Journalistic Excess

In a story about the federal budget proposed by the Obama administration, the KC Star on Friday, February 27, 2009, used a lot of adjectives. The budget and related financial matters were referred to as: bloated, eye-popping, aggressive, unspecified, gargantuan, huge, large, significant, breathtaking, and expanding, to cite a several of the adjectives used. I guess the press thinks that the only way to interpret the President's budget proposal is to adopt the opposition's spin. Well, get over it. The country has about 300,000,000 people and who knows how many businesses and other organizations. I'd guess somewhere between 25,000,000 and 50,000,000 million. That's a lot of people and players. Is the budget supposed to get smaller. Nowhere in the paper's analytical piece, pawned off as news, was there any per capita comparative analysis or adjustments for inflation. Raw numbers, that sound big to people locked in a 60s mentality, were the order of the day. After splattering the front page of the paper with red ink stains and spots, I think they did enough to show that they can't cope with modern day amounts.

Apology to Iran

The New York Times reported that Iran's president, Mahoud Ahmadinejad, urged Washington to apologize for its actions toward his country over the past 60 years. Most Americans, upon hearing of this statement, would ask, "What should we apologize for?" Well, for starters, we should apologize for past actions in support of the former monarch of Iran. We should apologize for the actions of the CIA in twice thwarting popular revolutions and an opportunity for the creation of a democratic government in Iran. We should apologize for policies that lead to control of the country by Muslim clerics. Any student of the history of relations between the United States and Iran can find many more reasons for an apology from the United States. An apology would go a long way towards improving diplomatic relations and, thus, creating an atmosphere that could possibly deter Iran's nuclear ambitions. An apology would indicate that the U.S. was willing to abandon its past behaviors as a colonial overlord when it attempted to replace the United Kingdom's role in Iran. An apology would be beneficial in many ways.

The problem in getting an apology for Iran is that most Americans are unaware of our history in Iran. The Bush administration went out of its way to paint Iran as a villianous nation, part of an Axis of Evil. Yes, Iran's government has done despicable things in support of Islamic fundamentalist causes. But, our past actions could be considered despicable as well. The only way we can get past the past and address the future is by a reconcilliation that begins with an apology. I predict it will happen, after an apology is preceded by the right kind of publicity. Otherwise, it will be politically hard to do. Well, there's precedent. Nixon went to China. It is not inconceivable that Obama will go to Iran. Remember, you read it here first.

Have You Noticed

Have you noticed how many news commentators and policy pundits are weighing in on what the new U.S. President and his administration have been doing? I even had a pollster call on Obama's second day as President to ask whether I approved of the job he was doing. I looked up the poll results on www.surveyusa.com. I found out there are already people out there who don't approve of the job he's doing. Well, they're probably the same people who approved of the job former President Bush was doing. Somehow, I can't give them any credence, nor should I. Let's face it, if we expect the public to get behind the new President, we are delusional. We just can't be silent. If you agree with Obama, say so. Don't be afraid to say, "Yes, I agree with closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp." or "Yes, I agree with a woman getting pay equal to a man's pay when they do the same job."

It's evident here in Kansas that the Bush-Cheney dosage of fear of terrorists has worked. Else why all of the fuss about moving some of these terrorists/guerrilla fighters to the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. Have you noticed that no one complained about that place before? I'll bet it already houses some guys you wouldn't want out on the streets of our fair cities. None of them have escaped, at least lately as far as I know.

Strategic Planner- Barack Obama

Some people who are not clued in to the world around them question what all the fuss is about with the inauguration of Barack Obama. What has caused millions to crowd the open spaces in the Capital from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and beyond and beside these landmarks? It's obvious, with an African-American in the office of President, that a large portion of our countrymen finally feel like they are truly stakeholders in this great country.

Martin Luther King was a visionary. His message was that we are all stakeholders in this country and that we all benefit from the realization of his vision. Barack Obama is a strategic planner. He is not the realization of King's dream, but the mechanism to advance it. Barack understands that stakeholders must be involved in reaching the goals expressed in the vision. He understands how to frame an issue in a way that stakeholders can understand it. He expresses the vision as goals. He depends on others to prepare the strategies and put the action programs in place to attain the goals for the benefit of the stakeholders.

Neither Obama magic or a skilled cabinet will produce the change. It is the people who believe the mantra, "Yes we can." who will change this country. Give thanks to Martin Luther King for giving us the vision. Give thanks to the stakeholders who want the benefits of the vision. Give thanks to Providence for the planner who will guide us in the effort towards the realization of the vision.

Second First

Barack Obama is indeed the first African-American President of these United States of America. Obama's father was an African and his mother was an American. The bifurcation of this adjective represents his paternal and maternal ancestry, not just the geographic roots of his forebearers and his national identity. As Obama is first to hold the office as an African-American, the future will give us the second first, an African-American President whose ancestors were slaves. Surely, this distinction will be made, but the difference will be difficult to discern and the second first will not have the significance of the first first.

Faraway Alaska

Today, the Huffington Post (HP) reports that Alaska officials are investigating racist jokes about President-elect Barack Obama that have circulated on state e-mail accounts. HP reports that it appears the original e-mails were sent to state employees from outside the state system, but some state employees forwarded them. According to HP, the personnel files of state workers who circulated the jokes will be examined for a pattern of similar behavior and that discipline will be determined by past behaviors and could range from diversity training to letters of reprimand.

I know that Alaska is somewhat remote geographically from the lower 48 states, but is it also so remote from mainstream America that diversity training is considered a form of discipline?

Bitter, Economically Hard-pressed Americans

What's wrong with what Obama said? Hillary says he is elitist and out-of-touch. Bull! If anything, what he is did was speak the truth, by pointing out the social stratification that exists in the U.S., and that those who are not blessed with the largess of the information economy are not happy campers. But, to say that is taboo. The approved line is that America consists of a big pool of middle class citizens who are successfully reaching through hard-work and perseverance for the American dream of a better life for themselves and their off-spring. Dissatisfied people don't exist in the preferred version of our culture, only upward-bound, hard-working folks are allowed.

Well, Barack didn't lay on the B.S. He told it like it is. Hillary needs to realize that there are people who are bitter, people whose jobs have been sent to India, people who live where job opportunities no longer exist by out-sourcing our economy to foreign shores, where hopes for economic development in the form of new base industries is dashed by this same corporate practice, where what jobs do exist often require a distant commute, using ever more costly fuel, from a hometown where their investment in housing is locked in, while decent housing is hard to find because of an aging housing stock and spiraling home construction costs, where age discrimination derails plans for a comfortable retirement and helping children with the mounting cost of higher education, where racial discrimination prevents the realization of the promised results of an education, where health care options are not readily available or terribly expensive, and where a war in Iraq forces a disproportionately small number of families to bear the brunt of death and hardship caused by this ill-conceived and ill-managed war.

Somehow, the fiction that the folks who have experienced the calamities I have described should suffer in silence, keep a stiff upper lip, be proud and faithful in the American system, etc. trumps the truth. If all Hillary and others can do is fault Obama for telling the truth, then they are pathetic. Is change needed? Yes. Is Obama talking about the reasons change is needed? Yes. How ridiculous!