I was shocked at how congenial everyone was.

I imagined this grand battle between the Republicans and the Democrats and that they never fraternized with each other. I had this West Side story vision of the political world.

When I got there, I saw them going to each others fund raisers, eating out together, going to their kids weddings.

They were operating out of the public eye.

Fast forward 15 years and I was running for a State Rep Seat. Things had changed. The full thrust of the Reagan years was to push much more government down to the state level. Suddenly, there was a whole bunch of money and power there. The battle lines had been drawn and the fraternizing was over.

The press was now covering the House more now that there was more at stake.

Just thought I would add that little observation to the mix.

You should check out the last word. He is correct in pointing out that there are no real Obama Democrats. He hasn't taken hold of the party and molded it into his political base...

He ran an aloof campaign in 2008 that reached out to the young and disillusioned and by passed the traditional democratic power base of trial lawyers and Unions.

He was running as Obama and not as a democrat.

It's kind of like a replay of the McGovern election in 1972 only this time it worked because candidate Obama did not alienate those more traditional political power bases.

Believe me, I am not saying it is bad or "evil" or even anti-Obama, but his continual attempts to build a consensus across the aisle has left his base wondering if he has their back. Remember how negative the GOP was and how angry DU with president Obamas insistence of reaching across the aisle time and time again.

Chris was right about his cabinet not out there pushing his agenda whenever they can. His cabinet has never really embraced the political part of the ob.

It's almost as if president Obama doesn't realize that there is no political season any more only a constant battle for the agenda.

Who really has president Obama' back? Who is out there passionately pushing his agenda. For that matter, who can actually point to what is the Obama agenda.

He has big sweeping ideas that have gotten lost because he left far too much on the table from the start.

The presidents apolitical persona is a good thing, it means he is really trying to reach out to the whole country instead of parsing everything into a us vs them.

But the stark reality is that being apolitical tends to alienate people who are intensely political and that spells trouble for a man who has to appeal to the hyper political to get him reelected.

What is really saving his presidency is not his soaring rhetoric or his remaking of American foreign policy. No, what is saving his presidency is Romney, Bachmann, Perry and Hermann.

I am pretty sure that president Obama will win reelection but he won't enjoy any sort of mandate unless the country throws out the republican hold on congress. That, my friends, is not going to be easy given the fact that the democratic state infrastructure dropped the ball when it came to the 2010 election. And that was a direct result of the Obama White House abandoning any real political agenda.

In simple terms, the democrats out in the states don't look toward president Obama for political cover and so they owe no allegiance to the president.

And that, my friends, is the way I see the big picture as it stands right now.

This is a digitally remastered version and it is all for the 50th anniversary of the Award Winning musical.

I remember in 8th grade they took us to the theater to see the show when we were studying Romeo and Juliet and how I was mesmerized by the dancing and the singing and the overall look and feel of the movie.

I remember my mother bought the album when I was about 3 and how she would pay America and dance around with me in her arms, one of my earliest and special memories.

It started a lifetime love of music theater and for a very long time I had to hide my love as so many of my Friends growing up thought anything like that would be homo, as they said back then.

Last summer, the touring broadway revival came through and I went to see the play and it was really good. The play is staged much different from the movie since they used New York City as a stage when filming the movie.

It turned me on to Stephen Sondheim who is a true American Master.

It truly is an American art form, the musical. So many have been made that it is hard to choose which one is the best. Me, well, I've been going to musicals since I snuck into see the M rated Cabaret one saturday back in 1972.

To me, the play Romeo and Juliet is the most accessible Shakespeare play and West Side Story is a real great way to ease into Musical Theater.

I'm going to try my damndest to get to the show and see the movie in all it's remastered splendor.

If you are not busy the Wednesday after next, drop ten bucks and two and a half hours and see one of the best pieces of art ever put out by the American hit makers from Broadway and Hollywood.

What will you do?

Do you have a plan because as the days march closer to the election in 2012, the ruling class will be under tremendous pressure to do "something" about the "crisis" and that means some kind of "shared sacrifice."

This idea of shared sacrifice is just a polite way of saying "fuck you" to those in need and those who are just clinging on to that ever shrinking middle class life boat.

I don't know about you but my living standards have fallen after stagnating for the last ten years.

This prosperity they are always yakking about hasn't reached far beyond the top ten percent.

All sorts of stats prove that the vast majority are just hanging on to what we have while an unacceptable number of people are free falling into permanent poverty and a sub standard way of living.

The thing is what can we do about.

If the same crowd is reelected next November and nothing changes except toward the worst unless you are ensconced in the top ten percent and then it's happy days are here again, what are you going to do.

If we really have become a two class society, do we have the balls to actually do something more than sending a strongly written letter to a congressional office that won't ever be read, ever be acted on and a good chance to take you address and file your letter into the circular file.

I watched that four part series MEltdown from Al Jazeera someone posted a few days back and I was stunned at how the rest of the world reacted when their way of life was put in jeopardy by the ass hole bankers.

I'm rambling again.

This all comes down to one very personal question and that is "what is your tipping point?"


Here is a link to the story spelled out in much better detail than any thing put out by our "mainstream media..."

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/me... /

and the state house capitals all across the country...

Prohibit military professionals from getting jobs in the military industrial complex for five years upon leaving the governments service...

Then expand that to include retiring members of congress, they should not be allowed back into the "hallowed halls" for 10 years after they decide to stop serving the people...

Members of the extended family would also be prohibited from lobbying any governmental body while their spouse or father or uncle or grandfather or grandmother is holding an elective or appointed office...

Full disclosure of ALL lobbying efforts directed at an elected official who would have to have a scroll running underneath their commercials spelling out who is paying for their campaign. That or mail a copy to each household in the district showing who has given and how much they have given to that elected official.

Until this sneaky sneaky tip toeing around the edges of ethical boundaries set up by congress are beefed up, there will be no true reform.

And may I add one more part to this if you please, the challenger in a race against an incumbent should be given at least $100k in public money in order to at least supply some kind of campaign against any incumbent.

So many of the congresspeople are ensconced safely in their seats that there is never any real challenge to their seat.

I got a pretty good look at the corruption on the inside from my over 20 years of looking from the inside out at what is going on behind the curtain to fool and hoodwink the general public.

The corruption is not limited to the money but that corruption of the soul, of the moral fabric of a long term political figure who slowly but surely begins to believe that they are above the law, above serving the people in a true and ethical way...

I watched of a decent man with good intentions turn into a corrupted party boss right before my eyes.

It happens all the time when you suddenly find yourself surrounded by sycophants, whores and ass holes...

That's when the corruption of the soul begins and ends.

A dystopian world.

Most of us have seen at least one or two of the fifty or so good to great dystopian movies to realize that lately, reality is starting to resemble art.

Now I know there has to be a sliver of reality in a true dystopian nightmare on order to draw the audience in, to make the audience believe that such a thing is possible if…

Well, the more I think about it the more I am coming to realize that the possible is slowly but surely becoming the reality.

Think about it for a moment, most good Dystopian works of dramatic art have a few things in common, an increasingly centralized and controlling ruling class, a deterioration of the environment, a breakdown in the distribution of social benefits such as medical care, schooling and transportation.

To me, well the whole crumbling of the American infrastructure and the seemingly passive response by the ruling class is a big sign to me that we are taking giant steps toward a dystopian world. Once the structure of our society falls down, the alternative is chaos and disconnect. The only thing that keeps us together is the entertainment industry and that could very well fall apart if the public delivery systems fail.

We have the indifferent ruling class that is more interested in keeping us in warring camps than working together toward a solution to the problems we are facing as a society. I see one, huge reason for this, there is no profit to be made in that approach. It also stems from a belief that if you have enough money and clout, well, you can buy your way out of any jam.

As a liberal and a person who believes, well almost believes, in the strong notion that we can all come together if we know the truth, I find the devolution of the press into entertainment instead of the collection and distribution of information as the first glaring sign that we are about to be fucked.

Information is a commodity, always has been but to use information as a tool to set people against people is a disaster waiting to happen.
I’ve been going on a little long here. I know. But I was going through some old writing of mine that looked back at the world I grew up in. We were enthusiastic even though so much was happening. There was a sense, propelled mainly by the dominance of the space program, that nothing was out of reach.

Even deep into the 70’s when the republicans started on the path toward hoarding power instead of actually governing, the country still had a can do attitude that still clung on long after we started to realize that can do was not always the wisest approach to things.

It’s interesting that The Blade Runner, the first really successful dystopian movie that was realistic, possible, came out under the glory of the Reagan Administration.

I think we are further along than we think and yet not yet on the brink. If we don’t find a solution to the runaway greed and privilege that dominates the ruling class we are truly going to be fucked.

I don’t think the OWS protesters realize that they might truly be the last hope for all of us, the canary in a coal mine…

If the people at the top are not reigned in, we will all go slither into a reality that will make the Blade Runner appear as the feel good movie of the decade…

Here is a link one list of the top 50 Dystopian movies...

The most rah rah American channel on the cable this side of Fox News ran their two hour look at all how the bridges, damns, sewers, water supply and the electrical grid are all this close to third world status.

They did what they do best, scare the shit out of people. Only this time the threat isn't satanic but real and potentially deadly for people in every part of the country.

We should all be demanding that we repair and update the US infrastructure before more disasters happen.

It would be the best investment we can make.

And if we don't, well, the future doesn't look so good.

They should run that show every week.

not for what they have done to me personally, because a lot of what has transpired to get me where I am today is, to quote Robert Plant, "nobody's fault but mine, but for what they have done to the country? I do cast blame on the 1% who have used their wealth and influence recklessly for their own enrichment...

Truth be told, those folks over there on that web site are deluded into thinking that since they have been free, well somewhat free, to pursue their dreams and ambitions not because of the largess of the 1% but in spite of the reckless manner in which they have governed in the private and public domain, that they owe some kind of allegiance.

That they proudly defend those who need no defense and attack those who are in need explains a lot about the state of our national psyche at this particular time in our country's history.

And there is a good bet that most of those who stand in defense of the 1% see themselves as Christians.

And here I am, not conflicted about helping others to prosper and live with a dignity all men and women should expect, not governed by the threat of eternal damnation by a supernatural or temporal entity, not able to ignore the needs of others and the needs, dare I say it, of the collective objectors of our country, sans war.

Where do I fit in?

I'll tell you where I fit in, in the America that can be great and not run for the sake of the 1%. I thought we started a revolution so as not to be subjugated by a ruling class and yet that is exactly what we have.

That upper caste is being closed out to all but a few who do not have the family connection. What better current example than Luke Russert or any member of the Bush Family.

To think that Jeb Bush is even considering a run for the presidency in the future should be an affront to any sane American.

And so I ask again, what am I suppose to do being part of that 53% who has worked hard for what I have and yet still feel that those in the top 1% take far too much and give so little...

but I guess it’s so…”

These simple words from Mark Twain distill the awakening of a thread of a moral America that, at it’s roots, just want’s everyone to be treated the same, no matter what race, color or creed. In truth, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American morality play that still moves across our stage today.

And yet we know that even though a southern gentleman such as Samuel Clemmons was aware of these changes that were happening, the rest of the country was, and continues to be, still mired in the day to day hatred of people who were different, who stood in the way of “progress”, who just wanted to be left alone.

In the here and now, that hatred of the “other” is played out every day on the radio, every night on the cable TV.

Just look at the uproar caused by Chazz Bono.

But of course, that is the most recent obvious example.

The real danger is, as the brave young people of OWS are saying as I write this, on Wall Street and K Street and all the other streets where backroom deals are made to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

These manipulators of public opinion want us to be pitted against each other in as many ways as possible, to keep us distracted, so that they can stand off camera and continue to steal our future.

I love what those kids are doing and it seems as if they are finally getting a message out. I was fearful that jumble of messages coming from the OWS would drown out the central theme that we are all sick and tired of being manipulated by the supposed powers that be.

But the truth was they always had a simple message. It was the corporate media that was trying to present this protest as just another example of those crazy World Trade protestors with their puppets and mixed messages.

These idealistic kids, young people would be more apt, are there and ready to bear the weight that they have volunteered to take on.

I wish I was a younger, healthier man because I would hit the streets.

But as it stands now, all I can do is realize, like Huck Finn, that things have changed and these youngsters, willing to man that brigade, are the future.

For better or worse.

Where is the freedom for the people who are harmed by the under regulated gas lines that continue to blow up causing all sorts of collateral damage?

If you really look at it, senator Paul, the rights and freedom of all those people who have been killed or injured because of underegulated gas blasts are being encroached upon, denied inalienable rights and just thrown aside for the pursuit of more profit.

So senator Paul, where does it say in your Ayn Rand universe that the rights of the people to expect to be safe to say live in a house they purchased are trumped by the actions of a corporation who are in full pursuit of profits?

The individual cannot effectively stand up to a corporation in any way shape or form.

An individual cannot just pick up and move and I guess just react when there is danger if they don't even know there is danger.

How can those people who are harmed by corporate actions, such as air pollution and water pollution, just pick up and move?

I know, I get it, I read Ayn Rand back when I was about 13 or 14 and thought it was real cool.

But then I had my first non self inflicted orgasm and I realized what I thought was rugged individualism was really just a fairy tale disguised as a political movement.

I realized that my championing of the environment didn't really square with the Howard Roarks of the world. I realized that people have to compromise all the time in order to make things work.

But in your world, senator Paul, there is no room for compromise on your childish wish for all men, and corporations, to be unfettered.

By the way, senator Paul, don't let it out that corporations are really a collective when you come right down to it.

Corporations have the right to make a profit but not if that right rubs against the peoples right to live and breath without having to worry about the actions of any corporation or partnership or even family owned business.

Or maybe that's okay, this championing of the collective corporations, because they contribute to your campaign.

This was a quote from one of the wonderfully stodgy characters who populate the world of Oxford as shown on the PBS Masterpiece Mystery, Inspector Lewis.

It was a toss off quote but it hit me as the show moved on. After watching the whole show, I went back to make sure I had the quote correct. I did.

It made me think about the state of our culture and how we value what we teach. In one way, you could dismiss this as an old codger pining away for the days that are gone and best forgotten. But it went deeper than that. I thought about how we are teaching our children now that we have decided to quantify education.

Of course we have always quantified education, ever since the first A was given to the first student, we have all craved validation. What better way to measure yourself than to see if you are making the grade, so to speak.

After all, knowledge for knowledge sake was best left to those who populated the idle class.

But once the industrial revolution attempted to burst the class bubble, people needed to be versed in certain skills. What better way to provide proof of those skills than to have some form of measure. And to better prove which were better qualified, the quantification of the grading system appeared.

And so the industrial education model was born and has thrived.

We now have political figures, both red and blue, who are trying to press more and more with information and not worry about that touchy feely stuff like beauty and truth and wisdom.

Anyone can be smart but it takes a lot of contemplating to become wise. And since contemplating is almost surely not quantifiable, we can no longer even consider contemplation in the factory model of education our leaders are championing.

I guess it falls out that if you want a trade, a craft, you need to learn by books. But if you want more from your education than mastering a skill, you need to learn to think beyond the book. And that is where the truth and the beauty come in.

Now before I take one step further, I am not saying one way or another is better or worse. I am merely pointing out that by teaching to the tests; we are doing a disservice to those who wish a different outcome from their education.

So, how do we teach truth and the appreciation of beauty?

My guess would be to study the classic, learn by adopting the standards of those who came before and then be made to feel free to go beyond those standards.

I was lucky; I had several really good teachers who pushed me in ways that I had never been pushed. Mr. Calmus taught me to learn from history and not just remember it. Mrs. Keyes taught me how to dive into a work of literature and pull all that can be pulled out of that work and then to hold it up again to take another look. Of course both of these teachers, and there were many more, led by example. But what they all had in common was to search for that sweet spot where form meets function.

There is beauty all around us. We need to be exposed to what is there in order to imagine what is not. As to me, the best way to understand beauty is to learn what has been call beautiful by others so you can measure your opinion against mankind. The best part about this is that you become exposed to all sorts of ways of looking at everything.

There is wisdom in those dusty pages of history that is important to learn if only not to make the same mistake again. This cannot be taught if all we are expected to learn is dates and events.

So I for one will embrace wisdom, beauty and truth until the spark of life leaves my body.

I think we do a disservice to the future of our students if they do not have at least one Mrs. Keyes or one Mr. Calmus in their life to challenge what it is they think they know.

I wonder how that fits into a system of education that champions the goal of quantification and sacrifices quality to reach that goal.

that I am in awe of the true spirit of the Christ but fear those who use his name to gain temporal power.

I respect the message and yet feel compelled to question those who wield that message of peace to peruse personal glory and riches.

They ask to be trusted and to be heard above all other voices in this nation they dare call a nation of Christ because they call themselves Christians and so they must be honorable men of god.

It’s not for me to decide if this Jesus was real, nor is it my desire to profess my fealty to this man made god by men, but I do say this, I have always tried my hardest to live by the simple nature of his message. Do unto others and you would have done to you.

So I ask all of those who care to go further in my post..

How can those who proclaim they hear his word and yet look down upon those who are less fortunate than they? Perhaps it is because they wish to help the people by charity. But by choosing that path, they have appointed themselves as the arbiter of who shall receive and who shall be denied. A naked personal power driven by ego and vainglorious tendencies does not make you a virtuous man.

But this is acceptable because they are Christians and so are honorable men of god.

How can those who wish to pass judgment on those who are different from them and proclaim themselves superior to others who don’t see the world as they do. Where does this appear in the teachings of Jesus? They persecute and profane all who are different.

But this is acceptable because they are Christians and so are honorable men of god.

How can those who wish to fight in honor of the Christ with blood soaked hands of revenge not hear the call of turn the other check? That they believe violence in the name of a man in peace is acceptable.

But it must be so because they are Christians and so are honorable men of god.

How is it that self-proclaimed men of god speak of personal glory and seek praise on earth for what they do when the man who is at the head of their spiritual heart proclaimed to not seek adulation for doing what is just and right.

But it must be so because they are Christians and so are honorable men of god.

How is it that those who take to the pulpit are more often than not living a life that the followers of this Jesus would be ashamed of, the wealth, the trapping of wealth they drape themselves in?

But it must be so because they are Christians and so are honorable men of god.

Is there a more heinous historical contradiction than killing in the name of Christ...?

The polluted stream of vile and vitriol that spills from the lips of self-proclaimed spiritual men and women does an injury to the message of this ancient man of peace….

Again, I do not proclaim myself a man of a faith and truly hold that there is only true salvation found from within.

That I am not a Christian but I live my life by the humble yet honorable teachings of the man called Christ should be enough.

And that is why I am a democrat.

Because the self-proclaimed men of god fall so far short of the true message of the Christ that we, the citizens of this country, must take care of those who need help, to comfort the afflicted and to sooth those who are in dire need of medical help.

Some might call me a communist, but I think I am more of a Christian, a fallen Christian, perhaps, who is not an honorable man of Christ but a man who honors the message…

my 40,000th post...

investors with innovators.

Well, the only innovation that, looking back, I see is nothing but intricate financial products designed to make money out of air.

We use to invest in people, ideas, production.

But now, where are all the start ups in all this crap that was passing for "investments" over the past 15 or so years...

Hopes wish and dreams and a get rich quick mania that surged through the country and drowned innovation and production.

This generation of mine, nurtured and protected by the greatest generation, has fallen flat, and to use "Wall Street" terminology, underperformed.


I noticed the last sentence did not make sense...

I suppose a lot of men my age probably do the same during the Football season.

I woke up and the movie Sounder was on.

Now I had heard a lot about that movie over the years, about the abject poverty that these poor southern black folk had to live in...

But seeing it was a jolt.

I was struck by how primitive they lived in a supposedly modern world.

But I also thought that that probably wasn't all that far off for most of our ancestors, probably a hundred or so years ago, just that the African Americans were left behind as usual.

Now I got to thinking about how far we have come in the last 100-150 years or so, but then I also got to thinking if we elect a couple of more republican administrations, that is where, I firmly believe, most of us who now populate the middle class will be.

We will be beholden to the white pasty faced fat ass holes like Karl Rove who lie, cheat and steel and do what ever it takes to get to the top.

We will be the equivalent of the old time Share Croppers.

Last night, I watched the end of the Movie The Emperor's Club and how the popular kid cheated in the intellectual competition and how he cheated again, 25 years ago, in order to get his friends to accept him as he prepared to run for the Senate.

And even when the former student was confronted by his righteous former teacher, he laughed at the outmoded way he thought.

The competition in the past and in the present was framed by the, till now, most corrupted and powerful society in the west, the Roman Empire.

All I could think about was how awful our future looks right now and how family's, like those depicted in Sounder, always seem to find away to survive, even under the most abject conditions you can imagine.

Now that might not seem like a big deal to the average person, but for someone who is tethered to an Oxygen tank, it can be a big deal.

Especially for me, because I remember the days when we shared season tickets with a bunch of people who worked with Laurie out at the Berea Children’s Home. Each couple would get eight games and they were spread out over the season, so that we all had spring, summer and fall games.

I looked forward to each and every game because I always loved baseball and it gave me a chance to focus on something other than work for at least eight times a year.

The latest post in my Lung Transplant Blog....

http://mylungtransplantyears.wordpress.com...


I want to thank all of you for all the support you have given me over this, my very personal Odyssey.