with medical science backing him up.
Is there an inoculation for close contact with Democrats? No, there isn’t, and I checked this with a friend who nearly got into a Wisconsin medical school but is now a semi-retired lawyer under investigation. Real doctors agree, however, one can become resistant to hives, runny noses, and teary eyes by spending more time with some of those things that make you allergic. That seems like a sure loser, I know, but I tried it. My doctor advised I spend more time with my cat. I did, and despite some early medical difficulties including bleeding from my ears and stroke, I have developed an immunity to my beloved cat’s aller-stuff.
Every Time I Pass An Illinois Democrat In A Hallway My Tongue Swells. Perhaps the same problem I faced with my cat is true of Governor Walker: He’s generally allergic to out-of-staters but for those he spends more time with, like out-of-state billionaires or members of Americans for Prosperity, the less allergic he is to them. After countless hours with these billionaire out-of-state allergen dispersal units, he’s free of allergic reactions. However, conversely, since he spends little time with those outsiders protesting in Madison, or with Democratic senators presently residing in Illinois, the more they continue to cause him coughing fits, hives, leeches, and carbuncles.
And that, my friends, is why the Governor cannot meet with Senate Democrats outside of Wisconsin’s border. He suffers from what is called “Outsider Induced Allergy Syndrome” (OIAS). Yesterday, he demonstrated his fear of the condition, when he answered Wisconsin’s own Democratic Senator Mark Miller’s request for a March 7th meeting at the Illinois-Wisconsin border with a resounding “No!” Although he didn’t fess up to this, Walker can’t get his doctor’s approval for fear of a flare up of OIASS.
And this despite the obvious: Those Democratic senators in Illinois are, after all, still Wisconsinites, and, as in-staters, Walker ought to be resistant to their allergens. Medical authorities within Wisconsin, though, are unwilling to take the chance that the senators-in-absence have become contaminated by crossing the border and remaining in Illinois. Also, of equal concern, there are suspicions that Walker is generally allergic to Democrats as a group. Moreover, according to one medical researcher, quoting an intern, who remembered something a public sector nurse said, “There are indications Walker’s also hyper-allergic to the middle class.”
Out-of-state campaign contributors are another group of outsiders Governor Walker has been able to tolerate medically. These medically-tolerable out-of-staters contributed more than $615,000 to candidate Walker’s campaign. Wisconsinites, to whom Walker is immune, contributed the lion’s share, of course. And the third category, “Unknown,” are apparently ghosts, extraterrestrials, little brown bats, or very confused short tailed weasels. They contributed sparsely, and therefore do not count in this comprehensive study. The important point is, however, that Walker suffered no medical harm from outside contributors’ allergens, proving there are some contacts with out-of-staters he can survive. His OIAS has some chinks in its armor. . . where money is concerned, the Governor is immune!
We Cannot Sit Idly By. Given Walker’s testy attitude, we might want to idle in neutral, even when we know of his disabling medico-political condition. But, we’re talking about a human being here, at least arguably. O.K., it’s a rabbinic-level argument. But we simply cannot allow Governor Walker’s OIAS to go unaddressed, although medical science, as we’ve seen, has bupkus to offer.
It’s quite likely that but for his bouts of OIAS, he wants to meet with his political opponents and carve out a compromise that keeps public employee collective bargaining rights strong. Maybe he’d be happy to back away from his draconian collective bargaining proposals, which, after all, he thought up – and he’s too embarrassed to admit it – after viewing a squirrely Glenn Beck episode. Surely, you can see, something needs doing if anything is going to get done. Let’s save Governor Walker! Get him allergy-free and there’s a chance – I believe, a good one – that all of Wisconsin’s Governor-induced mayhem (GAM) will disappear like a badger down a rat hole (if such a thing is possible, please advise).
Oh hell, let’s just let him suffer.