What we will do after January 20th? Somewhere in Texas a village will get back their idiot.
“It’s very important for us to be able to pass this piece of legislation so as to stabilize the situation so it doesn’t get worse and that our fellow citizens lose wealth and work,” Bush said during a brief appearance in the Oval Office with a NATO official.
62 bar rises 30.11 2mph N dew-point 54 sunrise 6:59 set 7:13
Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon rise 9:58 set 1:37
Starving The Beast By Jennifer Moses
Washington Post
Tuesday, November 29, 2005; Page A21
BATON ROUGE, La. —
“A primary goal of many Republicans is to “starve the beast” of federal government, the theory being that states and private enterprise, better equipped to respond to local needs than Washington ever could be, will at the very least take up the slack.”
This concept seems to have come into political parlance around the time of Ronald Reagan. Remember David Stockman?
As I read a New York Times piece on the bailout engineered by former Goldman-Sachs Exec, Henry Paulson, this phrase rose to the surface. Why? GW and his crowd have run up the deficit through spending on Iraq and counter-terrorism while cutting taxes for the wealthy and for corporations. At the same time they pursued a dogged anti-regulatory policy. After having been in office for 8 years, responsibility for this current mess lands on the Bush doorstep, even if its roots are in the Reagan and George Bush the 1st eras.
Here’s the connection. The bail-out will raise the Federal deficit somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 trillion dollars. Old Everett Dirksen comes to mind. “A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” That means that the next President’s capacity to enact new policy will be sharply curtailed by the extraordinary level of government financial involvement. This is the moral equivalent of starving the beast.
It gets worse. Who will benefit directly from the bail-out? The rich white oligarchs who created it in the first place. This is such a stunning piece of irony it is difficult to credit outside a fictional scenario.
Is the bailout necessary? It may well be. The alternative of an economy headed toward a crash would have dire consequences for everyone. Even so, the beneficiaries and the losers seem peculiarly weighted toward the Republican side of the aisle.
As the Chinese said, “May you live in interesting times.”
57 bar rises 30.17 2mph NNE dew-point 51 sunrise 6:54 set 7:19 Lughnasa
Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon rise 8:02 set 9:41
Enough ranting. The fiscal world will go about its business; Kate and I made our decisions and have commitments that make sense to us. In the political realm Obama has gone from looking like the candidate for change to staging a disappearing act in the media. Will the economy help him re-emerge? Don’t know. Neither candidate seem compelling on financial matters. Obama’s good luck is that he’s a Democrat with a tanking economy run by Republicans. Sometimes luck is all that matters. Napoleon famously wanted to know if his officers had good luck. He promoted those who did.
Another episode in Lumberjack: The Home Reality Show today. The second acacia has to come down and I have to drop it in a narrow space. I’m feeling confident. I’ll let you know how it goes down.
59 bar steady 29.98 2mh NE dew-point 53 sunrise 6:48 set 7:29 Lughnasa
Waxing Gibbous Harvest Moon rise 6:15 set 3:35
9AM Sun/Shade
OK. All the sun/shade photographs have been printed and I will take them over to Ecological Gardens today. Just looking at them myself, it is obvious that we have vegetable growing possibilities in the front yard, to the east. That will affect the plan.
I will do candidate research on the targeted campaigns for the Sierra Club Northstar post-endorsement political activity today. This consists of compiling information about the candidates and their stands on enviornmental issues. Should be fun.
This weekend I have to design my Made in America tour. I have a list of objects, but I have to do some research.
Also, the hemerocallis have begun to call to me. Move us! Move us! That has to happen soon. An order for fall bulbs goes in today, too. This will replace the daffodils I dug up to plant under the lily and iris plus add some new tulips,
Fall planting has a ritual feeling to me by now since this will be my 17th straight year.
9 AM Sun/Shade
68 bar falls 30.06 0mph NNE dew-point 38 sunrise 6:45 set 7:34 Lughnasa
First Quarter of the Harvest Moon rise 4:49 set 12:17
Corn, Bleeding Heart, Impatiens, Beets and Beans at 3pm
This morning I got up, ate breakfast and went straight outside. Posting in the morning has begun to interfere with other projects. Even so, I like to do it. The posting gives a start to the day. Just too long a start sometimes.
Till noon I cleaned up old wire fencing so we can recycle it on Saturday. At noon I began the sun/shade survey for our ecological gardens project. Instead of shading in a map I decided to use the digital camera and print contact sheets of prints shot at 9AM, noon, 3pm, 6pm. I stand in the same location for each shot. It takes about 20 images to cover the whole yard.
After the nap I went out into the wide world to collect meds and some ink for my Canon color printer. This is the first time I have purchased ink for this printer, in fact it’s the first time I’ve purchased ink for any printer other than my HP L4 since 1991. The cost of color ink impressed me. High. Ouch.
About a year ago right now Kate and I attended a conference in Iowa City, Iowa. Focused on climate change and the issues involved, I came away convinced I needed to get involved in some direct way. I made a list of things to do at the conference, but as the year has gone by I realize I have gotten a much better handle on personal action. Continue reading Change and Changes
62 bar steady 29.88 2mph WSW dew-point 54 sunrise 6:40 set 7:42
Waxing Crescent of the Harvest Moon rise 1:14 9:58
And they packed up their bags, had one more martini for the road and dispersed to the south, east and west. The elephants have left the state. From way out here in Andover it hardly felt like they were here, except for the occasional dissing of Minnesota on the Colbert show. “Could Minnesota be any more white?” I suppose the event will go down as historic primarily for the introduction of the female rottweiler, Sarah Palin. She’s a gun-totin’, moose dressin’, pro-oil drillin’ and wolf killin’, state trooper firin’, gubernator and conservative from the only socialist state in the union*.
*”In the state of Alaska, … citizens possess the seemingly unlikely combination of a rugged individualist reluctance to have the government meddle in their affairs with a willingness to accept a nearly $2,000 per Alaskan handout from the Alaska Permanent Fund. I’ve heard this combination referred to as “red neck socialism” and it’s a very Jacksonian, very American attitude.” from the Glittering Eye
Here’s a red-faced son of the soil, a citizen of the Cherokee Purple Nation:
Out of the INFERNO
Daunte just never got it together. Dennis Green might have been part of the problem. Most of it, though, lay between Daunte’s ears. Something never clicked.
“MIAMI (AP) – Daunte Culpepper summed up his thoughts Thursday in two words, which ushered in the start of a new era for the former Pro Bowl quarterback. “Farewell NFL,” he wrote”
IRONY
Here is an example of irony. I mean, gosh. Gee whiz. Give me a break. After working steadfastly and with clear intent to keep women down, now the evangelicals will redress a wrong they have a direct hand in reinforcing. Wow.
“One more reason why the evangelicals are likely to get behind McCain-Palin: The ticket gives Americans the chance to redress another historical social wrong by finally putting a woman in the White House.” from Politics in Minnesota.
GREEN? Who should get your vote?
Local boy, Tom Friedman, the mensch of St. Louis Park, nails it. This is the same point I tried to make with the Political Butchery post.
“As we emerge from Labor Day, college students are gathering back on campuses not only to start the fall semester, but also, in some cases, to vote for the first time in a presidential election. There is no bigger issue on campuses these days than environment/energy. Going into this election, I thought that — for the first time — we would have a choice between two “green” candidates. That view is no longer operative — and college students (and everyone else) need to understand that.
With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.” Thomas Friedman, NYT
64 bar falls 30.11 4mph N dew-point 45 sunrise 6:38 set 7:46
Waxing Crescent of the Harvest Moon rise 11:00 set 9:02
The morning. More gazpacho. Another triple batch. This time Kate will can it. We had a blind taste test and found we liked the canned gazpacho even more than the fresh. Go figure. Making a large batch is not difficult, but it does consume time. A lot of steps. Cut. Mash. Pulse. (cuisinart) Dice. Blend.
This afternoon. Kate wanted to see what we won on a scratch game card that came in the newspaper. So I called. The result was a canned patter by a nice young woman who wanted to sell us a $4,600 vacuum cleaner and air freshener! Geez. We stopped the pitch in mid-stride, she gathered up the Defender and the Majestic and walked out of house. Whooo.
At 3 Paula Westmoreland and Lindsay Reban of Ecological Gardens came. They will develop a phased plan for us that will stretch out over 4-5 years. Their work has Permaculture as its basis, so they will help move our property further in the direction of sustainability. I plan to document the process on a companion website to AncienTrails. I have no name for it, but when I’m ready to get going, I’ll let you know.
I liked Paula and Lindsay. They seemed like the kind of folks I understand. The first product from them will be an orchard plan, then a more comprehensive plan for projects spaced over time. It will be fun and will take our property into another zone.
70 bar steady 30.02 0mph E dew-point 54 sunrise 6:33 sunset 7:53 Lughnasa
New (Harvest) Moon
“The cocks may crow, but it’s the hen that lays the egg.” – Margaret Thatcher
I agree with Margaret. She laid several big eggs while Prime Minister. One of them was the poll tax.
Let me be clear about the post below. Voting for a candidate based on any secondary characteristic, i.e. skin color, gender, national origin, religion or sexual orientation without careful consideration of the policies and general political stance concedes your political principles. I know in some cases this is very tempting, say for example Hillary as a woman or Obama as a black man. Even some folks will consider Palin just because she is a woman. I believe there are good arguments for electing somewhat less than ideal women candidates, black candidates, Muslim candidates (less than ideal=politics somewhat different from your own) in order to increase diversity in the policy making branches of government.
This less than ideal concept does not apply to President. Why? Simple. The President has too much power. A Presidential candidate must be as close to your politics as possible to be worthy of your vote. Unlike a Senator or a House member, they have no caucus to leaven their views, no entire body to smooth out the rough edges. A President decides and disposes within the Executive Branch. The President determines his/her parties agenda in Congress, at least on certain important matters, matters that will have priority to those who voted for them–like you.
Is it important that a woman become President? Yes, I believe it is. Is it important that any woman become President? Absolutely not. Is it important that a black person, male or female, become President? Yes, I believe it is. Any black person? Absolutely not. In the primary races I did not support Hillary or Barack because they are both too centrist for me. I preferred Kuchinich and Edwards. Now that the winnowing process has ended though, Barack is the Presidential candidate closest to my political views. He is to the right of my own positions, but the choice is down to two. In this case proximity to my own views and his skin color both matter to me.
As I wrote the other day, Obama’s policies and political rhetoric don’t excite me, but the visual of an African-American as President, so long as they are not, say, Alan Keyes or Clarence Thomas, does. Last evening I rode up in the elevator with an African-American couple. They were young. He had the Star-Tribune in his hand and read a quote to his girl friend. “See,” he said, “He spoke to the women who were supporting Hillary. He’ll get their support.” I don’t know about his analysis, but the fact that he was excited gladdened my heart. Blessed be.
75 bar falls 29.84 0mph SSE dew-point 61 sunset 6:33 sunset 7:55 Lughnasa
New (Harvest) Moon
OK. I admit there is some irony to driving into the city for one interview, especially when the candidate interviews for the Sierra Club endorsement. On balance though I think participation in the process outweighs the carbon emissions. Of course, I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Anyhow I did it. We met for an hour with a Green party candidate in a suburban race. One of the key elements of real life politics is that it happens in the actual, not the theoretical world. That means just having good ideas and sound knowledge only puts you part way there. The other, equally important part, lies in the campaign, election and governing process. Without a good campaign structure, strategy and money all the bright ideas in the world are no good. If elected, politics then entails the messy process of governing: bills, committees, deals.
This guy was real bright. A great grasp of the issues Sierra Club cares about. But the political side of his equation had a near zero. Multiply zero times any number of good ideas and you know what you get? Zero.
Still, seeing him in person enables my input into the decision to have grounding.