Emptying the Notebook

Time to empty the old political notebook in my head and get some stuff out on the page, lest it end up causing even more clutter than is already up there in my middle-aged head. That's right, I said it, it occurred to me on my run the other night that despite mine and my generation's best efforts to deny the obvious, I am officially middle-aged, probably have been for a few years, but I've come to the realization and acceptance of this simple fact of biology, and to be honest it doesn't really concern me much. But that is the topic for another time, for now it's time to clear up some mental hard drive space.

The first topic on my mind is the pay to play scandal that is developing around the Illinois governor. Blago will go down as a footnote in an exceptional year for politics, and will probably be remembered more for his haircut than anything else when all is said and done. Look, the guy is a dirt bag and none too bright for verbalizing his demands in a phone conversation when he has been under investigation and likely to be bugged. Don't these guys know about cell phones? It's amazing that bugging even occurs anymore as it seems so easy to circumvent. He's probably the same type of guy who writes emails to his mistress on his wife's computer. But I digress. Is anyone really shocked to learn that our political system is well, political. Doesn't pay to play occur across the board in the form of big campaign contributions, and for that matter isn't it a feature of much our lives, from the offices we work in to the youth organizations our kids belong to? I'm not saying let the guy off the hook, he deserves whatever is coming his way for his arrogance and ineptitude, but let's not pretend that this is a shocking event that offends our sense of pure democratic ideals.

What a difference a war makes. Remember just a few years back when the Dixie Chicks and France were public enemies number one and two. France had the gaul (pun intended) to not support our war of terror (Borat's line) on Iraq. And the Dixie Chicks had the nerve to criticize our president across the pond, and as a result got blacklisted off of country radio and where ever else they could be banned from. Now an Iraqi reporter throws his shoes at our president, and outside of the Fox News crowd nobody seems to be overly concerned or outraged. It's fodder for the late night comedians and the video is replayed more often than a Dixie Chicks song before the controversy. If ever there was a president who will be happy to exit the big stage, Bush is it. I imagine he's marking his calendar every day until January 20th when he can go back to his ranch in Texas and let Obama take all the heat. We can only hope that Obama's secret service staff is a little quicker on the draw than Bush's boys were.

Is anyone else as excited as me about the latest Obama appointments to his cabinet? Did you hear about the new energy secretary? How about the choice for education secretary? Can we stop pretending that this stuff is ground breaking and that we know anything about these people that would allow us to form an opinion. It reminds me of the NFL Draft, and once the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Treasury are picked, the rest is defensive tackles in the fourth round. Which is to say, unless you are a serious political geek, the equivalent of a Denver Broncos fan who knows who their teams backup long snapper is and what his best assets are, the rest of these appointments will be forgotten in a matter of days and will go about their business behind the scenes, which is how it should be. The Department of Health and Human Services is now on the clock.

It seems to me that our economic brain trust is merely tilting at windmills with all the attempts to avert the inevitable economic crisis. The Fed has now lowered interest rates to near zero, which still won't do much to spur banks to lend money since they have become gun shy about parting with their capital, and it is unlikely that businesses will be looking to expand in this economy and taking advantage of the lower rates. The one positive may be in the housing market, as this may lead to lower mortgage rates which could motivate some potential buyers to get off the sidelines. We hear so much talk of the Great Depression and how we need stimulus, apparently this is based on the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, what is known as Keynesian theory or philosophy. I am doubtful that we are approaching anything like a depression, great or otherwise, and I think much of this economic stimulus is dubious at best. There is an argument for spending money on infrastructure and the like, but I'm not exactly high in confidence that our government will make wise decisions on how to spend the money we don't even have, or in their ability to actually get the money to its intended targets without it being syphoned off by so many middle men as usually seems to happen with such stimulus programs. We've spent almost $350 billion so far on the financial bailout program and I'm not seeing the effects of that money, other than on our national debt.

But not all hope is lost, there is some good news on the horizon, and it is coming in the form of lower prices, not only at the pump but across the board. A new report out has prices down 3%, which means that for those of us fortunate enough to have jobs, which even with nearly 7% unemployment would still suggest that means that 93% of us are employed, so for those of us who still bring home a paycheck, this means that those checks will go just a bit further. And how sweet is it to be able to fill up the tank without going over the $50 debit card limit? I can now fill up my 16 gallon tank with premium for under $30, it may not be much but it is what passes for the wealth effect during this recession.

Now that feels better, the hard drive is only 92% full, so I've got room to add some more stuff up there until it's time to empty it out again. I've got my two week winter break coming up so I will have some time to write some essays I've been planning, and of course to continue offering my two cents on the issues that keep us political junkies going from day to day.