RealPolitix.com – The Non-Partisan Blog about Politics and Technology Archive for January 2010

Well I wasn’t too far off in my predictions of President Obama’s strategy and the outcome of the State Of The Union Address (SOTU). The tweets I did were around 7:00 p.m. last night:

In for a short tweet. I think the Prez will do all right in his #SOTU.    (about 13 hours ago from web)

Despite negative speculation, I think Obama’s #SOTU address will actually OBLIGATE party Dems to carry out responsibilities & pull together. (about 13 hours ago from web)

Re: #SOTU: After losing MA, the timing of Obama’s #SOTU, is probably good for the Dem party – will settle Dem’s fears. And fears of country  (about 13 hours ago from web)

#SOTU: Prez likely agenda: Review what he inherited yr ago, current economy, why need HCR, new jobs creation, adjustmnts 2 budget & no fear  (about 13 hours ago from web)

#SOTU: Republican’s Response: Instill fear in people in the economy. Stress unemployment and HCR to start over.  (about 13 hours ago from web)

Yes, I hear you, I was a little off on the republican response. Republican spokesman and VA Governor, Bob McDonnell’s main argument was too much spending.

I should also add that my closing tweet after the State Of The Union Address was this:

Well I hope Obama got his team back… Ha, until tomorrow!   (about 9 hours ago   from web)

©January 2010 Reiko Eoh

Last Tuesday, while democrats were bemoaning throughout the chambers of congress over the loss of Ted Kennedy’s senate seat to republican Scott Brown, President Obama must have realized a deeper problem. The problem was bigger than Health Care Reform being reexamined again. It was bigger than GOP Scott Brown becoming the new “41^st vote.” The much bigger problem reared its ugly head precisely when Obama thought it couldn’t get worse. No doubt, what ran through President Obama’s mind while observing the antics of his fellow democrats was, “What the hell is wrong with these guys!? I’m stuck with a bunch of losers! How the hell am I going to get anything done with these weenies!?”

The Democratic Party is like a really, really bad sports team. They are so bad that even when they have the advantage over their opponents, they go out of their way to sabotage themselves just so they can resort to being losers again. They’re practically saying, “Please take our win because we have no idea how to win as a team.” If I were Obama, I would feel like switching parties just because the democrats absolutely suck as a team.

Prior to becoming president, Obama thought all his party needed was to learn a little savvy, and carry a big game plan. He calculated that with a plan, all he needed to do was communicate the logic of the plan to fellow democrats and have them all on board to execute it as a unified front. In his mind, momentum will pick up and be on your side – as in sports – and with a little luck, everything clicks. Yes we can.

Sure we can. Try explaining an overall success plan with intangible rewards to members of congress and right before your eyes, you will actually see the vault door creaking shut in their minds. As far as they’re concerned, without any guarantees, it’s all nonsense, so momentum, and setting a “magic” deadline for results is fortune-telling mumbo0jumbo. To them, succesful results happen when they are good and ready, and at whatever time they are good and ready – which was almost never.

There is nothing like 100 percent hindsight to fully understand an opportunity after it’s too late. Surely now the democratic members of congress know why President Obama insisted last year that he should have a Health Care Reform (HCR) Bill on his desk before the August legislative recess. Had they done that, Health Care Reform would be on its way to becoming reality by now, and the uproar a distant memory. People would be realizing that Health Care Reform wasn’t the big scary monster that they thought it would be, and everyone would be for the better right now. How can people work, and pay taxes, if they are sick or worried sick? Simple common sense.

If the HCR game plan wasn’t a good enough reason for Obama to have the bill on his desk last year, there was another more obvious reason why President Obama wanted it before the ‘09 summer recess. All you had to do was just look at all the democratic congressmen and women. Democratic representatives were whining, “Slow-down, Mr. President, you’re moving too fast!” From President Obama’s perspective, he’s staring at them thinking, “Slow-down!? Have you guys looked in the mirror lately!? One of you might just suddenly fall out of your chair and croak! And with our party’s luck, we’d have five of you croaking at once!”

Alas, President Obama and the Democratic Party now find themselves in a bigger quagmire – they’ve lost the momentum. They have lost ground and problems are coming in faster than being solved.

Now with the Supreme Court ruling last Thursday allowing corporations limitless spending on political campaigns, President Obama immediately responded that he would have his administration “work immediately with Congress on this issue” and “talk with bipartisan congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision.”

The 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court was appalling. The five Republican Justices who voted to overturn the previous ruling – Anthony Kennedy, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas – were aware that the balance would tilt in favor of big corporations, yet claimed finance limits on political campaigns violates the First Amendment free-speech rights of corporations. Obviously the free-speech rights of big money trumped free-speech rights of individuals.

Some corporations even came out against the ruling as well and are fighting against lifting the ban. It turns out they want limits too. Even they are unwilling to pay more for their already highly-funded candidates to carry out their business agenda.

Sadly however, the corporations that are balking are not the humongous big money companies such as Big Oil. The overturning of limiting campaign spending by the five Republican Justices was clearly a show of them thumbing their noses at the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of Individual Freedom. The GOP justices need to be held in check.

Thank goodness for President Obama. The Democratic Party may not be the party with a winning attitude, but they are the party with a conscience. Their miscues and missteps, and seemingly hapless and hopeless demeanor, is still better than the GOP’s big Wall St. corporations, shelling out money to convince you –yes, you – that the GOP is just like you. Think about it.

© January 2010 Reiko Eoh

Hallelujah world, we made it to the future. Despite the plethora of doomsday movies over the years, the planet is still intact, and we are still shopping at malls.

So who’s feeling foolish now? The reality of 2010 is far from any single futuristic, disaster film of the past – no, it’s more like ten of them rolled into one; it’s just the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet.

But actually, we have adjusted rather well hopping along on one shoe – mainly because we refuse to give up on getting the other one back! That’s the spirit that will turn our frown, upside down. Such is life in the U.S. today; a mega-packed action/thriller/drama with so many twists and turns, one can only wonder: How will this epic saga end?

Well here is what my happy final episode would be: The Armageddon Greyhound Bus arrives to pick up all the Teabaggers. Everyone rejoices because it’s a win-win for all. The bus then drives off into the sunset, and we all proceed to live happily ever after. Hallelujah!

Anything is possible.

Nonetheless, imagine life back in 1999 B.B. (Before Bush). Who would have predicted that today, while the nation works through two wars, an economic meltdown, fears of terrorism and dire environmental crises, the biggest headline news for weeks would be – golfer Tiger Woods and his personal problems? And that his personal problems would climax on Thanksgiving Day with such dramatic finality, that we would – for once – be thankful we weren’t in his shoes?

And worse, just as we cleared our sullied minds of Woods, along comes actor Charlie Sheen, who, on Christmas Day, gave his wife the lasting gift of domestic abuse. Hey Charlie, just wait until she gets a golf lesson from Elin Woods!

But no doubt the Woods/Sheen holiday fiascos could have been worse. Just imagine if Woods and Sheen had hooked up with each other to become best buddies. Yes, that’s right; allow your mind to finish the joke.

Fortunately the world is still turning, and life in America can continue as a magical Disney World with lots of Michael Bay-like sensational tabloid explosions. It’s become the American way: Our world is simply about one’s ego; where facts mean little and truth is mere perception.  Which explains why people today have become Daffy, and standards have become Mickey Mouse!

That said, here is the real 2010, with several movies strung together for what is our mega-blockbuster reality. Do I see a Tarantino sequel on the horizon?

Think of all the futuristic movies of the past, and the result is our reality today: A progressive “2001: A Space Odyssey,” combined with a regressive “Planet Of The Apes.” The tension heightens when a totally outrageous, unqualified character is introduced into the story line as a U.S. president; as the case of George W. Bush, who stunningly does more damage to the country than Chauncey Gardiner in “Being There.” This character would also be obscenely lucky, and have an incredibly cagey ability to receive orchestrated help from a team of public relations people who seemed almost straight out of the movie,  “Wag The Dog.”

So thanks to the “strategery” of the Decider president, the U.S. finds itself facing issues more serious and numerous than any movie ever made. The results are greater economic problems than in the movie, “Wall St.,” as well as the continuing horror of livestock and agriculture practices that have actually turned the food industry into ghastly manufacturing plants of human “feed”, as revealed in the documentary, “Food Inc.” (Amazingly, it is much closer to the movie,  “Soylent Green” than I could have imagined.)

Meanwhile, we have our own “Morgan Freeman, Deep Impact” president, President Obama, but thankfully, no meteors are heading toward Earth right now. But we do have the more imminent crises of global warming, with its extreme weather conditions as in “The Day After Tomorrow.” And, who knows, perhaps an unexpected visitor may pay us a visit, a la, “E.T.” Now that would be cute!

All of this is enough to make you want to take Howard Beale’s advice in “Network” and crack open a window to shout to the world, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Relax. It’s never as bad as you think. We’ll probably end up like Woody Allen, in the movie, “Sleeper,” who unknowingly becomes cryonically frozen, but comes back 200 years later to fall in love with Diane Keaton. Or maybe we’ll wind up like Mike Meyers and Heather Graham, going through a time machine and coming back as “Austin Powers” and his girlfriend, in an awesome 60’s time warp to find peace and love – among other things. Now how cool would that be?

But perhaps a little caveat might do well here: In case you decide to go the cryonics route, you might want to do a thorough background check of the laboratory first, because, well you know, Ted Williams…uh-huh, enough said.

© January 8, 2010 Reiko Eoh