Global Gleanings

State of the Union

2010-01-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

The airwaves and coaxial wires were over flowing with politics last night, President Obama spoke, Democrats clapped and Republicans sent wax statues of the Senators from the Grand Old Party that lived up to the party's colorful nickname.

The President talked in a candid and, at times, confrontational manner to the law makers chastising them for the grid lock that results when you have the constant threat of a filibuster and a highly polarized Congress. He said that the American people expect then to get things done, to make things better.

But we all know that the American people don't expect that at all, mainly because we have watched the what comes out of Washingon, Wars, the creation of new government departments to do what we already had 2 or 3 others to do, and the recent declaration from the Supreme Court that even though some Humans may not deserve right all corporations do.

If was also clear that the Republicans refuse to respect Obama because they believe that he shouldn't be in the White House, Bush was equally diss'ed by the Democrats and realizing that we aren't dealing with clear headed geniuses one can see how tit for tat makes perfect sense. We all know that there is no more important American value than getting even, and both sides spend all the their spare time outside of getting themselves reelected seeking revenge for perceived slights.

The arrogance and power drunk folks that spend our money while failing to improve our lives may be a serious flaw in this whole Democracy thing, Canada has the same problem. One of their law makers suggested that they all go home except for the party leader since their is no interparty dissent allowed under the Delay modeled mob model which basically puts a hit on any law maker who thinks for themselves. If the easy going Canadians can't make it work maybe it isn't going to make it here either.

So it turns out the State of Union is sad, and this sad state is the result of everyone being so mad, whipped into constant hysteria of the most mundane of issues and getting only glossing opinions in serious matters. Even our triumphs are dissected into the binary state that all political positions must assume until they too become nothing more than a campaign tactic to get another desiccated geezer through another session so that it's owners interests can be served.

Media Companies have segmented their viewers and their information into neat buckets and spill over is minimal. So nothing is debated and everything is reinforced until it seems that there is only one way it can be, this is a propagandist technique that is used in politics and religion with great effectiveness, the inclusion and exclusion achieved by this method is very high. Add the Purity Tests for Republican Candidates and you can be sure that you will get candidates as interchangeable as beers in a six pack, but not nearly as much fun nor as interesting.

It creates unquestioning agreement, which as Scott Atran points out in his book, "In God's We Trust"is an essential element for religious belief. I witnessed a powerful example of this belief in Haiti where people praised an all powerful God for saving them without questioning why they were chosen for such suffering the first place. There is a power and a strength to this kind of faith and I have great respect for people that truly believe and live their lives with total faith.

That makes the Politicians and tacticians who manipulated citizens with these tactics, preying on the very thing that they claim to respect as they reap millions in perks and glory, staying in DC for years on end become the dried up husks we saw sitting the hallowed halls of goofiness as one after the other of these fiends take our money and our souls while being driven around town like kings instead of the jesters they have become.

It still isn't fair and they still don't care

2009-12-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

This is the data that

Unemployment Rate: 10%
Number of Metropolitan Areas where unemployment is higher than a year ago: 372
Number of Metropolitan Areas tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: 372
Total consumer bankruptcy filings through November 2009: 1,300,000
Total consumer bankruptcy filings in 2009: 1,095,344
Homes currently in foreclosure: more than 1,000,000
Home Home Equity Loans and lines of credit extended through third quarter, 2009: $40 billion
Home Home Equity Loans and lines of credit extended in 2006: $430 billion
Profits earned by Wall Street firms collectively through third quarter 2009: $49.7 billion
Amount lost by Wall Street firms collectively in 2008: $42.6 billion
Total corporate profits, third quarter 2009: $132.4 billion
Financial services profits, third quarter 2009: $82.8 billion
Goldman Sachs earnings, 2008: $2.8 billion
Goldman Sachs taxes paid, 2008: $14 million
Wall Street Bonuses 2009(1): $149 billion
Wall Street Bonuses 2008: $140 billion
Total Lobbying spending 2009: $3.33 billion*
Lobbying spending by finance industry to influence regulatory reform: more than $300 million
Finance industry lobbyists per member of Congress: 5
Federal government share of GDP 2009: 26%
Federal government share of GDP 2000: 18.4%
Size of Federal Reserve balance sheet: $2.2 trillion

*Expected. The record, set in 2008, was $3.30 billion.

1) Six largest banks: Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC), Morgan Stanley (MS).

On Mondays the Crick Ran Sudsy

2009-11-25T12:13:00.001-08:00

On Monday the Cricks along West Run Road ran sudsy from the wash water that overwhelmed the drainage system in the pubic housing plan better known as the projects, or “The Proj” among the school aged.

Having heard my Mother singing,

“This is the way we wash our clothes, Wash our clothes, So early Monday morning”

As long as I could remember it was no surprise that we saw this on a Monday as we walked along the crick that traced a winding road that loosely traced a border from the south end of the borough to the north. There was something to be said for the fact that the smell was better than normal, the detergents, bleaches and softeners melding together with the normal fecal smell of the water. You had to be young and male in 60's to understand the need to find nooks and crannies to grow up in, to experience the unsupervised joy of childhood doing dangerous and foolish things.

I wasn't surprised to learn that these routines were ancient and were even part of the time management efforts dating back to the 1840’s, when books were written on how to manage the household like the factories that were springing up everywhere.

By 1866, each day was programmed across America according to books like Jennie June’s American Cookery which stated that wash should be done Monday, Ironing Tuesday, everything “set to rights” on Wednesday, “extra work” saved for Thursday, sweeping and dusting on Friday, baking on Saturday and church on Sunday.

But this was summer time for us, one day was the same as the last, at 12 they seemed to stretch on forever like the cars of coal and coke that went by on the railroads tracks that ran along the rivers, the same rivers that were the ultimate destination for the suds, some flowing and others clinging to rocks and logs like a soft coating that had an iridescence that was beautiful among the old tires, cement chunks with their antenna of twisted rebar streaking it with copper rivulets.

The first time you took the bait and stepped onto the rocks that resembled pillows, thinking your feet would sink into the foam like a finger into whipped cream, your illusion of softness was shattered. The soap film made the rock surface slippery as ice, the sharp facets at their various angles would shed your feet before you could think a thought, shooting them at high speeds in different directions that made it impossible to stop the hard fall into the putrid stream.

As bad as the physical pain could be the real suffering had just started, as the jeers and calls of Jag Off and Dick Wads were liberally applied to your discomfort, often before you had even emerged from the crick. Once you were standing, you were assessed for the level of wetness and how many gross things attached themselves to places you couldn’t see and were reluctant to touch with bare hands.

At this point the main factor that determined your fate was the number of kids in the party, if it was just you and your main group of 3 or 4 actual sympathy was possible among some mild digs. If you were in a group of 8-12 you would be in for more brutal treatment and if you were low on the hierarchy to begin with it could be a long day leading to a fight you would lose but had to fight to save what precious little dignity you had left.

If you were in a crowd of 13 or more you risked being bullied relentlessly by someone impressing someone else, or shunned by the larger group completely, in the worse case be driven off by threats or rocks. Sometimes a person with some standing in the group will peel off and without offering too much help check to see if you are OK, but your best bet is to take off and head home for some sympathy.

It is amazing how true to form that group size/behavior ratio was though out my life in school, work and life in general, and as my peers became less ethnically homogeneous the differences between groups of different cultures were harder to predict and for some of us impossible to adapt ourselves to regardless of our efforts.

Mom would be washing, it being Monday, and therefore making something for dinner that was easy to prepare, after running up and down to the basement all day getting off the sore feet was the priority. That meant that between trips of unloading from the washer to dryer, or cloths line if the weather was nice enough and the mills were blowing the other direction.

If the winds were coming at you the clothes would be dirtier than when Mom started, and she would be in a really bad mood if the winds shifted and she didn’t notice until the damage was done. Once Dad filled the backyard with an above ground pool in 1970 the outside cloths line became a thing of the past, except for a small line on the back porch or in the basement.

By then the ringer washer was long gone and dryers were common even in working class homes like ours in 1970, that made for a lot less to do on Mondays. Some of the hours were still filled by watching the dramas originally created for radio to sell detergents to housewives known as Soap Operas, these oft redundant and sometimes rules defying shows with plotlines that focused on plotlines that included some of the worst mankind has to offer moved easily to TV, expanding from the original 15 minutes to full one hour shows in some cases.

By 1970 the summer days chasing rats and birds, smoking cigarettes and some of the first tastes of alcohol were just memories, first replaced by corners and then by cars and eventually by apartment occupied by as many people as could found to pay.

Vivid memories still pop out with the slightest smell of methane, kids crawling in pipes under the roads where grownups were busy at the things that we are busy at now, a subterranean world that was stepping through the looking glass for city kids.
Whenever passing over a culvert that cuts under a road the knowledge that a set of memories and life lessons may be going on 15 feet below my car tires.

Banking and the Value Myth

2009-10-29T07:54:00.002-07:00

I am old enough to remember the 70's well, I was a young man, the 70's were my first adult decade. The US was an unsure nation, chastised by the second war in 30 years that it didn't really WIN, but rather settled with compromises in Korea and were thrown out of Vietnam.

The pain showed in all aspects of society, our cars were losing share to Japan, the last country we beat in a war was now taking to our workers in Detroit and winning hands down. If you want to know how bad it got look at the way we dressed, fashion trends set by disco and flash back inspired designs from England, a country that has slid far and fast into the abyss of irrelevance and was taking it's revenge through fashion statements that screamed loser.

Then along came Reagan and his new history of America, instead of being a group of people that worked together, like socialist's or some other newly perverted life form, he explained that America was built by individuals who got what they wanted by taking from the weak and poor.

After successfully vilifying black people, poor mothers, hispanics and anyone that wasn't White and wearing a Blue suit with a red tie, he was elected on a platform of no taxes and bringing the stretch black limos back to DC. (Carter's car was a humble Chevy Impala. He was called the master communicator but he he was really a master story teller, and the idea of the oppressed white man was his favorite story, along with the types of folks that listen to Rush Limbaugh.

His most lasting effort was deregulating the banks, letting them change from being a service to businesses and commerce to BEING business and commerce, at least the only part that made any money.

This move to deregulate banks and insurance companies was the equivalent of dropping a bomb in the inner cities. Industries exploded, lives were lost along with jobs and we entered a 30 year period were wages dropped, mansions were built at a rate only exceeded by the 1920's and he raised taxes while building the recovery on the back of the tax funded military efforts building planes and ships to fight non existent enemies in his already failing mind.

So what to do, make baks accountable and transparent, eliminate off shore tax breaks and add import tariffs to countries that shelter tax cheats. Get the Government working again on energy instead of weapons, on education instead of tax breaks for second homes.

Most of all remember that we are part of a global family, humans every where deserve food, shelter and dignity and nothing is more important than making the world kinder and safer for all. Hard to write a country song about perhaps, but there are some rappers that can tell the story in simpler terms that might get the point across like CSN&Y did with their song Ohio that opened eyes through the ears of millions of Americans.

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

2009-10-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

The guys in Oslo continued their excellent critic of the US, specifically after it's use of the bully pulpit in recent years with their awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The right wing wailed and gnashed their teeth, but that wasn't anything new, what was new was the way that the world is seeing us, that hope thing that the economy dashed over here is alive and well in many parts of the world where things are much worse than here even after our melt down.

The moment that Obama expanded the dialog to include the US and Russian atomic stock piles I was ready to give the Peace Prize, add his efforts to bring a more even handed approach to the Middle East and their problems and easing the tensions in Eastern Europe and it is no brainer.

I wish that there were more jobs for people that want to work, and it would be great if the banking industry wasn't controlled by organized crime and the congress wasn't owned by corporations. But they are and have been for some time so the President will have to get to them when he is done taking out the trash left behind by the crazy party left behind where we sent banks money because they weren't good at their business and bailed out jet riding auto CEO's but not auto workers.

Although I appreciated the many good things that Bush II did in Africa, his mistakes in Iraq and in the US and general lack of understanding have created a huge set of problems in finance, justice and stop progress in key areas of global co-operation.

It is true that September 11th created am emotional crisis across the country but after a few good statements and heading to Afghanistan he lost his way and went to Iraq, good for the Iraqi's who made millions from our efforts, not a good sue of our tax money and he never did get Osama.

Barack Obama is a smart and decent man that is going to leave a mark on the country also, but instead of the red blue brand that we were left with from Bush it will hopefully be a peace sign like the ones that I wore in the 60's to protest deaths everywhere.

I am looking for Peace, Love and Understanding

We have the Birthers, the Tee Baggers and now the Suiciders

2009-08-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

After watching a listening to the debates and town hall coverage it is clear that the conservative and liberal divide have common interest for a very interesting reason.

No matter if you listen to Rush or John the odds are that you are fat, eat a poor diet and don't exercise enough. If you are very determined to increase the cost to the minority of us that don't smoke, have BMI's under 25, exercise daily and order meals when we eat out that can be carried to the table by one person.

http://tinyurl.com/q9fm4h

The link above shows how easy and cheap having better health can be, but for over 60% of Americans they want to know who is going to pay for their indulgences, and they don't want it to be themselves.

Elementary education should include trips to hospitals where kids can see fat people who ate so much they lost their feet, or smokers with a tube in their throat because they had the all American right to smoke.

We have all seen the TV stories where they show fat people in malls, airports, really almost anywhere except a gym or a juice bar. These people are stealing our money so they can live a life of excess and foolish habits.

They should be shown and asked on TV, how did you get this way, didn't you think about the problems and the cost to your children. In fact their should be a law that removes kids from fat parents as the problems from childhood obesity is going to cost society and us thin folks much more than the crack "epidemic" and drugs ever did.

Fat camps might be a start, at the individual expense of course. A six month crash course in one of CCI prisons might turn some people around, if not we always have the 3 strike rule in place. If you are caught over the BMI of 25 three times you get a life sentence.

There is some hyperbole here, make no mistake, but the facts are clear. Once again the loudest complainers are the biggest (pun intended ) abusers.

How we went from “Run, Greenspan, Run” to “Financial System Redux”

2009-04-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

The financial downturn has been around so long now that we have to squint to remember the good times, fast rising technology company stock begat skyrocketing home prices which begat the worst economic downturn since the great depression.

The common thread throughout these bubbles was the growth of the financial segment of the US economy, it went from a rather stogy business in the 50’s and 60’s to an industry that produced people as famous and much richer than Hollywood by the 90’s.

Somewhere along the line white shoe banks started wearing Nike’s, deciding that they could rob Peter and avoid Paul, going into darker and darker alleys to hang with unsavory characters engaged in unseemly behaviors until the day came when they became the punk. Just like the toady in the old gangster movies they are alternately smarmy and condescending in the best of situations, and winey cowards when things get tough.

Just as the toady squeals like a pig at the first sign of paying for their deeds, these guys are trying to either grab the money and run or turn on their co-conspirators to lessen their own penalties. This is where the everyman for him self-credo of the Ayn Rand crowd gets to be a problem, while there may be honor among thieves, bankers have no similar code of ethics.

The savior has his hands full, and a staff that has its hand stuck in the financial mess like monkeys in a clay jar, unable to unclench the fist of complicity. The answer they have arrived at looks a lot like the question, and the tax payers are being asked to believe that our only hope is in the hands of Wall Street and Large Banks, teeing up the makers of this mess for a huge windfall while not risking enough to make a difference whatever happens.

We need to make a big change in the way the financial system works and the counterintuitive shift towards smaller banks with more to lose if things go wrong. The fact is that while the sporting world may benefit from the Major League Super Star driven business model banking has gone from a useful tool of commerce to a destructive force that has set unachievable expectations while rigging the pay system to reward them for the most banal of accomplishments.

We need a banking system that succeeds when the communities that it serves thrive, it is a critical element of the risk chain that allows economies to adapt and grow, making sure that the system is provided with relevant and timely feedback. When national and international banks took over the local banks a critical bit of information was removed from the local businesses, there was no way of understanding how many loans were failing until it was too late to spare the pain of a major downturn, and the bankers in turn are busy shoveling the pain out the door while handing out bonuses with tax payers money, they still believe they matter.
It is time to show the big dogs the door, letting them sink into extinction like the other failed species that have developed from a mutation into a moment of existence that was doomed as soon as the first $1 million birthday party was given with the plundered booty from our pension plans and 401K’s. The next conversation that I have with a banker is going to start with, “howdy neighbor”, and knowing that he will be boating on our local rivers instead of taking his helicopter to his place in the Hamptons will be a delightful feeling.

Obama Shows us some change

2009-02-27T08:16:00.001-08:00

It is a great feeling to see the budget actually include everything we need to spend as a nation in one place instead of the shell game that the last administration played since the 2003. It is also great to the see the shift towards more logic driven policy funding, it is the best way to avoid situations that result from ideologically driven policies such as the "ownership society" that was the genesis of the housing bubble.(http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/some-housing-pictures/)

This isn't going to be an easy or short trip from the Greenspan driven "self-regulating markets", another ideological misstep that lasted past Reagan for another two decades mainly due to most people hoping that the myth that markets had an inherent morality that would create a fair work place. Despite the evidence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality) of an increasing inequality in income and mounting debt requirements of the lower and middle income earners the idea that this "rugged individualist" was how society work.

This was wrong, both currently and historically, the countries that have the highest "happiness rating" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_economics) also have the highest levels of common interests, elevating the provision of care to people that are not coping with the challenges of life as well as most. Reaching that level of common caring is very difficult for the US as the diversity that has lead to our innovation also come with elements that make it harder to integrate concerns and causes.

No one likes to feel they are biased but tests tell a different story, if you don't believe me try a few, (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html) and don't get angry if the tests show something that you don't like, use the knowledge to change the way that you react in the next situation that may be affected by a biased decision or reaction.

The reason that this primer on bias was inserted into a post on the budget is that a key component of acceptance of any proposal is fairness, and biases are at the center of biases, one way that biases express themselves in society is in the validation of self entitlement based on race, gender, physical characteristics and handicaps, religion, ethnicity, geography, or culture.

We need to look at the budget at a kitchen table of 300,000,000 and counting and agree to find a way to help those that need it, reducing suffering first and increasing opportunity as close to simultaneous as can be managed. Will it be fair on an individual basis? Most likely not, we have a tax system based on proportionality and that can be a tough concept for some people to grasp, talk to a "flat tax" advocate and you'll see what that means.

The right question to ask is if the country, and indeed the world, is served by this budget as well as we can tell at this time. It should always come with a set of Key Performance Indicators to avoid floating objects, and be adjusted if the facts are showing that a change in the situation or an erroneous assumption has altered the need.

This kind of societal focus driven by an effective government of the people has been seen before, here and around the world, and this is a time for the concept to go global. There is no better way forward than with objectives aligned, self interest tempered and a concern for all future generations.

Forgive the Young and Those seeking knowledge.

2009-02-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

This is my second post on the idea of asking the government to forgive all student loans as part if the stimulus spending, the first post dealt mainly with the logical reasons, and there will be more of that in this post.

The main purpose for the second in this series that could be titled “Let’s help people that were more victims that perpetrators”, is to focus on the moral imperative that we have as an adult generation to right the wrongs of the financial debacle created by the need to get an education past high school to earn a living wage and the banking industry’s exploitation of our youth on every complicit campus.

At the root of the problem is the exact same factor that drove the housing bubble, a financial opportunity for bankers and lenders fueled by the pursuit of the “American Dream”, a good dream that we all understand and appreciate emotionally. In fact, it was this emotional component enhanced with it’s own urban myths, “look at history, the more education the more money you will make, paying it back will be easy”, recognize the parallel between this claim and “Housing Prices Always Go Up?

If you do see the comparison it should come as no surprise, the same cast of characters were running the same scam, only this time instead of lower income blue collar workers and envious professionals keeping up with the Jones the targets were young students and their optimistic parents, who couldn’t say no to private schools they couldn’t really afford.

Driven and manipulated by their desires to compete and get into the schools on the “lists” people looked back decades and assumed that the past would predict the future, and in this case again that turned out to be a poor strategy.

The results for the financial institutions were the same sweet ride as housing, the false market they created with the loans did what economics 101 tells you it always will, it increase demand and therefore prices. A Lot, I mean at least double the rate of inflation, at the same time the market value of college degrees (outside of the fantasy land of Wall Street, until recently) were going down.

Bankers knew this, colleges knew this, some parents knew this (some still couldn’t say no, college search has become more emotional than logical), but since the kids could get the money themselves, and the banks were there to help with the forms, adding a credit card in for good measure (and 24% APR), they preyed on the youth of American like vultures on the buffalo shot from trains, with equal concern or remorse.

This is an evil act, worse than terrorism, at least they tell us they want our heads, whereas the banking community pretends to be helping us as they remodel million dollar offices, fly in private jets and hold parties that would make Croesus blush.

So what to do? Get mad, write your reps and senators and tell them before another dime goes to the perps we want a little to go the victims, the most innocent victims, the future of our country! Forgiveness will get our young folks back to spending on what’s next, instead of decades on an overprices product sold in a ponzi scheme every bit as heinous as Bernie Madoff’s grand rip off, and those investors were supposed to be experts. If you feel one iota of sympathy for those damaged by Madoff then you have to feel for the debt-laden kids.

Iraq was a mistake

2009-01-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

There has been a subtle but steady shift in the dialog around the Iraq War that has all but eliminated discussion of the actual merit of the invasion. The talk has been about the surge, did it work? How Iraq is now peaceful and ready to become a harmless, even supportive friend to the west. Bush and Cheney left town claiming that the war was won, we were safer for it, and they had saved lives.

The claim of saving lives is hard to believe when multiple reports put the violent deaths since the invasion at over 500,000. Keeping Americans safer doesn't seem to apply to the over 4,000 killed while serving in Irag, 1,000 more than the 9/11 event, with official estimates of wounded at over 30,000.

Under what scenario can one imagine Iraq attacking the US and causing those kinds of casualties? Call 9/11 all of the bad things that it deserves to be called but military genius doesn't apply to this action, it was truly a "Black Swan" of terrorist attacks, down to the collapse of the towers when the pilots were just hoping to hit the towers.

The question isn't whether anything like that can ever happen again, that answer is always maybe, but whether it is less likely to happen because of what we have been doing in Iraq. Is the pain and suffering this has injected into to the lives of those whose families fall into the groups affected by the gruesome death and injury statistics mentioned above outside of the benefits, and if so then who benefitted? You say 25 Million Iraqi's, but with 1 million killed, millions more displaced and a new set of alliances with Iran is that really true?

The reaction of the world community to 9/11 was an overwhelming extension of sympathy and support, but we took that opportunity and turned it into a strange vendetta for the Bush family, providing a war to make a Great Man out of Bush, with Rumsfeld and Cheney trying to out Churchill each other.

The Surge is a paradox, it is a timely event that has been met with calmer times, but it is also given sole credit for something that happened that may be due to other reasons. Some other factors include the payments to Iraqi's so that they wouldn't shoot at Americans, essentially protection money to for our soldiers in their country. Another factor is the switch from anger to greed that led Iraqi's to realize that the longer we stayed the more money we would spend, as indicated by the huge new Embassy which will be a significant part of non-oil GDP for Iraq. (Iraq gets 90% of its GDP from oil).

I'm glad there is less violence but also know that an American died yesterday and there is a very good chance that another will die before the week is out, good people who go back again because war is a strange drug that builds relationships and emotional ties that defy understanding to those that haven't experienced it firsthand.

The surge is the distraction that allowed the Hawks to divert discussions from the folly of the primary action with the idea that there was something that could be called success, and we all feel better because people like success more than failure. But the truth is closer to Vietnam and Korea than WWII, there is no success here, just the same old war stories we've had since Homer to be recorded in books and movies for the next generation to understand as history.

The only relevant point is this, would we have been less safe without going into Iraq, and the clear answer from all available facts is no. Would more than 4,000 more Americans have been killed by terrorists, would 30,000 be wounded, many disabled for life, all scarred forever? Would 500,000 people be dead from war related violence? Would hundred of thousands of peoples lives been changed forever due to a tour of duty in a war zone? Would over $1 Trillion and counting of US dollars have been spent on nonproductive efforts, much of it going into the hands of the people we are fighting?

You can talk about the surge all day long but the facts are clear, Iraq will go down in history as one of the worst presidential blunders of all times.

It is the big daddy ego trip of all ego trips in a time where we are living in the land of the giant ego trips. From the Mission Accomplished debacle to the plans for getting greeted with roses and riches by the Iraqi's, this has been one last drunk for W and a set of war games for the administrations neo-con war machine.

But above all, and finally, invading Iraq was a mistake.

Education and why we all may be teachers...and students

2009-01-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

In full disclosure I am not a education expert, a teacher, or even a school board member. Heck, I wasn't even much of a student, even though I managed to scrape together an engineering degree.

That was 35 years ago and it has served me well, although being more of a manager and business owner for the last 20 years has taken the hard edge off of my technical training years ago. What became more interesting to me than the hardware or software was the "wetware" , in other words, me and you.

So I became a consultant for technology start ups, building business models that incorporate behavioral characteristics of both company personnel and customers, much of it based on the work of Kahneman/Tversky.

It was with some surprise that I found myself working with a company that was applying technology to the educational field, an area of business that was typically not interesting due to the tight, old boy supplier networks (see upcoming post on text book publishers) and myriad layers of red tape along with a dash of corruption for good measure.

Great potential for the company was apparent from the beginning, the founder was a smart person that spent two years tutoring to gain insight into the learning process, the technology was the outcome of 14 years of investment into a military training system that focused on the best ways to teach math so that it can be retained and applied. They had developed a product that was excellent on all counts.

All good things until you looked at the market, and since they were paying me to do just that I found myself reading story after story, post after post, about No Child Left Behind, the schism in the opinion of the believers and nay sayers were of Grand Canyon proportions with both sides trying to make points with statements deeper in ideology than in fact.

Having some time to read into the subject over the holidays there were several things that became clear, the first was that the school systems have had a continually increasing mandate to provide more than education, while the schools themselves were spending more time on financial management issues than educational issues.

In addition to education schools must provide racial equality, economic compensation (e.g. free lunches), social exposure and discipline. Some school personnel would add to this list but you get the idea.

The second point is apparent to any of us that listen to politicians, starting in California home owners have rebelled against paying more for schools at the same time that teachers unions have increased their demands for higher pay. As a result teachers have gone from being the "lowest paid professional" to being near the top of the scale when actual hours worked is factored in, and do pretty well even when it isn't.

Teachers continually resist performance pay, the weeding out of bad teachers and other aspects of the work place that are the norm for most.

What has emerged from the research is amazing in some sense, but for those of us that always look for the counter intuitive "Truths" that don't hold up under scrutiny, is getting to be expected.

Most surprising was the small correlation between a teacher's credentials and the classroom performance, there seems to be no advantage to the extra bonus we pay teachers to get Master's and other certifications as measured by the only way we know how to measure school performance in the near term, testing.

This explains the some of the rapid increase in the cost of public schooling with no detectable improvement, from a business perspective schools should actually discourage many teachers from getting a graduate degree so that salaries can be tied to student performance instead of teacher scholastic performance as prescribed by parts of NCLB.

The facts show that almost anyone with a college degree and many without, know enough to teach elementary or middle school material. It is also becoming clear that the ability to effectively teach is not known until someone actually teaches, add to that the differences in classroom teaching and tutoring and you see a profession that has become unsure how to measure quality.

The Home School results were reinforcing to this "credentials are the answer" myth that has driven increasing costs in early education, there is very low correlation between the home school "teacher's" education and qualifications and their students outcomes. On an average the home schooled student will out perform public or private schooled kids by 15-30% on a wide variety of tests regardless of the parents education.

There is enough history now to see that Home Schoolers do better in college and on the job, debunking the common complaints of lacking social skills. The socialization aspect of school has always been a farce to those of us who spent more time in school trying not to get picked on that socializing.

So what do we do with this information?

We take a shot at thinking the main thing to teaching is the connection between teacher and learner, and that it is not a one size fits all solution.

We teach our kids, everyone should take a shot at teaching somewhere along the line. I've tutored on Saturdays for the last 5 years, there are online sites that need tutors and will pay a little money for doing it, we all have a little to teach and some have a natural talent that could make them life long teachers.

But the number of life long teachers is going to go down, while the number of life long learners is going to go way up, almost all of us will be in that group to keep skills relevant and sharp.

The disruption that has changed every field of work, computers, many of them mobile, the Internet and massive online data storage, is about to hit education. Just in time in my view, we need smart people with access to education regardless of where their parents went and what football team they like, at prices less than half of their lives salaries.

As for the materials for teaching, companies like Apangea Learning that I'm working with, and others are developing something we call a Student Centric, Adaptive Learning System (SCALS). This is a hybrid teaching solution that combines, problem tutors, concepts teachers and interactive Avatars to deliver a learning experience that outperforms classroom teaching on nearly every dimension.

Anyone, anywhere, anytime is where education is going, so we can life long learn and intermittently teach, from a simple computer. We pay to learn and teach to earn, compounding knowledge and shortening the path to a smarter, higher skilled society.

So the next time you are wonder what a teacher thinks, listen to your self and if you want to hear from a student head to the mirror. We are in a global economy and the next 100 years will be all about learning how to create true equality and 100% utilization of resources, Human resources in this century, not minerals or materials.

Education Take II - Bringing Everyone Inside the Society

2008-12-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

The last post that was on Global Gleanings was written in disgust of the way that school children of a certain social status were being continually deprived of their civil rights that guaranteed them an equal education. While this problem is not new, these times are, and without an education in today's world life gets tough pretty damn quick.

Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short is how Hobbes described the outcome of empowering the common man back in the 1600's, it turns out that history proved him to be perfectly wrong, that is exactly the fate of an uneducated man in the age of Capitalism. We know now because of Jefferson for one, who knew that for any Democracy to survive and thrive the population had to be literate. The US, with policy based on those principles became the best place on earth to be average.

It holds forth then that for Democracy to be fair, every citizen must be provided the opportunity to become equally literate. Despite the 3rd President's best efforts we still have children being sentenced to a life of mediocrity for no other crime than being born in a bad school system, not having a parent that can pay for better schools or provide an alumni advantage into an Ivy.

Imagine the world of the future where nutritional advantages are gone, education is as free as broadcast television and the lessons that are to be learned fit each child like a well made glove. The benefit to all of mankind would make the middle class, or even the rich of the last century appear deprived, there would be few limits to what can be accomplished with an entire globe of educated people. Education won't solve every problem, but it will allow everyone to participate in the effort to solve every problem. It will bring about the real decline in exploitation of populations and it will bring everyone into society.

Bringing people into society sounds like a odd goal, what does that do for an individual, does it feed people, cure people, end bigotry and bias? The answer to all of those questions, somewhat surprisingly, is yes. History has shown that the initial ingredient of empathy is inclusion, newspapers in the 1700's never covered poor people's problems, they didn't cover slaves deaths, or the problems of people that were deemed to be exotic or foreign.

We still do this today, we call people aliens when they live 50 miles south of San Diego, because the Hutus and Tutsi's have funny names and live in Africa we ignore their slaughters while we make movies and build museums about the Holocaust, a slaughter of people that were "outside of society". We don't enslaves people of color in the US anymore because we work, serve in the Army and now even elect them President.

Education has always been an exclusionary device, and still is today. We need to end it soon so we can become the world that we should be, breaking down all barriers for all individuals, lineage, economics, geography and ethnicity is what we must do.

Until we do this the US and the world will be less than it should be, and in the future be looked at as "the dark ages" are today.

Taking Learning to the Streets

2008-11-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

I realize that anything I write will pale compared to my last post, President-elect Obama's acceptance speech, but there are important issues at hand, so I'll do my best.

The last two weeks have been a blur of excitement, besides the election my every waking moment, and there have been a lot of them, have been taken up thinking about a company, Apangea Learning, that can help change the world. It is a learning system that teaches math over the Internet very, very well. The world needs this right now, and I'm going to tell you why.

In the guise of SWS Network, our Model Based Marketing firm, we have discovered things about the education system that belong in a Dickens Novel instead of the 21rst Century. We weren't looking at the shining successes we are all familiar with, but rather the underside of the system known in the vernacular of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 as "Failing Schools".

The NCLB Act has been praised by some and trashed by others, but after a while one thing is perfectly clear, as a country we are guilty of a perpetuating a terrible wrong to a class of citizens for decades. Children born into districts with failing schools, those which are defined as being unable to teach their students at a level that allows them to compete for positions in colleges and jobs, are essentially given a life sentence simply for being born.

How in the hell did we let this go on so long? I've spent many hours this week crying with joy due to Obama's election and crying with the pain of the suffering that we have let continue generation after generation. The reason we can't do anything about this travesty are as long as Donald Trump's Xmas list, everyone gets blamed from teachers, parents, neighborhoods, government, God and the devil and most wrongly, even the Kids.

You can read a million reasons why things can't get better, not enough good teachers, not enough money, even the evil comments that imply they just can't be taught, a sickening comment that once came out of the mouth of a man that headed the United States Department of Education.

This is unacceptable and so wrong you can taste it, feel it like a cold wind on bare skin, it is as wrong as apartheid, as wrong as slavery, as wrong as the holocaust and we can't tolerate for one more second, one more minute, certainly not one more generation.

You say we can't fix it, then you weren't listening over the past year, you weren't listening the last month, and you sure weren't listening last Tuesday night because you would know this, "Yes We Can".

Starting with Apangea Learning we are taking learning to the people and we are going to teach them Math, that's right Math. Math is the key to knowing how to solve problems, how to reason , how to compare, how to calculate, how to measure, how to be fair, if you know Math you can do almost anything. Math will take you more places than any car, will keep you warmer than a coat and give you more confidence than a beautiful woman or man on your arm.

Yes We Can give every child born into that life sentence early parole so that we can hear their voice, they won't all be scientists or chemists or accountants, but with the confidence that they will have by passing those same tests that kids out the suburbs pass without a second thought. And we will all be better for it, and another age of slavery will end and a new era of equality can begin.

I need to go now, there is much to do to make this real, but we have the tools now and as long as we work these tools and we can find people who embrace this effort like Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, MLK and JFK embraced theirs with help and support and yes a little money we make this happen in our lifetimes and the last generation will look back on educational inequality with the same distain as any type of slavery.

Yes We Can!

Remarks of President-elect Barack Obama, as prepared for delivery

2008-11-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

This is the most inspiring speech I've heard since I was 9 years old and listened to JFK, I'm so excited I couldn't sleep, really.

Remarks of President-elect Barack Obama, as prepared for delivery

Election Night

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Chicago, Illinois

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled--Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House. And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics--you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to--it belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington--it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.

I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime--two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America--I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you--we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years--block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek--it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers--in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House--a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity.

Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends ... though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn--I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world--our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down--we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright--tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America--that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing--Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons--because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.

Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves--if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth--that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

The fallacy of the innovative free market

2008-10-27T13:40:00.001-07:00

In my nearly six decades of life there have been many amazing changes but few have been more mind boggling and wrong than the shift in the 1980's to the idea that all Government intervention in economic matters were bad and that the free market was able to solve all problems with little or no regulation and guidance.

This myth was was put forth from the most unlikely of sources, a washed up B actor that was Governor of California (we know know that California has a tendency of electing unqualified people to that position, e.g. Brown, Schwarzenegger) and a quirky, incomprehensible Ayn Rand groupie, Alan Greenspan. They told us that individual people were better than groups of people, although Church and American History had taught us the exact opposite.

It was an attractive proposition, that was at the core of the blind evil to come, resulting in the situation of an unqualified, unregistered plumber who never has made $50k in one year becoming the symbol for the fight against even a small tax increase for the rich.

My own experiences in the work place also went against this idea, working for NASA in the 70's it was clear that the amazing accomplishments of that organization could never have been reached in private industry, just now nearly 40 years later companies are approaching that industry with private funds.

How could it be that we were being told that government inhibited innovation when almost every key development that drove out economy for the next 40 years came from this large government funded work program that would have had no chance of being implemented today without people screaming about Socialism and Marxism?

The reason of course is that it was a big lie, a Jim Jones kind of lie with this Kool Aid being forced down our throats with the celebrations of Rock Star CEO's and hyperbolic radio personalities.

As for innovation, let us look at the record, government funding gave us computer technology, material sciences advances like Teflon, communications technology to enable the Internet and sensor technology for advanced medical equipment. All of these have created millions of jobs in the private sectors.

Free Market innovation has given us Sub Prime mortgages, Hedge Funds, CDO's, HMO's, and the most painful economic failures since the great depression.

People compare Barack Obama to Jack Kennedy and I hope the comparison holds true, a person brave and smart enough to know that as a people together we can be great again, maybe through an energy initiative that is funded by the government, releasing the innovations to the market for it to do what it is really good at, developing and executing business plans around formed ideas.

Here is the big surprise to those who understand risk, the more diversified and shared it is the better the outcome, and that is a role for government, my hopes are with Obama to end the long mistake made by the fallacy of innovative markets and get back to what has always worked, WWI, WWII and NASA are all examples of innovative high risk endevours that spawned great technologies for our markets to do what they do best, execute.

The ""New" New Deal"

2008-10-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to see the theme of the "Great Depression" woven into so many of the news stories, blog posts and response posts. It is important to remember there are two parts of that story, what was lost that is the current focus (correctly and understandably) and another part that seems impossible to imagine, what will be gained by the transformation of our economy and naturally our society.

Currently we are at the part of the story that feels like the feeling you get when you are stuck in car after too much coffee looking for an exit or strip mall, you can't imagine the relief. But by the time that your hands are drying (hopefully) you will have moved on barely able to remember the discomfort.

So many posts and articles also talk about how the "wealth bubble" was built on an unsustainable model, where the selling of "packaged" money was worth more than "unpackaged" money, with the truth being that it is until someone has to open the package. We are currently opening these packages one by one and finding something very different than we has hoped (wished?) inside. It exposes the fallacy of the wealth created by home prices mainly, it turns out we were never that rich, we just went through another period where we pretended we were, like the dot.com bubble.

In many ways the housing bubble made much less sense, and that may be because it was intentional, where as the dot.com bubble was more irrational. While there were irrational decisions made in both cases but the difference is in you finding a piece of rock and thinking that you are rich, which was the case in the dot.com bubble, it is easy to see how people over-valued things like bandwidth, online commerce, and business efficiency gains. And there is some serious and persistent value in company's like Google, eBay and Amazon, there is still money being made and will be for a long time.

The Housing Bubble was more like running into a well dressed man (Blue Suit - Red Tie - Italian Loafers and a watch with a name you can't pronounce (he can't either), with a Rock in a very nice box labelled GOLD (or Platinum, which ever is higher that day) and being told that the price paid for these rocks are going up and have been going up since Moses came down with the tablets inscribed with the terms of the first CDO. Now you can't afford this really BUT, since it will go up in price forever you can pay us when it goes up. He goes on to say that they aren't making these fast enough for demand and buying a second one will make it twice as easy to pay for the first one. You can see the difference, in one case you make an optimistic appraisal of mankind ingenuity and you were a little wrong on scale and timing, it has happened over and over and will happen again. In the other case people were convinced that a house was more than a house, some how in a country with slowing population growth and stagnant middle class salaries houses were going to be worth more because when population was growing and wages were out pacing inflation they did go up.

The good news is that we were never that rich, so we lost nothing that we ever actually had except for our own misguided and often innocent expectations of ability to access and use that wealth to provide for our retirements, educations and health care.

Understanding this so quickly after the fall should help us to attack the root causes of the systems problems and redesign something that works better, not perfectly because that is impossible, but something that is measurably (by our current almost certain to be flawed but better than guessing methods).

On thing to consider is that the last recovery, the New Deal, was built on a set of firm principals that spread the opportunity, which spread the wealth through a more palatable manner than welfare payments. Jobs, training and yes, even loans were used to allow businesses to thrive.

Now that model would be hard to replicate, but not impossible, because new businesses that can support people need to look for new ways to create value to present to the market. Whereas corner stores and restaurants used to work at local ownerships level that is no longer true.

Regulations and restrictions could work but that would be the wrong application of Government, innovation into other things that people can do, maybe some based on the cheap communications and data portability enabled by the Internet.

What ever the case it will require an entire country (and world) of people that care enough about the future and other people else to think about the long view, if we get that right the old New Deal will pale in comparison to the New New Deal.

Party Paradox

2008-07-29T17:35:00.001-07:00

With the election drawing near we see editorials from both parties claiming that they have the economic solution to help those folks losing their homes, watching their 401K get eaten by fees and dropping asset prices, doing the same job for decades with no increase in pay. Both parties claim the same goal, creating the right balance of government and market power to satisfy both groups customers, taxpayers.

Both parties want government to pay for something, with the Republicans talking up small government, strong business performance and a powerful military. The Democrats want more government social programs, more regulations for business and less guns. There are certainly other issues but most people would be able to identify the party from those policies.

The problem for the customers (citizens) of what these parties are selling is that when we make our purchase at the polls and bring the box home it often seems as if the contents were mixed up. As an example, if Republicans are the business party why has the stock market performed almost twice as well under Democrats? According to the Stock Trader's Almanac the market's average annual gain since 1901 under Republicans (56 years) has been 6.9%, a return we all would have loved to have over the last 7 years instead of the loss we have incurred. But under the Democrats the market has grown 13.3% (48 years) on average per year over the same period.

Republicans are also small government advocates, while the Democrats are argued as being big spenders, throwing your money at every problem they see. In reality the parties only varied by .5% in the growth of government as measured by budget growth in the four budgets passed by both parties prior to 2000, with the Republican Congress's growing government by 13.9% and the Democrats growing the budget by 14.4% (source GAO).

From 2000 on government has grown at unforeseen rates but factor that out if you like to blame everything after 9/11 on that event, and use it to justify the huge growth of government.

Finally look at free markets, Republicans have fought tirelessly to convince us customers that we have the best health care system, educational system and financial system because we let free market forces do our thinking for us, leaving us to reap the benefits of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand". The results of these experiments are now in, and we pay the most of our income of all countries for the 32nd ranked health care system, our children are 3-4 years salary (gross) in debt if they have to borrow for school, both groups raise prices at over twice the inflation rate. Competitive price pressures are no where to be found.

The banking system has been de-regulated and the results are mixed at best, it now appears that risk has been moved to the citizens, we are picking up $5.7 Trillion (that's a T) of Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac after years of quarter billion dollar a year bonuses for the fine job they were doing. It may seem strange for one small rich group to get the profit and another larger poorer group to take the risk. So Republicans like government to pay bills but like Wall Street elites to make all of the money, Democrats just don't have much to say here, they get a deer in the head lights look when you see them yelling at naughty executives on C-SPAN at hearings (no one hears anything in these get togethers so the name "hearing" should be reconsidered).

So what do you do? Ignore the facts, vote the bums out (the other bums, not your own bum), vote the other party ever other election so you can always take the high road in conversations about politics?

What you must do, what we must do, is remember Lord Acton's warning from over 100 years ago, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." So the next time you see a politician shooting basketball, pretending to like people that they would never invite to dinner, changing their position on a heartfelt issue every week, disowning old friends after a negative news story, remember what these politicians are really saying, "Help Me Before I Lie Again".

Free Markets - Free to who?

2008-07-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

As the religion of free market grew during the Reagan years, continuing through the Bush I, Clinton and now Bush II, one genius financial minds after another has preached from the pulpit of Wall Street a sermon of confidence. Confident that the US was infallible, confident that everyone from an Ivy school from a "good" family was a genius and confident that the Invisible Hand of Adam Smith would guide them through the storms.

The idea was the Government was wasteful and inefficient, welfare queens were driving Caddy's in the Ghetto and there was no incentive to work if you gave someone a little less than needed to live, mediocre health care and school lunches.

Now the truth is clearer, the private managers are far more corrupt than government, the guys from the Ivy's are mostly inbred 3rd and 4th generation guys that are dumb as a stump and feel entitled to, well, everything.

This country was built on the backs of immigrants and the middle class, the hard working people who didn't think about Country Club memberships, status cars and getting into "elite" schools. Now we are being asked to bail out the all of the organizations that were put in better hands by the neo-economists in the last two decades. The IPO's are over, the money is in off shore banks and now pension funds and common shareholders are being asked to pay for the failures of the best and brightest.

Remember when you hear the talk on private management of Social Security, that would be the last goal of the neo-conservatives, elimination of the inter-generational contract that has tied one generation to the next since the 1930's. The plan will fail, but not until all of the money is stolen by Wall Street, and then we will be England with better teeth and a new royalty.

What do you expect?

2008-07-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

How do the parties involved in this latest clash of cultures explain the benefits of their actions to the citizens, the people that wake up and go to work, find food, pay for shelter, educate the young and old, get sick, make people well, start businesses, write plays...

How do these weapons that take so much of our money, crazy things that are either designed to destroy, which they do very well, or to protect, not so much in this case. Both projects are insanely successful in one area, the conversion of your hard earned taxes into a corporate welfare system that supports the military/industrial complex that Ike warned us about in his parting speech.

He warned us that the appetite for the type of power and wealth that can be gained in that area was not likely to be self limiting, like any addiction the demand increasing, the lengths that the individuals in the system would go to to preserve the rush of that existence would make a junkie blush.

We now have sitting Vice Presidents on the payroll (yes we know that it OK now, every press secretary has rolled their eyes and tried to explain how this person is above reproach to those skeptical of a former Defense Secretary who walked into a CEO position as his first job in private industry) of a defense contractor who was awarded the largest no bid contracts ever to serve in a war that he started.

Noam Chomsky predicted the escalation of the stereotype of the Islamo-Terrorist as the next reason for massive investments in military platforms, although to avoid the retooling costs the platforms (militarese for a technological system design to destroy, the opposite of things like MRI's, cars and plumbing, which are technological systems designed to sustain and enhance our lives as opposed to ending them horribly and in great amounts.

Now we are working hard to raise tensions with Russia just as Korea becomes impossible to represent as a threat due to wide spread starvation. Iran, which spends a tenth of a penny to every dollar we spend on defense is the last remaining Global Threat, and they have raised toothless ranting to a new level of absurdity.

The good news is that people are able to see the foolishness and demand more accountability from the ego maniacs that call themselves leaders, produced through the new media moment mentality that puts more and more emphasis on manipulation and less and less on information.

Obama is a product of the system, but all change agents are, how else do you get in the position to make change, but with his new administration maybe we can grow to expect something else.

Anti-America Oil Use

2008-07-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

When people look for Patriotism it is often seen as a uniform, a public display such as singing the National Anthem or flying the Flag at their home or the rear window of their car???

In the public forum lapel pins are the clearest way to detect a patriotic person, at least judged by the TeeVee News folks, making the natural assumption that if a person is willing to spend $2 for a lapel pin there is clearly nothing they wouldn't do for the Mother Land USA.

But for those with more than $2, there is an even more Patriotic action one can take, buying the biggest, most fuel inefficient vehicle they can but. Nothing extends a middle finger to the world, especially the Middle East, than a 200 pound person using one gallon of gas to go 8 miles. If you drive with the abandon you deserve as an American you can get the milage down to 5! Take that you oil barons and sheiks.

Now the fact that we get most of our oil from Canada and Mexico, with less than 20% coming from the Saudi fields, should make us turn from the east and look North and South for the evil doers that are trying to change our way of life.

In the 70's we were the evil ones, we built smaller cars, even doubled our average milage. And what did we gain from this self inflicted humilation? We reduced our oil use so much that oil dropped from $40 to $15 a barrel and stayed there for 20 years, until the true Americans told us that we deserved to use more oil and drive not only large cars, but GIANT cars, Suburbans moved from the farm to the suburbs, Hummers were hatched from the Army, showing that they could design and build ridiculous items for the commercial sector also.

So here we are, losing our homes, jobs and pumping our paychecks into our huge cars that no one will buy anymore. The support the troop ribbon is a little tattered, deep down we figured if we went into Iraq, we could leave with the oil. The reality is we were sold a false dream, one of hubris and grandeur, we felt like kings in our big cars.

The right dream is one of humble striving and caring, not just about our wants, but the future generations needs. Humility is not weakness as some would have you believe, it is strength and belief in the large responsibility that we have for being born so lucky. We can do this people, we did it before many times when we were in dark times and we are in those days again, we can be the beacon of the emerging global family or we can put out the lights for good.