BFWs can be fun or the return of robust rhetoric

I had the privilege of watching President Barack Obama's first address to the Congress. Times are tough and the President didn't mince words. But the great joy of the speech was that for the first time in many years, we have president who speaks to the nation as if we are an intelligent, and reasonably informed citizens.

Joel Klein in a recent Time magazine article said it best,

The modern presidency is a vast electronic synthesizer, capable of exhilarating musical effects or rank cacophony. The President needs to be able to throw his voice in a variety of ways — now sober, now soaring, now educating, now soothing. George W. Bush's presidency was straitjacketed by his inability to command any style but clenched orotundity. The two great television-era communicators in the office were yin and yang: Bill Clinton was a master of the conversational, not so good at set-piece speeches; Ronald Reagan just the opposite. Barack Obama has now demonstrated an ability to synthesize those two.

I loved Klein's use of the phrase "clenched orotundity." I did not know what orotundity meant. Now occasionally I classify such words as BFWs (Big F@##ing Words) After I read the phrase, I went to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary to find the definition of the BFW "ortund," the root word of "ortundity."

"A. adj. Originally (of a voice, speaker, or utterance): imposing, clear, resonant; such as is suited to public speaking, reading, or recitation. Now freq. in contemptuous use: inflated, bombastic; pompous, magniloquent."

The only problem was that I did not know "magniloquent," either. But the OED was handy so

I found out that magniloquent is defined as

"Of a person: lofty, ambitious, or pompous in expression; grandiloquent. Hence of utterances, compositions, etc. Also (occas.): boastful."

I love to read books that challenge me with an occasional BFW. One of my favorite mystery writers is Rex Stout, who penned 50 or 60 novels about the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin. One of the things I most enjoyed about Stout's books was the fact that Stout would use a word that I had never heard of and I would have to "run" (I am speaking figuratively here) to the nearest dictionary and find its definition.

For example in a passage from Rex Stout has Archie say the following about his duties.

"Also I am an accountant, an amanuensis, and a cocklebur. Eight to five you never heard the word amanuensis and you never saw a cocklebur.”

I sorta know the meaning of amanuensis and I won't waste time looking up cocklebur. But you get my point.

I enjoyed Klein's use of "clenched orotundity." Which is amazing because I know from free lancing for the local comic that most editors would not allow a journalist to use a flowery word in a news story when a simple one was available. Most news stories are pitched to people with a 9th level of reading comprehension

I think the President's speech to Congress, was excellent. Perhaps, just perhaps under Obama's leadership and with the help of all Americans, Republican, Independent and Democrat, we become better stewards of our country and planet. In the meantime I hope that Obama's eloquence and clarity inspires us to raise the level of political conversation and debate. Oh, and get all of us to use big words every once and a while, because sometimes BFWs can be fun.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Book shelf wandering, Prairie Newspaper Men

One of my tasks today was to pull books on American Literary Realism. One of the authors whose books I was pulling was William Dean Howells.

Now until today, I had only a faint idea of what American Literay Realism was or who the heck William Dean Howells was. No, more interesting for me, just a few books down were books and literary criticism of E. (Ed) W. Howe.

In Kansas, two of most famous early 20th Century newspapermen were William Allen White and Ed Howe. Every Kansas school child knows about William Allen White because of the William Allen White award. The award was created by Ruth Gagliardo in 1952. When I was going to elementary school in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I remember that you'd get a certificate with a silver seal embossed with the image of William Allen White if you read maybe 10 books and a certificate with a gold seal if you read 15 or 20. I am not certain but I think I got a certificate with a silver seal in first or second grade

There are several works by William Allen White on the shelves of the Knowledge Factory. But a sense of his literary style is best caught in his Aug. 15, 1896 Emporia Gazette essay What's the matter with Kansas?

Go east and you hear them laugh at Kansas; go west and they sneer at her; go south and they cuss" her; go north and they have forgotten her. Go into any crowd of intelligent people gathered anywhere on the globe, and you will find the Kansas man on the defensive. The newspaper columns and magazines once devoted to praise of her, to boastful facts and startling figures concerning her resources, are now filled with cartoons, jibes and Pefferian speeches. Kansas just naturally isn't in it. She has traded places with Arkansas and Timbuctoo.
Take it by any standard you please, Kansas is not in it.


My knowledge of Ed Howe was from a different source, an article entitled "My Father Was the Most Wretchedly Unhappy Man I Ever Knew," Gene A. Howe in The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, Pa., October 25, 1941. Ed Howe was known as the "Sage of Potato Hill" and publisher of the Atchison Globe.

According to his son,

in my opinion he made but little of his opportunities and possibilities; but I believe that for every yard of success he hewed out for himself so painfully he should have made miles. I know of no one more endowed as he was who accomplished so little. He should have been another Will Rogers. I am convinced he had the soundest, rarest sense of humor of any man of his time...His path to fame--and no inconsiderable amount of fame came to his doorstep--was strewn with hard work, disappointment, humiliation, discouragement and heartbreaks. He was the most wretchedly unhappy person I have ever known. (p. 43)

I pulled Ed Howe's novel The Story of a Country Town, just to get a feel for his writing style. In the preface, Ed Howe writes

I believe that when I began the story I some sort of an idea that I might be able to write an acceptable work of fiction, but I have changed it so often, I have no idea whether it is very bad or only indifferent. I think that originally I had some hope of that it might enable me to get rid of my weary newspaper work, and help me to more ease than I have ever known, but I am so tired now that I am incapable of exercising my judgement with reference to it. If it prove a success or failure I shall not be surprised, for I have no opinion on the subject." (p. 3)

But as Gene Howe said, it was his humorous writing that sparkles. When I typed Ed Howe into Google, and you come up with dozens of web pages of Ed Howe quotations, like this one from Brainyquote.com

"If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers."

Claude M Simpson in his introduction of Story of a Country Town wrote that Howe sent copies of his novel to Mark Twain and William Dean Howells!!!. According to Simpson, "The most important assistance came from Mark Twain and W.D. Howells, both of whom gave him as a respectful reading as he could wish for." (source: The Story of a Country Town.Cambridge, MA : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961. p. ix)

That means that another wander through the book shelves has come almost full circle. From William Dean Howells, to Ed W. Howe, to Gene Howe, to William Allen White, and ends with William Dean Howells again. They are all dead, the towns on prairie of Kansas continue to lose population, newspapers around the country on the verge of bancruptcy and books by William Allen White and Ed W. Howe rest on the shelves, waiting for some other wanderer to pull them down.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Please send me my Medal of Freedom

Dear President Obama,

The purpose of this letter is to nominate myself to be the 2009 recipient of the Presidential Medal Freedom. I believe I deserve the Medal of Freedom for actions taken by me on Febraury 21, 2009.

On this day I did heroically spend $98.26 of my own soon to be hard earned money on the following items in order to stimulate the nation's economy and end its plunge into deep recession or depression. I do hereby certify that today, I spent

$3.06 on bagels
$3.55 on coffee at Starbucks
$17.00 on a hair cut, and if you had seen the young lady who cut my hair did to my hair you'd understand what a sacrifice that was. I should have gone to the Bakersfield Barber College.
$23.00 for sushi at Love Sushi Bakersfield. Felt a little guilty about that, because of global overfishing, but what to heck, that salmon and albacore sashimi I shoved into my pie hole weren't exactly swimmin' if you know what I mean.
$46.00 on Books at Borders. That was totally impulsive, but as I struggle terribly with Jamie's Disease ( a disease named after me and afflicts at least one person who is totally unable to delay gratification and resist buying on impulse). I will say that I did spend $14 on your book, the Audacity of Hope, but we don't really have to tell anybody about that, it will be our little secret.
$5.16 on coffee and cookies at Borders, the fact that I was able to shop while suffering from the ravages of Jamie's Disease perhap might make good copy for the award announcement.

So the economy is in free fall and I've done my bit to avert the coming depression. This award is such a no-brainer, so just go ahead and send the medal. I mean if George W. Bush can give the medal to the Irving Kristol (2002), L. Paul Bremer III, and George Tenet (2004), you can give the Medal of Freedom to me.

I understand that some actually think that Mr. Kristol might deserve his award as the "godfather of the neoconservative movement," which has caused the country no end of heart ache, but I mean he was Bill Kristol's father and that means he has a lot to answer for.

And L. Paul Bremer and George Tenet, Bremer screwed up the occupation of Iraq and managed to lose $8.8 billion in U.S. dollars in the process. I mean they shipped 363 tons of $100 bills and he lost all 363 tons of them. Heck at least I can account for the $98.26 I spent trying to save America's economy today. Mr. Tenet was the C.I.A. director who told us that intelligence that led us into Iraq was good intelligence. Well sorta good, a "slam dunk," actually it was kinda bad.

As you can see I have made a good case for my being worthy of this medal. My case rests on a solid foundation, I've helped the country during a time of economic crisis by spending money I sorta didn't have on things I really didn't need. I did this in spite of suffering from terrible psychological problems and I haven't done as much damage to the country as some earlier recipients of the this award.

So I look forward to receiving the medal soon. Ship by UPS, the driver is dropping stuff off at my place all the time. And if you're ever in Bakersfield, please feel free to drop by, I'd love to have sign my new book. Wink. Wink.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

A California State Budget At Last

Politics is sometimes defined as the "art of the possible." In that light, the current state budget that was passed by the California Leglistature today is the best one was that was possible.

Sadly, there was nothing artful about this budget. It has tax increases, spending cuts and more borrowing to paper over the state's fiscal deficit. And for all that hard work, my guess is we will have to start the process all over again in the summer. It seems hard to believe that 11-months ago, March of 2008, I was in Sacramento lobbying the state legislature to pass a state budget without cutting the budget of the California State University. I was there as a part the California State University Employees Union (CSUEU), delegation for Lobby Day. Lobby day is work for its participants, but also great fun. My fellow union members know how to have a good time. It gives one a insight on how state government functions or not function as the case may be.

In this case state government has functioned badly. If you had told me then that it I would take the legislature 11 months to pass a budget, I would not have believed you. In March, the numbers were grim, the budget deficit was $17 billion and would require both taxes and spending cuts to achieve balance. But as leglislator bickered and delayed the deficit grew as the states economy plunged deeper into recession. Spring had gone, summer was nearly over and still the legislators refused to compromise and refused to do their duty. We recommenced our lobbying efforts. On Aug. 20, 2008, the executive committee of Chapter 310 of CSUEU visited the offices of Nicole Parra, Roy Ashburn, and Jean Fuller to encourage them to not cut the CSU when finalizing the state budget.

By that time, I was beginning to urge my colleagues to emphasize that a budget needed to be passed. In my opinion, the state needed to get sometime of budget agreement signed. Eventually they signed some sort of budget, but in the excitment of the election and the alarm over the collapse of the nation's financial system, the budget agreement was doomed to very short life.

We had to wait until today to get an agreement signed. Republican intransigence regarding tax increases nearly cost the taxpayers of the state $400 million. The Republican senators who opposed tax increases held the state for ransom and nearly destroyed what was left of its financial reputation and its financial credit.

It is obvious the state needs to reform the way it creates its budget. The 2/3 majority needs to be repealed. We can no longer afford to allow state government to be held hostage by a handful of legislators, who put their personal political interests above the interests of all the citizens of the state. We need to reform the way propositions are brought to the ballot. The system is too easily abused and it has ceased to be effective. And budget-related proposition like Proposition 13 and Prop. 98, have only exacerbated the state's financial problems.

I was having bagels and coffee this morning. Outside of Bagels and Blenderz, a black woman was standing with several clipboards. The clipboards were petitions for ballot initiatives, and the woman gathering the signatures was being paid to make sure the petitions were signed. I wanted to be angry with this woman, blame her for some of the politcial woes of this state, but she was not the problem. It was the people who paid her to collect signatures were the problem. Unless we can decrease the influence of the special interests who pervert democracy for personal gain, state government will continue to become less and less efficient.

It will take a long time and require a lot of hard work, but I hope to some day help that woman find a better job than just gathering signatures.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Where's the money? or Where the money is?

In these troubled, and depressing economic times it's not uncommon for me to be roused from my afternoon nap by a call from some total stranger from some dingy midwestern collection ageny, who only wants to know, where's the money?

In my wilder days, I used to dread such calls. For some reason they never believed me when I told them the "check was in the mail."

But now I am serene and calm when I get one of these calls, because the I am still able to pay my bills on time. That means that surly representative of the dingy midwestern collection agency is looking for some poor unfortunate who has fallen behind on their payments and given their lender my telephone number. One time I got such a call from an agency who looking for my ex-wife. I was happy to help. The Ex and I are still good friends and I had her number handy.

Today was a little different. I was had roused myself and was slowly awakening when my phone range. On the other end was an unctuous and somewhat business-like female voice.

"May I speak with James Jacks?" she asked.
"This is "James," I reply somewhat cautiously.
"Mr. Jacks, my name is Wilemina Sutton and I am calling from the ***** card company." (You see their ads on tv. They have put a smiley face on usury :).

Now at the moment I was as happy as a good Christian holding five aces. I knew I didn't owe them any money. So I decided to cultivate a jovial air.
"I bet they call you Willie."
"What? I don't understand?"
"You know after Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber..."
"Who?"
"Well, he was the guy who when asked 'Why do you rob banks?' supposedly replied 'Because that's where the money is.'"
"No," she said her voice as icy as an artic wind. "They don't call me Willie."
"Well Ms. Sutton, what can I do for you?"

Her voice again became business like and friendly and reminded me of a beat cop gently lecturing the town drunk.

"We noticed that you hadn't been using your credit card lately. We wanted to know why is it that you're not buying things with your credit card. Or are you using another card instead?" There was a slightly peevish tone to this question as if she was my ex-wife asking me "Is there someone else?"
Well that's one reason" I said, sounding a little guilty, "the interest on your card is kinda high and so I don't use it very often."
"Well let me see, maybe we can do something about that. I see your interest rate is 19%, I could lower it to 17.5%, or we're offering a special promotion and I can give you a 3% rate for six months and ofcourse there's the 5% rewards program which gives up to 5% off any travel done between now and tomorrow."
I could almost hear the :) face in her voice. "I think I'll take the 17.5% rate."
"Wonderful is there anything else I can help you with?"
"Yes, I was wondering, what is the percentage of my default credit rate?"
"It's 28%, that only kicks in if you are over your credit limit or you are behind on your payments."
"I know and that why I don't use one of my credit cards, because the unilaterally raised my default rate to 30%. Which doesn't seem fair especially if I am a good customer and I do pay my bills on time."
"I'm sorry but I can't lower that rate, but we are very eager to work with you if just call and tell us you're having problems."
"I didn't intend to have any problems of that kind Willie, I mean Ms. Sutton," I replied. "Thank you for calling I really enjoyed talking to you."
"Thank you Mr. Jacks and if there's anything we can do to encourage you to use your card, please feel free to call our customer service number. Our operators are always happy to help."

So I said goodbye to Ms. Sutton. But her call made me wonder. I am what the credit card companies call a "deadbeat." In everyday parlance, a deadbeat is someone who doesn't pay their bills. In credit card parlance a deadbeat is someone pays their bills on time and pays off their balances every in full every month. Card companies hate deadbeats because they don't make as much money off them.

Times must really be tough if one my credit card companies calls because they're concerned because I am not outrageously in debt to them. I find it interesting that they have a portfolio of special offers to intice me to get in debt to them, but are totally unwilling to waive fees or lower interest rates that punish me should I ever be unable to pay my bills due to catastrophic illness, divorce, unemployment or any one of the many financial disasters that we're all exposed to in these dangerous economic times. Pundits and the credit industry would like people to believe that people become delinquent on their credit cards because they lack self-discipline and spend more than they can afford. That is not the case in most situations. Most Americans handle their debt responsibly except when they are disabled, catastrophically ill, lose their job or experience some kind of financial castastrophe.

Ofcourse a deadbeat like me has to have money socked away somewhere. It makes sense for them to give me a call. Maybe I'll fall back into my old spendthrift ways. Or maybe I'll get sick or lose my job and have to use my credit card to survive.

Hopefully that won't happen, not today anyway. Meanwhile the 21st Century Willie Suttons are calling to encourage me to use my credit card or asking Congress for a handout. As Woody Guthrie once said about the last Great Depression. In his song Pretty Boy Floyd Guthrie wrote,

Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel, Yes, as through your life you roam, You won't never see an outlaw Drive a family from their home.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Wandering book lover discovers Holocaust stories

It was total serendipity, I was up on the 4th floor of the knowledge factory pulling books and looking for a play by Wendy Wasserman.

As I was looking I saw novels by a man named Lion Feuchtwanger. I thought they might be interesting, so I pulled one title Power down from the shelf, put it on my book truck and returned to my other searches.

So who is Lion Feuchtwanger? Well, it turns out, someone quite important and someone who was quite lucky. He was an important, early 20th century German writer. (1884-1958). Feuchtwanger was a Jew, and after service in the German Army during WWI, a Leftist. He was an early colleague of playwright Berthold Brecht and an early opponent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

In the 1930s, Feuchtwanger and wife Marta escaped Nazi persecution and settled in the south of France. When the Nazi's conquered France in June of 1940, his was imprisoned by the Germans and probably would have been executed. But he escaped from his captors with the help of his wife and journalist Varian Fry. After his escape, he and his wife were smuggled into Spain and Portugal by Rev. Waistill Sharp and his wife Martha Sharp. Eventually they settled in America.

Varian Fry was a journalist who helped dozen's of prominent people escaped Nazi persecution. Waitstill Sharp was a Unitarian Minister, who along with this wife Martha founded the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC).

On Jan. 20, 2009, The New York Times published an obituary of Dina Vierny, who was the model of sculptor Aristide Maillol. During WWII, when she was not posing for Maillol, she was a member of Fry's network and also arrested by the Germans.

This type of stuff makes for a wonderful day. Lion Feuchtwanger's book Power has never been checked out. Maybe I'll be able to read it soon. I don't know, I've got piles of the knowledge factories' books at home. That doesn't include another book that I found during my wandering.

That book is entitled Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times by George Fadlo Hourani. It was hidden in an obscure corner and like Feuchtwanger's book has never been checked out.

But that perhaps is another story.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

hoist w/ our own petards

Hamlet:

There's letters seal'd, and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd—

They bear the mandate, they must sweep my way

And marshal me to knavery.

Let it work;

For 'tis the sport to have the enginer

Hoist with his own petard, an't shall go hard

But I will delve one yard below their mines

And blow them at the moon.

Hamlet Act 3, scene 4, 202–209

Well finally, it looks like the scofflaws in Sacramento, also known as the California Legislature is on the cusp of passing a budget.

It's only taken 14 months and during that time the state's budget deficit grew from approximately $18 billion for one year to over $40 billion for the next 17 months. Balancing what passes for the state's books will require the following revenue increases according the an article in the Feb. 11 Sacramento Bee.

Increasing the state's sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar.

Increasing gasoline taxes by 12 cents per gallon.

Raising the state's vehicle license fee from the current 0.65 percent of a vehicle's value to 1.15 percent, with 1 percent going to the general fund and local law enforcement getting 0.15 percent.

Increasing the personal income tax across the board, either by assessing a surcharge on tax liability or increasing the tax rate.

Ouch. That's right, "Ouch" is what I said to myself when I read the above proposal. Then I remembered that on Jan. 11, I had advocated a reform of Proposition 13, which was fancy way to say that I supported increase state taxes to balance that state's budget. One month of ago I was in favor of the legislature raising taxes in California. Then I read that taxes would be increased and I wasn't as pleased as I probably should have been. Civic virtue isn't as much fun when it comes with a price tag. I was as, Shakespeare would say, "hoist with my own petard."

My dismay at my pending impoverishment the State of California, was eased somewhat when I remembered that our beloved Govinator Arnold Schwarzenegger had been elected in 2003 by advocating repealing recent increases in the "hated car tax." According the Orange Juice Blog, Back in 2003 Schwarzenegger was campaigning against Gray Davis and had this to say about the car tax

“All they have done is spend, spend spend, and when they realize they spend money they don’t even have, then it is tax, tax, tax.” He added “how crazy is that going to be to come up with this crazy idea to raise the car tax by 300%. We’re not going to let it happen. Let me tell you something…it’s going to hurt the person who is a low income person who makes $15,000 to $20,000 a year. The person who is struggling to make ends meet. A person who is struggling to put food on the table for their family.

But my schadenfreude over Arnold's flip-flop from repealing the "Car Tax" to increasing the hated Car Tax, could not sustain me for long. California's fiscal situation is too grim.

The current budget only papers over the problem a few months. According to the Pubilc Policy Institute of California (PPIC). California is one of the few states in the nation to debt finance its public debt. State debt averages out to $4679 per person. New York comes next with a state debt of $2600 per person. Despite this massive state debt, PPIC states that California "will continue to have a 'structural deficit' with spending far exceeding revenues" for years to come.

The only way to avoid this expensive, time-consuming and wasteful state of affairs is to restore sanity to the state budget process. That can be done by eliminating the mandate that a supermajority of 66% of the legislate be required to pass a state budget. Then comes the hard part. According to PPIC

Fiscal responsibility requires getting future spending in line with future revenues and making touch choices about limiting spending as well as seeking additional revenue sources. Reducing expenditures could be achieved through limiting cost-of-living adjustments on current programs, rolling back recent expansions, and reduing benefit levels. Additional revenue sources might include increased use of user fees, limiting tax credits, broadening sales tax coverage, and raising tax rates.

That's more pain in the future. But the fiscal irresponsibility caused by Californians' desire for government services and their unwillingness to properly finance those services needs to come to an end. Tough choices need to be made, taxes will increase and government services will have curtailed. Action needs to be taken now or the annual budget farce will some day have tragic consequences.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

The audacity of hopelessness

I may soon have a new rule. The proposed rule is: never convene or attend a business meeting at Starbucks.

Why? Well I am still working on that. The germ of this new rule is that business meetings, committee meetings, non-profit organizational meetings held at coffeehouses are likely to end up being a waste of time. Not in all instances. I can think of exceptions, but most of the time. I will say that after a recent experience, it may be a useful rule to live by.

With my new rule when someone says "Let's have a meeting, how about at Starbucks", I could say "No, let's have a meeting and then go to Starbucks, or Peetes, or Dunkin Donuts. Work first, coffee later."
Now you're probably not wondering why I would think of having such a rule. So I'll tell you anyway.

Earlier this week, I went to Obama's web site and found out there was an organizing activity for today and that it was going to be held at a Starbucks. Not a bad idea thinks I, work for social justice, make plans to help change America, and have a couple of iced coffees. Great idea. So I show up at almost the appointed time and there's gentleman sitting with his dog outside with a book about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first 100 days.
"You here for the meeting," he asked.
"Yes," says I.
"Well, we're it."
"Let me get a coffee."

So I get a coffee, he puts his dog in his vehicle, and we get to talking. This is an important first step. In any meeting, even one held outside a Starbucks in February, it is important for participants to "check in" and take some time to learn about each other. Once that is done, the meeting begins and the participants can start finding places of agreement and perhaps ways to initiate effective action. It was cold outside but we were making progress. It was then that a third person showed up. He was dressed in a nice suit and had a watch which sorta looked like a Rolex. He had come prepared with copies of what later turned out to be: HIS SOLUTION TO AMERICA'S CURRANT (sic) PROBLEM.

I could make a joke that I didn't know that there was a problem with the raisins in America, but I won't do that. I will say that when I read that HIS SOLUTION was to lower mortgage rates to 2% -3% percent, I stopped caring about HIS SOLUTION. It got worse from there, the meeting devolved into listening to this fellow talk about his theories, which he posted on the Newt Gingrich version of Barack Obama's web portal, American Solutions.

Actually Gringich's American Solutions is an interesting web site and if the Republican party focused on the ideas Gringrich expoused there they might be better off than listening to the porcine gruntings of an Oxcontin addicted radio talk show host, an aging former beauty queen from Alaska, and an unlicensed plumber from Ohio. I am hoping it won't get much notice.

So this was how the meeting was going. It was not a meeting of the minds, it was an exercise in contradiction. When I realized this, my rational mind shut down and some my numerous defects of character kicked in. I became intolerant, impatient, inflexible and alliterative. (I hates it when I gets alliterative) I refused to sit in a cold metal chair outside of a Starbucks listen to a liberterian eccentric, spout his philosophical idealogy in the middle of February. Call me a jerk, call me unreasonable. I have another rule, which is "That when my ass starts hurtin', my mind stops workin'" My ass was aching from the cold. We were getting nowhere with our liberterian eccentric friend, and I felt that no work was going to be done. At least not that day, outside of Starbucks and oh, did I mention it was February.

So I came home and on the drive I wondered if President of Obama ever had such moments when he was a community organizer in the South side of Chicago. I imagine he did. So on the plus side I've developed a new life rule, I took part in an effort to help make my community a little better, and met a couple of interesting people. Well maybe one interesting person, I don't think that the libertian eccentric guy with his solution to America's CURRANT problem was all that interesting. So onward and upward. I'm still working for Change I can BLEEPIN' believe in.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

From shop til drop to save til you rave

It can be depressing listening to the news about the economy, the dollar, and the financial crisis. Everyday the financial news gets grimmer, and our leaders are desperately trying to find some method of action that will halt the economy’s slide, avoid another Great Depression, end the recession, and return the nation from insolvency to prosperity.

But still whenever there's a chance that money can be made, hope still abounds. The talking heads of the financial porn channels can not agree on a date when they can return to making money hand-over-fist by transferring the wealth of ungrateful investors into their personal bank accounts. Most talking heads on CNBC or Bloomberg seem to think it will take a few months, perhaps a year.

Others are not so optimistic. At the heart of this recent slide into near economic depression is that fact that the Great American Ponzi Scheme, i.e. our consumer and debt-driven economy is probably stumbling towards a massive reorganization or reorientation. For nearly 30 years, we’ve shopped til we’ve dropped and borrowed as if there were no tomorrow. Well tomorrow has finally arrived and we find ourselves tapped out, barely able to afford minimum payments on mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt.

If by some miracle President Obama’s stimulus plan works and we halt our slide, toward deflation or disaster we will still be faced with the grim fact that our prosperity will no longer be based on consumption and debt, but will have to be based on production and saving.

This was brought home to me when I was listening to the Hon. David Walker, president and CEO of Peter G. Peterson Foundation and the former U.S. Comptroller General. Walker was one of the speakers that at a forum whose subject was the major fiscal and sustainability challenges facing the country and the higher education sector. The forum was held on Feb. 2, 2009 in Washington, D.C. and was hosted by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. I saw it on CSPAN. Yes, I have sadly reached a point in my life where I enjoy watching CSPAN.

Walker talked about the need for Americans to spend less and save more. Not only that it is imortant that we, as a country, start producing products that the world wants to buy instead of borrowing money from Saudi Arabia and China to buy gasoline at Costco and cheap toys at Wal-Mart.

Towards the end of his presentation Walker pointed to his head and said "we have to compete with this!"

Now that made a bizzarre sort of sense to me, because when I point to my head and say "I have to compete with this," I am usually referring to some sort battle between the multiple personalities in my head. I am constantly having to referee between the crazy side of my head and the sensible of my head. Me being me, the sensible side usually loses.

But that wasn't what Walker was talking about at all. Because after he pointed at his head, then Walker flexed his right bicep and said "we can’t compete with this." He went on to say something to the effect that if we try to out muscle or countries in the world our economy will lose. If the U.S. wants to be competive in the global economy, we will have to use our brains. We can’t go back to being the worlds greatest manufacturer of products, televisions, cars, computers or gadgets, but become a developer of new products and innovative ideas.

So, we have to save more and develop a more creative economy. That is going to take a long time. I have two reasons for that opinion. First, our society will have to endure the pain of the unwinding of Wall Street’s latest Ponzi scheme. Secondly, it will take time for the country to change from a nation of debtors and shoppers to a nation of savers and innovators.

The change is necessary and President Obama’s current stimulus plan may succeed in getting us out of the hole we dug for ourselves. But once we’ve done that, we’ll have to pay back the money that we’ve borrowed over the past eight years. It is necessary and it will require sacrifice, thrift and hard work.

The road ahead is long and arduous. It will take years to develop the inventions that will help us to improve our economic competiveness vis a vis the rest of the world. Will we become world leaders in creating new green technologies whatever they are? Most Americans believe that that is the case. That belief is not yet a false myth. So the question is not "Will our scientists and engineers invent new products based on biotechnology or nanotechnology?" Hopefully the question is "When?" I don't know that answer.

In the meantime save your pennies, get out of debt and keep an eye out for the young American woman or man who is building a nano-technological mousetrap. I hope she builds one soon, because I think the economic news is going to be grim for quite awhile. EEEk!

Capitano Tedeschi

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Democracy ain't pretty

The first two weeks of the Obama administration have been exciting to watch. In his first few days, President Obama has ordered the closing of the prison at Quantanamo, ordered prisoners to be treated according to the Army Field Manual, and has had some if not all of his administration's nominees confirmed by the Senate.

But now, President Obama is trying to build bipartisan support for a $800 billion stimulous bill and is meeting stiff opposition for Republicans in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The going has been tough and

Liberal MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow, has been politely criticising the President for playing nice with the Republicans. On the right, Victor Davis Hanson writing for the National Review online sees in Obama's first two weeks,

"We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking."

A Jan. 29, 2009 editorial in The Economist offered an interesting insight regarding the bipartisan efforts of both parties and it subsequent breakdown.

Whom to blame for the breakdown? The stimulus row apart, the Republicans can claim to have behaved reasonably well, confirming Mr Obama’s appointments without much fuss, though they did try, unsuccessfully, to vote down his new treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, for failing to pay his taxes on time. Mr Obama, for his part, has offered a lot of fine words about bipartisanship but has not produced very much of it, preferring instead to deliver on cherished Democratic aims. The same holds for the stimulus plan. True, the package contains a large dollop of tax cuts: some $275 billion of the $819 billion comes in this form. But most of that was proposed long ago by Mr Obama on the campaign trail, and so can hardly represent an attempt to forge post-election consensus. The Republicans have been given little say in drafting the plan, and the Democratic majority has taken advantage of the rules of procedure to frustrate their attempts to amend it.

Accordiing to The Economist, behind all the partisan rhetoric, it's "politics as usual." Time magazine columnist Joel Klein, writing in Swampland had a different take on the "politics as usual" idea.

The legislative process is as ugly as a wart. We only notice it when an earth-shattering monstrosity like the stimulus bill comes gallumphing down the track, but there is no such thing as elegant legislation. You always have to throw in a little sweetener--the museum of organized crime in Las Vegas, the military kazoo band, whatever--if you want to cobble together the votes needed to win. This is business as usual--and Barack Obama is guilty as charged: he's trying to get this thing through the old-fashioned way. So what? What's new is his priorities: his efforts to put the needs of the working poor and the unemployed ahead of the wealthy, to build a new green economy, to fund inner city education and remake the health insurance system. That is what the American people voted for after an era of Republican neglect. The messiness of the current process is not only inevitable, it also says very little about Obama's ability to deliver on those very necessary goals.

In public administration classes, I learned that Founders designed the government with three branches so that they wouldn't work well together. So what we're seeing is American democracy at work, it's not pretty but it works, after a fashion.

Capitano Tedeschi

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