SMELL THE IRONY!
Obama’s priorities are becoming apparent now with his latest appointments and I love what I see so far. Looks like:
FIXING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT – The appointment of Eric Holder at Justice signals good things. The mess that Bush made in our Justice Department has caused more suffering than any President in history.
From political prosecutions (Think Former Alabama Governor Don Siegleman) to indefinite detention and torture all over the world in our name to Mandatory Minimum Sentences Justice is meaningless in America. Shutting down GITMO and devising a legal solution for trying those who may be bad guys will likely be the opening of a new day in American Justice. Obama/Holder will need to codify in people’s minds both here and abroad that America still is a Democracy and does not Torture! Then the hard task of de-politicizing the Justice Department (crony removal) and restoring the Three Co-Equal Branches of Government will also be undertaken. Hopefully there will be a focus on the Drug War as well.
NATIONAL HEALTH CARE – The appointment of Tom Daschle the former Senate Majority Leader to Health and Human Services was a fantastic pick. Daschle wrote an entire book devoted to the subject http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0312383010/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link and will be the point man for Obama, not only writing the legislation to bring America into the Industrialized World with an expansion of Health Care but guiding it through both Houses and getting it to the President’s desk. Senator Ted Kennedy is back in the Senate with a malignant brain tumor ticking in his gifted brain to make sure this happens. Hillary likely is torn between Secretary of State and being ultra valuable on Health Care in the Senate. Tough one for her.
Choosing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State indicates to me that Israel-Palestinian Peace is high on Obama’s agenda as well. Bill Clinton for whatever his foibles poured his heart and soul into trying for a Middle East Peace. Unfortunately he had Yasser Arafat as his negotiating partner. Perhaps the landscape is in better shape for planting the seeds of peace in the Middle East.
IMMIGRATION REFORM - Janet Napolitano the Governor of Arizona has been given Homeland Security which signals meaningful Immigration Reform is on the horizon.
GETTING CONGRESS ON BOARD - Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff indicates Obama is going to muscle his legislation through Congress and not let 44 get bogged down in Senators “pet issues”.
I am very interested to see who gets Labor and Trade.
Meanwhile we have 2 more months of Bush and his cronies. On his way out the door expect an all out assault on Health Care and lots of Agency packing with his henchmen. Think of them like Cluster Bombs that explode after hostilities cease. It wouldn’t surprise me if Detroit is left unattended and the Economy slides quickly into 8 or 9% unemployment. Maybe worse.
NATIONAL SECURITY - Of course National Security will always be front and center for any President so does any one consider the implications for our National Defense if our Manufacturing Base is decimated as a final “You’re on your own f-you” gift from Bush? Remember this man is a tweaker. He breaks things and can’t put them back together. It’s who he is.
Want some irony?
George W. Bush, in the waning days of his “Only I can keep you safe” disastrous Presidency, idly dismisses the thought of LOANING 25 Billion with conditions, to American’s Manufacturing base, or as I like to think of it 10 weeks in Iraq. Saving the Middle Class was never high on the Bush Boys agenda. But if that's where his insight on the matter ends, he should remember a little family history:
In June 1943, a young man climbed into the cockpit of a Grumman Avenger torpedo aircraft and began his own fight against tyranny. He would later become President of the United States after defending her in battle. That man was George H.W. Bush. Bush, Sr flew The Grumman Avenger. A fighter plane designed by Grumman, with a Grumman nameplate, “TBM Avenger” and came off the assembly lines of... (Drum roll)......General Motors.
GM, together with Ford and Chrysler, was at the forefront of manufacturing during World War II. Safely tucked away in the heartland of America, these companies and their plants retooled with lightning speed to support the war effort. Spitting out jeeps, tanks, fighters, bombers, even mobile kitchens. FDR's 'total war' effort. An effort that gradually and finally overwhelmed Hitler's armies and Tojo's fanatics to win the war.
For years voices in the wilderness have been warning about the perils of the 'global economy'. Cheap labor overseas meant cheap goods back home. One day we woke up and found our wealth elsewhere and our manufacturing industries completely broken and mismanaged.
Our Manufacturing Sector became part of the Financial Sector. Auto companies spent more time on stock prices than car prices, concentrating on being in the lending industry, the financial industry anything but the Manufacturing Industry. A bloated Corporate Bureaucracy fat on stock options and borrowed money ignored who they were and ceased to make things that people wanted at a fair price, ceased innovating (except in financial schemes). The financial health of these Big Three Automakers was an illusion. Their wealth was on paper only but who needed real wealth anyway, as long as one had healthy credit?
That pain you're feeling in 30 years of ignorance and fast phony money biting us in the ass. Our economy teeters on the brink because the designers at our Auto Makers chose to design credit schemes as the core of their business model, rather than designing AUTOMOBILES with clean energy as the core of their business model.
THE ANSWER IS BIODIESEL but no one will go there so perhaps the Saudi Oil Sheiks ought to make the Loan. They have our money and we have a “service” economy. Now that would be irony.
Tell me something, can you build a Fighter Plane at Wal-Mart? Do you think China, Russia and Saudi Arabia know that? There’s an irony that should not be lost on any American who truly loves their country.
