Dancing Airport Style

The folks in DC are DANCING FOR DOLLARS again. I tire of this reality show. Must. Change. Channel.

Today’s sub plot: the furlough cycle for air traffic controllers! Q: Why furloughs? A: The Sequester! Q: Why a sequester? A: The DANCERS in DC were too busy posturing for their past, current, and future campaign funders to do the PEOPLE’s work.

The main plot continues, of course. The DANCERS blame everything on the someone else so they can continue to DANCE FOR DOLLARS, at the PEOPLE’s expense.

This painfully predictable show is brought to you by the 1/3 of 1% – the funders for whom the DANCERS dance. The funders know that campaign contributions have long since trumped citizens and votes. They know unsolved problems bring in cash (pro or con, right or left), so the DANCE (to do nothing and blame others) is renewed season after season.

Change the channel. Demand citizen funded political campaigns NOW. Save the DANCERS from the funders; save the PEOPLE from the DANCERS.

It is time for the people to dance.

______

Image: Mr. Monopoly Dancing on the American Flag by Occupy MCR

ANOTHER sad day in CLOWN TOWN.

This is not a budget, this is DANCING FOR DOLLARS, where the hired guns formerly known as our elected shoot it out until time runs out, pleasing their contributors and kicking their constituents to the curb. Fault? Ours. We have allowed our political system to become addicted to campaign cash. We need to restore publicly funded campaigns so our Congress works for US.

Restore Justice to Law

I have to constantly remind myself that what is LEGAL and what is JUST are only coincidentally related.

The law can and should change as a society evolves. But in our country today, too many legal adjustments have to do with creating advantage over others. Add the example that “tax cuts” become “more taxes” when they expire, the bigger picture is that justice, in the language of law and in the language of society, are on the chopping block. Those powerful enough (wealthy enough) now manipulate words in order to gain benefit and control.

“If you see something, say something.” I see greedy people with dangerous power who cannot and will never see me. I see me, I see you, I see all Americans joining together to restore justice to law.

What do you see? 

Photo courtesy photos-public-domain.com

Dear Mr. President: About the Sequester….

Dear Mr. President:

 I have high confidence in the statistics that show American financial peril is due to the perfect storm of war with no war tax, maintaining temporary tax cuts during time of war, and the ever-expanding power of well financed special interests to legislate ways to not pay, or to collect subsidies from, taxes. The Sequester addresses none of these.

I believe that those who benefited from any of the three causes of deficit and debt above should be the ones charged with correcting the financial problems they created. Childhood immunizations will NEVER be a waste. Cash back tax positions for businesses having record profits quarter after quarter is ALWAYS a waste.

I am not interested in telling you to run the country like a business: although the business answer to our cash problem would be to increase the price of the product, especially given the decade of cost cutting that preceded the austerity racket, and the unwarranted discounts that have been given to the wealthiest among us over the same period of time.

I am not interested in telling you to run the country like a family: remedies taken by people who get along and try to support each other through tough times will not work in America today given the massive campaign to create a narrative that divides us into various flavors of “takers” and the sainted group of “havers”.

I am asking you to run the country like a government who intends to be of service to all its citizens for the next 200 years: to speak for all of us as we restore economic sanity to the United States and to the world.

Money will morph to follow opportunity. It is time to stop allowing our nation to be a profit center for gifted money gamers. Campaign Finance Reform will free the elected from the daily business of fundraising and remove any accusation of voting their gratitude. Tax Code Reform that addresses dodgy special considerations will allow an honest picture of revenue expectations and empower the creation of a meaningful budget. Honest Wall Street Reform will end the reign of terror the financial industry wages against every day Americans. I, for one, will never forget the shot across our bow when the market dropped 6,000 points in a week after Congress voted NO on the bailout: a small ballroom of people are holding this nation hostage.

I am asking that you start by interrupting the Sequester now, and move with haste to support Campaign Finance Reform, Tax Code Reform, and Wall Street Reform. America does not have much time.

I am counting on you to do your part. You can count on me to do mine.

Respectfully,

Done with bipartisan.

BIPARTISAN is a code word.

It has two prerequisites: partisanship-gone-wild, and exclusion of all third parties.

A TRANSPARTISAN approach abandons blind loyalty and lesser-of-evils thinking in favor of issue-based problem solving by results-oriented participants from the many diverse perspectives that America has to offer.

Which strategy will save the day for this republic’s democracy?

E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One)

(Flag art by the e pluribus blog)

Our elected are not free to represent us.

Washington DC is addicted to campaign contributions. It is time for an intervention. We must return to publicly funded campaigns if we want our votes to matter more than their cash. This is not a partisan statement: it is an indictment of the system.

Free the elected! Change the world. NOW!

This isn’t funny anymore.

Poster by Jeanene Louden
Photo – “Sad Clown” by Onanymous

Pork: poison pill or political payoff? Bad, either way.

The camera-talkers in DC often squawk-out for “an up-or-down vote”, but we (the people) seldom get the whole story.

“Pork”, the unrelated actions attached to pending legislation, is deadly to any notion of integrity or transparency in government. If some cabal doesn’t want a bill to pass, they attach contrary, expensive, or politically charged pork: the poison pill approach. If it is clear legislation will pass, many will attach opportunistic pork (that often benefits big campaign contributors): the political pay off approach.

I’m fed up with this barnyard mischief. I want up-or-down votes alright, for one thing at a time: the bill. Smarty pants law making must end if our current (creepy) Congress wants this citizen’s respect. Or, to be re-elected, for that matter.

END PORK POLITICS NOW. We might actually see something get done in DC.

The Anorexic Nature of Austerity

Choosing to not eat has long been recognised as a mental health disorder that is more about taking control than about weight management. Each refused bite of nourishment may feel like success in the moment, but long term health prospects diminish by the day: too many are lost or damaged to consider “anorexia” a healthy strategy.

Every time I see an affluent and influential talking-head on TV suggest that “we” should take control in the short term by refusing to spend on those things that nourish this body of citizens, I am reminded of how dysfunctional, destructive, and seductive success in the moment can be: I believe “austerity” is an economic mental health disorder.

For the sake of ALL Americans, Congress needs to do some healthy, long term thinking. NOW.

Managing the Debt Ceiling Is Like Getting Dressed

Some mornings my son, now a father, woke up in such a tizzy that he wanted to bicker about everything. I fondly recall the morning he wanted to argue about whether or not he should zip up his jeans.

Watching the House vote this morning, it occurred to me that managing the debt ceiling is a lot like zipping: they both amount to finishing the job.

My son decided zipping his jeans was a good idea when I showed him how his pants would fall down if he didn’t. Just like the time to work through the “to-zip-or-not-to zip” question was before my kindergartner left the bedroom, it seems to me the time to discuss the debt ceiling is EVERY TIME we approve a budget.

What we do now is metaphorically wait until we find our jeans around our ankles, and then try to put the blame for our public embarrassment on someone else.

[Photo credit unavailable, I am sorry to say.]