Monday Musings: November 2, 2009

The Sunday morning news show circuit got my attention yesterday, with Jon Krakauer ( one of my all time favorite writers) stating the obvious: McChrystal is a liar. Not only did he allow a Silver Star to be written up for the late Pat Tillman (the Silver Star isn’t given for friendly fire incidents), but then lied about it further during Congressional testimony ( John McCain’s dour face was priceless) concerning the friendly-fire event.

Is this the guy Obama should trust?

Everything I hear from old Central Asia ‘hands’ sez that 80,000 or 180,000 more troops won’t fix Afghanistan. I don’t know that Biden’s ‘drone’ plan would accomplish much more. The more sensible approach would be just as Obama is rumored to be doing - redefine the mission to something approaching reality. Those familiar with Afghanistan are saying that 20,000 to 30,000 troops as a permanent contingent is the key, with lots and lots of Special Ops to surgically ‘take out’ Taliban or other nasties as needed.

Anything else is a repeat of Johnson and Westmorland, and we know how that ended.

This is the reason the Founding Fathers insisted on civilian control of the military in this country. And, this is the reason that Obama needs to take a firm stance here, and damn the Fox and pundit whining when it happens. True Dems and Progressives will support him.

No, actually … anybody who is a real student of history will support him.

Karzai has been given a neat early gift of a second term with Abdullah Abdullah having pulled out. No do-overs in Afghanistan. We’re stuck with another corrupt puppet regime. When will we ever learn?

I also watched Tim Geithner on ‘Meet the Press’ and although a few of his comments had the ring of truth, I still don’t like him. He’s a little Wall Street toadie weasel and needs to go away.

He says the Street has changed. In your dreams. His old buddies at Goldman Sachs were betting secretly on a housing collapse and not exactly informing investors of the dangers. They could be in for some hand slapping by the SEC, but you can bet nothing more serious will come of it.

Without some smashing reregulation of the banking and financial services industries, they’ll just be more clever about it the next time.

Meanwhile smaller, regional banks are continuing to end up in the ditch. This isn’t good news for a recovery at all. And the long promised and sought after stimulus relief isn’t getting to the very people who could do the most with it: small business. My employer not withstanding.

Robert Reich makes a telling statement in that this is one of the few times he actually agrees with Alan Greenspan: if the banks are too big to fail, then they’re too big. Period. Break them up. We’ve done this before in different industries, and come out with healthier industries as a result.

I really am starting to ‘get’ Obama more and am less inclined to whine about how he isn’t doing everything promised fast enough. Okay, he’s an incrementalist. I can deal with it.

Showing up at Dover AFB to watch caskets unload was a really classy act of a man that actually cares, and is willing to put the rubber to the road.

Asking for ‘more options’ from the Joint Chiefs tells me that he ain’t buying what the military would like to be selling.

Rock on, Obama.

Now to the House health insurance reform bill.

Shame on them all, and Nancy Pelosi in particular, for getting shed of the Kucinich Amendment. It would have allowed those forward thinking states to offer a true single-payer public option.

This is from Democrats.com:

When Speaker Pelosi announced her “floor version” of the healthcare bill on Thursday, she made a critical mistake: she removed the “State Single Payer” amendment proposed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

The “Kucinich Amendment” passed the House Education & Labor Committee on July 17 by a rare bi-partisan 27-19 vote.

States should be free to create the best possible healthcare plans for their residents. If Congress gives States the right to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of a national “public option,” it must also give States the right to “opt-in” to a State Single Payer plan.

Tell Congress the “Kucinich Amendment” must be included in a “Managers Amendment” to H.R. 3962 immediately. Pelosi will decide on Monday.
http://democrats.com/state-single-payer?cid=

The “public options” currently before the House and Senate are both grossly inadequate. Even with the stronger House plan, CBO predicts only 2% of Americans - 6 million people - will join by 2019.

This small program will not create real competition for private insurance monopolies and therefore will not reduce costs for individuals, businesses, or the government. Instead, costs will continue to skyrocket until no one can afford healthcare.

I knew it sounded too good to be true, but we wouldn’t want to present the private insurance companies with anything like a level playing field. They wouldn’t know how to handle actual competition. The bastards.

Pelosi can amend this today - Monday - but that sick feeling in the pit of my tummy says she won’t. Thanks for nothing, Nancy.

Gotta take the money out of the ‘process’ kids. Otherwise, we’ll never get our government back out of the hands of corporate America. 

Comments

[bluelyon]

Gotta take the money out of the ‘process’ kids. Otherwise, we’ll never get our government back out of the hands of corporate America.

Ya know, it may not always show, but basically I'm an optimistic sort. It's why I've been an organizer, why I involve myself in issues, and it's why I blog. But I gotta tell you. The optimism has just about been beaten out of me.

I can't see Congress doing anything to pull corporate money out of the process. They like the campaign funds and the revolving door too much. I saw a suggestion the other day that campaign contributions should only be allowed to come from registered voters, and that there has to be a limit per campaign of what a registered voter can donate --- say $500 per campaign. I like that idea. Corporations don't vote. PACs don't vote. Hell, political party establishments don't vote. I don't see why any person who is not a registered voter should have any say regarding any election. And that means no campaign contributions allowed. Period.

Of course, the chances of this becoming law are akin to the proverbial snowball's chance in hell.