The flying fickle finger award to political consultant and bon vivant Roger Stone.
__________
“attack,attack, attack
never defend; admit nothing; deny everything;
launch counter attacks;hit from every angle;
open multiple fronts on your enemy; he must be confused and feel besieged on every side”
The Stone modus operandi, as quoted in Peter Elkind, Rough Justice.
_____
Elkind’s new book on Elliot Spitzer is a good read, if you relish the slimey,ugly power plays practiced in Albany,our esteemed State Capitol.
Elkind describes the power plays of Spitzer,Joe Bruno, and Stone, where civility disappeared.
Spitzer wanted reform,and wanted to flip the State Senate.
He offered Sen.Michael Balboni a job in his administration,and Joe Bruno also killed Balboni’s career to run for the AG position.
Bruno needed Balboni to stay in the Senate,to keep GOP control.
As the power plays became really ugly, Bruno hired Stone as a $20k monthly consultant.
Stone set out to destroy Spitzer, including feeding the FBI information gleaned from his lady contacts in Florida.
These power plays were not pretty.
Elkin contrasts Bruno and Spitzer. Bruno the poor kid from Glens Falls, who wanted Albany power to gain private riches. Spitzer, the son of a wealthy NYC Jew, who wanted Albany power to reform and transform.
Our fickle finger award goes to Stone. He’s is less than a class act. Power does corrupt, especially when the power plays take place in Albany.
And I still see no compelling rationale to send Joe Bruno to prison.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Charters,inequality, and politics
The data shows that charters are, in general, successful in reading,math and science indices.And NYS should increase the cap on these public funded,privately run, schools.The feds. would likely look favorably on this; and the state could really compete in the Race to the Top $700 million funding.Charters do, however, tend to cherry pick.There are too many applicants; and the cherry picking leaves the more difficult-to-learn students in the underachieving public schools.I favor charters, and I say lift the ceiling on them.The future of public schools are in limbo.Many are failures, and should be closed.In almost all states, the fiscal crisis is creating a crisis in the public school systems.There will be major changes in our centralized,public school systems.As my friend, writer, and social critic James Howard Kunstler suggests in The Long Emergency, all our central systems will unravel as we move into the end of oil period.The oil heavey yellow school buses, for one, will no longer be viable.Small schools, home schooling, are the future.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Game Change
I had the opportunity to attend a book review of John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change.
The reviewer was local Albany attorney,and talk show host, Steve Coffey.
The review was excellent, highlighting most of the major events of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
Did have a chance to ask two questions, both, methinks, important.
First, John McCain and Sara Palin.
Game Change vividly describes the quick process that led to Palin’s pick as McCain’s running mate.
McCain’s direct talk, and vetting, with Palin took about an hour.
A scary vetting in chosing our VP candidate.
As Coffey suggests, Palin was a possible big game changer. A choice that could have salvaged McCain’s campaign.
But as I suggested, her pick was like Mel Brooks building a young Frankenstein.
Palin is still with us. But even the moderate tea partiers don’t feel she is qualified to be President.
Will her future be on Fox?
Coffey was noncommital.
The second question dealt with the msn and John Edwards.
The msn buried the scandal of Edwards, , Rielle Hunter, and the love child.
How sad to hear that the National Enquirer was nominated for a Pulitizer for their Edwards scandal stories.
Where was the msn?
It could have gone to Edwards and his wife before Iowa , and just told them that the story of the love child will go public; and Edwards should withdrawl for the sake of the country,the Dem. Party, and his family.
He likely would have.
Suppose Edwards had broken through in the 2008 campaign?
Suppose he had gone all the way, and won the Presidency?
Can’t we see him ready to take the oath of office in Jan. 2009, in the cold, at the steps of the national Capitol.
Just as the oath is about to be given, , Rielle Hunter,with the lovechild in one arm, uses her other hand trying to grab the Bible from Elizabeth Edwards.
Then, and only then, would the msn have asked: Hey, what’s going on here?
Coffey main response was that MSNBC was very Obama biased.
But I also suggested that MSNBC was necessary to balance cable Fox.
The reviewer was local Albany attorney,and talk show host, Steve Coffey.
The review was excellent, highlighting most of the major events of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
Did have a chance to ask two questions, both, methinks, important.
First, John McCain and Sara Palin.
Game Change vividly describes the quick process that led to Palin’s pick as McCain’s running mate.
McCain’s direct talk, and vetting, with Palin took about an hour.
A scary vetting in chosing our VP candidate.
As Coffey suggests, Palin was a possible big game changer. A choice that could have salvaged McCain’s campaign.
But as I suggested, her pick was like Mel Brooks building a young Frankenstein.
Palin is still with us. But even the moderate tea partiers don’t feel she is qualified to be President.
Will her future be on Fox?
Coffey was noncommital.
The second question dealt with the msn and John Edwards.
The msn buried the scandal of Edwards, , Rielle Hunter, and the love child.
How sad to hear that the National Enquirer was nominated for a Pulitizer for their Edwards scandal stories.
Where was the msn?
It could have gone to Edwards and his wife before Iowa , and just told them that the story of the love child will go public; and Edwards should withdrawl for the sake of the country,the Dem. Party, and his family.
He likely would have.
Suppose Edwards had broken through in the 2008 campaign?
Suppose he had gone all the way, and won the Presidency?
Can’t we see him ready to take the oath of office in Jan. 2009, in the cold, at the steps of the national Capitol.
Just as the oath is about to be given, , Rielle Hunter,with the lovechild in one arm, uses her other hand trying to grab the Bible from Elizabeth Edwards.
Then, and only then, would the msn have asked: Hey, what’s going on here?
Coffey main response was that MSNBC was very Obama biased.
But I also suggested that MSNBC was necessary to balance cable Fox.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Glenn Beck and CPAC
Glenn Beck and CPAC
-------------------
The great visual comedian, Sid Ceaser, had a character called “'The Professor', a know-nothing who thought he was a know-it-all.."
The Professor wore a university graduation cap backwards, and spewed out gibberish to the questions asked by Carl Reiner.
The modern Professor, Glenn Beck, spewed his gibberish, meandering, nonsense to the CPAC neophytes in their finale yesterday.
Beck had his ubiquiouus blackboard, but lacked his graduation cap.
Beck described the low point in his life...a time when he lost his family,house,job and sanity. This was when he would curl into a fetal postion in a one room apartment, besotted with the deamon rum (or other deamons).
His recovery was not through a 12-step recovery group. Instead, he had an epiphany,when he saw images of the Lady Liberty, the Declaration of Independence, and Adam Smith's market capitalism.
In between his blackboard gibberish scribblings, Beck called for a purified GOP guided by the small-government nostrums of Harding, Coolidge and Reagan.
As he wiped the sweat from his brow, Beck called for the CPACers to purge the RINOS and slay the progressive/ liberal predators.
Beck is a dangerous demigod.
The progressive,liberal,populist community should unite, get out of their political fetal position, and take on this silly Professor.Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/02/weekend-open-thread-31.html#comments#ixzz0gC3rHh4Z
-------------------
The great visual comedian, Sid Ceaser, had a character called “'The Professor', a know-nothing who thought he was a know-it-all.."
The Professor wore a university graduation cap backwards, and spewed out gibberish to the questions asked by Carl Reiner.
The modern Professor, Glenn Beck, spewed his gibberish, meandering, nonsense to the CPAC neophytes in their finale yesterday.
Beck had his ubiquiouus blackboard, but lacked his graduation cap.
Beck described the low point in his life...a time when he lost his family,house,job and sanity. This was when he would curl into a fetal postion in a one room apartment, besotted with the deamon rum (or other deamons).
His recovery was not through a 12-step recovery group. Instead, he had an epiphany,when he saw images of the Lady Liberty, the Declaration of Independence, and Adam Smith's market capitalism.
In between his blackboard gibberish scribblings, Beck called for a purified GOP guided by the small-government nostrums of Harding, Coolidge and Reagan.
As he wiped the sweat from his brow, Beck called for the CPACers to purge the RINOS and slay the progressive/ liberal predators.
Beck is a dangerous demigod.
The progressive,liberal,populist community should unite, get out of their political fetal position, and take on this silly Professor.Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/02/weekend-open-thread-31.html#comments#ixzz0gC3rHh4Z
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Moyers, lbj ,nam and afgan.
The POTUS, LBJ.,Moyers, Nam and Afgan.
((Sweet, sweet memories you gave-a meyou can't beat the memories you gave-a me
Some grief, some joyMemories are made of this.."Dean Martin, Memories are Made of This-----POTUS Obama will shortly make a decision and speech on strategy for Afgan.
The Pentagon favors a big COIN move. Thousands more NATO (US) troops and a nation-building thrust. This could include a “neighborhood watch” for 40K villages. That’s a lot of nation-building.
Hopefully the POTUS will describe an exit strategy..displaying a get-out of Afgan.card. It has been 9 years since we went into Afgan.
Last night’s Bill Moyers Journal drew a parallel between Obama’s Afgan. mess and LBJ’s Nam mess.
Moyers was a bright 30-yr. neophyte in the Johnson entourage. Not a heavyweight, but a consensus builder.
Last night, Moyers used audio tapes of LBJ’s Nam conumdrum.We hear LBJ lamenting to Georgia Sen. Dick Russell. Russell had no useful guidance or knowledge.
We hear JBJ talking to Sen. Bill Fulbright. Ol’ Bill says go into Nam full-time. This was 1964, and Fulbright was in his half-bright stage.
We hear LBJ cutting-off McGeorge Bundy. LBJ had no use for the Harvards.
We hear McNamara’s gunho silly support for a ground war.
We DON’t hear Sec.St. Rusk. He was always an inscrutable Budda, but a hard-liner. JFK always said Rusk never gave him anything to chew on.
We hear LBJ’s fear of the Goldwater right.
We DON’T hear Humbert Humphrey, who was marginalized by 1964.
And we DON’T hear LBJ quoting from George Ball’s prescient anti-Nam memo.
LBJ went for the ground troops-500K +.As a result, he lost over 40 House seats in 1966. And he was forced to retire in 1968.
He fractured our politics by 1968. In 1968, there were peace candidates everywhere. RFK and McCarthy. HHH, after his Salt Lake City bombing halt speech. Nixon, who had a secret plan to end the war. But Nixon also had Kissinger sabatoge the Paris peace talks. And then there was Wallace and his VP candidate, Curtis LaMay. They were peace candidates who would have brought peace to Hanoi thru nuclear attacks.
LBJ was wrong on a ground war in Nam. Let’s hope our POTUS is not an LBJ.
gecannon
November 21, 2009 10:00 AM
((Sweet, sweet memories you gave-a meyou can't beat the memories you gave-a me
Some grief, some joyMemories are made of this.."Dean Martin, Memories are Made of This-----POTUS Obama will shortly make a decision and speech on strategy for Afgan.
The Pentagon favors a big COIN move. Thousands more NATO (US) troops and a nation-building thrust. This could include a “neighborhood watch” for 40K villages. That’s a lot of nation-building.
Hopefully the POTUS will describe an exit strategy..displaying a get-out of Afgan.card. It has been 9 years since we went into Afgan.
Last night’s Bill Moyers Journal drew a parallel between Obama’s Afgan. mess and LBJ’s Nam mess.
Moyers was a bright 30-yr. neophyte in the Johnson entourage. Not a heavyweight, but a consensus builder.
Last night, Moyers used audio tapes of LBJ’s Nam conumdrum.We hear LBJ lamenting to Georgia Sen. Dick Russell. Russell had no useful guidance or knowledge.
We hear JBJ talking to Sen. Bill Fulbright. Ol’ Bill says go into Nam full-time. This was 1964, and Fulbright was in his half-bright stage.
We hear LBJ cutting-off McGeorge Bundy. LBJ had no use for the Harvards.
We hear McNamara’s gunho silly support for a ground war.
We DON’t hear Sec.St. Rusk. He was always an inscrutable Budda, but a hard-liner. JFK always said Rusk never gave him anything to chew on.
We hear LBJ’s fear of the Goldwater right.
We DON’T hear Humbert Humphrey, who was marginalized by 1964.
And we DON’T hear LBJ quoting from George Ball’s prescient anti-Nam memo.
LBJ went for the ground troops-500K +.As a result, he lost over 40 House seats in 1966. And he was forced to retire in 1968.
He fractured our politics by 1968. In 1968, there were peace candidates everywhere. RFK and McCarthy. HHH, after his Salt Lake City bombing halt speech. Nixon, who had a secret plan to end the war. But Nixon also had Kissinger sabatoge the Paris peace talks. And then there was Wallace and his VP candidate, Curtis LaMay. They were peace candidates who would have brought peace to Hanoi thru nuclear attacks.
LBJ was wrong on a ground war in Nam. Let’s hope our POTUS is not an LBJ.
gecannon
November 21, 2009 10:00 AM
The Senate and the health care debate
The Senate and the health care debate
There are at least 40 millionaires in the Senate. Being wealthy does impact a person’s values. The Senate is an elitist (House of Lords-type) club.
The Senate also grossly violates the “one man, one vote” equalitarian dictum.
The two Utah,conservative Mormon Senators, Orin Hatch and Bob Bennett, represent <1>6% of the US population.
Some of the founding fathers even argued against a Senate body as it would violate majority rule.
The wealthy Senate club is an elitist anti-majoritarian institution. This came through clearly in last night’s health care reform debate.
The Utah GOP rightwingers, Hatch and Bennett, led the debate, denouncing the Dem. bill as a budget-busting, big government boondoggle. These two dour Mormons have no sense of humor; no visible Joie De Vivre.
The two Arizona rightwingers, John McCain and Jon Kyl, replicated the Utah Senators’ arguments. McCain also came off as slightly wacko.
I have not read the 2000+ page Senate bill; and few Senators have. The size of the bill is a product of lawyers on steroids. It is mostly incomprehensible legalize.
What is clear is that the bill attempts to deal with the immorality of 40 million + uninsured Americans. This total masks several different sub-groups. But you can slice and dice it all you want. 40 million uninsured is unacceptable.
The bill will have about 15 million moving into an expanded Medicaid. That will be difficult to do. The GOP rightwingers have it right. Medicaid is a health care Gulog or ghetto. It is sub-standard primary care.
If the bill leaves the Medicaid financing the same ( 50% paid by the states), moving 15 million uninsured into Medicaid will not happen.
Like our friend in Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I favor eliminating Medicaid and expanding Medicare (Medicare for all).
The cost shifting will come with moving $50 billion annually from Medicare. This is doable, without cutting elder care. There is $30-50 billion annual waste/fraud in Medicare.
There is also those Medicare preferred private plans that have infiltrated Medicare. Get rid of them.
There are at least 40 millionaires in the Senate. Being wealthy does impact a person’s values. The Senate is an elitist (House of Lords-type) club.
The Senate also grossly violates the “one man, one vote” equalitarian dictum.
The two Utah,conservative Mormon Senators, Orin Hatch and Bob Bennett, represent <1>6% of the US population.
Some of the founding fathers even argued against a Senate body as it would violate majority rule.
The wealthy Senate club is an elitist anti-majoritarian institution. This came through clearly in last night’s health care reform debate.
The Utah GOP rightwingers, Hatch and Bennett, led the debate, denouncing the Dem. bill as a budget-busting, big government boondoggle. These two dour Mormons have no sense of humor; no visible Joie De Vivre.
The two Arizona rightwingers, John McCain and Jon Kyl, replicated the Utah Senators’ arguments. McCain also came off as slightly wacko.
I have not read the 2000+ page Senate bill; and few Senators have. The size of the bill is a product of lawyers on steroids. It is mostly incomprehensible legalize.
What is clear is that the bill attempts to deal with the immorality of 40 million + uninsured Americans. This total masks several different sub-groups. But you can slice and dice it all you want. 40 million uninsured is unacceptable.
The bill will have about 15 million moving into an expanded Medicaid. That will be difficult to do. The GOP rightwingers have it right. Medicaid is a health care Gulog or ghetto. It is sub-standard primary care.
If the bill leaves the Medicaid financing the same ( 50% paid by the states), moving 15 million uninsured into Medicaid will not happen.
Like our friend in Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I favor eliminating Medicaid and expanding Medicare (Medicare for all).
The cost shifting will come with moving $50 billion annually from Medicare. This is doable, without cutting elder care. There is $30-50 billion annual waste/fraud in Medicare.
There is also those Medicare preferred private plans that have infiltrated Medicare. Get rid of them.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
world series
The third game of the world series is scheduled for Halloween. I can see clearly now. I see alpha males, clutching beer, greeting kids at the door, spewing profantity at the Sara Palin-look alikes to go away.Pro baseball, and pro sports generally, are capitalism on steroids.It is all money.There was a time when , if the Yankees ended in first place, they went directly into the Series. And the series was over by mid-October.Now there are playoffs everywhere, in every type of division. It is all about money.The baseball pros are paid big bucks. So why not work them till they drop. I’ve long thought that baseball is as exciting as watching grass grow.Now with Astroturf, the grass doesn’t even grow.Last night’s Yankee-As game took almost 5 hours. I watched the last hour.The little kids in the stadium were dressed as little Yanks or As. How much do those uniforms cost at Target? The tykes are walking billboards for baseball teams. It is marketing on steroids.For 5 hours, you are fixated on the outfield billboards. By the second hour, you begin to see the the geico walking on the GEICO billboard.Every hour you see Kate Hudson routing for ARod, who will dump her faster than Dave Letterman rotates his interns.For five hours, you see that ubiquitious Pat Sajak sitting in his expensive box seat behind home plate. Every pitch, every inning, for 5 hours, there is that guy sitting there, spinning his wheel of fortune in his overactive neurotransmitters. Vanna White is easy to take for 5 hours..but Sajak?Waiting for the World Series is like waiting for Godot.It is all about money.I imagine that Sajak will ask to be cryogenicly frozen after his death.
Let's hope some disgruntled hoodlum will not use his head for a baseball, as someone did with the frozen Ted Williams head.
Let's hope some disgruntled hoodlum will not use his head for a baseball, as someone did with the frozen Ted Williams head.
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