Smoot-Hawleys of the Congress Unite!

Hey Gang, WICKED long time since I've been on this here thang. Since the world is going to hell in a hand truck, I thought I might throw in my two cents before the big asteroid hits.

The best words I've seen to date on this here sitchee-a-shun is from a couple of unlikely (for me ) sources:

First, David Brooks of the NYTimes --- see his column today.

Also, for a wee bit of comfort, try this from the Wall Street Journal's "Intelligent Investor" page. It might make lunch go down a little smoother.

It is almost fun to watch the GOPs fall down and go boom. I really can't believe that voting down the bailout was any kind of cogent plan on their part. Brooks said it best in his column (and he was trying to be kind):

"House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.

I’ve spoken with several House Republicans over the past few days and most admirably believe in free-market principles. What’s sad is that they still think it’s 1984. They still think the biggest threat comes from socialism and Walter Mondale liberalism. They seem not to have noticed how global capital flows have transformed our political economy. "

Read the rest if youget the chance.

These Guys Do Rock

Josh is a musician who has worked with me on event stuff here in Boston. This week, Josh was feeling poorly, really coming down with something, but soldiered on for the gig. He was concerned that his voice might be affected, and that he would not be able to perform for the crowd this weekend.

How big a gig, I asked? "Oh, probably 20,000 people or so."

Dude, what?

"Oh, we open for Cold Play this weekend at the Boston Garden." Oh.. ho-hum.

Dude, what the FAAK are you doing at this mingy gig if you're due there?

"Well, I was already signed for this and I couldn't not show."

OK, well hopefully he won't have to slum among us plebians in future!

SEE HIS VIDEO

Oh Cameraman, though art way too close!

I spent last week as a cameraman for webby broadcast of the AIA Conference up here in the ol' Beanpot, which is all about architecture and sheeeet. In my new life as Mr Videographer, I am once again get within a hair's of the semi-famous. But usually those sem-favs that have something significant to say, as opposed to covering celebs who have not much.
This picture has nothing to do with it, I just stuck it in for yucks. Oh, wait, I have it 'cause my late father-in-law's first serious girl friend was in the picture ... Helen Walker! Wanna here something weirder still? Helen Walker was pals with my second cousin, who's husband owned the Brown Derby. She was a Ziegfeld's Follies girl before they got married. Oh, and her husband was a wife beating dick. Glad he died.

Meanwhile, back in the Beanpot ...

One thing about this particular speech circuit is you get to see not only who may be coming up in the world of political and financial power, but those who have been on the world stage for a long time, and are getting ready to leave it. The comments of this latter group is often glossed over in the press, and set to the middle section of the major news coverage (i.e., the details of which only the most wonky of policy freaks pay much attention to).

But what I now see is that the 'hind sight' commentary can be one of the most valuable messages to any group of people who want to create and maintain significant social change!

Of those guys moving on this score, the first and last speakers of the AIA conference win hands down. The first was the guy who REALLY created Habitat for Humanity --- I know Jimmy Crack Carter gets top billing, but he picked up the ball from the O.G. --- Millard Fuller. Interesting guy, a Son of the South who decided that making bundles of bucks just wasn't enough, and ended up on a milk farm to learn humility. His speech is Session One (two parts), a LONG sermon but kinda worth it.

The closer was really kinda fantastic; Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta, US Ambassador to the UN and personal aide to MLK, Jr. His message was really simple: Poor is the new Black. The division between the haves and the have-nots threatens the fabric of our society. Better get on it.

Oh, and if you watch you get to see some of my camera work. The down low shots were my favs.

OTHER THAN THAT<>

Monster Boy, Bwana Jr be home from Chilladelphia, and he has even worked on a few of my crews! I get to whip him when they reel in the 500' camera cables and say stuff like, "C'moan boah! Poot yo' back in to it!"

(Stolen from the old United Negro College Fund ads, remember?)

Obamamaniacs, Come Out!

Blooger Boogered my first version of this, so I will be more careful this time. Did Fox buy them?

It would appear that the rest of the world doth get the quandary we Americans are all facing, namely that the "BIG NEWS NETWORKS" are getting in the way of the political process. It is embarassing to read comment like this from the Times of London. And it may be high time for the "BIG NETWERRKS" to get the hell out of the way.

Particularly sad is this little snip from the debates last night, where the Anchors being heckled by the audience for their shallow performance.



Here are a few points to consider:

1. There is only a hair's breadth between most major policy viewpoints in Obama and Clinton's campaigns, which is bad for yellow journalism. The dependency on over played minor mistakes in both campaigns has brought the public discourse to a pitiful palaver.
2. National News organizations based on the American concept of ABC, NBC (not MSNBC) and CBS are clinically dead. Since they limit themselves to lowest-common-denominator thinking on what is important to the US voter (which shows you what they think of us hayseeds), they can't be trusted to deliver anything meaningful to the process. I think they should stick to celebrity interviews.
3. ABC news in particular seems to be huckstering for the Clintonistas. Which ain't no big surprise, considering who Stephanopoulos used to work for. But Gibson seems to be doing a clumsy two step to help McCain, the candidate from The Committee to Re-Invade Viet Nam (Sweeeeet, 30 Rock!)
4. Of course, MSNBC is still livin' in Obama-Land, but we'll cut them a break today.
5. And since Hilary isn't making any visible progress in acquiring actual voters, she is taking a page from the book of the Great American Revolutionist, John Reed by essentially telling the American Voter what they ought to think and when to think it. She will acquire all the superdelegates she can through back door maneuvers and co-opt the Democratic nomination process. It is dismaying that she wants to turn the Democratic Party into the Politburo...Can anyone say Trotskyite?
6. All politics is local, so if Hillary gets away with it, she'll be Pillary Clinton in the press forever more. She should really think about this.

Bizarro Addendum

(See the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, and the authors quoted by A. Maury, Magie, 317.)

'In the fourth century the Messalians, believing themselves to be full of demons, were constantly blowing their noses, and spitting unceasingly, in their incredible efforts to expectorate these.'

Ibid AD NAUSEUM:

'If in God's infinite goodness there is room for the lowliest, if He ever seems to have a preference for such out of pity, why should not my ass be allowed in church? He has his defects, no doubt,—which makes him only the more like me. He is a sturdy fellow to work, but ... he is intractable and obstinate, in one word, he is my very counterpart.'

Bizarro Esoteric Quote o' the Day

'All primitive peoples start alike; this we see again and again in the accounts given by travellers. Man hunts and fights. Woman contrives and dreams; she is the mother of fancy, of the gods. She possesses glimpses of the second sight, and has wings to soar into the infinitude of longing and imagination. The better to count the seasons, she scans the sky. But earth has her heart as well. Her eyes stoop to the amorous flowers; a flower herself in her young beauty, she learns to know them as playfellows and intimates. A woman, she asks them to heal the men she loves.

Pathetic in their simplicity these first beginnings of Religion and Science! Later on, each province will be separated, we shall see mankind specialise—as medicine-man, astrologer or prophet, necromancer, priest, physician. But in these earliest days woman is all in all, and plays every part.'

The Sorceress

By Jules Michelet
as translated by Alfred Richard Allinson from the French

(original title "La Sorcière," Paris: E. Dentu [1862]).

Out of Stir

'Stir' - an old American euphemism for jail or prison. I title this 'Out of Stir' mostly because I can't think of much else to describe my 'quiet time' on my old site o' shite. I haven't posted since ... fish had feet!

I has been experiencing some changes in my life, not all fantastic let me assure you; but all the important stuff is still there... family, relationships and a regularly functioning brain wave.

I am no longer at that big ol' stinkie Institute. That went by the boards for me in a blur. I will not post about it, mostly because I fear their minions will come and execute me in me sleep. Which might be most profitable for the Missus, but would leave a hell of a mess at home. And I tend to enjoy breathing, thank you.

And though I do not slave for the Masters of Technology no more, I oddly have been called to do much work for the slave masters of Modern Medicine, followed shortly by the Fashionista Fascisti. SO ... lots of gory footage of surgery, and then even scarier ... Fashion Shows! (Who knew that athletic shoes could generate whole lines of clothing? and why??)

I was hoping that my first post after the thawing of the glaciers --- oops, that was to be a time-line joke, but it is sadly more true than any of us would like! --- would contain some hugely important comment on the malaise of our new century, or the relevance of the new politics, or even a short piece on how a high/low ratio transfer box and locking center and rear differentials add to the credentials of the Toyota - Land Cruiser Amazon VX 4.7 ... yeah, I lifted that last one. I bet SlyBoots will know from where!

But since this is my Opening Day, and there are now F-18s flying over my head here as I punch the keys, I will post with a whimper rather than a wow.

It's OK, I have learned to downsize my expectations!