Ever Vigilant

It is high time for the United States of America to act on the inclusive directives of our Constitution rather than the exclusive  policies of our partisan lawmakers.  An ideological overhaul must precede any major policy alteration.  Therein lies the rub.

Once again, Frank Rich of the New York Times brings home the bacon.  His piece today is magnificent, saying perfectly what I have tried to say in drips and drabs.  The danger of Sarah Palin and her ilk is very simply, that she might one day actually become our President.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/opinion/12rich.html?_r=1

How can this possibly come about?  Sarah Palin’s popularity derives from and feeds on the anger, the ethos of the American people.  Their cultural character goes deep and especially in hard economic times,  will rear its ugly head in a backlash against perceived sinister forces, such as minorities, immigrants, the educated and a status quo that has shown some progressive growth .  Rich uses the words “resentment and victimization” to describe this head-in-the-hole attribute of Palin and what remains of the GOP.  Here is my favorite part:

That’s why Palin won’t go gently into the good night, much as some Republicans in Washington might wish. She is not just the party’s biggest star and most charismatic television performer; she is its only star and charismatic performer. Most important, she stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind. Palin gives this movement a major party brand and political plausibility that its open-throated media auxiliary, exemplified by Glenn Beck, cannot. She loves the spotlight, can raise millions of dollars and has no discernible reason to go fishing now except for self-promotional photo ops.

The essence of Palinism is emotional, not ideological. Yes, she is of the religious right, even if she winks literally and figuratively at her own daughter’s flagrant disregard of abstinence and marriage. But family-values politics, now more devalued than the dollar by the philandering of ostentatiously Christian Republican politicians, can only take her so far. The real wave she’s riding is a loud, resonant surge of resentment and victimization that’s larger than issues like abortion and gay civil rights.

During the last week, I have done some serious thinking about the state of our economy, where we are coming from and where we are headed.  The Palin furor, wrapped up in its ignorance and repudiation of anything substantive and instead playing on the deep-seated fears of the American people, has only served to crystallize my thoughts.  My premise is that there are two issues that have historically dragged us down: foreign energy dependence and health care reform.  We are trying to repair those problems with an insufficient band-aid when a total re-design is needed.

President Obama knows these two problem areas are of the utmost importance and the bane of our very existence. However, along with the full plate he was handed on January 20th, 2009, these specific realignments take time.  I dearly hope that he realizes his words and theories will work if and only if he has the guts to truly re-vamp these problem areas, to “go deep” and actually alter attitudes, and not succumb to compromise, which will act like just a band- aid again.

First, we must minimize our dependence on foreign oil as totally as possible.  In a very unscientific manner, sort of like a mental monitoring, I have tracked the price of a barrel of oil and watched a definite correlation with economic weakness, individual, corporate and institutional financial hardship, and a significant decline in public confidence.  America must waste no more time in developing as much of an alternative energy program as possible.  Natural gas, solar, wind and even nuclear energy are there for the taking, if we so decide to actually spend the money.  These sources of power are within the borders of our own country.  In order to fully develop these possibilities though, we need to embrace a new mind set.  That is the difficult part.  Imported oil is poison for us.  Further, the jobs potentially created in establishing these alternative forms of energy would also provide new life for our nation.  Thus, we have a double, positive whammy that could inject new life in to our faltering, outmoded, wasteful downward spiral.

The second issue that likewise needs to be totally redesigned is our health care “system.”  As it stands now, the waste and corruption fueled by our patch, patch, patch strategy is a disaster in the waiting.  Over 50 million Americans have no health insurance at all, and of those that do, many are teetering on the brink  of being able to afford such coverage (i.e. health care should not be a contest between spending one’s money on insurance, medications, or food on the table).  How many more medical insurance company executives are going to have to go public about the greed, corruption, and illegal refusals to honor their policies before we realize that what we have is just a facade of benefits for a wisp of a population?

Our current health care quagmire is very complicated and each new option carries with it a domino effect.  The answer is simply not just reducing doctors’ and hospitals’ fees; that by itself would serve only to create an exodus of qualified professionals and much needed points of service.  Rather, health care professionals and patients need to be re-educated about the benefits/costs relationship.  “If you build it, they will come” might be a good description of a ball field, but certainly not of a health care system.  Just because we have the existence of, for example, MRI’s, does not mean that physicians must prescribe such tests across the board.  Of course, their intention is to avoid any liability punishment.  It is defensive medicine.  So the domino continues to roll: until we have reform in the area of medical liability, we can not realistically expect the caregivers to become more prudent in their requests for more, often unnecessary, testing.  Thus, the waste inherent in our current program will continue to grow.  And so on and so forth.

This piecemeal approach to health care will not be changed by the current proposals in front of Congress.  Nothing less than a major overhaul will suffice to provide all Americans with decent health care.  Universal, mandatory, single payer health care is really what is called for.  Yet, I would settle for a “babying-in” of such policies at this point, in which case we must offer a public option.  Americans must be realistic as well; it would be foolish to expect the Cadillac of health care coverage on a minuscule budget.  That is just not going to happen because it would seal the fate of  financially burdened businesses and government.  If people want fantastic benefits, they will have to pay fantastic premiums.  If they so desire overall coverage for for the cheapest cost, they are going to have to realize that restrictions and yes, even rationing, will be the the order of the day.  We are at a crossroads now, and while it is imperative to adequately and fairly cover all citizens, that notion must be tempered with the  reality of overuse, abuse, expectations and entitlement.  Once again, a mind set change is called for.

Yes, under President Obama’s leadership, we have avoided total financial collapse.  Is this the best we can hope for? Or can we also better our future outlook?  Optimistically, we are on a corrective path.  However, these major changes take a lot of time.  Paul Krugman has been hollering for quite a while now that the stimulus will not be enough to recoup our sure economic footing.  We need more.  Granted: only 10% of the $700 billion designated as stimulus funds has been spent.  Of course, capital projects such as road building and major infrastructure improvements take a considerable chunk of time to implement.  So is the rehabilitation and renovation of our economy stymied by the typical American trait of a lack of patience, or a lack of new, viable policies?  Will we settle once again for the band-aid approach or have the courage of our convictions to alter our attitude and thereby update our American world?

If we truly want to alter our past policies, we need to admit and then restructure  our energy policy and health care coverage and delivery system.  The first step would be to acknowledge the ethical and moral void that permeates our system of government and private enterprise.  Democracy is a funny thing: while providing for freedom and justice, it also allows for capitalistic corruption.  There  exists a fine line between total economic freedom and abuse.  President Obama is on the right track, but a new mind set regarding our needs and wants versus their cost must be squarely faced.  Whether our present economic lethargy is due to just a factor of time or real, long-term faults in the system is moot.  We must initiate corrective policies with the underlying emphasis being on a more equitable system of values.

This is the point where Sarah Palin and the GOP fall flat on their faces.  They have no regard for all the people.  Instead, they think every American should be on their own and not at all reliant on any government assistance.  Those that can afford necessities will receive them and those that can not, will not.  Less government, more for the top 5% of the population.  Instilling fear and prejudice against the have nots is one way to ensure the continuation of this dominance.

As my husband wisely warned our children upon Barack Obama’s election, “You must continue to be vigilant lest we have another Bush.”  The fight goes on, for Sarah Palin could well be our next Bush.  There will always be another scoundrel waiting in the wings, draped in self-righteous, hypocritical, blind faithfulness expected from the general population but not from himself.  We need President Obama to do more than just lay the groundwork, both ideological and actual, for drastic policy change; he must get the job done.  There is little distinction between capitalism’s well-intended aims and its discriminatory, selfish, often destructive ends.  The same holds true for democracy.  That is why we must pursue significant, meaningful and long-term policy changes at this time.   Our constitutional ideals and timbre of our society can be protected only if our policy implementations take precedence over our  leaders’ selfish ambitions our own personal agendas.

So my loyal readers, consider me vigilant.  I will continue the fight for what is good, right and just for the sake of my children and future generations.  If I do not pursue these lofty aims, I might as well just up and join the GOP.  And the American people will maybe get what they deserve: President Sarah Palin.

Hey, It Was Good For ME

Here are some follow-up pieces to my posts last week, i.e. our frolicking, finagling and fish-stinking (my apologies to fish everywhere) public servants.  Once again, the strategy we can best implement to get these jokers and crooks out of office is continuous digging for the truth, supplemented by a large dose of ridicule, embarrassment and humor.  Despite the hypocrisy demonstrated in all of these cases, there is yet an even worse aspect: the colleagues, present office holders, friends and family of these offenders back them up.  They do not have the inclination and guts to kick them out.  So Yo Mama must step in here.  As I live and breathe, I will dish all the dirt necessary to get these jokers out of office.

MARK SANFORD:

In all fairness to his aides, “I’m striking some Argentinean tail,” sounds a lot like, “I’m hiking the Appalachian trail,” when you’re on a fuzzy mobile phone connection.Who hasn’t had that kind of innocent misunderstanding?

SARAH PALIN:

Maybe the scandal has to do with her murky methods of building her house in Wasilla:

http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/the-house-that-todd-built/

At any rate, Peggy Noonan ripped into the very core of Palin.  Noonan summarizes this woman who almost, and still might be, our President some day:

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn’t say what she read because she didn’t read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn’t thoughtful enough to know she wasn’t thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. “I’m not wired that way,” “I’m not a quitter,” “I’m standing up for our values.” I’m, I’m, I’m.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying.

JOHN ENSIGN:

Today, this particular incident of sleaziness offends me the most.  Imagine: a God-fearing, family values proponent, right wing politician stepping outside of that well-defined aura he created for himself and acting on exactly opposite premises.  Just imagine!  Gail Collins of the New York Times spits it our perfectly:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/opinion/11collins.htm

Rachel Maddow goes Collins even one better:

http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2922328

http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2922322

Finally, a little timely laughter:

One day Harry the Eagle waited at the nest for Mary, his darling of 10 glorious years.

After a while when she didn’t return he went looking and found her.?

She had been shot dead!Harry was devastated, but after about six minutes of mourning

he decided that he must get himself another mate, but since there weren’t any lady eagles available he’d have to cross the feather barrier.??

So he flew off to find a new mate.

He found a lovely dove and brought her back to the nest.

The sex was good but all the dove would say is ….

‘I am a DOVE, I want to love!

I am a DOVE, I want to love!’

Well, this got on Harry’s nerves so he kicked the dove out of the nest

and flew off once more to find a mate.

He soon found a very sexy loon and brought her back to the nest.

Again the sex was good but all the loon would say is…….

‘I am a LOON, I want to spoon!

I am a LOON, I want to spoon!’

So out with the loon.

Once more he flew off to find a mate.

This time he found a gorgeous duck and he brought the duck back to the nest.

This time the sex was great, but all the duck would say was….

NO, The duck didn’t say THAT

…… Don’t be SO disgusting!

The duck said….

‘I am a DRAKE,

You made a MISTAKE !!!!!!!!

Sarah Palin: Progressin’ Down

I am about to stoop to the lowest level.  Not in my defense, but simply an explanation, I am doing so because if there is any iota of a chance that Sarah Palin might one day hold our highest national office, that prospect needs to be nipped in the bud NOW.  Trust me: despite all the inappropriateness of Sarah Palin, there is always that opening for her to be our President someday.  Not on my watch.  We will always have that 25% of Americans who will vote for the most right wing, extreme religious and yes, dumbest people out there.  Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people who constantly demonstrate the need to elevate pop figures to the Presidency, as if being a great entertainer, mother figure or folk hero makes them qualified to be our President.

So here I go succumbing to and propagating gossip, speculation and inflammatory provocation.  The Internet is still rife with reports that Trig Palin is not the biological son of Sarah Palin, but the offspring of her daughter, Bristol.  This rumor first surfaced right after John McCain named Palin as his running mate.  Deep down, I believe this rumor to be just that: a provocative lie.  The time table of Trig’s birth, coupled with the subsequent birth of Tripp (Bristol’s and Levi’s acknowledged son), makes the rumors hard to believe —– but not, mind you, an impossible event.  Let us not forget that while Trig was a month premature, Tripp was two weeks late.  But, I must admit, there are a few weird inconsistencies that I can not make hay of and that smack of conspiracy and cover-up.  Rather than list the details here, you may want to take an hour or two out of your lives (wasteful time) and read all the gory details for yourselves:

http://www.palindeception.com/blog

The inconsistencies supporting the rumor mill, just to cite the few that I can not reconcile, are the absence of Bristol from high school, supposedly due to mono, during her mother’s pregnancy, the svelte appearance of Sarah all through Trig’s gestation (not very likely with the fifth child), and once Sarah started leaking amniotic fluid at eight months while she was out of town at a speaking engagement, the fact that she took an eight hour plane ride home and the airline personnel did not even notice that she was pregnant.

Finally, the most damning omen was her sudden resignation last week; her closest colleagues and family members were not even told about this until a day or so before it happened.  This, to me, is the main reason that the speculation might be well-founded.  Levi Johnston was in New York at the time of the resignation announcement inking a book deal, with promises of new, enlightening bombshells.  Could this have scared Sarah so much, the fear that Trig’s true parentage might be revealed, that she cut and ran?  On the other hand, perhaps Todd is not really Trig’s father.  Just a possibility.  Sarah Palin has never offered up to the public a copy of Trig’s birth certificate.  That, coupled with her unexpected and unanticipated jump from office makes me suspicious.  But of what specifically I can not say.

As to whether this conspiracy theory and cover-up are real, I will let you decide for yourselves.  Meanwhile, my best strategy to keep Sarah Palin’s total lack of fitness for public office on the front page is through the use of ridicule and humor.  First though, let me cite an article written by Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe way back on November 14, 2008:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/11/14/for_women_its_not_the_gender_its_the_agenda/

What was true then is even more true now.  Goodman’s thoughts serve to remind us of our ongoing folly.

Here are the laughs, both from David Letterman, a person non grata in Sarah Palin’s eyes.  Is there no higher compliment?

Realignment

Quick! Quick!  Call the doctor!  Republican politics are in dire need of a urologist.  Bill Kristol, being his own best friend, is back to defending the life and times of Sarah Palin:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/06/AR2009070602251.html

Surely it is not his mind speaking, but the organ of his gender.  He has fawned and drooled over Sarah Palin ever since John McCain plucked her out of the great Alaska wilderness of obscurity.  This is why we need a good urologist to put an end to Kristol’s misogyny, which is disguised and distorted as a defense of sexism.  How come Kristol never regaled us with such an advocacy of Elizabeth Dole or Harriet Miers?  Could it possibly be because they aren’t hot lookers like Palin and thus, do not arouse the organ of his manhood?

Quite frankly, I am fed up with men and women who defend unqualified, uneducated, over-the-top ambitious political hypocrites, such as Palin.  Her political life just does not add up, nor does she seem willing to better herself in order to serve her country in a more effective way.  We have scoundrels and heroes, pirates and patriots, in every walk of life: whites, people of color, men, women, gays and straights.  Minority status does not allow a rascal to avoid  criticism and condemnation.  Maureen Dowd in the New York Times and Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post both take Palin to task today.  Neither writer has any sympathy for Palin, despite the fact that they share the same gender as she.  No excuses for ineptitude, greed and narcissism here.  These women journalists show no such protection and excuse-making for Palin just because she is a female.  A bad seed is a bad seed.  An idiot is an idiot.  An attention seeker is an attention seeker.  Only Kristol would defend Palin based on her gender, and I daresay the word “sex” rather than “gender” is more appropriate in his case.

Hillary Clinton was also subject to the sexism argument.  Even though Clinton is a totally different story than Palin due to her incredible smarts and old fashioned work ethic, the sexism tableau was used to describe the failure of her Presidential bid.  Garbage.  Barack Obama had a better strategy, was the better person for the job and was what our times called for.  No sexual politics here:  the best person won.

At any rate, I wish I had written what Maureen Dowd did today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/opinion/08dowd.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In a like vein, Kathleen Parker’s piece today is very funny and appropriately cutting.  Please note that she also came up with the exact idea that Yo Mama had (”The Sarah Chronicles”, post of July 4, 2009) regarding Palin’s political motive, i.e. “follow the money”:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/07/AR2009070702338.html

These women are strong enough and smart enough to call a spade a spade.  They do not need to support a fellow female just for the sake of sexual validation.  Kristol, on the other hand, needs to get himself to a urologist and neurosurgeon (one and the same for Kristol’s malady)  as soon as possible and have the wires from his brain and his penis realigned  in their proper, originally intended manner.

Rx For Reform: The Health Care Balancing Act

Let me finally get down to some of the issues involved in health care.  This piece will not be a treatise on the nuts and bolts of the variously proposed facts and figures.  I will leave that to the policy wonks.  Rather, I will, through my experience as a consumer of health care in our country, an insurance policyholder and an employee in a medical office for over 25 years, attempt to give an overview of the changes we need to provide health care worthy of our nation’s ideals.  Keep in mind that my recurring theme has always been a fair, just and ethical government, no matter what specific issue is at hand.  First I will address the process of designing this system, the political and financial mechanics.  Then I will deal with some basic principles that are a “must” for our health care to be effective and relevant.  And finally, I have to mention some of my own pet peeves.

I understand President Obama’s focused aim to get this health care policy from the Congress, rather than from his own office; the mandate would be larger and more meaningful.  The Clinton’s health care initiative came from the White House, and was slammed down from the get-go.  However, our President  must be careful about certain procedures.  First, as soon as Al Franken is seated as the junior senator from Minnesota, there will be a filibuster-proof Democratic majority in the Senate.  I urge him to rely on that majority and not waste time and effort on coaxing the GOP to add their line items.  That would be a fruitless course.  The Republicans simply say “No” to all bipartisan proposals because their only game plan is to destroy the party in power.  Secondly, it will be important for President Obama to stand firm on the specifics of the policy once they are laid out.  If he chooses to dilute the policy and introduce drastic changes in the spirit of bipartisanship, consensus and compromise, he might then lose some of his initial supporters who would correctly view the altered policy as totally different from the one they supported at the beginning.  So I urge our President to listen to all reasonable ideas, work through them while trying to overcome the opposition’s destructive tendencies, and then go with what makes the most sense in terms of coverage and costs.  Content and substance should have a higher priority than speed, although history had shown that a new President will never have as much power as he has in his first year in office.  So President Obama is faced with yet another careful balancing act.  Under no circumstances should the GOP and, I might add, rogue Democrat lawmakers looking out for their own personal electoral popularity and rewards from health care lobbies , be allowed to high-jack a national health care coverage program.

It is high time for the United States to have mandatory, universal health care coverage for all of our citizens.  We are the only industrialized nation in the world which offers no such program.  It is a blight on our reputation as a fair democracy and outright neglect on behalf of our citizens.  We have never had a health care “system”; rather, medical coverage has been a slapped together, change-the-rules-in-the-middle, cover-your-ass hodgepodge of exclusionary, discriminatory, greedy and vengeful non-policies.  The time is now and President Obama must be very firm about his leadership goals.

There are a number of aspects that must be included in any viable, beneficial health plan.  To begin with I am of the mind that supports a public option.  In my more volatile moments, I tend to back a single payer system.  Knowing that that will never happen at this time, I believe that the public option is a necessity for a successful program.  Why, you might ask?  As directly as I can state, there must be the public option in order to keep the private insurers honest.  The private insurers are greedy and  dishonest about paying for one’s designated benefits and ignorant about what health care delivery signifies.  They think that health care delivery is keeping as much money as possible for themselves.  They are not interested in positive health outcomes for their policyholders.  Their overriding concern over and above all else is their bottom line.  These private entities are in no way, shape or form health care insurers; they are simply loss minimizers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/opinion/29mon1.html?_r=1

Yes, we do need competition to ensure that medical care gets delivered as promised.  The public option would also help reign in the waste inherent in our current jumble of services rendered.  Our Medicare system is the largest health insurer in the world and overall, it has been quite successful, both in the medical care it provides and cost containment.  There is a term that Medicare uses as the holy grail of their coverage: adjusted average per capita cost (AAPCC rate).  This figure is computed for every county and/or zip code in the nation.  Medicare knows exactly how much health care will cost any citizen at any given age in every county in America.  There are pockets of very successful, cost-effective  health plans throughout our country and then there are other pockets of wasteful yet restrictive plans.

Before we can morph into a single payer program, we need to test the waters.  Why not set up some regional plans, using the AAPCC information, and actually see if such a proposal has legs?  Americans will have to make compromises.  Perhaps higher taxes are in the future picture to help defray the costs of health care.  Rationing will occur to a certain extent.  However, with all the waste in our current model, it will not be as bad or inflammatory as the opposition politicians would like us to believe.  Here is an interesting article on rationing:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/25/AR2009062503360.html

Furthermore, the health care “system” that is in place now is like throwing good money after bad.  Reform will be expensive, but hopefully,  more financially streamlined, democratic and beneficial.  We certainly can not continue on the doomed path of wasteful care and overwhelming costs we are on now.  Our consumption of health care must be tempered with, on the part of patients and care givers, a reasonable allowance and realistic expectations.  The takers must also be the givers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/opinion/07tue1.html

Regarding cost-containment vis-a-vis rationing, hospitals will also have to bite the bullet.  Don’t kid yourself by the designation “non-profit organization”, which many hospitals embrace.  In my county, the non-profit status of our hospital system pays its chief executives well into the seven figure range, similar to the exorbitant wages earned by our health insurance companies.  Of course, if I charged $10 for an aspirin or $20 for a sanitary napkin, I too would be pulling down a one million dollar salary.  So there is going to have to be a careful balancing act on all sides: the patients, the caregivers, the insurance companies and the associated sideline enterprises such as malpractice insurers and drug companies.  We are all in this together and every single one of us must make sacrifices.

Our expectations must be tempered.  For example, regarding liability insurance for physicians, there needs to be a state cap on damages, such as we have here in Virginia.  I am well aware that some medical malpractice is real and murderous.  However, frivolous litigation should not be rewarded by huge, punitive payments based on purely emotional reactions.  Until the cost of liability insurance comes down to reasonable levels (which can happen only if caps are put in place for damages), physicians will be scrambling to cover those costs, sometimes in gluttonous and greedy ways.

Which brings me to my most strongly held pet peeve: the minimization of our physicians by referring to them as “health care providers.”  The title “Doctor” has been conveniently removed from their names, as if by omitting their title not only would their personal value be minimized, but also their professional worth.  Does this invalidation mean that health costs would also diminish?  I think not.  Our physicians spend close to ten years in post college education and spend around $200,000 just for medical school.  Unless a person has enlisted in the military to cover their education, no one, absolutely NO ONE, contributes to their medical education besides themselves and perhaps their parents. So yes, you damn well better call your health care provider by his or her  well-earned title of Doctor.

In the New York Times, David Brooks said it all:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/opinion/07brooks.html?_r=1

Our search for dignity, morality and everything that should be sacred to us, like children, is embodied in this attempt at providing health care for all Americans.  Can we pull it off effectively and cost-consciously, or will it be yet another victory for the haves and to hell with the have-nots?  As usual, my opinion on health care is couched, like everything else I write, in the hope for a just and moral benevolence for all Americans.  In our quest for universal medical coverage, and as it should be in government, politics and life, we have the best possible man on the job.  President Obama’s temperament, intellect and moral demeanor is just what the doctor ordered.  President Obama needs to rely on himself, his instincts, his character.  I know I do.

Super Glue Journalism

Roger Cohen of the New York Times wrote this Op-Ed today.  His thoughts are very close to my heart.  He gets it:

A Journalists’”Actual Responsibility”

By ROGER COHEN

Published: July 5, 2009

NEW YORK — Shortly after World War I, the great German sociologist Max Weber gave a lecture in Munich in which he turned his mind to journalism.

Earl Wilson/The New York Times

Roger Cohen

“Not everyone realizes,” Weber told students, “that to write a really good piece of journalism is at least as demanding intellectually as the achievement of any scholar. This is particularly true when we recollect that it has to be written on the spot, to order, and that it must create an immediate effect, even though it is produced under completely different conditions from that of scholarly research. It is generally overlooked that a journalist’s actual responsibility is far greater than the scholar’s.”

Yes, journalism is a matter of gravity. It’s more fashionable to denigrate than praise the media these days. In the 24/7 howl of partisan pontification, and the scarcely less-constant death knell din surrounding the press, a basic truth gets lost: that to be a journalist is to bear witness.

The rest is no more than ornamentation.

To bear witness means being there — and that’s not free. No search engine gives you the smell of a crime, the tremor in the air, the eyes that smolder, or the cadence of a scream.

No news aggregator tells of the ravaged city exhaling in the dusk, nor summons the defiant cries that rise into the night. No miracle of technology renders the lip-drying taste of fear. No algorithm captures the hush of dignity, nor evokes the adrenalin rush of courage coalescing, nor traces the fresh raw line of a welt.

I confess that, out of Iran, I am bereft. I have been thinking about the responsibility of bearing witness. It can be singular, still. Interconnection is not presence.

A chunk of me is back in Tehran, between Enquelab (Revolution) and Azadi (Freedom), where I saw the Iranian people rise in the millions to reclaim their votes and protest the violation of their Constitution.

We journalists are supposed to move on. Most of the time, like insatiable voyeurs, we do. But once a decade or so, we get undone, as if in love, and our subject has its revenge, turning the tables and refusing to let us be.

The Iranian Constitution says that the president is to be elected “by the direct vote of the people,” not selected through the bogus invocation of God’s will. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Revolution, said in 1978 that: “Our future society will be a free society and all the elements of oppression, cruelty and force will be destroyed.”

The regime has been weakened by the flagrance of its lie, now only sustainable through force. No show trials can make truth of falseness. You cannot carve in rotten wood.

I was one of the last Western journalists to leave the city. Ignoring the revocation of my press pass, I went on as long as I could. Everything in my being rebelled against acquiescence to the coterie around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose power grab has shattered the balances of the revolution’s institutions and whose goal is plain: no eyewitnesses to the crime.

Of course, Iranians have borne witness — with cellphone video images, with photographs, through Twitter and other forms of social networking — and have thereby amassed an ineffaceable global indictment of the usurpers of June 12.

Never again will Ahmadinejad speak of justice without being undone by the Neda Effect — the image of eyes blanking, life abating and blood blotching across the face of Neda Agha-Soltan.

Iran crushes people with its tragedy. It was unbearable to go. It remains so. Images multiply across the Web but the mainstream media, disciplined to distil, is missed.

Still, the world is watching. As we Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence, let’s stand with Iran by recalling the first democratic revolution in Asia. It began in 1905 in Iran, driven by the quest to secure parliamentary government and a Constitution from the Qajar dynasty.

Now, 104 years on, Iranians demand that the Constitution they have be respected through Islamic democracy and a government accountable to the people. They will not be silenced. The regime’s base has narrowed dramatically. Its internal splits are growing with the defection of much of the clerical establishment.

One distinguished Iran scholar, Farideh Farhi, wrote this to me: “So I cry and ask why we have to do this to ourselves over and over again. Yet I do have hope, perhaps for purely selfish reasons — because I don’t want to cry all the time, but also because of the energy you keep describing. We have a saying in Persian, I assume out of historical experience, to the effect that Iran ultimately tames the invaders.”

That transported me to Ferdowsi Square, on June 18, and a woman who, with palpable passion, told me: “This land is my land.”

She called Ahmadinejad “the halo without light” — a line from the anthem of the Iran demanding its country back, the Iran still saying “No” by lifting its unbending chorus into the night.

From far away, I hear it, and this distance feels like betrayal — of those brave rooftop voices and of a journalist’s “actual responsibility.”

My Attention Starved America

Good morning my fellow Americans!  And glory be, what that term encompasses: invaluable freedom, even though it includes the freedom to sink to the lowest level of personal conduct, narcissism and the tendency to rationalize those actions as the right thing to do.  Bizarre.  Twisted.  Furthermore, our pathetic posturing in response to these behaviors are just as significant as the acts themselves.  O my America!   Your overwhelming need for deification of all the wrong heroes is just so dispiriting.  Allow me the use of humor and ridicule to review recent events.  The alternative would be to roll up in a ball and just die.

First on my agenda is the sadness and regret in my heart that the deeply important affairs in Iran have been pushed out of the public eye.  The Iranians’ struggle for freedom needs that media attention, public support and global awareness in order to continue.  How does this fight in Iran compare to the confessions of Governor Mark Sanford, the passing of pop icon Michael Jackson, or the bizarre babbling of Sarah Palin?  It doesn’t.  Finally after a week and a half of nonsense being on our newspapers’ front pages, the New York Times’ lead article today focuses back on Iran and that the leading clerics are calling the recent election “illegitimate”.  Perhaps it is too early to tell yet as to whether or not the revolution in Iran has died.  Perhaps the lack of progress is just due to the media going elsewhere where their bread is currently buttered.  Or perhaps, the fight in Iran has been quashed for the present and would have happened despite media attention going elsewhere.   At any rate, this displacement of human interest is totally upside down and distorted.  But hey —- we Americans often get it wrong in our deference to the moment.

Who wants to hear Mark Sanford’s ongoing  regalement of his adolescent-like sexual endeavors?  Is he fessin’ up just so he can then cover those peccadilloes with religious fervor and thus cement his conservative base?  How could anyone not laugh out loud at Sanford’s proposition that the same right wing exclusionary religion of steadfast adherence to very strict morals and ethics  would also allow and then forgive his transgressions?  He is such a blowhard who tailors his supposed deep beliefs to cover his ass at any given moment, depending on the circumstances.  Why won’t he just go away?

The hoopla over Michael Jackson’s death is just as misplaced.  Yes, he was a great entertainer, but people, puh-lease, he was such a damaged human.  Moreover, he thought the abuse piled on him was an acceptable excuse to abuse and damage others, and they were children.  That, my friends, is an inexcusable sin.  And Americans, in their endless search for adoration, are responding by lionizing this pop icon who devastated our most precious resource, the children.  Bob Herbert of the New York Times, wrote eloquently about the significance of Michael Jackson’s life and death.  This is a telling article and explains how this hysteria arose from our culture and continues to grab our attention.  If you do nothing else today, read this piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/opinion/04herbert.html

Now for Sarah Palin.  Maureen Dowd nailed this nut case perfectly as the ultimate narcissist:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05dowd.html

One aspect of a narcissist’s personality is that she will say anything, even if it negatively impacts her own self, just to remain in the spotlight.  What?  We didn’t see this with Mark Sanford also?  Let me throw out some of my own thoughts on Palinism.  “Gotta go out maverickin’”.  “Gotta improve my state, i.e. progress (the verb!) Alaska, by leaving it.”  “Gotta love my rogue resignation.”  Perhaps Palin’s new slogan should be “De-elect Sarah Palin”, stupefying those who allow themselves to be taken in and  exemplifying her “true” desire to be patriotic and caring about her state.

So on this day, July 5th, I protest.  I object and offer very short shrift to the idiots who are usurping the media spotlight and the news outlets that perpetrate their narcissism.  With the Iranian people held close to me, I will choose substance over entertainment.  Above all, I will spend some time with a person of a younger generation.  It  always goes back to  the kids.  They are our past, our present and our future.

The Sarah Chronicles

As if the world would settle down and let me prepare my health care post.  Sorry, honey: the world does not stop for anyone.  Sarah Palin has announced she will resign as Governor of Alaska.  Motive?  Who knows.  My first thought was that she wanted to take a run for the Presidency in 2012 and she would be using these intervening years to read up on the issues.  Not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.  That would take too much time and effort and we know what a magnet she is for immediate gratification.  My second thought was that she just could not get the attention that she craves.  After all, Mark Sanford kind of cornered the market in that department.  My third thought, and I think this might be the reality, is money.  She does not have a pot to pee pee in, her husband is not a worker and the Republican party is just not interested in her.  Thus, she’s going to have to sell herself to bring in the bucks to support her designer pioneer life.  We DO know about her champagne tastes on what has, so far, been a beer budget.

If her intention is to continue in politics, she sure made the wrong choice here.  Governors do not resign;they have an obligation to their states, their positions of office are very prestigious, and governorships are the leading springboard to a run for the Presidency.  Re-election aside, she is not even going to complete her first term.  This action smacks of a repudiation of her duty to Alaskans and an abrogation of her responsibilities to the American way.  No way is this selfish act going to bolster her chances in a Presidential run.  What could she possibly be thinking?  It has got to be the money.  Remember what Deep Throat said:  “Follow the money.”

Let us bide away the hours this weekend waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I guarantee you that Palin is not done yet.

In the meantime, enjoy these Maine visions.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

THANK YOU, MISS RUMPHIUS

LONG LIVE MISS RUMPHIUS

HEART SAVING FOXGLOVE

PALIN POSTSCRIPT

It appears that Gail Collins of the New York Times is on the same page as Yo Mama regarding Palin’s motives:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/opinion/04collins.html

Our Freedom, Our Foundation, Our Fourth

Some pertinent weekend reading follows, as does some more funnies.  However, on Monday, we get back to work here.  And if Governor Mark Sanford can manage to keep his mouth and zipper shut, I will endeavor to tackle health care next week.  So goodbye to Governor Sanford:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/03/shut-up-sanford-stewart-b_n_225360.html

Here is a little fourth of July reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03duval.html

On this, our Independence Day, let us celebrate our good fortune to be Americans:

1. Only in America……can a  pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
2. Only in America……are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
3. Only in America……do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
4. Only in America……do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet Coke.
5. Only in America……do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters.
6. Only in America……do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
7. Only in America……do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.
8. Only in America……do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
9. Only in America……do we use the word ‘politics’ to describe the process so well: Poli’ in Latin meaning ‘many’ and ‘tics’ meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’.
10. Only in America……do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

Happy July Fourth weekend.  See you on Monday.

Here Come the Brides

Beginnings.  Renewals.  Commitments.

Two of my good friends, and their intendeds, are getting married this weekend.  It is good, it is inspiring, it is mushy and in these two cases, it is so right.  Excuse the lack of anonymity, but life is too short and too good to put effort into making up things.

To my friend Cameron and her Andy, I send you wishes  for all your dreams to come true and for your life to be a celebration of your love.

To my friend Kate and her Drew, I wish you a forever of happiness, love and recycling.

Beginnings.  Renewals.  Commitments.  Have a blast.  The best is yet to come but absolutely rock out this weekend.

With much love,

Yo Mama (Bondawg)