A Bob Garner Story

There was a gathering tonight of some of Bob Garner’s close friends – Hassie and I had just gotten to know him, but sat in as they talked about him and his life and loves and peccadilloes. I will repeat but one story:

Bob used to work at Vargo’s, a card and gift shop here in Bozeman. Around that time, the Bozeman police were harassing dog owners about leaving their pets unattended while shopping.

A customer tied his dog up outside and came into the store to browse. Soon a cop came in and started pestering him about his untended dog.

Bob dialed 911, and gave the operator precise and correct information: there was an armed man in the store pestering one of his customers. Police cars came with sirens blaring.

I wish I had been there. And no, I do not know the rest of the story.

Does Max need a lifeboat?

From Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont: What we need in health care reform:

1. A strong public option.

2. Progressive funding with no taxes on health care benefits.

3. Expansion of primary health care.

4. Focus on disease prevention

5. Universality.

Seems simple enough. Notice he didn’t say “single payer”, but I suspect his aspirations will have trouble getting by the majority of Democrats, much less the whole senate.

Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington is saying that she will not vote for any bill that allows competition with private health insurance companies. She’s a Democrat, by the way. Her logic is a bullet-proof circularity – she says it won’t pass the senate, therefore she won’t support it. That’s not unlike Max Baucus saying he doesn’t support single payer because it can’t pass.

What is it with these Democrats? Why don’t they take leadership on issues and make things happen? Why the perpetual fingers to the wind?

We all know the answer to that. They don’t support these things in principle, and are lying about why they don’t support them.

And there’s this: Max Baucus might not be chair of the Senate Finance Committee much longer. It’s just a delicious rumor at this point, but apparently liberal Democrats (there are a few of them) are upset with his handling of health care, or as Richard Cohen puts it,

Some people simply do not care for this Max Baucus, with his lobbyist-whoring and foot-dragging and complete disregard for fellow Democrats when it comes to drafting acceptable health care reform legislation in his committee. So “these people” ( = his colleagues) have come up with a Plan to drive the ancient demon from his lair forever.

The following is from a Media Matters interview with Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal op-ed writer:

Q: My sense is that a significant percentage of wealthy and business interests have moved across the aisle over the past eight or ten years, so that the Democratic Party is a much more suitable party for business than the Republican Party.

Frank: That’s probably right. It’s partially opportunistic on their part … you’re asking me to go to the cynical side (and I will!). I found a funny description of the Democratic Party from some 19th century grouch – I forget who – but he said that the ruling class keeps and preserves the Democratic Party as a kind of lifeboat when they get in trouble with the other one.

Deep in my heart I know it has always been so. They probably had a strong business party and a weak me-too party back in the days of the Roman Empire too.

Finally, politicians lie. But when is a lie a necessary lie? For example, to maintain a coalition and stay in office, a politician necessarily has to lie to at least some, and probably all of his followers. I have no problem with that – it’s how I kept peace between my kids when they were growing up. I told them lies.

But what about deceiving the public (though not the Congress) about the need to invade Iraq? Was that kosher? What about Jon Tester saying that he would protect our roadless lands when running for office, and now working to give them away?

When is lying acceptable?

Leo Strauss put forth the idea of the “noble lie”, and I believe there is such a thing, as when I told my kids that I “loved them all the same.” They needed to hear that. Jack Nicholson put it better when he said “you can’t handle the truth!” Someone else said that if we like sausage, we should not ask how it’s made.

In the early 20th century, after implementation of the universal franchise, the idea of mass manipulation of public opinion through propaganda became the norm. Lying became accepted politics, as it was understood that there was simply nothing of value to gain by periodic consultations with voters.

Politicians lie. Tester lied during his campaign. Bush and the neocons lied about Iraq. LBJ lied about Tonkin, JFK about Cuba. Cantwell is lying about why she doesn’t support a public option. Baucus … well, Baucus lies too, but is just not very good at it.

Lies, lies and more lies. It’s all lies. But which of them are “noble” lies?

You tell me.

Real “Democrat”ic reform

I thought I should get a letter in our local organ before moving on to Colorado.

Editor:

We Americans imagine ourselves more enlightened than others, even thinking ourselves justified in bombing other countries to make them “free.” But our own freedom is mere illusion.

Our two political parties are financed by the same concentrations of wealth. There are differences – big oil tends to favor Republicans, while trial lawyers have always had a particular affinity for Democrats. Wall Street finance houses have deep tentacles in both parties. But for the most part, money has no ideology, and shifts with the political winds.

Tea-baggers and “birthers” take the place of political dialogue. These same elements once screamed about Whitewater and Monica, and then were quiet for eight years. Now they’re back, crazy as ever. But they are a mere distraction. That’s not an exchange of ideas. That’s lunacy.

There is an important issue at the fore – reform of our health care system. The public by overwhelming margins wants real change. Democrats have enough power now to easily defeat the Republicans. But they won’t do it.

Our own senator, Max Baucus, is the leading anti-reformer. He supposedly represents the “liberal” side of our spectrum, but is more like a right winger himself, frustrating attempts at real reform.

And this is the nature of our “two party” system. Lacking any real mechanisms by which we can translate public will into public policy, our precious freedom is a mere illusion. Our parties are bought – the one representing “hope” and “change” merely covering the other’s back.

We have nothing to teach other countries. We need our own regime change. (Perhaps we should bomb ourselves?) We legally bribe our public officials. Because of our campaign finance system, real reforms in other areas are not possible.

Before we will see health care reform, we must fix campaign finance. Nothing changes before that.

Why we have two parties

Here’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans:

Republicans are constantly pushing the country rightward, starting wars, privatizing government services, gutting the commons, cutting back on social spending, expanding the military and cutting taxes for the wealthy.

Democrats have their back.

This Just In …

In a stunning development, it turns out that not only was Barack Obama born in the United States, but that he was in fact born in Mena, Arkansas. His real mother, who was white, also gave birth to Obama’s half-brother, Vince Foster. She was, according to former girlfriend Juanita Broadrickk, a well-known drug runner for the CIA. She was memorialized in the 1987 film Air America, Arkansas. She died from complications of injuries resulting from a small plane crash in 1976, for which her insurance company refused coverage.

Off with their heads!

Well, we done it. We have a place to live. The Boulder rental market heated up, and we were like Kramer on Seinfeld trying to find a seat on the subway. We ended up in Southwest Boulder in a house across from Veile Lake. It’s an older house, not what we wanted, but the market forced us to take it. It’s a beautiful view out the front window, there is lots of open space and many trails nearby. It’s a block away from the recreation center, and of course, it’s Boulder – lots of bikes, dogs, coffee shops, latte liberals and Prius’s. God I’m happy.

While here I’ve been dealing with the two extremes of our narrow, narrow philosophical spectrum – Budge at Electric City Weblog, and Jay at Left in the West. Each presents us with a failing in the American political system.

Budge presents as an intellectual, and puts forth a philosophy that is libertarian/capitalist/objectivist/WTF, and that simply does not work in in this uncooperative world. He thinks that because he works with, and not against, our failings as humans, that his path naturally leads to the best outcomes. If many don’t get to participate in the abundance our planet yields, it cannot be helped. Failure produces desire and makes a body work harder, and we all benefit. Eventually.

So he looks around at fifty million uninsured, and thinks that it’s all going to work out in the end, and in the meantime, it’s government’s fault for interfering with the market. We are just around the corner and the market is this close to delivering our goods. Last week he presented some YouTubes from the 1980’s showing us that blacks were well on the road to equality before LBJ messed them up. They were this close. Soon he’ll be telling us that Venezuelans were this close to solving their poverty problems until Hugo Chavez stepped in.

It’s a special kind of philosophy that he shares with Professor Natelson. They can’t be wrong. There’s no evidence out there that says they are wrong (or right). Whenever the world goes wrong, it’s the goddam government at fault.

Can’t win that one.

Then there’s Jay – anyone who knows me knows that I have a shorter fuse with Democrats than any other creatures. He’s in the process of doing two very important things right now: Rationalizing Max Baucus’s giveaway to the health care to the insurance companies, and Jon Tester’s giveaway of our few remaining roadless lands to the loggers. In each case he supposes that a process that yields less than we want is better than no process at all. Democratic leadership are, after all, leaders who live in a practical world, versus us lefties who are not willing to compromise.

He gives away the store, and then tells us that we are being obtuse when we won’t settle. Where Budge is grounded in an extreme philosophy that cannot be tested, Jay is lost in no philosophy at all, and deals with the frustration of a weak two-party system by internalizing the ineffectiveness of the Democrats as the best we can do in this imperfect world.

He lacks passion. Budge is passionate. Last night, I was pissed at both of them. This morning I wish them on each other. Maybe the middle ground between them is what they both might call “the left”. That’s us illogical passionate do-gooders who wont’ settle, who see the real world and yet want more and better, We are willing to butt heads with power to get it, have no respect for obtuse philosophies or weak panderers and quislings.

If the best that Montana Democrats can offer is Max Baucus, if the best our free market insurance system can yield is fifty milion uninsured and 25 million underinsured, then both Stevens and Budge are staring in the face of utter failure. Better to be passionate, to want more and better, than to be either of them.

Off with their heads!

Note: Jay has expressed strong dissatisfaction at the Senate Finance Committee (Baucus) this morning. But what did he expect? If he is surprised and disappointed, I can only wonder about his lack of incredulity.

An un-original thought …

Most people are aware of our racist tendencies – all of us – and awareness creates its own antidote. As Mark Twain is said to have said (who knows – it’s off the Internet)

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Racism exists in a minority, but social pressure has suppressed its open expression. It still comes out, but in non-obvious ways. For one, some people, as at the Bozeman Tea Party on July 4th, referred to President Obama as a “Nigerian”. Get it?”Nigerian?

I am beginning to agree with those, including Bill Maher, who say that the “birther” movement is an expression of racism. It’s subtle, never been used before against a sitting president, and has an element of ‘foreigner’ in it that can easily be applied to his race.

I suspect that’s where the low-brow, low intellect, stupid, scared and paranoid racists went to hide.

Somebody help the boy!

I bought an I-Touch today, and could not wait to use it. But we are staying at a Motel 6 in Casper, and they require that you agree to a two-page agreement of terms before they allow you to use the Internet. I paid for the agreement, and can use it on my laptop, but I wanted to play with my I-Touch. No-can-do. On the I-Touch, I cannot check the box at the bottom that says “I agree”, and therefore cannot access the Internet. It’s making Starbucks in the morning, which requires that I sign in to AT&T Wireless, a hopeless prospect.

Two questions for anyone who knows the answers:

1: Is there any way we can get the motels to fire their attorneys so we don’t have to “agree” to these four page agreements that no one reads to protect their asses before we use their routers? Coffee shops (except Starbucks) seem to survive without this stupid bureaucratic nonsense.

2) Is there any way, on an IPod Touch, to enter a check mark in a box about the size of the end of a toothpick?

Anyway, it’s Motel 6, the A/C doesn’t work, I’m an American and used to all of the comforts of life, and so am distressed.

Do you know any lawyers who are members of the American Civil Liberties Union? I am a member of that organization, and I would like to have somebody who is a member of that organization represent me.

Traveling Day …

We are on our way to Boulder today, and won’t return here until we have found a place to live down there. Boulder has its own vocabulary. Words like “spacious” and “open” do not mean there what they mean here. We are going to rent for a year and then buy something, and that year of renting will likely put us in a townhouse or condo, squished and compressed.

Something occurred to me as I was trying to answer some very legitimate questions over at Electric City Weblog. I have mentioned before that one of the reasons private insurance seems to work in the workplace is that employers tend to hire healthy people, so that workers are “pre-cherry-picked”, and the insurance companies’ job is done for them.

Then it dawned on me – every injury that might happen in the workplace is covered by Workers Compensation, so that insurance companies have even less exposure than they would otherwise have.

So health insurance companies have two reasons to cover the workplace: 1) pre-cherry-picking, and 2) shared risk.

What a deal!

John Yoo suffers slight discomfort

One of the interesting aspects of American political life is how our professional criminals so seldom have to face accusers or suffer indignity. In the case of John Yoo, it took a couple of Aussies to do it. Even Jon Stewart won’t go here.

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