Hi again, campers. Back to the Obama to-do list. Since the guy’s on vacation, I imagine he might even be able to find the time to read this one. Pull it up on your blackberry while you’re sitting on the beach. That’s http://www.hammermilldays.com/, Mr. President-Elect. There’s a good chap. This week, domestic policy.

Auto bailout. This is indeed a miserable business. The Bush administration has made such a muddle of the economy that it actually makes some of his other monumental failures pale in comparison. And yet when he came forward with the terms of his proposal, he did so in a somewhat self-righteous way, as if to lecture the industry on its failings. There are plenty of failures to take note of, that’s for sure… but Bush is in no position to criticize, quite frankly. (It’s a bit like Bernie Madoff giving advice on prudent investing.) What is particularly maddening is his focus on the auto workers. In what appears an attempt to throw his fellow Herbert Hoover republicans a bone, he has made the loan offer contingent on substantial labor concessions to bring their wages in line, as he sees it, with those of foreign manufacturers.

Here’s the real joke – UAW workers are making about the same as their non-union counterparts right now. Conservatives like to throw around wild numbers like $73 an hour as somehow representative of UAW scale. That’s what Bush used to call “fuzzy math.” They’re lumping wages together with retiree pensions and benefits and dividing that across the current active workforce. (Labor activist Gregg Shotwell gave a pretty good overview on Democracy Now! last week.) He and the G.O.P. leadership are keen to force some sacrifice on workers, even as corporate executives in the financial industry are still pocketing millions of dollars, including many of those at A.I.G., recipient of more than $150 billion in TARP funds.

This is consistent with the prevailing economic philosophy that favors maximizing corporate profits through outsourcing. As Shotwell explains, the auto companies have been investing overseas for years, so if their U.S. operations fail, they will still have enough assets in other countries to actually start “exporting” cars to the U.S. This would be a much more profitable model for them. Meanwhile, GM’s financial arm, GMAC, has managed to get itself classified as a bank holding company so that it can get a piece of the financial bailout cash. So the car companies can survive even if they employ next to no one in the United States.

Mr. President-Elect – take the workers’ side, for chrissake. If we’re going to try to make the domestic auto industry competitive with foreign auto makers, we’re going to need to move to a single-payer national health plan that provides universal coverage (not some kind of frankenstinian public-private hybrid). That’s what our main competitors have, along with more robust government sponsored pension systems. And if we’re going to bail out the automakers, let’s take an ownership stake in those companies and use that influence to steer them in a better, more sustainable direction that encourages domestic production of more fuel-efficient vehicles, as well as the development of greener mass transit.

Oh… and get a handle on this TARP bailout. These fuckers are walking off with boatloads of cash, and Congress seems unable to do anything about it. Enjoy your vacation.

luv u,

jp

I had resolved to dedicate my blog rambling to a suggestion list for the incoming Obama administration over these few remaining weeks of the Bush II era. (Suggestion #9 – drop the homophobe preacher.) But sometimes events overtake us… events in the shape of a size ten shoe. Actually, two size ten shoes, tossed quite skillfully at the commander in chief himself, who dodged them – also quite skillfully – much as he’s been able (up to this point, at least) to dodge responsibility for the mass death and destruction he has brought down upon Iraq. This was for the widows and orphans and the thousands killed, said Muntazer al-Zaidi as he hummed the second limo at our fearless (or clueless) leader. My first thought was, huh… an anger so pervasive that it was able to penetrate even the octuple security of the Green Zone’s inner sanctum and make the president duck. And, as I’m sure someone has observed, it was no lame duck…. quite adept. Makes me wonder if people chuck things at him more than we know. (Barney, perhaps?)

Be that as it may, al-Zaidi’s act of defiance resonated throughout the poorer quarters where the despised of both Bush and Saddam claw their way through life, and far beyond. Is this as close as Bush will ever come to a genuine “accountability moment”, as he puts it? Perhaps. Prospects for any kind of constitutional come-uppance appear to be nil at this point, and it seems unlikely that he’ll see his day in court (this side of the Hague, anyway). There may be a broad recognition of this fact, perhaps even global in scope, bringing expectations of justice so low that even this purely symbolic effort takes on tremendous significance. Who hasn’t felt frustrated that Bush may be sailing obliviously off into a comfortable sunset, convinced of his own righteousness? In a world of misery made worse by his tenure, who hasn’t wanted to chuck that shoe… or at least hoped to see it chucked by someone else?

Particularly in Iraq, the feeling is more than understandable. To this day there is no real acknowledgement of the degree to which Iraqis have suffered as a result of this invasion, just as there remains to be any acknowledgement of how much they had suffered under the preceding dozen years of truly murderous economic sanctions and the destruction of the 1991 Gulf War. Their resentment of American intervention in their nation has been evident from day one. Even when our military orchestrated the pull-down of Saddam’s statue in the square packed with Chalabi’s people, cordoned off from the general public, they couldn’t keep signs of resistance out of the carefully composed television images. I can remember the flustered T.V. commentator reading on-air the sign that read “Go Home You U.S. Wankers”, fully expecting it to be some kind of celebratory message. In the midst of a whirlwind of triumphalist press about our successful invasion and drive to Baghdad, there was that irrepressible anomaly that presaged the great unraveling that was to follow.

Have we arrived at another such moment? Will Bush actually be held to account, along with other members of his administration? Has he unfurled the “mission accomplished” banner a bit prematurely once again? We can only wait and see if there is yet one more shoe to drop.

luv u,

jp

Another segment of suggestions for president-elect Obama as he completes what feels like the longest presidential transition ever. Before I get into that, however, I will briefly join the chorus of people sounding off on Illinois governor Blagojevich and his jaw-dropping, bald-faced, kleptocratic frenzy to fill Obama’s senate seat with the ass of the highest bidder. I think of myself as a fairly jaded individual, generally speaking, having trawled through the sludge of American politics most of my life on one level or another (never a very elevated one)… and yet somehow that transcript of Blagojevich saying “this thing is [fucking] golden” struck me as, well, appalling and depressing, even as it made me laugh. Just the sheer mind-numbing greed of it made me think, as Keith Olbermann said the other day, of Zero Mostel in the original movie “The Producers” … “Oh! I want that money!!” Holy shit.

Anyway, back to another Illinois politician of note, a certain Barack Obama. This week, domestic policy. (No, I’m not done with foreign policy…. just need a break.)

Health Care. National Health Care is too expensive – that’s what we’ve heard year after year, my entire life through. And yet when major banks and investment houses start to cave in on their glorified ponzi schemes, it’s declared a national emergency and we somehow put our hands on the hundreds of billions it takes to float their pirate ships again. Why isn’t the collapse of our health care system a national emergency? The 44 million without coverage – not an emergency? The millions more underinsured and one illness away from bankruptcy – not an emergency? The constant upward pressure in costs that is driving even those with decent insurance closer to the brink – not an emergency?

I think Obama recognizes that something needs to be done, but I’m concerned that “something” will be a series of half-measures. We need a national health system, similar to the Canadian / European model. The current highly privatized insurance system is bankrupting workers, strangling employers, and spinning out of control. It will take something far more comprehensive than a few tweaks and some computerized records to make it work the way it needs to. And don’t let them tell you we don’t have the resources, because we do. We spend an enormous amount right now on a system that doesn’t work. We can certainly afford one that does.

Poverty. Poverty is growing in America. People who had relatively secure middle-class lives a few years ago are now wearing cardboard belts and eating out of local food pantries. Unfortunately, the only tall politician with good hair (i.e. not Kucinich) who talked about this has felled himself with a tawdry sex scandal, in effect bringing the entire issue down with him. (Very costly affair, wouldn’t you say?) Obama needs to take up this gauntlet. Poor people may not vote in large enough numbers to constitute a reliable electoral block, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. “The poor” is not a static population… people of relative means fall into poverty all the time. We need to press for policies that will bring about full employment, repair the social safety net, and stop punishing people for not having money.

Okay, I’m through with you for this week. You can record your radio address now.

luv u,

jp