All Entries in the "Politics" Category

Is the Time Right for the Next Generation of Outliers?

Part of success is opportunity and timing. So hypothesizes Malcom Gladwell in his best-selling book, “Outliers.”

His book offers theories about those:

“men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.”

He says that:

“We vastly underestimate the extent to which success happens because of things the individual has nothing to do with.”

Here’s one example:

When Gladwell looked at a list of the 75 wealthiest people in history, he found that almost 20 percent of those people on the list came from “a single generation in a single country.”

Here’s his list, with birth dates.

01. John Rockefeller, 1839.
02. Andrew Carnegie, 1835.
28.Frederick Weyerhaeuser, 1834.
33. Jay Gould, 1836.
34. Marshall Field, 1834.
35. George Baker, 1840.
36. Hetty Green, 1834.
44. James G. Fair, 1831.
54. Henry H. Rogers, 1840.
57. J.P. Morgan, 1837.
58. Oliver Payne, 1839.
62. George Pullman, 1831.
64. Peter Widener, 1834.
65. Philip Armor, 1832.

He then offers this explanation:

“What’s going on here? The answer is obvious, if you think about it. In the 1860’s and 1870’s, the American economy went through perhaps the greatest transformation in its history. This was when the railways were built, and when Wall Street emerged. It was when industrial manufacturing started in earnest. It was when all the rules by which the traditional economy functioned were broken and remade. What that list says is that it really matters how old you were when that transformation happened.”

How old were these gentlemen in 1860, when the economy hit bottom - when America went through the civil war - and started its rebound?  30-40 years old.

How old were these gentlemen in the great economic expansion of the Gay Nineties? Their 60’s.

If you believe we are at the same type of transformational cusp in history, then this type of extraordinary success should repeat.

Think about it.  The world is in a transition like we’ve never seen in our lifetimes.

• The global economy and stock markets are on the verge of recovery.
• Vast amounts of money are being funneled into alternative energies.  We’re at the start of a mass exodus away from oil and towards windmills.
• Medical breakthroughs such as stem cell research and DNA mapping are transforming modern medicine.

We’re at the beginning of monumental world change.  The timing is right for success. Don’t you think?

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Federal Government Spending = Pork Spending? You Decide.

OK, I guess you all know I really like this Obama guy.

Here’s another reason why I really like him.

This website:

Recovery.gov

Here I can find out where the billions of tax dollars dropped on the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

are going.

Skeptics will claim that Recovery.gov is blatant “pull the will over our eyes” propaganda.

Could be.

There’s definitely spin doctors at work, I’ll give all you McCain lovers that.

BUT

I’m glad it’s there.

I’ll read it.

And I’ll breathe easier.

I like where my tax dollars are being spent.

What if You Could Choose How the Government Spent Your Tax Payments?

How about you?  What do you want your hard earned tax dollars spent on?

My biggest complaint with paying taxes is that I don’t want to be footing the bill for certain government projects.  I want to pay my fair share - could be considered a left winger, sheesh, almost a friggin’ socialist, by my conservative friends.

I just don’t want to finance “my fair share” of things like the war in Iraq, nuclear energy funding, or oil drilling.

At breakfast this morning, my spouse and I got to talking about how great this would be.  We thought it’d be interesting to see how others felt about it.

I know I’d feel a whole lot better about paying my taxes if I were designating where the money went.

How about you?

Where would you like your hard earned tax dollars to go?

If I get enough responses, I’ll summarize them in a future post.

Here’s where I want my tax dollars going:

• public education and health care
• social security
• jobs
• maintaining our infrastructure
• alternative energy development - eliminating oil dependence
• research in medicine -and in other projects that improve the quality of life on our planet
• reducing global starvation
• improving global health
• building a sustainable planet by fighting the war against pollution and global warming
• developing global relations with other countries
• supporting the arts
• World Peace.

Feel free to also list where you wouldn’t like your tax money going, too.

photo credit: PicApp

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The Bailout Money Hasn’t Trickled Down Yet

It’s clear that the trickle down effect that was supposed to happen with the first $350 billion dollars of bailout money did little to change the direction of the economy.  Why not?  It’s simple.

For the trickle down effect to work, the money has to trickle down.

Somehow - surprise, surprise - this money has instead ended up in the pockets of investors and CEOs.

Sheesh, who in congress didn’t see the writing on the wall on that one?  Cut a huge check to Bernanke, who in turn cuts huge checks to  the bank CEOs, and makes them promise to take care of the bad loans.

Hasn’t congress ever heard the old adage, “burn me once, you’re a fool, burn me twice, I’m a fool?”

We will never be able to trust these top financial moguls.  They need to be regulated, and then policed to ensure they are following the regulations.

Future bailout money needs to go to directly to refinancing bad loans - and then to CEOs and investors. It needs to be controlled and regulated by a third party.

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A Commemorative Collection of the Top 25 George Bushisms

It’s only befitting that I somehow salute George W. Bush on this day of his final Presidential address to the nation.

W. leaves a trail of economic, environmental, and diplomatic devastation that will take years for us to overcome.

As a U.S. citizen, I apologize to much of the rest of the world for his archaic destructive policies.  All I can say is “I hated him, too!”

So, in memory of George Bush’s presidency, here are the top 25 Bushisms as chosen by their author, Jacob Weinberg, at Slate.  I also want to thank Doug Kueffler at, Election Issues Today.  I stumbled upon his quite similar post, and decided to use the idea here.  What better way to commemorate a man who was so ill-equiped to be president of this country?

From Jacob Weinberg’s article:

1. “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

2. “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”—Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

3. “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

4. “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.”—Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

5. “Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican.”—declining to answer reporters’ questions at the Summit of the Americas, Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001

6. “You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”—Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

7. “I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.”—Washington, D.C., April 18, 2006

8. “See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”—Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

9. “I’ve heard he’s been called Bush’s poodle. He’s bigger than that.”—discussing former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as quoted by the Sun newspaper, June 27, 2007

10. “And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq.”—meeting with Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008

11. “We ought to make the pie higher.”—South Carolina Republican debate, Feb. 15, 2000

12. “There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can’t get fooled again.”—Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

13. “And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it.”—speaking on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

14. “We’ll let our friends be the peacekeepers and the great country called America will be the pacemakers.”—Houston, Sept. 6, 2000

15. “It’s important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It’s not only life of babies, but it’s life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.”—Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000

16. “One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”—U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 3, 2000

17. “People say, ‘How can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil?’ You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in’s house and say I love you.”—Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

18. “Well, I think if you say you’re going to do something and don’t do it, that’s trustworthiness.”—CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000

19. “I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend.”—on the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington, D.C., June 29, 2005

20. “I think it’s really important for this great state of baseball to reach out to people of all walks of life to make sure that the sport is inclusive. The best way to do it is to convince little kids how to—the beauty of playing baseball.”—Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2006

21. “Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.”—LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

22. “You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war president. No president wants to be a war president, but I am one.”—Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

23. “There’s a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, ‘I don’t want you to let me down again.’ “—Boston, Oct. 3, 2000

24. “They misunderestimated me.”—Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

25. “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.”—Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

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The White House Zillow Zestimate

My home being by far my most valuable asset, I wondered what the White House might be worth.

After all, mortgage rates are the lowest they’ve ever been since Freddie Mac began its survey in 1971.

The US government might be able to refinance - and pay off some of their higher debt.

So I put 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into Zillow.

The Zillow Zestimate:  A not too shabby $308,058,000.

According to The Straits Times, a Singapore newspaper, this is $21 million dollars (7.2%) less than a year ago, but a significant improvement over the $165.87 million Zillow valuation in 2001 - when George W. Bush took office.

What do you get for $308 million?

Built in 1792, the White House has -

• 55,000 square feet
• 6 stories
• 132 rooms
• 16 bedrooms
• 35 bathrooms.

Not to mention: location, location, location.

Should you decide to add this home to your estate, here’s your estimated monthly mortgage payment.

Of course, there of those of us who would say that the White House has already been bought:

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Bush Signs Gay Rights Bill Protecting Retirement Benefits for Gay Couples

In 2004, this cartoon described George W. Bush’s position on gay marriage.  And now, in 2008, in the midnight-hour, buried somewhere on page 32 of the newspaper, in a small print article…

Here’s the scoop:

“Yesterday [Dec. 24] Bush signed into law the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA), requiring employers to allow employees to roll their retirement plans over to nonspouse partners. The Human Rights Campaign hailed the bill for allowing gay couples to share benefits:

PPA [Pension Protection Act of 2006] made it possible for employers to allow any nonspouse beneficiary of an employee’s retirement plan—including an employee’s same-sex partner—to roll inherited retirement benefits directly to an individual retirement account (IRA) and avoid immediate taxation. WRERA requires that all employers provide this rollover opportunity to nonspouse beneficiaries.

The Disgruntled Republican writes a detailed political analysis that reviews all sides of the issue - promise -  here.

My (ok, knee jerk) thoughts.

• He must not have known what he was signing.
• Was it linked to a military funding bill?
• Tipping the Moet bottle there, Georgie-boy?
• Wonder what all his evangelical buddies think?
• Our George W. Bush?
• I can see how this aligns with his gay marriage position.
• How am I going to keep trashing him if he starts doing things that actually make sense?

Do you have any thoughts on it?

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Politicians and Used Car Salesmen - Would You Buy a Senator’s Seat From That Governor?

Giving a state’s governor the power to appoint someone to any elected office reeks of political stench.

It might make sense in a country where elections are rigged, but - the Gore-Bush-Florida Fiasco not withstanding- here in the USA?

Here’s how it works.
From a recent BBC article:

“The 17th amendment of the US constitution sets out the ground rules for replacing senators who resign, die or are expelled.

It allows state legislatures to empower state governors to appoint temporary replacements until such time as a special election can be held.

In many states, however, it can take up to two years for a special election to be scheduled, which means that whoever the governor appoints can sit in the Senate for a considerable length of time.”

The founding fathers of our country did great with those first amendments.  The US Constitution has held up for over two centuries.  During that same time period France has had “10 separate and distinct constitutional orders (including five republics, two empires, a monarchy, and two dictatorships).”

El Salvador has had 36 constitutions since 1824.

But by the time Thomas Jefferson and John Adams got around to the 17th amendment,  they’d had maybe one too many cocktails.

There’s just too many places for this rule to go wrong.

Ask Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, currently under arrest for his thinly veiled extortionist attempts to sell Obama’s senate seat to the highest bidder.

What was he thinking?

To top it all off, utilizing his 5th amendment rights,  he denies the allegations and is refusing to resign his governorship, forcing expensive impeachment proceedings.

OK, so the 5th amendment guaranteeing our innocence until proven guilty is a good one.  But if you’re caught red handed, your guilty Mr. Blagojevich.  Could you just save us all a lot of wasted dollars and take the high road for once?

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Bush’s Midnight Rules and Regulations

Not by accident, there is a 60 day waiting period for any law put into place.  So, yesterday, November 21th, 60 days before President-elect Obama is to be inaugurated, George W. Bush worked to cement his legacy in place.

Let’s take a look at some of his last minute rules.  Many target hot button issues -

From Bloomberg.com:

“Most of them relax existing requirements. They make it easier for industries to pollute or deny a worker medical leaves.” says Matt Madia, regulatory policy analyst at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of many regulatory policies under President George W. Bush.

“These regulations are not easy to ferret out,” says ProPublica, a watch dog paper aimed at exposing ill truths.  They’ve put together a list of potential rules and regulations which came about from Bush’s 11th hour proposals.

http://www.propublica.org/special/midnight-regulations/

Congressional Democrats are already introducing bills designed to out manuveur Bush’s regulations.

Will the new Obama administration be able to overturn this last minute flurry of conservative policy?

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Warren Buffett’s Secretary Pays More in Tax Than Warren Buffett

In June of 2007 Warren Buffett torpedoed the US tax system for its flagrant favoritism of the filthy rich.

“Speaking at a $4,600-a-seat fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52 billion, said: “The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.””

You have to wonder what George W. is thinking….

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An Obama in Hand is Worth Two Republicans in the Bush

Expectations are so high for Obama that a local radio station is already conducting a poll:

“How long will it take Obama to turn the economy around?”

Oh, come on.

I’m thinking that he - or anyone - may never be able to turn the economy completely around.  Not in my lifetime, anyway.  We’ve buried ourselves deep.  We owe so much money to foreign countries, that if we could go bankrupt, we would.

The next thing I’m thinking is:

“Would we want to go back to being the way we were, anyway?”

Let’s think about it.

• The rest of the world hates us. They didn’t just hate us, they hate us. But people around the world are starting to like Americans now.
• The global economy is completely trashed.
• The rich got richer and the middle class and poor got poorer.
• Public Education Policy, Health Care Policy, Environmental Policy, and everyone’s 401k are totally mucked up.
• Religion got even more powerful, and continues to infiltrate civic rights positions such as freedom of choice and gay marriage.

Who would want to go back to that?

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I’m Proud to be an American

Today is the first day after Barak Obama won the presidential election.  Once again I can travel outside the country without being embarrassed to be an American.

When Bush won his second term in 2004, for a brief moment I contemplated moving to Canada.  Canada is not perfect, but at least they periodically make some common sense decisions.  For example, trans-fats are illegal in Canada, and gay marriage is legal.  Common Sense.

Luckily I’m from Massachusetts.  That’s like another country, anyway.  Except for the Romney faux pas, we generally elect politicians who represent all the people, not just the “chosen” ones.

Nobody says “you got your religion in my politics,” in Massachusetts or “you got your politics in my religion.”

And now, nobody will accuse America’s leaders of that.

America is back.

Or perhaps not back.  America is at long last moving forward again.

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Your Two Cents

Here’s a few websites I think are totally cool.  Why?

• I love being able to add my two cents to any discussion, and
• As partisan as I am, I like that these are non-partisan sites.

Rate Your Political Leaders -Make politicians more accountable for their actions by speaking out.

“Rate & Review Your Political Leaders in this Permanent Public Record. Help other voters and history decide! Is your President or Senator doing a good job? How has their decisions effected you? “

Polling Point - Earn points towards free prizes while letting others know what you think.

“The purpose of PollingPoint is to give people a chance to share their opinions about important topics and to learn what others think.”….”PollingPoint carried out over three million interviews during 2007.”….”strictly non-partisan.”

Do you know of any other sites like this?

Who Would You Want Handling Your Money?

Check out this chart published in a recent New York Times article “Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants.”  It shows the annualized return of a $10,000 investment over 40 years of Republican administration, and 40 years of Democratic administration.

From the article:

  “As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.”

“

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Getting Rich on the Backs of Others - the Middle Class Squeeze

I want to be rich.  But I want to be rich without making someone else poor, and without trashing the planet.  I’m convinced that this is possible, though I can’t think of any examples at the moment.  If you have any I’d love to hear about them.

The Vultures of Wall Street and Subprime World didn’t think of anyone else when they were raking in the big bucks.  Do the rich think that the middle class owe them something?

And now, we’re left to mop up.  It’s become “every man for himself.”

I wonder what these free wheeling opportunists of the business world will think up next?  I hope there’s some good regulations in place soon, or else we’re all in trouble.  They may have taken the entire global economy down with them this time, but you can count on the fact that they won’t think twice about doing it again.

And I’d like to retire someday.

I guess the republicans don’t need to retire.  They love this deregulation idea. The republicans want to make the rich richer, while squeezing every last dime they can out of the middle class.

If you’re a republican and you’re not rich, evangelical, straight, and white, I’d be thinking about voting for Obama on this go around.