Morning Quickie: It's the Economy, Stupid

Yesterday the Bush Administration was tripping over each other to congratulate themselves for the quarterly unemployment numbers; at 4.4 percent, it's a new 5 year low. And they cheered for the 92,000 of new jobs that were created during the quarter.

But if you worked for Ford, GM, AOL, Intel, or any of the hundreds of other companies large and small that laid you off and thousands of your fellow employees, ar you cheering? If you snagged one of the new jobs -- most likely at a pay grade lower than what you left -- is this the news that will make you vote for "Stay the Course?"

As President Bush and company hooray over these numbers, please remember that in 6 short years we've gone a from a budget surplus to a budget deficit of record proportions, borrowing from foreign companies (particularly China) has increased massively, we spend over $40 billion every day in Iraq (money that has no direct return on investment to the US and nothing indirect either), outsourcing of good jobs continues, the housing market is in trouble, and although the stock market cracked 12,ooo, a number of analysts feel its pace is unsustainable.

The unemployment numbers represent a national average. Across the country, what I'll call "grass-roots" unemployment -- the state of your local economy is what will impact your vote. If you're one of the thousands who lined up for 200 jobs at a candy store, or are facing seasonal unemployment, end of the year lay-offs, or a just an uncertain future, you're in the grass-roots economy. And you're more likely to vote for change.

Family Values and Values Voters

The story is just beginning to unfold, but if true, the allegations against Rev. Ted Haggard, former head of the National Association of Evangelicals, have to leave so-called "values voters" reeling.

Ted Haggard has admitted to buying meth and supposedly throwing it away. And he has admitted to contacting his accuser, a gay male escort, for a "massage," but claims he never had sex with him.

The details of Haggard's involvement with Mike Jones will become clear in time. But we need to remember that Haggard -- as part of the Evangelical inner circle -- made regular (some have described weekly) conference calls to the White House to discuss policy issues (say, an anti-gay marriage Constitutional amendment?). He was one of the high and mighty determined to bring their version good old-fashioned family values to every household in America whether we wanted it or not. To protect us from the travesty of the gay lifestyle.

Every Sunday pastors of the religious right gather their flocks to preach not just from the good book, but from the dictates of the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, and other similar groups. These same preachers encourage their congregations to patronize certain shops, read certain books, watch (or boycott) certain television shows, attend particular rallies, and vote for certain candidates or initiatives because as a born-again, evangelical Christian it is the moral thing to do.

How does one continue to denigrate and discriminate against homosexuals when your leader consorts with "the enemy?" How can you rail against gays and gay marriage when one of your national leaders is on the "down low?" How do you follow someone so willing to cast the first stone against others for the very same "sin" he commits?

If your political convictions are controlled by someone whose moral predilections are suspect, what do you do? Just who do you vote for when your pastor is caught with his figurative (if not literal) pants down? Is this a case of do as I say, not as I do? How do you reconcile your belief in a pastor who says gays are immoral and won't go to heaven, when he is in an illicit gay relationship? How do you follow his orders to walk the "holier than thy neighbors" path, when he goes astray? If he has violated his own tenets, how do you trust opinions and dictates of others like him? What secrets are they hiding?

Religion and politics don't mix. Like oil and water, it is difficult to keep the suspension going. Religion is a personal, private matter (no matter how public we try to make it.) Politics is public business. If Ted Haggard didn't know that before, he knows it now.

Long Day's Journey Into Election Night

Tuesday will be the longest day of the year. A long day at polling places across the country and a long night as votes are counted and recounted and contested and challenged. We may know in the early hours of Wednesday morning what the make-up of the new Congress will be.

Democrats are poised to reclaim at least the House of Representatives, if not the Senate too. If voters speak their minds about the fiasco that is Iraq, the Democrats will take over. No less a prognosticator than Stu Rothenberg sees the Dems grabbing 6 senate seats and taking over the Senate as well as the House.

Expect President Bush and VP Cheney to present some new terror threat -- probably happening on Friday -- elevating the "threat" level to DefCon Catastrophic; they'll also announce the arrest of the number two man in Al Qaeda in Iraq; and showcase some project to demonstrate rebuilding of the country. But remember, they will also ignore the looming (if not already active) civil war there, the increasing targeting of US troops, and ineptitude of the so-called government they've installed there. But voters won't be fooled.

If voters do nothing more than vote their emotions -- not consciences, but emotions -- on Iraq, the Republicans are not going to fare well. No matter which side of the philosophical debate you support, for or against the war, it is nearly impossible to look at the numbers of service members killed last month, look at the faces as they are remembered on the evening news, look at their families grieving and not feel that enough of this carnage is enough. If "stay the course" means more coffins and more wounded, voters will just say no.

Tuesday the Senate and House will change hands. Tuesday will be the end of "stay the course."

Stay the Course, Rumsfeld and Cheney Jobs Safe

VP Dick Cheney and Defense Sec'y Donald Rumsfeld can each breathe a small sigh of relief. Their jobs are safe for now. President Bush has given Rumsfeld the "thumbs-up" sign despite calls for his resignation from both Republicans and Democrats. And Cheney gets a big vote of confidence too in spite of the Iraq quagmire he helped create.

It seems that the new Bush Administration strategy of renaming the "stay the course" policy into "modify to win" doesn't apply to Rumsfeld or Cheney. The sobering casualty list for October reports 105 US military personnel dead and 700+ wounded. In one long, sad month families and friends in cities large and small have said farewell to flag-draped coffins. They have rushed to the bedsides of their injured, and prepared for the weeks and months and years of rehabilitation.

Not Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld have offered anything other than lip service to changing Iraq policy. And while firing Rumsfeld or removing Cheney would not directly prevent another war death, it would be something more tangible than the doublespeak we're being served.

President Bush has always planned for this debacle to be inherited by the next president. So in his mind there is no need to remove the incompetent architects of this mess. They can all stay the course until January of 2009, and then ride into the sunset, convinced that they brought stability to the Middle East, routed the terrorists, and made the world a safer place.

They didn't.

"Sorry" always seems to be the hardest word.

Sen. John Kerry, (D. MA) just apologized for his misstatement made on Monday. Thanks, John for finally coming to your senses and realizing nobody -- and I mean nobody, nowhere -- got your joke. That was lesson one.

Lesson two -- and the more important one, the one that politicians everywhere seem to be too hard-headed to learn whether by personal experience or by example -- is fix problems right away. Nip it in the bud. Avoidance only makes your problems last longer. Had Mr. Kerry simply apologized right away this whole fiasco would have fizzled away quickly.

Now the best thing for Mr. Kerry to do is lay low until after the election. If he continues to speak out or campaign for any other Democrat he will continue to fuel this thing and do more damage to Democrats running for election. Silence until after November 7 is his penance.

Hey, John Kerry! Please SHUT UP!

For an educated man, John Kerry can say some dumb things. At the wrong time. To the wrong people. And compounds his errors with his "explanations."

A classic is the oft quoted, "I voted against it, before I voted for it." Now we have a new one:

''You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Mr. Kerry was speaking at Pasadena City College to a group of students (who are clearly visible standing near him at the podium). And there is no reference to President Bush or anyone else in the Bush Administration to link them to the so-called joke. Kerry's reference is to the students about studying hard so that they can avoid having to enlist in the military because their other life options are limited.

Like so many of the students in Kerry's audience. these soldiers, marines, seamen, and airmen are young men and women, who are serving in this war to earn money for college, to put food on the table for their young families back home, to learn new skills and find new directions for their lives. Some of these young people don't come from families with the means to send their kids off to college -- even one as affordable as PCC. (Tuition and fees there range from $8400 to $13,ooo for nine months. Serving two or four year enlistments in the Army would cover part if not all of those expenses.)

Hispanics, African-Americans and other minorities know that service in the military can provide a leg up in the civilian world. The military was desegregated long before much of mainstream business in the north and south. But let us not paint too rosy a picture here, without reminding ourselves -- and Mr. Kerry especially -- that the military draft grabs far more young minorities who cannot apply for deferments, extensions, or other favors to avoid service. And in wartime, he who cannot pay for someone else to take his place at the front line finds himself facing insurgents, IEDs, snipers, kidnappers, suicide bombers and other potentially life threatening agents.

Mr. Kerry would like for people to think he meant Mr. Bush is dumb and his dumb policies are what got us stuck in Iraq. However Mr. Kerry lacks the ability to speak straight-forwardly. And his "smart mouth" gets him in trouble time after time. Further, instead of just saying, "Boy did I just say something really stupid and insensitive. I'm very. very sorry," he compounds the gaffe by trying to dance around it and spin it into something else.

Mr. Kerry, I'm a Liberal Democrat and I am asking you -- no, begging you -- to please shut up. You are not helping. Don't try to explain this anymore. Don't campaign for any Democrats, no matter how dire their races are. Go home, close the door behind you, draw the blinds, pull the shades and hide under your bed until November 8. I'll apologize for you:

Senator John F. Kerry, (D-MA) would like to apologize for the callous and insensitive remarks he made on Monday while speaking at Pasadena City College in California. Mr. Kerry erroneously suggested that students who don't study hard and achieve in school end up in (the military) in Iraq. That was simply a wrong characterization of the makeup of the US armed forces. He is extremely sorry for the remarks. What he meant to say was... um, well nobody really cares what he meant to say. Mr. Kerry has been sent home by the DNC where he is to remain until well after the election. Mr. Kerry is no longer allowed to speak to anyone except for his immediate family within the confines of his home. Again, the Democratic Party and loyal Democrats everywhere extend their apologies and unabashed support to the fine men and women of the US military. Thank you.

Republican Party Games: When I Said... You Heard....

Everyone in the Bush Administration -- all of those who support it are playing a new party game (or is that Party game?) called "When I Said (Fill in the Blank), You Heard... This week's version ends with "stay the course."

To play with your friends, just follow along:

President Bush: When I said "Dick Cheney's gonna shave a horse," you heard "Dick Cheney said 'Stay the course.'"

Dick Cheney: When I said "Tony Snow's got a rock hard torso," you heard "Tony Snow said, 'Stay the course, even more so.'"

Tony Snow: When I said "It's hard to play golf in Scottish gorse," you heard "Karl Rove said, 'Stay the course.'"

Karl Rove: When I said "I was Woodward's secret source," you heard "Condi Rice said, 'Stay the course.'"

Condi Rice: When I said "He's pretty cute as far as Lords go," you heard "Donald Rumsfeld said, 'Stay the course, bro.'"

Donald Rumsfeld: When I said "Stay the course, I meant it. So just back off!"

Defeat Heather Wilson (R-New Mexico)

The Heather Wilson versus Patricia Madrid smackdown has been one of the nastiest campaigns I've ever seen. Perhaps not the absolute nastiest, but it is comfortably in my Top Ten. It will probably take most of us awhile to recover from this one. But as I prepare to cast my paper ballot, I'll let you know that Heather Wilson will not get my vote.

If her dismal record in Congress weren't enough to make me finally scream "Uncle!" the constant negativity of her campaign would. But I'm rejecting her based on her record. You can count on Heather Wilson to parrot the Bush Administration's talking points to the letter. I find no independent thinking or leadership in her record. For someone who is a military vet as she so constantly reminds us, her eagerness to "stay the course" is disturbing.

Any time voters decide to unseat an incumbent, we find ourselves second-guessing that decision. Patricia Madrid may turn out to be no better a choice to send to Washington. And her debate skills may need to be honed. But I'm willing to give her a chance. She is a new voice, a different voice that may be heard above the partisan din in DC. And as an opponent of the Iraq War, Madrid is willing to say what Wilson won't: the time has come to get out of Baghdad.

This year Patricia Madrid is the correct choice for U.S. Representative. First District, New Mexico.

Paper Trails

This is just a short take on what some see as a very complex problem: how to get a paper receipt for an e-Vote.

Diebold and the other manufacturers of electronic voting machines tell us it's way too complicated to produce a computer that can tally and record all votes cast on that particular machine; keep track of a voter's choices, print out a receipt (paper trail) for the voter; and at the end of the evening print out the sum total of votes for every candidate.

Maybe they should check with National Cash Register Corporation (NCR) or any of the other manufacturers of point-of-sale devices. NCR has been recording transactions for over 100 years. Every day in this country, millions consumers trust the folks that build cash registers to accurately record their billions of dollars worth of purchases, tally their expenditures, charge them to their credit or debit cards, report how much change is due back if the transaction is handled by cash, generate a subtotal, calculate how much tax should be added, generate a total, print out a receipt with every item and its unit price for the customer, and at the end of a shift or the end of the business day, generate a complete accounting of the transactions for that register. Millions of consumers, billions of transactions, 365 days a year. (And that's just in the USA.)

Get charged the wrong amount? Get the wrong change? Get the wrong sandwich at the drive-thru? Show them your receipt.

Too bad you can't do that with your electronic ballot.

Diebold and the rest of the voting machine industry can do much better. Or maybe we should let NCR do it. I think they know how.

Sex, Lies and Waterboarding

I wonder why Lynne Cheney is being so coy about writing a racy lesbian love scene (or scenes) in her book, Sisters. Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to the Lynne's hubby Vice President Dick Cheney, had us enthralled -- no, more like grossed out -- with his tepid novel The Apprentice, featuring young Japanese maidens being "seduced" by bears in cages.

Ms. Cheney and other Republicans are tattling on Jim Webb (D) running for US Senate in Virginia against incumbent George "Hey Macaca!" Allen (R). Mr. Webb, a former Secretary of Navy during the Reagan administration, and author of 10 books including the acclaimed Lost Soldiers and Fields of Fire.

According to the tattlers, Mr. Webb writes porno. He is insensitive to women they claim. He wrote a really super-duper nasty scene in one book involving a father and son. Ewwwwwwwww! Meanwhile the Vice President says he thinks waterboarding is good clean fun.

I'll be honest: Haven't read any of their books and don't intend to. This scrum is intended to distract Virginia voters -- and yes, those of us in other parts of the country from the real issues at stake in this election. I find it coincidental that the VP's remarks about how waterboarding really isn't torture and is okay with him seemed to bubble up to the surface during the same news cycle. (Let's see: you say something shocking and controversial regarding torture and whether or not you condone it, and your wife deflects some of the attention which should be focused on your sorry excuse for a behind by claiming that a Democratic senate candidate writes porno. Things that make you go "hmmmmmmmmm.")

The torture in specific question is waterboarding where a prisoner is tied to an inclined board, feet above the head. Water is then poured over the prisoner's head which, according to various descriptions, may be bare, covered with cloth or cellophane. The object of the exercise is to induce a severe gag reflex -- the choking, drowning response -- which causes the prisoner to (under "ideal" circumstances) to believe he or she is in imminent danger of death to quickly give in so that the torture will stop. If it is not performed correctly the prisoner may suffer oxygen deprivation and brain and lung damage, and for the very unlucky, real, not simulated, death.

Mr. Webb writes fiction. Some of it is about sex. Mr. Cheney's issues are factual: Waterboarding has been defined by persons far more expert than the VP or the President as torture. He and the President either support using torture on detainees or they don't. All evidence, including Mr. Cheney's own words demonstrate that they do.

The Republicans' Big Tent

The Tennessee Senate race made big news this week because of controversial -- some say racist -- attack ads supporting candidate Robert "Bob" Corker (R) over Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D). In the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you that I think the ads are outrageous, inflammatory, inaccurate, and yes, play the race card. But more appalling are two things: first, the hear-no-evil, see-no-evil game played by the Republican National Committee and its chairman Ken Mehlman. Second, the failure of ANY black Republican to take his or her party to task for using this despicable tactic.

Okay, briefly for any of you not quite up to speed on the goings-on down in Volunteer state. Harold Ford, Jr. is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist. Mr. Ford is black, single, from a prominent black family in Tennessee (his father is a former congressman) and if elected would be the first black senator from a southern state since Reconstruction. His opponent is a former mayor of Chattanooga, white, wealthy. Now here is where it starts to get good: The Republican National Committee paid "an independent entity" to produce some ads in support of Mr. Corker. According to campaign finance laws, there can be no coordination between the candidate (Corker), the RNC (represented here by Chairman Ken Mehlman) and the mystery mischief-maker (a shadowy 527 political action committee). The ads in question purportedly link Mr. Ford to a variety of -- at best "un-Republican" -- values and at worst to porn money, the gun control lobby, peddling "abortion pills" to children, and a blonde bimbo who "met Harold at the Playboy mansion" and wants him to call her. While the other items in the list are inaccurate, misleading, distorted and more, it is the bimbo that is the bombshell.

I'll grant that if you are not already sensitive to it, you may not get what all the fuss is about. Simply put, the GOP is playing to its east Tennessee base. Not just the NASCAR dads, but a particularly race-sensitive white male voter who is in the hills of Bristol, who allows the N-word to fall trippingly off his tongue just as casually as he'd call his dog in for dinner. This is the guy who'd tolerate standing in line at Burger King or KFC with "one," but "for dang sure I ain't allowin' my daughter to date one." The image of that blonde cooing "Harold, call me," at the end of the ad seals the deal.

Now if you're not sensitive to the hidden, coded messages, you just won't get it. It looks like any other attack ad. Back in the late 80's, early 90's there were these posters that you had to look at a certain way to see the image. Head-on, it was just a hodge-podge of colorful tiny dots. You had to stand a certain distance away, focus or unfocus your eyes on a certain point in front of or behind the image, go cross-eyed, stand on one foot and hop around. You'd see people straining and straining trying to make the dots converge into the image of whatever it was supposed to be. When they finally got it, you'd hear them whoop and exclaim "I can see it!" Those that got it, could do it again and again. Hence, the popularity. And there were some of us (I was one) who never saw what the others were raving about. No matter how hard I tried, I could never pull that image into focus to see the rockets or plants or flowers or clowns that the other ones saw.
Much like the folks who are having a hard time seeing the coded racist message of the ads supporting Mr. Corker. Which brings us to Mr. Corker, who at first feigned ignorance of the ad for days before requesting that the RNC yank it from circulation -- apparently so nicely that the RNC just laughed in his face. And that brings us to Mr. Mehlman.

Ken Mehlman, too, feigned ignorance of the ad. Then denied that the content could be considered racist. Then claimed to be "extraordinarily sensitive" to racism and in his eyes, this wasn't it. Then claimed that he did not know who put up the ad, although he authorized the payment to this person or persons. Then claimed that even if he did know who was responsible, he was powerless -- the chairman of the Republican Party, Mr. Head Honcho -- to have the ad removed because of campaign finance laws. After this explosion into the national spotlight, what was meant to be a local -- regional -- issue was disrupting everything, knocking everyone off message. Finally Mehlman told somebody to tell the mystery adman to pull the ad. It's still running and story is still big news, simmering away if not at a rolling boil.

And that brings us (at last) to the second issue: where are the black Republicans speaking out against this lowball crap? No where to be seen. Not Colin or Condi, not Alan Keyes or J. C. Watts, or um, who else is there? All notably silent. (Okay, I'll give poor Condi a pass on this one; she's got her hands full with Iraq, Iran, North Korea and shopping.) But here is my point (finally): For years the Republicans have been belittling black voters for continuing to vote for Democrats in election after election. They say black voters get the short end of the Democratic stick. They poke fun at the Democrats' rainbow colored tent that has room for everyone.

The GOP would like to court blacks and other minorities to show their so-called "diversity." However, every time there is an opportunity to expand their tent, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, the Republicans return to their old tactics and tricks. Just how does an intelligent, politically savvy black voter overlook the application of "Tactic No. 14: Using Coded Racial Messages in Campaign Ads"? How do you convince that voter that he or she is welcome in your tent? ("But you need to use the back door." And that door is zipped up tight.) And frankly, racial minorities are not the only ones who get invited to the back door. Ask the Log Cabin Republicans how they feel.

The outrage at the pro-Corker ads -- the coded symbolism in the ads specifically -- should have no color line. And indeed, both white and black people decried it. And should have no gender gap. Both men and women were angry. The cynical will say it was liberal Democrats who made the most noise. But I am still disappointed by those we didn't hear from: black Republicans. I guess you can't change what's going on inside the tent if you can't get inside.

I hear the Democrats have a big tent and everyone's welcome.

Rush Limbaugh Will Say Anything

I have to say that this week we all had a chance to witness Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads sink to an all-time new low. To accuse someone -- in this case actor Michael J. Fox -- of purposefully exaggerating his Parkinson's Disease symptoms by either faking the spasms and tremors, or by not taking his medication allow them to go untreated while he filmed a political ad in support of stem cell research, is reprehensible.

Now, although we all knew in our heart of hearts that Rush (and Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity and the rest of that gaggle) would find something stupid to say, I didn't see that one coming. I should have, given Coulter's shrill complaints regarding the 9/11 widows. The new whine from these folks is that Democrats use these "victims" of death and disease as human shields because they are supposedly immune from criticism by those dwelling in the far corners of the right wing. And when the likes of Rush or Ann or Sean merely try to make their point, those liberal Democrats attack them and bite their pointy little heads off. (Okay, I'm exaggerating: only Ann has a pointy head. Rush and Sean have Charlie Brown blockheads.)

The fact is when it comes to stem cell research of all kinds (adult-cell or embryonic) the potential to cure common diseases or disabilities is vast and unknown. We don't know exactly or completely what can be treated with stem cell therapy, when we will see results of this research, who will benefit most, or the myriad of other questions which concern us and scientists, doctors and patients. But it is valuable and viable research that must be pursued agressively.

You might not like Mr. Fox as an actor. You may not like him as a spokesperson for stem cell research. But he has the right to express his opinion, support like-minded political candidates, share his talents with or without his medications, tremor-free or shaking uncontrollably.

I admire Mr. Fox's courage to show us his illness, but more importantly, his willingness to speak for those whose bodies will not allow them to speak for themselves.

Welcome to the Rational Inquirer

Welcome to The Rational Inquirer, where intelligent discourse and commentary on a variety of subjects is always savored.

There is (was?) another blog with a similar name but our intentions are much different. Why make fake news when there is so much real news that goes under-reported, undiscussed, or overlooked?

I can't promise that you'll always agree with what I have to say. But the best conversations are often fueled by those of conflicting viewpoints. Pose a question, share an opinion, spark a discussion.