On the Contrary

With the invasion of Georgia by the Russians we have heard the media anoint John McMean as the candidate with foreign relations experience.  It comes as an almost self-evident truth that he has the experience to deal with these events.  This in my mind is like saying, let’s stay with George Bush.  After all he is experienced.  The trouble is his experience is the last thing we want to leverage.  The other “self-evident” truth is that this crisis helps John McMean politically.  I would challenge the first, but not the second.  Sadly when people are afraid they slip into old authoritarian ways of thinking.  Let me explain.

George Lakoff in his “The Political Mind” points out that most of us think in two modes: Empathy and cooperation, and fear and obedience to authority.  In the first case it has to do with understanding and taking responsibility for those around us, and in the second case, it has to do with following rules that give order and moral authority.  Which mode we think in to reason out the problems depends on the framing of the issue and the attendant emotions attached to it.  The Russian invasion of Georgia activates the latter here because it raises the specter of the old confrontation with Russian and we need a tough disciplined approach.  Think of it another way:  Be afraid, go with something you know.  Let me find a nice father figure who acts tough and the world will be set right again.  This is exactly how George Bush won a second term.  So from this point of view the current situation with the Russians frames the whole understanding of the problem in John McMean’s favor.  His bellicose and presumptive policy statements were feel good moments for striking back, but they are toothless and in the end counterproductive.  They also demonstrated that he thinks in old ways and respond without clearly thinking through what is possible.  In other words if by experience we mean applying old approaches to new situations, I truly fear an “experienced old hand”.

There were two articles which pointed out John McMean’s thinking on foreign policy.  The first was an article in the New York Times called “The Long Run Response to 9/11 Offers Outline of McCain Doctrine”.  As pointed out in this article he was leading the pack that we should attack other countries besides Afghanistan, including Iraq to extend our sphere of influence.  Within several months of 9/11 he was quoted on MSNBC as saying, “I don’t think if you got bin Laden tomorrow that the threat has disappeared.”  Quoting from the article:

“Within a month he made clear his priority. ‘Very obviously Iraq is the first country,’ he declared on CNN. By Jan. 2, Mr. McCain was on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea, yelling to a crowd of sailors and airmen: ‘Next up, Baghdad!’”

The point here is that McMean was making the case for hitting Iraq long before the White House was.  Some of his former supporters have indicated how reactionary he is without deep thought or the ability to listen to dissenting views.  Remember that he was a supporter of Ahmad Chalabi, pushed the untrue statements about Iraq’s WMD and connections with al-Qaeda, was a big supporter of Cheney and Rumsfeld before and during the invasion, and never called for Rumsfeld’s resignation as it is now claimed.

In the second article, an Op-Ed piece by Frank Rich, “The Candidate We Still Don’t Know”  Frank points out that what we know about John McMean is his “skin-deep, out of date McCain image.”  Then he lists what we should know:
➢    He didn’t start criticizing the war until almost 3 months after “Mission Accomplished” when the growing insurgency was no longer deniable
➢    The day Hurricane Katrina hit McMean spent the day with President Moron at a birthday bash, didn’t visit the area for six months and only started criticizing the response when he started to run for president
➢    McMean, who once stood up to “agents of intolerance” now is embracing them and was at fund raiser with Ralph Reed who one of Abramoff’s associates once described as just like us, only worse.
➢    He has surrounded himself with advisors who are part of the lobbying problem from the oil industry, Enron (Phil Graham), Fannie Mae, to Blackwater
➢    He frequently forgets key elements of policies or simply gets them wrong.  He can’t seem to remember if the Iranians are Shiites or Sunnis and that might make a big difference
➢    He forgets what he said the day before or contradicts himself
➢    And who can forget his memorable walk around a market in Baghdad claiming it was safe.  Then the next day many of the people he was talking with while he was being protected by half the American Army died in a bomb blast

Meanwhile the press continues to give him pass on most of this behavior and does not let the public see who they are really considering electing.  Ask yourself why many Republicans are joining Republicans for Obama?  The answer is they fear his reactive behavior and his inability to listen to other people and make reasoned judgments.

So here we are thinking this guy brings us the experience in these trouble times.  The only experience he brings us is one bad decision after another that he has not been held accountable for.  He is a nice guy (actually he isn’t) and the press gives him a pass.  My thought is if this is the kind of experience we are looking for, we are in real trouble.

When will we ever get a leader who has any?  George Bush has them, but it is apparent that his oversized cajones were a result of a deficit of gray matter.   He doesn’t understand our basic and fundamental principals and as a result he is the adult incarnation of a schoolyard bully.  What got me going on this topic?  There was a “values” conference at the Saddleback Civil Forum.  I found the whole thing to be disgusting.  When will we ever get a real leader who stands up and says, “Anybody here followed history or read the Constitution?  My religious beliefs are my own and none of your business and they have no place in our public square.  Maybe that is why the Constitution says there will be no religious test for office.”  Of course we have a religious test and it was on display Saturday night and I found it extremely offensive.

I would die for a leader who looked into the electorate’s eyes and said: “Religion and nationalism are just two sides of the same coin.  Both of them engender a belief that somehow you are special and chosen.  Wars, atrocities, violations of civil rights, and the moral certitude for these actions come from these beliefs.”  George Bush, the great gift from Jesus Christ and born again Christian brought us torture and rendition.  The Founders understood this danger and tried to keep religion out of our public life.  But our pandering politicians cannot help themselves.  “See I am just like you and I have your valves because I believe in Jesus Christ”.   I wonder if Jesus Christ would approve of throwing suspected illegal immigrants in jail and let them die a torturous death of untreated cancer because they are law breakers?  I wonder if he would have relished torturing underage kids so we could keep the nation safe from terrorism?  Your religious beliefs tell me nothing about your morals or your policies for the future.  They only tell me that you can justify anything if you believe you are morally right.  The more religious you are, the more you are a moral loose cannon.

Worse, I as an atheist, have better morals than most who claim to be Christians.  I would deny no one universal medical care and I am willing to pay for it.  I think a woman is an equal being and has a right to decide how her body is used.  I think love is a rare and precious commodity and when found, gay or heterosexual, it should be cherished and nurtured.  I don’t believe in the death penalty because I believe that everyone should have a chance for redemption.  I actually think life is a precious gift and taking a life is tragic.  If people choose, they can change.  And I don’t condemn those who don’t believe as I do to eternal hell.  John McCain said about his belief in Jesus Christ: “Means I’m saved and forgiven. Our faith encompasses not just America but the world.” Bottom line, do what you want, there are no consequences as long as at the end you bow down to the right god.  Not a whole lot different from radical Muslims.   I don’t think I am saved and forgiven.  I believe I have to live with my mistakes and my life is about learning from those mistakes and paying my debts.  For me this is the only shot I get and I better get it right.  I don’t need some fantasy father figure to forgive me or some heaven to entice me to be good.  I need to know my weaknesses and do the best I can.  I know what the human condition is and I am not special.  We are all in this together.  I need to help my fellow man when and where I can.

I would like a leader who looks into the eyes of the voters and says, “We are all in this together.  Each of us has a special responsibility to help those less fortunate.  Our religious beliefs have no place in the public square because in that square we are all equal.  In the public square we tolerate all religions as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others (like women who seem to take it in the ear in both the Muslim and fundamental Christian faith).  We have the right to make choices in our own lives, but we don’t have the right to force those choices on to the lives of others in a fit of moral certitude.  Government’s responsibility is to protect our citizen’s rights and to empower them to live life to its fullest.”

Finally, a philosophy founded upon faith uniformed by intellect is truly an untethered monster.  If your belief cannot be examined and tested against the reality of experience, then it is as irrational as a belief in the devil, pagan gods, or sun worship.  Our one distinguishing feature in the animal kingdom is that we are self-aware and understand our mortality.  If we don’t use that ability to test reality to evaluate our beliefs, then we are as unfeeling and didactic as a computer with a simple set of immutable instructions.  In my mind most religions are grounded in the need to feel special and chosen, and the need for control.  Some have some redeeming philosophies, but with that comes the mandate not to think.  Our one distinguishing feature is our ability to think.  To deny that and worship some irrational unexamined faith in the light of reality is foolishness.  Our need to feel in control and taken care of is not justification to eschew our ability to reason.  Worse, it is a sin of colossal proportions.  To pick a candidate on his “faith” is equally colossally stupid.   Now can we talk about the issues or would that be to much to the point?

So if we are so stupid, Mr. Smarty Pants, what are your answers?  I am so glad you asked, because as I have said before, the answers are easy, implementing them will be the bitch.  They will be a bitch because there are so many vested interests that will lose when the status quo is upset.  Nobody likes change and the unknown.  In the future we will all gain, but it is the shortsighted pocketbook mentality that drives a nation of stupid people.  That would be ours right now.  So for what it is worth, here are the solutions.  Note, I didn’t say my solutions.  These are the solutions and they as obvious as the nose on your face.  But they will require self-discipline, pain, and sacrifice in the short term, which is something this nation has been sorely lacking in:

Energy and Global Warming – T. Boone Pickens gets it.  We can quibble about whether we move to natural gas or electric for our trucks (and he does have a point here), but overall the message is simple.  We need a massive investment in alternative energy NOW.  We also need massive investments and streamlining of the regulatory process for nuclear energy.  This is not some energy credits that will allow the marketplace to work its wonder in 20 years or so.  This is a massive government investment to get there as soon as possible.  Price of gasoline needs to be stabilized at between $4 to $5 per gallon with the excess funneled into this program.  Every day we wait and quibble about drilling or pumping the National Strategic Petroleum Reserve are days we further our own demise.

Healthcare – Single payer system.  What is so hard about that?  Say it slowly.  It does not mean doctors work for the government (in England they do, in Japan they do not).  It does not mean you have to be screened before you see a specialist (some countries do, others don’t).  It can mean whatever we what it too, but we need to take profit out of denying people health care.  It won’t cure the problem of rising healthcare costs, but it will reduce it by at least 30% as we take the private for profit boys out of the loop.  If  healthcare is a moral obligation, this is the only way to get there.  I hate to break to those that thinks government is most inefficient way to provide healthcare, but Medicare is the cheapest system for administration in the United States (5% versus 30% or more for private insurers).

Taxes – Everybody has to pay their fair share.  That means businesses too.  We need to realign taxes so we can actually say that.  We have to make massive investments in our future (R&D, education, infrastructure, etc.).  Taxes are not going to get less but they can be spread so that businesses do not get a free ride on the backs of middle America who are losing ground on their life style.  Here is an idea that will never float:  Value Added Tax.  We only pay taxes on what we spend.  If we consume more, we get taxed more.  You don’t want to pay taxes, don’t buy anything.  Income tax and record keeping would be a thing of the past.  Maybe it won’t work, but let’s have a real discussion without the vested interests fighting to maintain their protected positions.

Economy – Clearly we can’t continue cutting taxes, especially when 2/3 of all business don’t pay any according to a GAO study.  It is not stimulating our economy.  What will stimulate it are jobs with people with spending money to buy things, preferably things produced here.  That would require two things, a hard look at our trade agreements to make sure they give us a level playing field; don’t penalize our producers for paying minimum wage or complying with environmental regulations.  And the second would be a massive investment program by the government in alternate energy and infrastructure.  You heard me right,  spend to earn.   There are some really good studies out there on just what kind of a balanced spending plan would help the most, but I have to tell you, cutting taxes is on the bottom of every list.

Education – We need a national curriculum and a national test.  Local school board’s ability to water down educational requirements and teach junk science that suits their religious purposes is hurting the most important resource we have, human capital.  Advanced education has to be available to all who can qualify which means a whole lot more funding of higher education institutions.  Four years of college at a state university should be free.  We should be tailoring our aid to students in career fields that will help our country in the future (e.g. engineering, math, and science).  Everyone should have a liberal education including basic classics, art, and music.  The truly great thoughts are captured in great literature.

Military and Foreign Affairs – The Georgia thing should have a focusing effect, but Americans are so easily frightened that the focus may be on the wrong thing.  John McMean comes out with a bellicose in your face approach to Russia which is what we did for the last 50 years, and he is characterized as showing his experience in foreign affairs.  The reality is that the French and the European Union have been trying to negotiate something while we are truly toothless following the John McMean politics of yesteryear.  John McMean’s approach to foreign affairs is a strong military.  It doesn’t work.  The best military in the world is the one you don’t have to use.  Times are a changing and we need to work with nations to resolve problems.  John McMean’s approach is to fight the problem with the problem, nationalism.  Armed conflicts are not going to solve the problem and will only bankrupt us.  The bottom line here is that we can scale back our military spending, especially on those high tech toys.  We have to engage other nations and only use our military for effect.  We have to look at places like Iraq and Afghanistan and wonder if that is where we want to use all our resources.  We have to look at Russia and think about what they have to lose with their power play.  Right now everybody is knee jerking to politics of old.  I think the Russians, if they continue this kind of behavior may find themselves way over extended and bogged down in local politics.  Anybody remember the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan?

So what we need is a new direction.  But when people are afraid they like to revert to what they know.  The trouble is what they know is failing them and it is becoming blatantly obvious.  Will they let go and try a new approach?  Only if America wants to be a power and a leader again.  Otherwise we can continue to pick leaders who offer us yesterday’s solution and we can continue to decline.  It’s up to you.

8-15-2008 Hot Summer Days

Vine:   Veraison is here big time.  Veraison is the turning of the grapes from green to red.  It is almost totally complete in the Syrah with big black berries.

Syrah Going Deep Purple

In the Mourvedre, that latest to turn we have a salt and pepper effect so far.  Grenache has turned, but they do not have that deep dark purple that the Syrah do. No they are not anywhere near ripe and you can always tell because there are no birds yet.  Juicy ripe grapes and birds are nature way of spreading the seed.  I usually lose about 10% of my crop to birds when it happens.

Various States of Veraison in Mourvedre

But it won’t get close for another month.  Assuming we continue fairly mild weather, which by the way is very good, I expect the Syrah to be ready mid to late September, Grenache in early to mid October, and the Mourvedre, in late October or early November.  But if we get a bunch of really hot days that could change.

What we want is some long slow ripening.  The old saw was to get a magical balance between sugar and acid.  As the grape ripens the sugar increases and the acid decreases or the old rule of thumb was a magical right level of the two.  If it gets too hot the sugar gets too high too fast and the other important wild card are the tannins and their ripeness.  When you consider all three, two of which, the sugar and the acid, you can measure, and the tannins which must be tasted, the ideal season is a long slow ripening so that the tannins can catch up with the sugars before the sugars get too high and the acids too low.  By the way if you are not sure of what acid tastes like, taste one of the grapes now.  You will get a mouth full and if you chew the seeds and skins you will get a very unpleasant lesson in green tannins.  More on this is wine.

Wine:    One of the old truths is that a good aged wine (assuming it is an ageable wine) is the best experience in wine tasting.  French wines were famous for their aged Cabs.  They had to age them because they do not have the amazingly warm summers we have here in California and it took a few years to tame the tannins.  What you were looking for was an aged wine that had retained some fruitiness, but the aging had mellowed the tannins and produced a complex and interesting wine.  With modern growing techniques and our focus on higher altitude cooler climate growing, the goal is to pick our grapes with a deep fruitiness, but not too plumy (hanging too long), but with mellow and ripe tannins that add a complexity to a fairly young wine. Note: The really good Syrahs should have about two years on them, almost a year in the barrels (old oak), and about a year in the bottle before release.

Here in California you get two distinct styles in the Syrahs.  The big fruit, hit you in the face, jammy flavors, but no complexity or subtlety in the finish.  These are grapes that have, in my opinion, hung too long in hot weather.  They are characterized by high alcohol contents reflecting their high sugar.  The other style is a much lower alcohol content Syrah that has fruitiness, but does not get jammy, has complex tannins and a long finish.  These are the Rhone style Syrahs that are being produced in many places in California today:  Paso Robles, some vineyards in the North State, and most of us up here in El Dorado County.  If you want to taste what I am talking about, I would suggest a Holly’s Hill East Slope Syrah, Madroña’s Reserve Syrah,  or Mira Flores Methode Ancienne.

The other suggestion I have for you is to look at the Rhone Blends.  If you are a white wine drinker, and who isn’t when the temperature hits 100°, try a Roussanne/Mourvedre blend, or the Grenache Rosé.  Some excellent examples would be A Donkey and Goat’s Isabel’s Curveé Grenache Rosé,  Holly’s Hill Patriarche Blanc.  On the Red side (dark red) I would suggest Holly’s Hill Partriarche (double gold at the State Fair), and a Donkey and Goats Three Thirteen both of which are a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre.  Disclaimer here:  I sell grapes to both, but there is a reason for that.  They make damn good wines.  Carpe Diem.

Okay, I have been beating up on the press’s unbelievably poor job of covering of the news and separating fact from innuendo and outright prevarications, but what about us.  What does it say about a nation who favors offshore drilling when there is no gain, puts our environment at risk, and keeps us addicted to the very substance that is causing all of our problems?  What does it say about a nation that thinks lower gas prices is a fix for our addiction to oil or warming climate?  It is the rise of gas and oil prices that just may be our salvation.  These higher prices are forcing us to reduce our use and consider alternate energy.  We are so stupid that we preach marketplace economics, and then when it starts to work, we beg our elected leaders to lower prices, negating the marketplace forces.  Of course the real indication of our stupidity is that there is any kind of quick fix to this problem.  I don’t think we are stupid, I think we are blithering idiots.

Of course the Republican’s have been selling us this snake oil for years telling us that if we just cut taxes, have less regulation, and reduce government, better known as a free ride America, their will be no consequences and the economy will soar.  Working swimmingly isn’t it?  Now their quick fix is drill, drill, drill, and once again you lemmings out there are racing to find some easy painless solution to your self-absorbed life unable to think about your children’s future.  Of course the Democrats will also stoop to feeding the pigeons with their “let’s pump out the Strategic Oil Reserve and go after speculators”.  It is all snake oil and the fact that we don’t demand better says so much about how dumbed down and self absorbed we are.

A just released study by the GAO shows that the majority of firms in the United States paid zero taxes (Most Firms Paid Zero Taxes from 1998-2005).   Are you starting to figure out how dumb you are yet?  John McMean and the free ride Republicans have been telling you that taxes have to be low for the economy to thrive, and oh, don’t forget we are taxed too much.  Well maybe WE are because businesses are getting a free ride and are they doing just hunky dory?  But let’s just continue the Republican economic strategies with John McMean and expect something different to happen.  That was Albert  Einstein’s purported definition of stupidity, keeping doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

John McMeans reaction to the Gerogia crisis again feeds our impulses, but doesn’t address any long-term consequences.  Russia invaded Georgia with a brutal assault and our initial reaction is to punish the bastards, so the tougher the better.  But first impulses are what are driving our descent into a second class nation.  There is a long history there and it is not a case of a single bad guy and some very complex historical roots.  But we in stupidville like easy answers and simple villains.  The hypocrisy of the United States scolding another country for invading a sovereign nation and causing wonton destruction shows you we can’t remember that we are still occupying Iraq.  Not only are we stupid, but we have memory deficit which really helps us with our reasoning skills.  John McMean wants to take a cold war approach to the Soviets and I guess that makes American feel warm and cuddly with that approach.  The problem is that it is a different world and if anybody is going to go broke this time, it is us. Our military solution to every problem is one of our greatest problems.  But stupid is as stupid does so we are really unhappy with George Bush and we are going to vote for a man who is still in the 1980’s and voted for almost everything President Moron wanted, a man who wants to fight the cold war again?

Healthcare is a case in point.  American’s hate socialized medicine, but love Medicare.  What do they think it is?  The Republican answer and to some extent the Democratic pander is to have a combined system of private and government insurers.  How many studies have to tell you the major problem with our cost of healthcare is for-profit insures who skim the healthy off the top and deny coverage to the sick.   The Republican pander is that more competition will get these prices down.  Never has and when the profit is in denying care, why should it.  They will be just better skimmers while the government absorbs the major cost of the really sick.  The rest of the industrialized world has figured this out and we are still terrified of socialized medicine.  The rest of the world has many models to choose from that are working well, and we still think we have the best system in the world, until we get sick or lose our job.  Just how stupid are we?

Bottom line:  we get what we sow or stupid is as stupid does and we have really done stupid well.  The press is terrible because we don’t hold them accountable.  The government is terrible because we put the people in place who reflect our moron views.  Then we say they all ought to work together when we are not even willing to realize there is no free ride and we put those bickering morons in office.  No, America is not a place to be proud of.  I know, that is the end of my political career.  But I am ashamed of my country because its people are so poorly informed that they can be led around by promises of easy fixes and free rides.  They are so self absorbed and selfish that they ignore our future trying to recover our past.  If we do this same stupid thinking one more election cycle it will be over for us.

I was watching CNN on Monday trying to find out what was going on in Georgia with the invasion by the Russians and what I got was John McMean looked more Presidential today than Barrack did as he released a get tough paper on Russia.  Let’s see if I have this right:  Russia has invaded Georgia and I, probably like a lot of people in this country, have ignored the politics over there and now I would like to know what the background is that led up to this invasion.  And what I got was an analysis of how this event could work in John McMean’s political favor because he can show off his foreign affairs credentials and a discussion of who looked more Presidential, McMean in suit and tie framed by flags, and Barrack on vacation in Hawaii, in a casual shirt.  The stand-in for Wolfe Blitzer turns to the Republican shill and asks if this doesn’t help McMean.  Does anybody in the nation not know what his answer will be?  This is news? This informs the American public?  Are we really that stupid?

But Keith Olbermann on Countdown actually had someone on his show that knew the history and intimated that we had emboldened the Georgians to provoke the Russians.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next couple of days as we look at our policies in that region and the helpless state we are in right now to do anything about it.  But CNN is showing John McMean with his forceful statement and describing how presidential he looks.  Uh, wait a minute.  Do you guys remember when Barrack went to Europe and the McMean folks were all over him for being presumptuous about acting like a President?  Does it occur to anyone that in a developing crisis maybe we ought to let the President be the President and maybe John McMean was well, being presumptuous, and also undercutting the sitting President?  Oh I am sorry those would be Republican complaints about a Democrat, not an observation about Republicans.

But did our media even notice?  I only witnessed Olbermann pointing out these obvious hypocrisies.  A real press would have informed us of the history that led up to this invasion.  It would have informed us about our arming of the Georgians.  It would have told us about the Georgian’s earlier aggression that started this fray. It would also inform us about the fact that we are powerless to do anything about the current incursion by the Russians because the policies of the Republicans have tied our hands and stripped us of our influence.  The Russians are rich with oil money and they can do just about anything they want.  It is sad to see them reverting to the Soviet Union of old.  But then again we looked in their eyes and knew them to be men of virtue didn’t we?

So while this is going on, the lead stories were of course more discussion of John Edward’s indiscretions, Hillary’s followers threats to disrupt the Democratic convention, and stories about some of the infighting that went on in the Clinton campaign about how to tar Barrack un-American.  I don’t know about you, but I already feel better informed about tax policy (McMean issued an ad that was totally false, but the press was too busy looking under John Edward’s bed to notice), health care, our crumbling infrastructure, a real Iraq policy, what to do in Afghanistan, how to handle our energy future, or what we are going to do about global warming.   Actually what I am better informed about is who made payments to Edward’s girl friend.  Is this a great way to run a country or what?  And we are surprised that the voters continue to make colossally bad choices on their ballots?  Maybe that is why drill, drill, drill sells.  Our press is no longer redeemable.  They are just pretty faces without any gray matter to look beyond the statements of their guests.  Anybody have a blow dryer?

One last thought:  If you look at John McMean’s six point plan for dealing with the Georgia situation (i.e. dealing with Russia), it is the old isolation is punishment approach.  My first reaction was, “Yeah, slap those guys back into place.” But it hasn’t worked in the past and one might wonder if just maybe we need to be engaging them more in the world so they are less estranged and less inclined to act like the old Soviet Union. Another point of view (instead of John McMean’s knee jerk reaction) showed up from ex-President Gorbachev in the Washington Post.  It will make an interesting topic for discussion of policy in the future if we can finally focus on what is important instead of what is salacious.  What do you think the odds are we will actually have that discussion?

Tuesday Update:  It is not getting any better.  There has been some recognition that just maybe we encouraged Georgia to move boldly and foolishly against Russia so maybe we will have an adult discussion of this problem.  But then Nancy Pelosi said on the drilling issue that she might consider a vote on limited drilling if we put a lot of other things on the table, and CNN’s blown dry hair set’s reaction was, “Flip-flop”, and “score one for John McCain”.  With this kind of press characterizing a move to try to compromise and find middle ground as losing, why would politician dare risk ever compromising?  They are all scum and should apply to Entertainment Tonight where their limited skills might be better suited.  There was one bright spot:  David Schuster stood in for Chris, I’ll never let you finish your answer, Mathews on Hardball and knew his subject so his interviewees could not dodge their perveracations.  It was refreshing.  He is diffinitely a candidate to host Meet the Press.

This seems to be the mantra of the Republicans who want you to believe that if we had followed the Democrat’s plan for withdrawal, we would have “lost”.  Let’s start this argument by remembering that these are the same guys, including John McMean, who promised us a “cakewalk” and that Iraqi oil would pay for the whole adventure.  Don’t forget the claim of yellow cake uranium, mobile chemical weapons trailers, and Iraqi involvement with al-Qaeda, all of which were false.  So let’s look at this claim of “Winning”.

First of all let’s look at the cost in a kind of a cost/benefit ratio analysis. Those crazy Republicans think market place analogies apply to everything so lets use their own logic to look at “winning”.  The cost to date is four million displaced Iraqis, half of which are in ghettos in surrounding countries in breeding grounds for terrorist activities.  The rest of the population has segregated itself into Sunni and Shiite populations.  Estimates of dead Iraqis range from 100,000 to over 600,000.  For our part we know that as of today the American death toll is 4134 with over 30,000 estimated wounded or injured, many horrifically.  Cost in dollars has been estimated at $3 trillion.  This does not include the opportunity costs associated with not investing the money we are spending there in our own nation.  The national debt is approaching $9.6 trillion and would cost roughly $20,000 per person today to pay it off.  Let’s us not forget our loss of prestige and power due to Abu Ghraib, rendition, torture, and loss of habeas corpus at Guantanamo, not to mention our own loss of national identity as we have weakened our Constitution and ignored international law.  Add to this the recruiting power for the radical Muslims of our mistreatment of their combatants, and you get a real look at the costs of this war

Okay, so much for costs, what have we gained?  Well you hear three claims:  Saddam Hussein, a horrible dictator, is gone; we are defeating al-Qaeda and the world is safer; and the violence is down due to the surge.  First Saddam is gone and he was an evil, horrible dictator.  So is the President of Sudan and many other world leaders where the genocide is much, much worse than in Iraq so this claim is fairly dubious when looking at the cost.  Why don’t we attack North Korea?  On the second claim our own intelligence agencies have documented that there was no al-Qaeda threat in Iraq before the war, the threat there is localized and minimal, while the al-Qaeda threat has resurged to its pre-9/11 levels in Pakistan with a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan while we were distracted in Iraq.  So this one on the face of it is a net loss.

Finally we have the claim by Republicans and Neocons that the violence is down and therefore we are winning.  Well define winning.  I have a hard time looking at the costs and saying the violence is down is winning.  We still have a segregated society, armed to the teeth and getting ready to fight for the spoils of the war, control of the oil rich areas.  The Sunnis are no longer attacking us because we are paying them at an estimated cost of $70 million so far.  This may be the real cause of the reduced violence, but there is no way to really know.  So what we really have is a simmering powder keg which we are keeping the lid on with our presence, but no real political reconciliation.  Is this the winning I hear so many times from the Republicans?  But isn’t their military stepping up to the plate.  The problem with that metric is that the Iraqi military is being staffed by the various militia factions and it is unknown what will happen when they have to choose sides when we leave as they vie for the oil pot and power.  So are we winning?  I think we are just treading water.

So was this surge a winning strategy?  I think the best you can say about it is that it kicked the can down the road and when you consider the costs, it simply is not worth it.  If by some miracle some form of democratic government survives, it will be a theocracy where minority rights (other religions and women) lose.  Is that what we were fighting for?  So the next time you hear one of the Republican sycophants saying the surge was a success and we are now winning, consider the cost and exactly what we are “winning”.  Then take them to task.  Ask them under their definition what is the end state in one year, two years, three years, and what is our continued involvement to insure that.  Then consider what it has cost us before you decide if that is “winning”.

Well last week provided some insights into the human psyche.  I guess I might as well start with John Edwards although his fall was all too predictable.

John boy has been diddling an apparently very nice woman, but that is beside the point.  When oh when will they ever learn they will always get picked off.  What made this so bad was that he was a hypocrite about it.  But for you Christians, he has a strong faith and it will get him through, not to mention get forgiven.  Elizabeth and the children are the ones who will suffer.   I will be the first to tell you that as Jimmy Carter once said, I have lusted in my heart.  Who hasn’t made a trip the grocery store and gone down fantasy lane?  If you haven’t you are not a human.  We evolved to procreate with as many women as possible to keep the species going so the old urges are always there.  But there is a difference between lusting in your heart, and acting on those feelings.  The difference separates the real men from the boys.  The real men know what commitment means and will honor it.  The rest, and that is most of all men, are kids in a candy shop.  If the love has gone out of your marriage and you want to find the “thrill of the chase” elsewhere, be upfront about it and tell them before you do it.  But John didn’t and let his, well you know what think for him, and now the press is having a romp.  Here is my thought:  I think less of him for it, but he is no longer running for office, so let it go.  The people who are getting damaged by the press’s romp are the innocent, his wife and children.  Move on, his political career is over.  We have much more important things to be talking about.

I don’t know how many of you saw the opening of the Olympics in China Friday night, but it was spectacular.  The Chinese put on a little show for the rest of the world about how people cooperating can create something beautiful.  The whole is more important than the one.  Now this thought is pretty much alien to American thinking which is why we are a distinctive culture, and why we face so many troubles.  Americans are having a hard time adjusting as their population increases grasping that their freedoms shrink as their actions impact more and more people.  Little things like rules against burning trash in the backyard is no longer permitted because with so many people burning, it stinks up the whole countryside.  Oh that intrusive government and their stupid rules.  But what made the point that Americans don’t grasp this concept of the whole is more important than the individual was the camera coverage of the ceremonies.  There would be this amazing coordination of hundreds of people moving in unison on the field and where was the camera focused?  On some individual in the crowd while the overall effect was totally ignored.  It is the perfect analogy for the way we think and why the problems we face for the future will be so hard to solve.  The individual will have to sacrifice for the good of the many and that is an idea that is alien to most Americans and antithetical to Republicans.

Finally, just to be as irreverent as possible, I picked up the paper on Sunday morning to find out that the first person to clone her dog has been identified as the woman who followed a young Mormon missionary to England back in the seventies, kidnapped the poor devout boy, and tied him to a bed and made him her sex slave.  I know, I know, I know, this is rape.  But I can’t stop laughing.  Every had those guys at your door?  It is poetic justice.  Besides when I was that age I would have died and gone to heaven if some girl had tied me to the bed and forced me to have sex with her.  I know, I know, I know, it was force sexed and it was humiliating.  So why can’t I stop laughing?

In my continuing attempt to answer the questions Anderson Cooper posed to Fareed Zakaria and David Gergen in his “Extreme Challenges, The Next Four Years”, today I would like to focus on the economy, energy, and global warming.  Big topic?  Actually they are all interrelated and you could throw in health care also but I already hit that one.  Here is what Fareed and David said on each topic:

Economy
Gergen:  “The big movement of our time is that the center of gravity in the world, geopolitically and to a large extent economically, is moving from the west to Asia.”
Zakaria:  “….can you take short-term pain for long-term gain?  Can we figure out where, if you look at all our problems, whether it’s dealing with health-care expenditures, dealing with fixing Social Security, dealing with energy, all of these are going to involve some kind of short term pain.”
Gergen:  “And the next president has got to sort of either take us up and get us to change what we’re doing or the country is in serious danger of going into a downhill slide.”

Energy/Global Warming
Gergen:  “This is another transcendent issue that—and it’s very hard to do, because it involves both having a comprehensive energy plan and program and also having something which helps to solve the environment at the same time.”
Zakaria:  “I think we can do a lot to put our house in order.  The problem is the planet doesn’t care where the carbon emissions come from.  And so we’ve got to figure out how to get other people’s houses in order, as well.”  “So whatever we do out here in the west, it doesn’t make any difference as long as India and China keep growing the way they are.”

Bottom line here is that they are tremendous challenges for the future President and no easy answers.  Sound a little different from what you are hearing from the candidates right now?  And a Zareed cautioned, “ We can’t keep getting dragged back into every small crisis and hell hole because a bomb goes off somewhere.  We’ve got to look ahead and ask how do we reshape this world and how do we help America thrive and succeed in it?”

My answer is very simple.  It will be the implementation that will be complex.  We need massive investment from our government in alternate energy.  We can’t close the door to anything, but the rule has to be that it not only gets us off our dependence on oil, but it is also carbon neutral.  Our economy will benefit if we become the leader in the world in providing alternate energy solutions.  It won’t happen by waiting on the marketplace and we will have to sacrifice under some taxes to pay for it.  We will have to look at every program we invest our tax dollars in and say what is the long-term gain.  How does this help our economy for the future?  Investing in alternative energy may develop a whole new industry that just might be the spark that lights a fire under our economy again.  Alternate energy gets us off imported oil and helps our balance of payments not to mention our security.  And it begins to address our global warming problem.  As an aside I think the Olympics in China will produce one positive outcome.  People will be appalled at the level of pollution and unhealthy air they have wrought burning carbon based fuels.

If you look at my earlier blog on health care you would see that it could be evaluated in the same light.  As Fareed pointed out, “… If you have a job in Michigan, it cost them, the company, $6500 in health care costs.  You move that job to Canada, because of Canada”s health care system, they only have to pay $800.”  My point is simply this.  They are all interrelated and you can’t fix one with fixing the other and they all have to be fixed.  The next President will have to lead the country in an entirely new direction and be willing to take big political risks to deal with these intractable problems.  What we need in this election cycle is to really pin the candidates down on these questions and not let the sound bite suffice.  Will our press do that?  Haven’t yet and we really need to know these answers about where they are going to take us.

Where I live I have never voted for my state or federal representative in government.  And it has been twelve years since I voted for a President who has served.  No I don’t mean I didn’t vote.  It is just that whom I voted for is not the overwhelming choice around here to say the least.  Then what I hear from my acquaintances is that all our problems are due to those idiots in government.  True, but it is whom they sent there.  They seem to take no responsibility for their choices.  But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I am bombarded by opinions that are so uninformed it is truly scary.  “Global warming is not caused by humans; taxes are too high; medical costs are too high, but the government would just make them higher; we need to drill for more oil; government costs too much and if we could just ring the waste out, we would not have budget problems; we are defeating the terrorists in Iraq; al-Qaeda is the threat in Iraq; government is the problem; we are regulated too much.”  I would love to have an adult conversation with anyone on the issues, but where I live all I get is Fox News and Republican talking points, not an informed look at the issues.  At least on the immigration issue most see the light.  That is because they hire Mexicans to work in their vineyards and orchards and see them as real people as opposed to some abstraction they can blame their problems on.

That in my mind is the crux of their ignorance.  Conservative Republicans come from a mind set that if you just work hard and follow the rules, you get ahead.  Therefore if you are poor or disadvantaged, it must be because you didn’t follow the rules and work hard.  That is why many are conservative Christians.  Its is salvation through rule following.  But when they are touched with reality of life their tune changes.  When we found that children we getting sick from Chinese toy imports, they wondered why government isn’t doing more.  One of my liberal friends told he just thought the whole bunch were selfish.  He noted that they strongly support “the war on terror” but their kids are encourage to make money, not serve in the military.  They want their’s and they don’t care about anyone else.  There is some truth to this, but they are not evil and when they are forced out of the enclave of group think and see reality, most of them see the light, or at least a dim glimmer of light.

A case in point was a conversation relayed to me about the Governator’s (I live in California) move to reduce all State workers wages to minimum wage until the budget impasse is resolved.  The person’s comment was that they thought this was a good idea and by the way what were they thinking when the raised the minimum wage anyway.  Now this person has never really been in State Government and their assumption is that if you work there you must be lazy and are the reason our taxes are high.  How do you even begin to deal with that level of ignorance?  The fact that most of those who are really hurt by this move are not well off anyway and this little political ploy could cost them what economic security they could eek out.  But there seems to be no empathy among these conservatives.

On the other hand this person and others are facing the reality of the high cost of health insurance and want something done about it.  It only becomes real when it touches them personally.  Well to tell you the truth I am getting tired of swimming up hill.  Right now I am slugging my way through three books, “The Dark Side” by Jane Meyer (how we justified torture), “The Post American World” by Fareed Zakaria (faces the reality of the competition we are facing in the world), and “The Political Mind” by Geoge Lakoff (how conservatives and liberals conceive and frame things in different ways).  You think any of these people are reading anything at all beside People Magazine?  Of course if I bring any of this up, I am just being misled by the liberal press, which by the way doesn’t exist.  Did they read the NY Times, the Washington Post, or even the Sacramento Bee?  Nope, too liberal.

So I am seriously thinking about moving.  It just gets too frustrating living with people who discuss nothing of consequence, and when they see America sinking into oblivion they can’t make the connection between the people they put in power and what they have wrought.  I am tired of tolerating intellectually lazy people while my country suffers from their ignorance and their political choices.  Within the next year or two, if the market gets a little better, we will be moving where we can breath and my ideas can be challenged by people who care and have done their homework.  It would be so refreshing and I might learn something.