Thigh Bone Connected to Knee Bone—But Sometimes Spine Not Connected to Brain

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer
The silly season is now a permanent feature of our politics. People run for president for decades. Look at Mitt Romney, otherwise known as Mr. Flexible in political philosophy, and Newt Gingrich, forever cast as the guy who gave his first wife divorce papers while she was in a hospital bed suffering from cancer. He was the guy who was picking over the bones of Slick Willie while he was cavorting with Monica’s bones in a White House backroom. Of course, Nuke Grinch, my affectionate name for Newt over the years, was pounding the bones of his personal intern while accusing Slick of immorality. Frankly, I would not be surprised to see Al Gore try again now that he has his manhood back after being accused of rape by a masseur.

We also have the Alaskan pit bull-grizzly genetic cross of ex-Governor Sarah Palin waiting in her Douglas fir tree stand for 2012, “refudiating” anyone who comes down the path. Sarah, who used to keep an eye on Russia for us, now mainly watches her bank account grow. Politically she is just another George Bush with boobs, although she may be slightly smarter than Lurch. That, of course, is not saying a helluva lot. Her babbling blather matches Lurch’s bumbling blundering, setting a new standard for politicians.

Poor John McCain, who picked Sarah as his vice-presidential candidate because “she knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the US of A,” was last in his class at the Naval Academy–and has proved it over and over. McCain has managed to lose his credibility, “straight talk” character, and ability to tell the truth in the last three months running against a blowhard Tea Party senatorial candidate in Arizona.

By the way, here was Palin’s response in a town hall meeting to McCain’s statement about her knowledge of energy policy: “Oil and coal? Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and where it’s not…So I believe that what Congress is going to do, also is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it’s Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here.”

Can someone translate that for me? I used to flunk students who came up with such babbling blather.

And now we have a new entry in the presidential race, the ex-Governor Tim “Toolittle” Pawlenty of Mississota, the no-new-tax guy who represents the millionaires of Wayzata, Edina, Minnetonka, Lakeville, and other rich ghettos around the Twin Cities so well. Tim is always looking for someone to pander to and plunder so he can blunder his way to the Republican nomination. He has demonstrated time and again he will throw 50,000 children and thousands of adults formerly in Minnesota Care -– and even mentally disturbed veterans—under his campaign bus to further his own ambitions.
The No-Nothing Party and the Washington Buffet
This season of politicking reminds me of a cemetery which has offered perpetual care to its residents but is now going bankrupt. The No-Nothing Party, formerly known as the Republican, is busy now proclaiming its virginity in the whole national debt and deficit business they were credit-carding around with at the beginning of this century. Just a few years ago Republicans were the leading top, middle, and bottom feeders at the Washington Buffet, totally indiscreet in their diet. The Republicans left the White House and Congress after prostituting themselves to the wallet and the bottom line. Now, just before the 2010 election, they are talking as if their virginal fiscal cherries have been restored like the 72 Muslim virgins in heaven available for all male martyrs. And so it goes.

Dick Cheney, that great conservative from Casper, Wyoming, said years ago that “deficits don’t matter.” Actually his Party believed him when they were in charge. They charged everything— wars, medical bills, drugs for seniors, tanks, planes, ships, and even sold interstate highways to foreigners so big tolls could be charged users. I wonder if they will believe Cheney now that he doesn’t have a pulse?
The Party of “No” and the Destruction of the Senate
Although the Democratic Congress has been the most productive in reforming bad policy since the Great Depression, it will probably take a decade to correct the course set by the Lurch administration. The surpluses of the Bill Clinton years were turned into deficits by Lurch when many expenses were put on Master Charge instead of being paid for with cash by taxes. It’s a fact that George W. Bush added more debt to the national debt, about $5 trillion worth, than all the presidents before him.

The other day I listened to two Republican billionaires, one of them Steve Forbes, a former presidential Republican candidate, bemoan the fact that consumers were not helping the economy because they weren’t “consuming.” Without Daddy’s money these two idiots would never be millionaires. They didn’t seem to have any idea that the low and the middle class have no money to consume, having gone without salary and wage increases for the eight years of the Bush administration. We now have 40 million people on food stamps and 18 million children who don’t get enough to eat. “In the richest country in the world,” we keep hearing.

With 41 votes the Republicans have decided to block every initiative advanced by the Democrats. Even with the largest oil “spill” in history destroying much of the Gulf of Mexico’s economy for possibly years, the Republicans have filibustered the lifting of the $75 million limit on liability for such spills. In that BP has agreed to put at least $20 billion in escrow to pay for possible damages, it simply shows that the Republican Party is a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and other large oil companies. $75 million wouldn’t even cover the damage done to a few oyster beds. But “Drill, baby, drill!” has become the mantra of the Republican Party instead of “Think, adult, think!” There isn’t much doubt that BP (It does not like to be called British Petroleum, although it is that company) will be found negligent in the deaths of 11 workers and the spilling of at least 200 million gallons of oil in a body of water that already has numerous dead spots from fertilizer runoff and other oil spills. But corporations are always trying to dodge responsibility for their failures. Greed is a most powerful component of corporate policy.
Conspicuous Consumption of Energy
After all the discussions of saving energy in the mainstream news and in commercials, I still go into people’s homes where most of the lights are on whether in unused portions of the home or not. It burns me to see all that power going to waste.  Does it take such an effort to flip a switch?  President Jimmy Carter over thirty years ago had the right idea by talking about the excess costs of foreign oil. He installed solar panels on the White House to demonstrate that there were actually other sources of energy. 

But what happened as soon as Republican Ronald Reagan was elected?  The solar panels went to the D.C. dump. ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and all the other Standard Oil orphans were back in power. Drill, Ronnie, drill! Drilling in 5,000 feet of water to 18,000 feet to the oil source became rather standard, but without reasonable regulations to forestall disasters such as BP’s Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf and the California spills. ExxonMobil led all firms in lobbying expenses in 2009 by spending $27.4 million on lobbyists. It also will be champion in 2010. It gets more than its money’s worth. Congress should be ashamed of its weak spine.

Regulatory agencies during the Lurch administration were often headed by former officers of businesses that were supposed to be regulated by the “regulators.” Eight years of Lurch’s regulatory neglect and malfeasance resulted in the deep problems we are facing today, whether in mining, oil, or Wall Street finance.

A good example of this “neglect and malfeasance” is Massey Energy, now under federal criminal investigation for the deaths of 29 miners in Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. Massey Energy has committed thousands of safety violations in the last few years, some resulting in the deaths of miners. They paid small fines in some cases or are challenging other fines for years, so their bottom line is not hurt. One might think that “16 tons and deeper in debt” coal miners might be treated better these days. Don’t even think it.

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, recently went before the National Press Club to complain about regulations, asking the Obama administration “to lighten up” on regulations for mining. He added: “We need to let businesses function as businesses. Corporate business is what built America, in my opinion, and we need to let it thrive by, in a sense, leaving it alone. In the future you’ll see not only coal companies but many companies resist the efforts of the EPA and others that are impeding their ability to pursue their careers, or their happiness.”  What an attitude! Throw the bodies out of the mine and bring in fresh ones! Mr. Blankenship, we are all building America.
The Corporate Cannibalism Begins
But Blankenship’s attitude seems to permeate the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an organization that used to work with both parties for the good of the national community. Even with disaster after disaster because of the failure to regulate industry and financial institutions, the Chamber seems to be turning into a Corporate Tea Party. Once an organization of mainly moderate Republicans who had some sense, now they are spending $75 million this fall to defeat Democrats because the Democrats “are leading a general attack on our free enterprise system and are taking an ill-advised course of government expansion, major tax increases, massive deficits, and job-destroying regulations.” (!) 

Like rescuing Wall Street from eating its young and old? Like demanding reasonable regulations and work rules for mining and oil drilling to prevent human and national disasters? Now BP is accusing other companies in the oil business of being negligent, filing over 300 complaints against the company it rents drilling platforms from. So now the corporate cannibalism starts.
Why Are Health Insurance Companies Hoarding All That Cash?
With our new health programs still in their shakedown cruises or still tied to the dock, insurance companies are already raising their shakedown rates. I see North Dakota Blue Cross says medical costs might go up 8.8 percent in 2010 in the state. They are asking for a rate increase that is “confidential” although BC covers 90 percent of the private market in North Dakota. We sure as hell wouldn’t want the stupid public to know what they are asking for, would we?

On the national scene health insurance, drug, and hospital companies are squirreling away billions for their shareholders. No wonder the U.S. citizen pays twice as much for health care than any other person in the civilized world. Well Point, the largest health insurance company, has $20.2 billion in cash on hand. You may remember this outfit tried to raise premiums by 39 percent in California. They were denied the increase–but they still have $20.2 billion in their kitty.

United Health Group, based in Minneapolis, made famous by its various CEOs making billions of dollars, has stashed away $11.2 billion. Humana has salted away $8.6 billion.  Johnson & Johnson has sold a lot of expensive Band-Aids and has $18 billion in their excess coffers.
Mark Twain once wrote that “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” The Best Congress Money Can Buy has already proven a wet-noodle spine is incapable of connecting to the brain. They don’t blush in shame either.
Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)