Statecraft Informer

Sparxafire!

Your Statecraft Informer is at defcon 4 over here! Too much is happening too fast to digest. We are in train wreck mode, people! In no particular order:

1. Krappy immigration bill killed. Well, haven’t we all just been ravaged with the URGENCY to get something DONE about this crisis? Bush and Kennedy arm-in-arm? Then, poof! It’s all gone. Never mind. We’ll shelve it for a couple of years and try again. Well… Way to go, Congress. Let’s not dare put a humanitarian hiccup in your perfect flat line of productivity just for a few immigrants. They weren’t even BORN here, for crying out loud.

2. Supreme Court unravels school integration law. Well…. Are we sure that’s gonna be OK? Have we come as far as we should? I don’t THINK so. This country was built on slave labor. Slavery was in place as our economic and social system dating back to 1619… by the time the Constitution was written, slavery had been a fact of life here for 180 years, and still had another 70 years to wait for the Civil War — which didn’t change things as much as we’d have hoped. How can we unravel THAT, I ask you. This massive, widespread, evil, inhumane, immoral practice is deep inside the marrow of the bones of every American, regardless of color. Every one! Frankly, built upon this tragic foundation of shame, this country will never be able to achieve greatness. It’s that simple.

3. Then, your president makes this comment at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., “One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away.” I cannot count the ways that is such a stupid, meaningless and inappropriate remark. Major WTF for that. I think maybe he was trying to see if he could steal some air time away from Paris Hilton.

4. White House missing Congressional subpoena deadlines? The only surprise here is that they will get away with it. Well, actually, that’s no longer much of a surprise.

5. Desperate Wall Street Journal journalists desperately, tearfully running amuck in the streets as ruthless greed-meister, Rupert Murdoch threatens to take over the nation’s financial newspaper. See, kids… it’s all about the money after all. You are reporters for the WSJ, and you didn’t know that? Tsk.

I’m sorry if Statecraft Informer is turning into a Slime Zone… it’s just the state of the state. It’s all about the fall of capitalism, and nobody can see it. All the above is the last gasping scramble of greed run amuck and opportunity run out of town on a rail.

The reason nothing happens is because there is no one left! The middle class is essentially gone. No power, no hope, no energy, no opportunity, no medical insurance, no recourse, no voice. The middle class has been picked clean, or, has allowed itself to be picked clean. Nowhere to turn.

It will be interesting to see what shape 21st century revolution takes. What weapons will be used?

Sparxafire! The blogs are all a-flappin’ about Elizabeth Edward’s on-air phone call to Ann Coulter on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”
I googled, “agree with Ann Coulter” and got about 10,400 responses. But upon closer scrutiny, I found a rather large percentage of those to be, “While I can’t agree with Ann Coulter…” or “I used to agree with Ann Coulter…” or “Do you agree with Ann Coulter that the 9/11 widows are witches and harpies? …

I would still like to troll these responses to see if I could find a single, authentic fan of Ann Coulter who is not in it for the shock value.

So, off to her website to read the top post, dated a week ago, where I think she accuses Durham prosecutor Mike (”half-wit”) Nifong of falsely trying to grab some kind Hollywood-style publicity in his mishandling of the Duke lacrosse players? As a professional writer, I have to admit, Coulter’s writing is a bit clangy and circuitous.

Here we go again! Coulter is on the long list of people who are famous for treating the American public as if we are all morons.

Here’s a partial list:
1. Dick Cheney thinks we are so stupid, he apparently thought he could get away with denying membership in the executive branch of the government. What have we done to make him think we would just nod, and murmur, “Oh, yeah, right. Sure, of course, that’s right…”

2. Paris Hilton is so stupid that she honestly believes that we are stupid enough to believe she deserves to be breathlessly photographed, doing absolutely nothing, around the clock. What did we do to the media to make them believe we want this coverage? Do everybody’s ratings soar when they cover Paris Hilton, Anna Nichole Smith, Brittany Spears, Jon Benet Ramsey and such?

3. Rupert Murdoch thinks we are stupid enough to allow him to buy Dow-Jones and the Wall Street Journal, and let them continue to succeed under his famously anti-journalistic stance? We are not that stupid, are we?

4. Rudy Guiliani seems to think we are pretty stupid with his one-note “9/11 Fear Campaign.” I don’t know what he did that was so great on Sept. 11. He was the mayor. He was there. He felt bad. Was the city on the verge of some nervous breakdown only he could vanquish? He is now saying 9/11 was President Clinton’s fault for not taking the 1993 attack on the Trade Center more seriously? Huh? It was Guiliani’s city. He put the city’s emergency response center where? In the WTC! Did he ask Clinton if that was a good idea? Ba-dee, ba-dee, ba-deeee….

Sigh. I have a hard time keeping track of who’s stupid.

Sparxafire! OK. I’m still on this Cheney outrage… Apparently, today, the Washington Post printed parts 1 and 2 of a 4 part series that just basically sweeps up all the Cheney banana peels, eggshells, vomit powder, (Voban™) dirty laundry and Walter Reed mold into a single neat mountain and takes us on a “Stencheney-palooza” tour!

I hope the Post is not burying the lead, and saving for part 4 that Cheney ordered Oswald to shoot JFK or a final paragraph that begins, “And if you think all of that is bad, ……’ Yipes!

What is Cheney trying to accomplish? Honestly? What motivates the guy? Seriously?
Money? How many yachts can he waterski behind? (I hope everybody recognizes that line from the movie, Wall Street?) He just does not seem like the filthy rich, greedy kind of guy, with mansions and multi-million dollar jewels and art collections.

Power? Yes, surely he loves power… But power to _____ ? To _______ ? Kill Iraqis? Kill U.S. soldiers? Or … I’m at a loss, here. Power to make Haliburton the richest entity on earth? Hasn’t he already done that? World domination, like one of those Batman villains who wants to “take over the world…?” Take over the world and do what? Make us all eat corn three times a day? All wear a little Cheney tatoo on our forehead? I- I-know… I’m at a loss, here.

Fame? No, he doesn’t exactly behave like one who seeks the limelight, does he?

I would welcome your suggestions as to what you think makes Cheney behave like the Wizard of Oz, turning evil cranks behind some curtain… because I’m the brainless scarecrow out here, just lookin’ bad and scratchin’ hay out my head!

(You know he is laughing at us right this minute, don’t you?)

Sparxafire!
Well, it’s official. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency makes it so by declaring that China has surpassed the U.S. in greenhouse gas emissions.

Wow. That was fast. Over the past few years, we have lost our grip on a lot of No. 1 standings, but we’ve been working very hard to maintain our leadership position in world pollution, so this is a partifcularly low blow.

China is a steamroller, “modernizing” or “commercializing” or “industrializing” like a slingshot out of hell. China’s reawakening is only accelerating the demand for fossil fuels there, adding pressure to the unsteady balance of supply and demand in the race to use it all up and reach the point where we all run out. Greenhouse gases follow oil consumption and here we are… out-polluted by China.

Not that the U.S. hasn’t tried. Just refusing to join the worldwide Kobe treaty was a (literal) no-brainer for the U.S. I’m particularly fascinated by the remarkable efforts of the baby boom generation. The 1973 oil shortages struck just as we were coming of age. Now, 35 years later, as our productive years on on the wane, we can all look back with astonishment at how we did not step up to the challenge… how we continued to drive gas guzzlers, invented SUVs and kicked any attempts at alternatives squarely in the teeth. We sure dodged that bullet! Now that was what I call a sustained effort! (I am a boomer myself, so I can speak nasty truths about the boomers.)

Again, I find more reasons to caution my fellow Americans that we are no longer No. 1 in many areas we used to take for granted, and great hoardes of us have yet to update our perceptions. So, despite our sustained and valiant efforts, just move the United States down to the No. 2 position when it comes to greenhouse emissions.

Sparxafire!
Warning: If you are Roman Catholic, I’m sorry.*
It is very pertinent for the Statecraft Informer to speculate about matters pertaining to “church and state.” Thus my attempt to discuss the Vatican’s “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road.” If you read the announcement directly from the Vatican site, you may also be amazed that it contains provisions (in part four) for “PASTORAL CARE OF THE HOMELESS (TRAMPS).”

It was good for me that they clarifed the “HOMELESS” by adding the parenthetical (TRAMPS). Ah! now I understand. I have come to expect nothing less from the Holy Roman Catholic Church over the years.

I have a fervent Catholic acquaintence who is dying. She is in her early 90s. She has spent the past 25 years praying hours each day because, in spite of her lifelong devotion to the Catholic church, she is not 100% certain she is going to heaven.

She is absolutely terrified of Purgatory, is eager to sit at the Right Hand and all, but she apparently committed a few whoppers in her day…(mortal sins, I think they’re called…) and, well… it’s touch and go. But she fights to keep going, because according to Catholics, the more you suffer on earth, the less time (as measured in hours, perhaps) you have to spend in Purgatory.

Isn’t that just sweet? Such a comfort and all. Well. If not “comfort” so much, at least there’s a system in place – surely a fair return for a lifetime investment in feeling guilty all the time. It almost moves one to make a contribution, to the Recovering Priestophelia Fund or something. So much love.

*more than you know…..

Sparxafire!
In the long and storied lifetime of Statecraft Informer, it is this eighth post that tops everything we’ve done here to date. Hands down. Your vice-president today exhibits his contempt for you in the most outrageous manifestation yet! Since 2001, he has refused to comply with the rules and laws of Committee on Oversight and Government Reform… stubbornly and rudely breaking their laws.

I almost don’t know what to say or where to go with this. It is … splutter … beyond outrage. There are no words. I mean…. grrrrrrrr…. As if we….. Oh…. Ackkk! This is what speechless looks like in print.

Here’s the thing. Your vice-president actually explained to the committee that the office of the Vice-President of the United States is not part of the Executive Branch of government and is therefore not subject to the committee’s rules. There are only the three branches, inspite of this administration’s horrible abuse of all three… Executive, Legislative and Judicial. (Future post will deal with the “separation” of the Executive and Judicial branches…. As if.)

Worst thing is, this will be all reported, and Jon Stewart will do something brilliant with it on the Daily Show and pundits will tsk-tsk on their TV programs and whatnot… And that will be it! Nothing ever happens! I’d think the committee would file charges against your vice-president and there could be a trial and a verdict and some jail time involved. Don’t hold your breath. That’s just not the way things work. Things work in such a way that nothing ever gets fixed. so that ultimately, nothing works.

“NOT in the Executive branch… Not IN the Executive branch… Not in the ExECutive branch…
No matter how you say it, it’s the most incredible claim yet and an indicator of the pure, sheer, unadulterated contempt your vice-president has for you and everybody else.

OK, almost time to “just forget it” and move on to the next scandal/outrage! Splutter.

Sparxafire!
No surprises or anything like that, but today, your leader voted to maintain his stubbornly uninformed stranglehold on humanitarian research that holds every promise of mitigating suffering, and curing disease. “No!” he declared. “No new stem cell research! I forbid this! God told me so!”

A great victory, indeed for, uh… for the primitive, radical fundamentalist species that does not believe in evolution, and therefore has not evolved into the 21st century.

C’mon, people, it’s time to toe up to the mark; religion is disappearing fast and it’s for our own good. Because once it blinks out altogether, we will be able to conduct ourselves as sensible adults, devoid of externally imposed shame, warfare and other religious silliness. Deep down, you knoooow I’m riiiiiight!

So, your leader, who can’t grasp the basics of global warming because it interferes with his “oil always and forever” upbringing, (and there is some math involved…) is similarly loop-dee-looped on the urgency of progress with stem cell research … because it interferes with his, uh, his what? His “every life is sacred” deal? Does he even have that? Do the soldiers in Iraq know about this?

Maybe he is against stem cell research because, even though “God created stem cells,” and probably sent them to us in the hope we would eventually “discover their great healing and curative powers,” it is suddenly no longer righteous to tamper with God’s gifts? God allowed us to discover the polio vaccine, and aspirin and x-ray technology, but he suddenly does not want mankind to mess with these here stem cells because, because… uh, well? He has to put his foot down somewhere? Because we all know God has a foot.

Damn! I just can’t find your leader’s angle. Can you? Anyone know what is the deal?

Ahhhhhhh….hold on a minute! Is it some mysterious pharmaceutical lobby that fears stem cell cures may eventually replace their drugs and chemical cures? OK. That’s good. THAT FITS. Let’s go with that. Sparxafire, indeed.

Sparxafire! It is the duty of Statecraft Informer to keep a bloodshot eye on matters of state, so SI has no choice but to comment on the 2008 presidential campaign. It’s just that it’s so early! They yank up the mini-blinds at dawn and cast harsh sunlight in our eyes when we are still too far from the legendary “end of the day.” Ouch. I’m still rubbing my eyes fer cryin out loud. I know that any remarks I make today will be stale tomorrow and moldy by the end of the week as the candidates twist, shout, foxtrot, tango and dip.

Marking today by N.Y Mayor Bloomberg’s defacation (or is that defection!?) from the Republican frying pan. At the same time, like so many others, he coyly acts mystified about his plans, promising he will serve out his mayoral term, which ends Dec. 31, 2009. Still, I am intrigued by third parties.

As far as I’m concerned our two-party system is somewhat like Coke and Pepsi… Republithugs and Democan’ts. It no longer makes any difference what they stand for because they have completely lost the ability to get anything done - whatsoever!

Frankly, I can’t remember the last time Congress did anything at all, let alone anything significant or useful. I can’t even tell for sure what’s broken - the political parties or Congress itself. Congress used to do things, so I suspect it is the parties that are broken. So yes. I am open to a third party - just as I was back in 1992 when I was one of about 20 million who voted for Ross Perot.

Third party-ism in general has been somewhat of a disappointment. Perot, along with candidate Ralph Nader are famous for merely bleeding ballots out of the two-party box. Is that what Bloomberg plans to do? Rather, how does Bloomberg plan to prevent that from happening again? At first glance, it appears that Bloomberg’s basic beliefs stand to drain more votes out of the Democratic party, as he is pro-choice and similarly liberal on those all-consuming cultural/lifestyle issues Republicans use to fire/brimstone everyone away from actual matters of state and governance.

So, OK, Mr. Bloomberg, bring it. Let’s see what you’ve got. Frankly, starting out with the same, tired old coy ploy is not knocking off my socks.

Sparxafire! With my amazing powers of predicting the future, I hereby declare the summer of 2007 as the “Summer of Gritching About Health Care!” Where do I acquire such pervasive precognoxious skill? Well, it’s just a hunch, mind you, but Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “Sicko,” is just ready to crack open its yolk on the U.S. citizenry, and everybody’s going to be very yellow!

Great hue and cry will roll over us with waves of outrage and shock and despair. “I had no idea!” “Now I see why I’m paying $42 for an aspirin in the hospital.” “My insurance company would never… er, I’d like to think that I’m pretty sure my insurance company is probably not that greedy, are they?” Denial! Renting of garments!

Then, ever so slowly, bit by bit, our government representatives will start to hear the grumble, and be startled to attention, and with great, stern harrumphs will decry the state of health care in this country. I especially like it when such outrage falls out of the mouths of reps who have been in Congress for years and years. “Why, it has always been my position that…. harrumph… uh, health is our most precious commodity. And I am in favor of health. My opponent voted to cut health care to old people in wheelchairs and baby ducks!” Blah, blah, blah.

Statecraft Informer cuts to the chase and breaks it all down before the howdy even hits the fan:

1. It is a major purpose of government to provide things that people have difficulty doing on their own -roads, schools, a standing army and whatnot. Health care has become one of those things.

2. There are too many players in health care… doctors, hospitals, clinics, employers, pharmaceuuuutical companies, insurance companies, lawyers, the government and, well patients count too, I guess. Everybody has a slice in this Tilt-a-Whirl, and no individual sector can act without throwing the whole unbalanced thing further out of whack.

3. In our broken-down capitalist society, greed has clawed its way to the mountaintop. Capitalism, you see, has a life cycle…. like communism, for example. In a certain time, and with a certain focus, it might make sense. But, as time passes and society evolves, capitalism grows from a kindergartner into a high school dropout, with a pack of Camels rolled up in its sleeve, drooling after every piece of… er…. young lady it can find to plunder… or is it pillage? (Metaphor run amuck alert!) In any event, like communism collapsed, so stands capitalism at the edge of the swirling drain, poised to make that big sucking sound at any moment.

And nobody seems to recognize this, or see this except Your Statecraft Informer! The presidential candidates are completely unaware. The very absence of a strong middle class is the loudest clue ever! Apparently, it’s so loud, we’ve all gone deaf! If you were to define “middle class” as a family where it is no big deal to take the kids to a movie, then be very afraid. At today’s prices, it can easily cost $40 to $50 to take in a flick. Placed against America’s income scales, uh-oh. Fewer and fewer can afford it… or a trip to a major league ballpark, or a trip to Las Vegas… or a brand new car…

But I digress. We are doing health care.

3. Greed and altruism don’t mix. Oh sure, you can pour them in the same pot, but the greed will always rise to the top. And in health care, so it has.

Thus. It will come down to “government to the rescue!” And if you want to see the state of the art in government rescue chops, just check out the Katrina damage. Be aware! Be very aware! And bless good, ole Michael Moore for trying… especially when we saw how his, “Bowling for Columbine” revolutionized gun control… or how his video about the Twisted Bush did not derail the “re-election…” Sparxafire, indeed!

Sparxafire! Perhaps you are wondering what “statecraft” is. My definition of “statecraft” integrates the notion of defining a particular state of being, society, culture, government… and calling attention to its attributes/deficiencies, speculating about its goals and just plain wondering what the hell’s going on (like, crafting) ! Any takers on this interpretation of “statecraft?”

I find it is not too narrow, in fact, it’s the opposite – so broad as to be nearly meaningless! There’s nothing wrong with broadness, in fact, I’m somewhat of an old broad myself. It just seems to me that your more successful blogs tend to be about something! Or have a focus of some kind! For example, I consider The Huffington Post to be a successful, big, brawling blog society, with a topic list finely narrowed to: News, Politics, Media, Business, Entertainment and Living Now.

Well, OK, that’s not very narrow. But, at least we do know which way Adrianna leans (and she’s a lefty…And I am often found there, scolding leftys right and left! And yes, I know how lefty is really spelled.)

Which way does a “statecrafter” lean? I submit that if we declare ourselves to be “middle-of-the-road,” we may be doomed to oblivion. People who stand in the middle of the road just get run over.

While I would never presume to dictate the leaning of an entire site, I guess I’ll just say it out loud… I lean just slightly to the right of your average anarchist! Well, maybe not quite, but I am quite left, indeed (lefter than Arianna Huff, I must say! And yes, I know there is no such word as “lefter.” At least, that’s what it says in my dictionary.) Sparxafire, indeed.

Sparxafire! From out of nowhere: The U.S. House of Representatives DOES SOMETHING TINY. I am in a slight state of shock. Don’t get me wrong… I am grateful that they voted funds to help beef up the nationwide database of gun registrants, and make it available to mental health professionals and others who might need to know who’s packin’. A respectful head bow to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Viewed alongside that tragedy, as well as the others that happen every single hour of every single day in this country, it is a pufflet, a borderline empty gesture… But a GESTURE nevertheless! I suppose this blog post is the only place you’ll find it characterized as such. The media are touting this as MAJOR GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION. Well, sure, a few bucks to beef up the database is niiiiice, but I will be ever so curious to monitor the long-term affect of this measure as compared to the needless deaths that occur every single hour of every single day in this country.

I’m not holding my breath for an abrupt plunge.

Still, it’s been so long since the House did anything. In my mind, this definitely drives up my approval rating of them from 23 to 25… no…. 26 percent!

My tax dollar at work. Now, I’d like to see a little bang for my buck… Sparxafire, indeed!

Sparxafire!
I cannot yet unclench my teeth about Katrina. We are bearing down on the two-year mark, and the insurance companies are still knotted up in court as thousands upon thousands of claims remain unpaid.

How many things about Katrina do I not yet understand?

1. Accountability. For the shoddy levys that crumpled in the first place.
2. Accountability. For the travesty of the initial response. Somehow, Brownie sneaking out the back door doesn’t add up to accountability to me.
3. Accountability. For grotesque mishandling of initial aid money abuses that did not make it into the victim’s hands.
4. Accountability. For shameful lawsuits against doctors trapped for days in hospitals with no water or lights to treat terminally ill patients — who died. Excuse me? Sue the DOCTORS??? Shame on everybody.
5. Accountability. For those who admitted/permitted fly-by-night, con artist-contractor-types who swooped in, took the down payments and ran.
6. Accountability. For dangerously polluted FEMA trailers.
7. Accountability. For half the city gone so long.

I just guess I am looking for action more than I’m looking for retribution. So far, all I see are the actions of a third-world country…. except the part where we initially turned down offers of aid from other countries in the early weeks after the tragedy. A true third-world country would, I suppose, be accustomed to accepting such aid, where we declined — being the U.S. of A. and all. (I’ll bet the folks still sitting in FEMA trailers would have like to have had a say in that decision. Especially knowing that 20 months later, they would still be homeless.)

I’m sorry, but Katrina is a flat crime-against-humanity disgrace. And of all the things the Bush administration has and has not done, as far as I’m concerned this bungle stands shoulder to shoulder with the war in Iraq.

Please, don’t make me post my list about Iraq right now. Sparxafire, indeed.

Sparxafire! I am almost apoplectic that the U.S. Senate apparently heard the same testimony from Alberto Gonzalez, then decided not to even slap his hand with a non-binding vote of “no confidence!”

Everything the guy said could be boiled down as:
1. I don’t know.
2. I don’t recall.

And our representatives have perfect confidence in that sort of leadership? Then, when you add the Very Fishy political influences that permeated the Department of Justice, and the buck-passing, and the conversations and “mis-speakings,” I hereby declare that this is just more odor to throw on the president’s legacy, which is already approaching cream of limburger.
Combined with the false pretenses that led us to this horrible Iraqi war, the mismanagement, the failure to capture bin Laden, the Haliburton hanky-panky, the miscalculation (”They will greet us as liberators!” / “Mission Accomplished”) … this administration has no choice but to go down as the worst in history!
They just seem to roll out one outrage after another! One day, we hear that our “support of the troops” consists of moldy accommodations at Walter Reed… and before we can even digest that information, we learn that the Justice Department is packing the courts with Republican judges whose records indicate that 80 percent of their prosecutions are against Democrats!
Meanwhile, our military is building up a bully presence in the Mediterranean Sea, just inches away from Iran’s waters, where the Iranian navy is busy doing maneuvers. Just wait… somebody will tap somebody and BOOM…. and I do mean in the nuclear sense of the word. I cannot understand why the president still has an approval rating of 28 percent. Who ARE these folks??
I don’t know whose job it is to bring charges against a president who breaks the law by wiretapping Americans, but whomever it is needs to wake up! Sparxafire, indeed!