Take to the Streets….Please!

Here’s one guy who welcomes the protests on Wall Street and a half dozen other cities around the nation. I hope they get louder, stronger, more popular, and attract more and more Americans to them, adding their voices to the many angry and unemployed citizens already voicing their unhappiness.

While protesters have their pet targets, Wall Street, large financial institutions, obliging public officials, corporate greed, financial bailouts, etc., the root issue appears to be an economy which cannot—because of political lethargy and willful indifference---provide work for millions of American who need and want jobs.

I hope thousands, hundreds of thousands more citizens join—peacefully—screaming and shouting their demands for the chance to work.

I want the GOP-controlled Congress, which has been most indifferent, to hear these Americans and begin doing more legislatively than trying to plan President Obama’s 2012 defeat.

In my lifetime, I’ve seen public policy change because Americans were “fed up and wouldn’t take it anymore,” In this case, more than 40 years ago, it was massive opposition to the Vietnam War.

Those protests--which started in society’s fringe elements--gestated over a period of years, beseeched the Congress and the White House, drew Americans of all colors and backgrounds, and became violent.

Millions of American, opposing the conduct of this war, finally got to the Nixon White House. Changes were made which led to the United State’s participation ending after 50,000 US casualties and thousands more wounded and disillusioned and an enduring economic inflation which took years to squelch.

The arrogant current Congress--again with Republicans tolling the bell--seems to think that more tax cuts for the wealthy and big business is the answer to jobs. But something beyond polite discourse needs to challenge their arrogant certitude.

I tried pointing out in my last blog how short sighted this reliance is, but Tom Toles, the cartoonist in the Washington Post did a better job--when he asked in a recent drawing showing unemployment rising while Uncle Sam heaped cash at the foot of an idol labeled “tax cuts for the rich=job creation”--“How is that working for you?”

If the American people get angry enough and begin to take their frustrations into the streets, John Boehner (R-Ohio), Eric Cantor (R-Va), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and the Tea Party better listen or they could suffer political setbacks, leading to a broad realization by the voters that the GOP has no real ideas about their plight, save giving more taxpayer dollars to the wealthy and comfortable. (“That Republican Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.”)

Of course, Tea Party members may want to go “Kent State” on the protestors, which is an additional story from the Vietnam War era. (The Congressman for whom I worked represented the family of Allison Krause, one of the Kent State students shot to death by the Ohio National Guard. Anyone want to guess how responsive Attorney General John Mitchell was to a congressional request for a grand jury investigation of the killings?)

R.I.P.P. (Rest in Political Peace) Chris Christie

I wrote the following before Governor Christie (R-NJ) announced that he wasn’t going to run for the GOP presidential nod.

While I believe all of his early explanations about his young family and his love of New Jersey, I also think his row would not have been as easy to hoe as some Republicans felt.

Nonetheless, here was my wish when Christie’s candidacy was alive.

If the New Jersey Governor is convinced that his party and his country needs him and he joins the GOP presidential nomination chase, we will have tons (no pun) of stories about his weight and girth. I hope not.

Christie has described himself as a poor eater (choice or foods) and someone who

doesn’t exercise enough (he’s “everyman”).

So what?

If CC is a capable public servant, displays awareness, intelligence, sensitivity, and global smarts, let’s welcome him and forget about his waistline.

If Christie enters the race, I hope we won’t be deluged with a bunch of William Howard Taft stories, our 27^th President who weighed north of 300 pounds.

One Out Another in, Sarah Palin?

Doesn’t former Governor Palin owe the Right or somebody an announcement of her 2012 presidential aspirations? She once said that she would make her plans clear at the end of September.

It couldn’t be any of those suggestions appearing in the Joe McGinniss’ book (“Jungle Fever”) or Levi Johnson’s tome (SP as a “cougar”).

I may be taunting, but I really hope that she toughs it out and announces that she is seeking the GOP nod.

Perry’s Most Recent Problem

Rick Perry’s recent poll numbers suggest some bumps in his road, as does his “problem du jour,” his family’s leasehold.

Why should anyone be surprised that Governor Rick Perry, the anti-science, mediocre college student, secessionist flirting Governor of Texas--with record high number of executions of African American inmates--might have hunted and recreated on a property that was named with a racial slur?

This is a man who condemns all non-Christians to Hell. Do you think he is going to be sensitive to words he heard about a million times when he was growing up?

That language and attitude jibes with Perry’s rural background, the less than “big-tent” views of current party (he once was a Gore-supporting Democrat), and the historic Texas attitude toward all minorities not just Black people.

Possible proof of the latter is the rumor that before getting it’s ”N” name, Perry’s hunting reserve was called “Kikes’ Beak,” because of the unique outcropping and curve of high rocks by the old corral.

I am certain that this won’t be the last example of some bizarre “Rick behavior” which the media will uncover. And, frankly, I am sure we’ll hear this kind of thing about any frontrunner.

It’s the intensity with which the national media go after candidates, especially when their general behavior offers themselves up, as Perry’s has.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!!

Speaking of Rick Perry, I received my first fundraising request from the “Gov,” ironically in the same mail that brought a campaign ask from Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

I’ve told the Senate Majority Leader’s PAC not to call or send me any requests, since I think he’s done a weak job leading the Senate Democrats.

Since I never had any contact with him or his team, the Perry letter must be my past catching up with me. Before I retired from Fannie Mae (2004) and the corporate PAC never stretched as far as I hoped it would, I adopted a, “If you helped Fannie, I’ll help you” rule when approached for campaign contributions.

While most of my checks went to Democrats and their institutional campaign committees, I must have given to enough Republicans for me to forever be “remembered” by them.

You know what they say about elephants?

Please forget me. already!!

So it’s shredder time for that letter and continued inaction when my Verizon “talking” home telephone reports a call from “Unavailable!”

Maloni, 10-3-2011