Mutual Admiration Society

So today I want to shine some "lyte" on echo chambers.  Fox News has launched "Fox Nation", a website dedicated to the opinions of Fox viewers.  Kind of like a Facebook for folks who actually think Fox is fair and balanced.  I think they need to pay royalties to Stephen Colbert for stealing the moniker of "nation".  

The faithful will get to read blogs by their favorite Fox personalities.  Wow, like watching Bill O'Reilly isn't painful enough.  I think Fox is hoping to emulate the wildly successful Huffington Post and give Internet savvy right-wingers a place to congregate.  Like talk radio doesn't give them a place to vent already.  

I want to check in occasionally just to count the typos.  Given the incredible depth that the right-wing opposition has shown towards the Obama administration so far, I am sure we will be treated to rants about FEMA camps, teleprompters, and other pressing issues.

Of course, the folks at Fox insist it will be all about fair play and free speech.  People can criticize Fox, but NO ONE ELSE.  Yeah, right.  Fox News has been such a beacon of unbiased coverage and a bastion of hard-hitting investigative journalism, I can only imagine what their opinion-based website will be like.

What slays me is that most conservative Republicans actually believe that Fox News is fair and balanced.  That lifting talking points from Republican National Committee memos and presenting them as news is an unbiased take on current events.  Journalism as taught at the University of North Korea.

What the right is trying to do is play catch-up on the Internets.  The progressives own the web right now and it has hurt the right in the last two election cycles.  The problem for the right-wing is that you only need to talk on TV and radio.  You actually have to right, I mean write on the web.  Writing is a higher order skill than talking.  You have to be literate and it helps to know things like punctuation and grammar.  All caps and a lot of exclamation points just won't cut it.  It is also important to have ideas, and so far the Republicans have shown the paucity of their ideology.  Just look at their alternative budget, nineteen pages and NO NUMBERS.

This will only serve as another way for right-wing, conservative ditto heads to break their arms patting themselves on the back.  They will continue to reinforce their ever-shrinking worldview: where tax cuts work, Ronald Reagan is king, and the sky is red.  Oh! And where Sarah Palin is smart.

Good luck with that.     

God Help Us

Today I want to shed a little "lyte" on evolution.  To be perfectly honest, I believe in evolution.  I am not a creationist nor am I in favor of its half-breed sibling, "intelligent design".  I believe in science.  I do not worship it, but I know it the best way we have to explain our natural world.

Apparently, the great state of Texas disagrees with me.  The State Board of Education ruled last week that, "all sides" of the "debate" about evolution should be taught-in science class.  News flash, there is no debate about evolution, evolution just is.  Critics like to say that evolution is "just a theory."  Okay, so are cells.  Are we debating "all sides" of the cellular theory?  Another criticism is that so far the fossil record doesn't fully support evolution.  We haven't found the "missing link" ergo, the whole theory is thrown into question.  Well, the fossil record does not support creationism either.  We have not found the fossilized remains of Adam or of Eve.  Or of the infamous apple.

Many Christians also conveniently ignore the fact that there are two creation stories put forth in Genesis.  The first is the seven day story, with man and woman being created at the same time and both of them being created in God's image.  The second story is the one about Adam and Eve.  This one has man being created first (figures) and woman being formed from man's rib after he decided that animals just didn't provide the "companionship" that he required.  So which story is true?  Which story should be taught alongside evolution in Texas science classrooms?  

And while they are so interested in teaching "all sides" then I have to assume that all creation stories from all religions, countries, and eras will be taught.  You can't leave out Marduk from Babylonian myths, or the various egg myths, or the world starting out as an enormous ocean balanced on the back of a giant trout.  Don't forget to cover Buddhism, which counsels that debating the origins of the world is a waste of time because it only causes "madness and vexation".  I think Buddha was onto something.

I am sure this type of open debate will do wonders for our future generations of scientists.  It will ensure that they will approach every scientific experiment with the question, "What would Jesus do?"  

Saran Rap

Today I am shedding some "lyte" on the new national past time of twittering.  If you haven't heard of it, Twitter is a site that lets you post 140 character "twits" on well, whatever.  It's really another form of social networking, but with more immediacy.

Well, apparently, some folks can't be bothered to write 140 characters (or less).  A New York Times article talks about celebrities who have ghostwriters for their Twitter accounts.  It boggles the mind.  One of these people is the rapper 50 Cent.  He has one of his managers write for him.  Of course, the manager claims that the Twitters are still the essence of 50 Cent.  He just doesn't have the time to write.  

Brittney Spears is looking for someone to ghostwrite her Twitters.  I don't find that too surprising.  She doesn't write her own music, and her life is full of court appearances to have time to do the grueling work of string together 140 characters.

Politicians use Twitter.  A few Congressmen (and women) were twittering during Obama's address to the joint houses last month.  Obama uses staff to Twitter.  Many politicians use staff members to Twitter.  It makes sense.  They are busy people, who want to give the appearance of accessibility, without having to take time to b actually accessible.  I'll give our President a pass, he is a little tied with the economy, Afghanistan, flooding in North Dakota, and that's just this week.

What slays me is the whole idea of Twittering.  The notion of posting an online diary of your moment-to-moment existence is so 21st century.  Back in the old days people kept diaries or journals, and no one would read them or even know of their existence until that person died.  Now you can Twitter and the whole world can know what you ate for breakfast, how your underwear is crawling up your crack, and what you're watching on TV (while Twittering, IMing, texting, etc.,).

I am not sure if I want a window onto your world.  Most of you, frankly, are not that interesting.  Okay, maybe President Obama is that interesting, but the rest of you?  Let's keep the myth intact.  I may say, "I wonder what they're thinking?", but really?  I don't want to know.

WTF?

I want to shed a little "lyte" on insanity.  You know the definition of insanity?  It is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.  

The House Republicans announced their alternative budget today.  And guess what they are proposing?  Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans!  I wish I was kidding, but I am not.  You can't make this stuff up.  They want to cut the tax rate from 35% to 25% for those making more than $100,000.  Everyone else would pay a 10% rate.

That's it.  That's the whole alternative that the Republicans have come up with to President Obama's budget proposal.  More money for the only people who still have money in this country.  When pressed for details, House Minority Leader John Boehner couldn't provide any.  But he did promise more details next week-when the budget comes up for a vote.  Remember the Republican's faux outrage over the lack of time to debate the stimulus package?  How does that jive with presenting the details of your alternative budget on the same week that you are voting on it?

Of course, if you are only proposing one thing, no one will need a lot of time to debate it.  And when that one thing has been proven to shrink, no tank, our economy, I have a feeling I know how that debate will go.  It would be funny if it weren't so sad.  Here we are in the greatest crisis of our generation, and the opposition just wants to turn up the dial on the very thing that helped to create those deficits they claim they care so much about.

What is the color of the sky in the Republican's world?  I desperately want to believe that Republicans are not malevolent, just misguided, but to suggest tax cuts for the wealthiest 10% as a viable solution to our budget woes, at a time when millions are out of work, smacks not of just hubris, but down right hostility towards average Americans.  You know, that pesky 90%.  Remember, elections matter.  Continue this insanity and you will not just be consigned to the wilderness, you will be in exile for a long, long time.

Enough is Enough

I want to shed a little "lyte" on the concept of "enough".  A large portion of this economic meltdown can be attributed to the dearly held assumption that unlimited growth is good.  It is not. The only things that experience unchecked growth in nature are viruses and cancer.  Both of these things can kill their hosts.

Our country has long believed that the American Dream was a constantly rising arc of consumption:  a bigger house, a newer car, a younger wife, etc., culminating in a nirvana of excess.  This is madness.  It is not sustainable or responsible.  We need to embrace the idea of enough.

More is not better.  More is madness.  We need to return to a sustainable model of consumption.  This constant chasing of more is causing undue stress on ourselves and on our planet.  This upwardly mobile insanity leads people to believe that you truly can get something for nothing.

Work is not bad.  Earning your money by actually making something or providing a worthwhile service is much more noble than helping money make more money.  Our tax code needs to support this endeavor.  Increase the capital gains tax so we take money making money more than people earning a living.  

We need to transition back to valuing the customer more than the shareholder.  A shareholder is a bottomless pit, always wanting bigger dividends.  A customer is in a relationship with a company, seeking a superior product or service.  Running your business for your customers is a long-term, sustainable proposition, running your business for your stockholders is a short-term road to disaster.

Also, the time has come for us as Americans to define ourselves as citizens, not as consumers.  A citizen is responsible, concerned with the greater good.  A consumer consumes, that's it.  Consumers do not contribute, they are takers not givers.  Our economy needs to reflect this change, and no longer be so dependent on consumption as a determination of our wealth.  We need to be citizens who make things or do things for other citizens.

Here's an idea:  you want to increase the GDP in a big way?  Put a value on the raising of children.  It is the most important product that we create and service that we perform.  It has the greatest effect on our future prosperity.  It is walking the talk that, "Children are our greatest resource."

We need to grow up and our economy needs to reflect our values.  Otherwise, we will end up doing this again and again.  Enough.

Little League

Today I am shedding some "lyte" on trust.  Namely, the fact that China no longer trusts us to lead the world's economy.

Some of you may ask, "So what? Who cares what China thinks? "  Well, we should because China is our banker.  They own us and continue to own more of us everyday.  China, along with Japan to a lesser extent, buys our debt.  Our economic boom?  Financed by China.  Our economic recovery?  Financed by China.  If they stop buying our debt, we are screwed.  Luckily, so would China because all the bonds and T-Bills they have already purchased would be worthless.  So we are in a symbiotic  economic relationship with a (gasp!) communist country with a lousy record on human rights.  And we were worried about socialism.

So China is getting nervous.  Our financial shenanigans of the past eight years have shown that there were no grown-ups in the room.  The economic free fall has worried them further.  And the spending spree our government is forced to do now to turn the economy around is worrying our bankers big time.  Now there is an essay out by Zhou Xiochuan, the governor of China's central bank, that suggests that the dollar should no longer be the world's standard currency for financial transactions.  

This essay comes out before the meeting of the G20 and it is China's attempt to start flexing some serious muscle at our expense.  We can't argue their logic.  Yes, we did totally deregulate our financial markets.  Yes, we did keep our interest rates artificially low for too long, encouraging more and more borrowing.  Yes, we come up with exotic investments like collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps that made a lot of money out of nothing.  Can we blame them for questioning the wisdom of continuing to reward our bad behavior?  Should we be surprised that maybe the world doesn't appreciate it when they have to suffer because of our lack of self-control and foresight?

I doubt that the dollar will be taken out of commission anytime soon.  But this should act as wake-up call that our financial decisions now have world-wide repercussions.  And the world just might get tired of our game playing and not only will we no longer be the world champions, we might be sent down to the minors. 

Burning Down the House

I want to shed some "lyte" on accountability.  There seems to be a growing chorus calling for Timothy Geithner, the newly appointed Treasury Secretary, to resign.  Part of this is blowback over the AIG bonus debacle and the revelation that Geithner asked Senator Chris Dodd to remove language forbidding such bonuses from the stimulus bill.  Geithner feared, and rightly so, that such restrictions would be illegal and subject the government to litigation.  Part is also due to the fact that after a whole 2 months in office, Secretary Geithner has not presented the perfect plan to clean up the whole toxic asset problem that plagues our banking industry.

Am I alone in thinking that we might be expecting too much, too soon?  This economic meltdown was 30 years in the making, and we want it fixed by the vernal equinox?  And if it isn't, then heads must roll?  Our nation of late has a rich history of holding no one responsible for anything.  If I could give former President Bush a suggestion for the title of his memoir of the eight years of mind-boggling incompetence we witnessed under his administration, it would be, "Mistakes Were Made."

Refresh my memory. Who was fired after 9/11?  Oh, that's right, no one.  I don't recall anyone being called up before Congress to face a grilling on how the greatest terror attack happened on their watch.  In fact, the administration had to be forced to form a 9/11 commission to find out what happened and conveniently ignored the findings.  I don't remember anyone out in the streets of Washington, or in front of the CIA headquarters Langley, Virginia, demanding that the people who missed the myriad of clues that this attack was imminent be killed or at least, fired. In fact, the president dismissed the CIA personnel that briefed him that such an attack was going to happen with, and I quote, "You've covered your ass, you can go now."  This is same president who ignored the presidential daily briefing titled, "Bin Ladin Determined To Attack In The United States."  Where were the calls for his impeachment?  Why wasn't George Tennant fired?  No, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom.

What about our botched invasion and occupation of Iraq?  Why wasn't Rumsfeld called before Congress to explain why there were no weapons of mass destruction, or why are there was so much looting in the aftermath.  When asked in a press conference, Rumsfeld answered, "Stuff happens."  Stuff happens?  Where were the pitchforks and the torches then?  How come Rumsfeld wasn't fired until November, 2006, the day after the mid-terms that saw the Democrats return to power in Congress?

How about the government response (or lack thereof) to Hurricane Katrina?  We watched an American city drown in front of our very eyes.  Our President did a fly over.  Apparently, major news networks were capable of getting to New Orleans, but our government wasn't.  Where was the outrage?  The demands that something be done?  And four years later, New Orleans is still struggling.

Are these calls for Geithner's resignation because this time the crisis is about money?  Our personal safety, our stature in the world, our ability to take of our citizens in a time of dire need, no big deal.  Hurt my money, and hear the howls.  The calls for accountability ring a little hollow, especially when we are holding the fireman accountable for the fire.