So I read in USA Today that the president's budget cuts funding for Reading Is Fundamental. And I cannot figure out why. There's some chatter he wants to privatize it, but this is a cheap program; $25 million sends 16 million books to poor kids. That's wouldn't cover the postage from Amazon, even though a $25 mil order would qualify for super-saver shipping.
Is it one of those programs Republicans just hate for being government? Well, his wife has read for the cause. So has his mom. So apparently not.
I can only conclude this: it's the terrorist menace. The last book the prez read to kids was "My Pet Goat." And the twin towers fell as he did. Probably no connection, but why take a chance.
After all, Saddam wasn't connected to 9/11, either, and Bush cut his funding.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Toot toot, rudy, goodbye
I won't bother with a long farewell to America's mayor, as he wasn't a factor in the presidential race for some time, if at all.
But his rapid descent from front-runner status shows just how out of touch the American media is. Simply the fact that this New York guy had a few good moments during 9/11 didn't make him the mayor of Boise or Dubuque, no matter what the media based in New York and Washington, D.C. said.
And while I've never been a big fan of conspiracy theories about a left-wing media -- I've never gotten even a single check from George Soros, damnit -- it's pretty clear the media leaders have not a clue about the GOP or the religious right.
Sure, the Moral Majority crowd will look the other way at slavery for global business, Abramoff-style corruption or the simple government ineptitude exemplified by Katrina.
But they impeached Bill Clinton for getting a bj, and they'd love to campaign against his wife this fall because he got said bj.
Giuliani is a twice-divorced guy who once left his wife in the mayor's mansion so he could bunk with two gay friends and openly date his mistress. That might make him a good side character on "Will & Grace," but he was not going to be the right wing's standard bearer.
That the media could not recognize this says less about Giuliani's campaign than it does America's out-of-touch media.
But his rapid descent from front-runner status shows just how out of touch the American media is. Simply the fact that this New York guy had a few good moments during 9/11 didn't make him the mayor of Boise or Dubuque, no matter what the media based in New York and Washington, D.C. said.
And while I've never been a big fan of conspiracy theories about a left-wing media -- I've never gotten even a single check from George Soros, damnit -- it's pretty clear the media leaders have not a clue about the GOP or the religious right.
Sure, the Moral Majority crowd will look the other way at slavery for global business, Abramoff-style corruption or the simple government ineptitude exemplified by Katrina.
But they impeached Bill Clinton for getting a bj, and they'd love to campaign against his wife this fall because he got said bj.
Giuliani is a twice-divorced guy who once left his wife in the mayor's mansion so he could bunk with two gay friends and openly date his mistress. That might make him a good side character on "Will & Grace," but he was not going to be the right wing's standard bearer.
That the media could not recognize this says less about Giuliani's campaign than it does America's out-of-touch media.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
United States of Unconsciousness
So apparently there was a "State of the Union" speech by the prez. From what I can tell, here are the high points:
- Everything is fine, it just doesn't look that way.
- You can't judge my decisions until I leave office, by which time you will blame my successor.
Carry on ...
- Everything is fine, it just doesn't look that way.
- You can't judge my decisions until I leave office, by which time you will blame my successor.
Carry on ...
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Score! $1,500 citizen bucks
Predictably, Congress has upped the president and I'm counting $1,200 for being a tax-paying working couple and another $300 for the kiddo.
That's $1,500 just for agreeing to not holding the souring economy against the president or congress, and looking the other way at the no doubt much larger giveaways to business. (The Wall Steet Journal's lengthy article on the givebacks devotes about four sentences to this part of the fine print. Who says we won't get fooled again?)
What a deal. If Jimmy Carter had thought of this, he'd have gotten re-elected.
Ah well. We're all welfare cases now. I know they call it a rebate, but most of the people getting cut check either didn't pay taxes or didn't pay that much in taxes. Who needs bread and circuses when we have gov'ment checks?
That's $1,500 just for agreeing to not holding the souring economy against the president or congress, and looking the other way at the no doubt much larger giveaways to business. (The Wall Steet Journal's lengthy article on the givebacks devotes about four sentences to this part of the fine print. Who says we won't get fooled again?)
What a deal. If Jimmy Carter had thought of this, he'd have gotten re-elected.
Ah well. We're all welfare cases now. I know they call it a rebate, but most of the people getting cut check either didn't pay taxes or didn't pay that much in taxes. Who needs bread and circuses when we have gov'ment checks?
Don't blame Canada for this!
I'm heading north to Canada in a few weeks, which always gets me thinking about just how far we've fallen and how gullible we are.
The government and the Fed always churn out numbers saying inflation hasn't robbed us hardly at all, and the media dutifully reports the numbers. By now, we probably all know how they mess with things -- for example, excluding "volatile" prices like what we pay for gas and food. I mean, shoot, it's not like you have to buy those things. Wait for the price to drop.
But cross a border and you see just how little you get for a buck these days.
My regular trips to the Great White North started right about the time GW took office. For five George Washingtons you could get more Canadian dollars than you could stuff into your wallet. You were greeted at the border with a necklace of wadded-up Canadian bills, placed around your neck like a Hawaiian lei.
College boys fled there on weekends because, well, the drinking age is somewhere around 15, and waving a US hundred-dollar bill in a bar there attracted almost as many local women as it would in a bar in Bangkok. That they called their dollar the loonie pretty much said it all.
These days, the tides have turned. The loonie kicks George Washington's butt. A hotel room that used to go for $100 US goes for twice that. Instead of American shoppers going there for bargains, they come here. What used to be a $20 Cuban cigar goes for $40, hardly worth the effort of smuggling it across the border.
And this has been policy. The Bushies have spent years trying to make the greenback less valuable, on the logic that that it helps US business. Smaller dollars must be easier to stuff into offshore accounts in the Caymans when CEOs are trying to avoid US taxes.
Canadian wages are rising faster than ours, too. And they get health care for their tax dollars; we get Iraq. If this keeps up, I swear, Washington state will soon be Canada's version of Tijuana. They'll come her to get plastered, win our women with their hard currency, then flee across the border before the police close in.
Before you know it, mounted bands of Canucks will be policing their border while pressuring their government to build a wall and stop illegal aliens from stealing their jobs.
After all, they can pay US migrants in cheap little dollars. Canadians won't work for those things.
The government and the Fed always churn out numbers saying inflation hasn't robbed us hardly at all, and the media dutifully reports the numbers. By now, we probably all know how they mess with things -- for example, excluding "volatile" prices like what we pay for gas and food. I mean, shoot, it's not like you have to buy those things. Wait for the price to drop.
But cross a border and you see just how little you get for a buck these days.
My regular trips to the Great White North started right about the time GW took office. For five George Washingtons you could get more Canadian dollars than you could stuff into your wallet. You were greeted at the border with a necklace of wadded-up Canadian bills, placed around your neck like a Hawaiian lei.
College boys fled there on weekends because, well, the drinking age is somewhere around 15, and waving a US hundred-dollar bill in a bar there attracted almost as many local women as it would in a bar in Bangkok. That they called their dollar the loonie pretty much said it all.
These days, the tides have turned. The loonie kicks George Washington's butt. A hotel room that used to go for $100 US goes for twice that. Instead of American shoppers going there for bargains, they come here. What used to be a $20 Cuban cigar goes for $40, hardly worth the effort of smuggling it across the border.
And this has been policy. The Bushies have spent years trying to make the greenback less valuable, on the logic that that it helps US business. Smaller dollars must be easier to stuff into offshore accounts in the Caymans when CEOs are trying to avoid US taxes.
Canadian wages are rising faster than ours, too. And they get health care for their tax dollars; we get Iraq. If this keeps up, I swear, Washington state will soon be Canada's version of Tijuana. They'll come her to get plastered, win our women with their hard currency, then flee across the border before the police close in.
Before you know it, mounted bands of Canucks will be policing their border while pressuring their government to build a wall and stop illegal aliens from stealing their jobs.
After all, they can pay US migrants in cheap little dollars. Canadians won't work for those things.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
These are a Few of My Least Favorite Things
Congress.
Steroids.
Baseball.
BORING!!!
Maybe part of the problem is not that professional baseball players use performance-enhancing drugs. Like I care - personally, I'd like to see the All-Drug World Series, where pitchers throw 270 mph fastballs and batters hit 500-yard home runs.
Maybe part of the problem is that, in light of everything else they should be doing, our representatives have decided to spend time doing this.
Steroids.
Baseball.
BORING!!!
Maybe part of the problem is not that professional baseball players use performance-enhancing drugs. Like I care - personally, I'd like to see the All-Drug World Series, where pitchers throw 270 mph fastballs and batters hit 500-yard home runs.
Maybe part of the problem is that, in light of everything else they should be doing, our representatives have decided to spend time doing this.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Rubbin' is Racin'
So I've read yet another "poll" story about the presidential race. I know the candidates have posted position papers and statements on their web sites. Would it be too much to ask our "daily" media to talk about that stuff occasionally?
Actually, it would. Positions tend to stay stable - "on message" is the term. Daily "news" can be defined as "what is different than yesterday." Therefore, the different, no matter how trivial, takes precedence over further analysis of what we already "know."
Besides, each candidate has an economic plan they say will work. They've each got a mountain of experts who say the plan will work. I'm supposed to trust a journalist who went into journalism because "there's no math in it" to tell me which of the competing economic proposals has the best shot at working?
We're so screwed.
I get students who are from other countries from time to time, and they tend to monopolize my classroom discussions about U.S. journalism. As one woman exclaimed this week, "You've given up the right to have any real information from the news!"
"Yeah," I told her. "But at least we all know who's banging Jennifer Aniston."
Actually, it would. Positions tend to stay stable - "on message" is the term. Daily "news" can be defined as "what is different than yesterday." Therefore, the different, no matter how trivial, takes precedence over further analysis of what we already "know."
Besides, each candidate has an economic plan they say will work. They've each got a mountain of experts who say the plan will work. I'm supposed to trust a journalist who went into journalism because "there's no math in it" to tell me which of the competing economic proposals has the best shot at working?
We're so screwed.
I get students who are from other countries from time to time, and they tend to monopolize my classroom discussions about U.S. journalism. As one woman exclaimed this week, "You've given up the right to have any real information from the news!"
"Yeah," I told her. "But at least we all know who's banging Jennifer Aniston."
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