Category Archives: Politics

Wise (and funny) Words on a National Calamity

1 Reply

Your money

There are wiser folk than Pawn commenting on the current Calamity on Wall Street, and here are some of the gems:

“After 7 1/2 years of drift, President Bush has finally returned to his compassionate conservative roots with a heartfelt plea to Congress to help a needy and deserving group: those Wall Street CEOs who, for all their hard work, have been unable to lift themselves up by their wingtips,”

Dana Milbank writes in his Washington Post column.

And this from Rick Klein over at The Note at Mickey Mouse dot com:

And maybe we should feel bad for the bailout bill.

After all, it was born morbidly obese in a town that likes to pretend it’s all about being lean. Its parents never really wanted one like it — and we know they’ll be out of the picture in a few months anyway.

The men who would be president sure aren’t eager to adopt it.

And conservative commentator George WIll, over at Real Clear Politics had this to say:

“The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with his head!’ she said without even looking around.”

— “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama. Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated.

Perhaps the most succinct commentary comes from Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.:

“Cash for trash.”

Nothing makes for tasty bon mots like a certifiable calamity.  Keep it coming…

Experience Matters

Leave a reply

With the Republican party whipsawing on whether or not experience really matters, I for one am ready to concede that to a certain extent it does. So I would like to propose that as our nation prepares to relive that nightmare from the 80’s — no, not Disco — the Resolution Trust Corporation, I propose that we should lean on some people with experience from that past debacle.

Neil Bush, for example, George W’s younger brother, who twenty some years ago was a board member of Silverado Savings and Loan when that institution went belly up and cost the American taxpayers a cool $1 billion. I’m sure that Neil could bring his insider’s perspective to bear on this latest bleeding of the American public.

Or maybe Sen. John McCain? He has first hand experience with the collapse of financial institutions dating back to his service with the Keating Five, working hard on behalf of Charles Keating Jr., chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan Assoc. Even though the Senate Ethics Committee ultimately found that McCain was guilty of “poor judgment,” I’m sure he could rise to the occasion now.

In all seriousness, though, here’s hoping that Sen. Chas. Schumer, D-NY, is successful in his efforts to get foreclosure relief rolled into any bailout legislation.

Sarah – Where’s My Dollar?

Leave a reply

Last night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, bragged on herself for being a reformer saying, ” I told the Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks,” on that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves.”

Okay, Sarah, let’s see how this worked. You were a small town mayor, whose town of 6,000 had never gotten much Federal largess until you hired one of Sen. Ted Stevens’ favorite lobbyists (yes, that Ted Stevens, the one now under Federal indictment), and then you suddenly got more than $12,000 per capita in Federal bucks. You then run for governor as a reformer. You tell the Federal government that, you know, that bridge you gave us $230 million to build? Well, we won’t build it. Did you return the $230 million to the American taxpayers? No, but you did make a special refund of $1,200 to your fellow Alaskans, most of whom are already earning a $2,000 income directly from the state in the form of oil payments.

So I don’t care what sport you root for, Sarah, and I don’t fancy pitbulls whether or not they’re wearing lipstick. I just want my $1.00 from that bridge you decided not to build. I figure at least that much of my tax dollars went to fund it.

Sharp Words From Evan Bayh

Leave a reply

Over at MickeyMouse.com, Rick Klien reports on Matthew Jaffe and Julia Bain reporting on Bob Scheiffer getting this cutting comment out of Sen. Evan Bayh on Face the Nation:

“We are not all Georgians now,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” per ABC’s Matthew Jaffe and Julia Bain. “If we were Georgians and the Russians were invading our country and killing our people, we’d be in a state of war. And clearly, that’s not what we want. And John sometimes, he’s a good person, but he’s a little bit given to this kind of bellicose rhetoric, which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than to diffuse them, and that’s not what you want in a president.”
Who’s No. 2? Obama Set for VP Pick

Elizabeth Edwards – Once More The Sting

Leave a reply

Pawn well remembers that night in 2007 when we all learned that Elizabeth Edwards had incurable breast cancer. We all felt for her then, and held a sheltered place in our thoughts and hearts for her. Seems we need to open those same places yet again. Here, from Elizabeth’s latest blog post at DailyKos:

…we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well.
Daily Kos: Today

What a shame that Elizabeth could not get her wish. John, I am sorry you succumbed as you did. Elizabeth, I am sorry your pain must once again be a public affair.

Bad Political Jokes

Leave a reply

Pawn was in a deli this morning, having breakfast, and another diner came in and took his seat at the counter. He leaned in conspiratorially and asked the waitress if she wanted to hear an Obama joke. He then proceeded to tell it.

Obama goes up to heaven and approaches the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is there waiting for him.
St. Peter: Can I help you?
Obama: I’m President Barack Obama.
St. Peter: You were president? I don’t think so.
Obama: Yes sir, I was.
St. Peter: When were you inaugurated?
Obama: Ten minutes ago.

The waitress looked at him with a blank expression. “Get it – he got assassinated. Ha, haha”

Pawn was inclined to offer this version of the joke:

McCain goes up to heaven and approaches the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is there waiting for him.
St. Peter: Can I help you?
McCain: I’m President John McCain.
St. Peter: You were president? I don’t think so.
McCain: Yes sir, I was.
St. Peter: When were you inaugurated?
McCain: Ten minutes ago.

Get it – he keeled over dead with a heart attack, or was it cancer…

Let’s face it, if the joke is offensive and just as unfunny when the shoe is on the other foot, then maybe it doesn’t need to be told.

Brooks on Obama

Leave a reply

Quite the interesting and though provoking piece by David Brooks in today’s Times. In a departure for Brooks, who is given to partisan cuts carefully buried 3/4 of the way through an otherwise thoughtful piece, here he is just thoughtful:

Why isn’t Barack Obama doing better? Why, after all that has happened, does he have only a slim two- or three-point lead over John McCain, according to an average of the recent polls? Why is he basically tied with his opponent when his party is so far ahead?

His age probably has something to do with it. So does his race. But the polls and focus groups suggest that people aren’t dismissive of Obama or hostile to him. Instead, they’re wary and uncertain.

And the root of it is probably this: Obama has been a sojourner. He opened his book “Dreams From My Father” with a quotation from Chronicles: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers.”

There is a sense that because of his unique background and temperament, Obama lives apart. He put one foot in the institutions he rose through on his journey but never fully engaged. As a result, voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded.

Op-Ed Columnist – Where’s the Landslide? – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com

Pawn has read all of those articles he references here, and must admit he is on to something…

Present Foot…Load Weapon…Ready, Aim, Fire

1 Reply

Every four years, like clockwork, the far-left fringe of the Democratic Party comes out of the woodwork with one or another idea which is sure to polarize the electorate against them, driving vast tracts of voters into the waiting embrace of the right, and ensuring another insufferable term of Republican leadership. I know, I am a member of the far-left fringe. But, I can see this for what it is; a bad idea with the potential to screw the party out of yet another opportunity to lead.

“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business,” Frank said during a Capitol Hill news conference. “I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.”
Legislators aim to snuff out penalties for pot use – CNN.com

Four years ago it was Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, who just couldn’t wait for the law to catch up to his ambition, and almost single-handedly started the stampede towards same-sex marriage in California. This time it’s Barney Frank and marijuana. Jeez!

Must we? How does this do anything but help the right? Barack Obama will have to choose between endorsing the move, giving a potentially powerful wedge to McCain, or opposing it, further disenchanting a sizable chunk of the youth vote who are already disillusioned by his rightward tack on FISA and other recent changes (be they real or perceived).

Why did Frank have to bring this up now? What possible purpose is served when he knows, and he must know, that it will not possibly pass his own house, hell even his own caucus, let alone get to the president’s desk.

Yikes what poor legislative reasoning he has. Must have an old pot debt to clear.

Do us a favor Barney, go back to reading the New Yorker.

Checking In On An Old Friend

Leave a reply


Back before this was a blog, when it was nothing more than a rant mailing list, I wrote about a website a friend had turned me onto featuring a motorcycle ride through the ruins of Chernobyl, in Ukraine. I just revisited that site, and found Elena’s photoreportage of the Orange Revolution:

Since the Soviet Union collapsed Ukraine became one of the most corruptive countries of the World. (only Guatemala and Sudan have been ahead of us) the difference between rich and poor was tremendous, our wages have been lowest and oligarch richest in a region. Life was good only for a president and bunch of his friends and relatives. Everything was hopeless like in a medieval Asia and my first discovery of that morning was that I live in Europe.[emphasis mine]
Stolen election.

I recommend this site again, her account was quite moving.

After 17 days of a peaceful protests the regime of president Kutchma has fallen and results of election were canceled.
Leaving a snow figures, people went home. Our gaining is believe that our votes means something and won’t be stolen in a night after election.
It was also gaining for many people all around the world. When autocracy win, it is win of one clan, when democracy win, it is victory for all people.
I witnessed this event and documented, as I believe it is important.

null