11.10.2006
Pinch Me?
Coming down from the shell-shock of Tuesday night in the Casa election war room. The Tivo was bouncing between networks, and Gregg and I sat compulsively loading and reloading municipal election web pages and blogs for constantly updating tallies and rapid-fire projections. Gravy was whinier than usual, I think he could sense the tension in the air. Biscuits was attacking the Dubya Cutout. I was still awake, bleary but edgy, at 5:30 PST as Tester's lead in Montana started to erode as they recounted Yellostone County. . .
The Senate was a squeaker and their were some really close House races, too. I'm convinced that the netroots movement made a difference. ACTBLUE raised $17 Million in small donations for this election. Nationwide, MoveOn.org members made over 7 Million phone calls.
While a lot of people may be gloating. . . It's not a time for gloating. Getting back the Congress wasn't necessarily the easy part, but it was just a first step. Now Reid and Pelosi and all the rest have a lot of work to do. This is where things get interesting.
In summing up my feelings, allow me to defer to someone named Ken Swensen. I have no idea who he is other than the fact that he lives in Pound Ridge. But he wrote a real zinger of a letter to the NYT yesterday:
"To the Editor:
Now that our electorate has finally woken from its stupor, we should ask ourselves why it took six years to recognize the incompetence and demagogy of this administration and the responsibility of the Republican leadership that blindly followed its lead.
The damage done is enormous, in Iraq, in the United States and around the world. Years have been squandered while the critical issues of our time have gone unattended.
How and why were we fooled?
We have a fascination with personalities instead of policy, a desire to be entertained rather than enlightened, and a need to have an enemy to define us and give our lives meaning.
Thankfully, our democracy is still functioning, though we will not see really meaningful progress until we can disconnect the electoral and legislative processes from the flow of corporate cash.
Let’s not forget that the Senate voted to give President Bush authority to start a war in Iraq. Our euphoria should be short-lived, and our vigilance should be redoubled.
Ken Swensen
Pound Ridge, N.Y., Nov. 8, 2006"
# posted by Casa Ogden @ 3:53 AM 
Comments:
<< Home
I like Ken's LTE and it dovetails nicely with Bill Maher's show of last Friday night, where Richard Dreyfuss announced "The melodrama of rudeness and interrupting and yelling and screaming is the only way that people now know, experience public discussion of public issues. They don't know that there were alternative ways of discussing these things." I think the main message he wanted to purvey is that 3 people control the majority of available news in the United States. These 3 people/institutions therefor have the ability to "shape" the news and information however they see fit. Here is the two part rub: we, the people, need to be vigilent as Ken in his LTE points out. We, the people, need ALL the information information to stay vigilent, (assuming we get off our asses and are vigilent). However, at this moment, the information is generally "shaped" by a small group. I think "shaped" is the new, harsher word for "spin". Most of my foriegn friends prefer to listen to NPR or BBC America for their news, which they feel has more honesty in reporting. Sad but true.
And the latest rant from my favorite college professor regarding the latest the World Energy Outlook 2006 from the IEA. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said Friday, "What is wrong with the US increasing vehicle fuel efficiency and reducing imports"?
WHAT A NOVEL BEEPING IDEA.
HELLO IS THIS THING ON?
IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENSION?
This country is like an Alzheimer's patient living in a brothel. We get
screwed on a daily basis, we don't remember a thing, and then are
left wondering what the hell we are paying for. How we have gone through two election cycles, one and a half wars, and a doubling in the price of oil, and still energy is not on anybody's radar scope is simply beyond me. With Brazil (a country that the US needs to be healthy in order to maintain stability in South America) producing tons of ethanol, the rest of the western hemisphere
awash in 2 cent/pound sugar, (which, by purchasing, the US could build wealth in the Carribean and stability in post-Castro Cuba to fend of Chavez who is going to kill his oil industry anyway), the US could have a plan to substitute half of the US's gasoline consumption with ethanol by, say 2012 which might prevent us from having to fight another stupid war against China. And we could still drive the price of corn to record levels to
keep farmers happy. But instead sugar is $0.50/lb here to keep Florida Republicans happy, there is a tariff on Brazilian ethanol (did we say Free Trade Area of the Americas? Sorry, you misunderstood, that was for
exports only senor...), and $2.50/gal gasoline seems like such a bargain we go buy another SUV.
Post a Comment
And the latest rant from my favorite college professor regarding the latest the World Energy Outlook 2006 from the IEA. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said Friday, "What is wrong with the US increasing vehicle fuel efficiency and reducing imports"?
WHAT A NOVEL BEEPING IDEA.
HELLO IS THIS THING ON?
IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENSION?
This country is like an Alzheimer's patient living in a brothel. We get
screwed on a daily basis, we don't remember a thing, and then are
left wondering what the hell we are paying for. How we have gone through two election cycles, one and a half wars, and a doubling in the price of oil, and still energy is not on anybody's radar scope is simply beyond me. With Brazil (a country that the US needs to be healthy in order to maintain stability in South America) producing tons of ethanol, the rest of the western hemisphere
awash in 2 cent/pound sugar, (which, by purchasing, the US could build wealth in the Carribean and stability in post-Castro Cuba to fend of Chavez who is going to kill his oil industry anyway), the US could have a plan to substitute half of the US's gasoline consumption with ethanol by, say 2012 which might prevent us from having to fight another stupid war against China. And we could still drive the price of corn to record levels to
keep farmers happy. But instead sugar is $0.50/lb here to keep Florida Republicans happy, there is a tariff on Brazilian ethanol (did we say Free Trade Area of the Americas? Sorry, you misunderstood, that was for
exports only senor...), and $2.50/gal gasoline seems like such a bargain we go buy another SUV.
<< Home
