Stop Pulling the Wagon

Someone sent this Norman Rockwell/Barack Obama  “Self Portrait” “Take Off” to me by email and it got me to thinking.  Is this just a perhaps unfair caricature of our President or is there a deeper and more troubling truth here?

How do those who govern us see themselves?

When what we get from those who govern us is “Talking Points” and “Spin” how do we know what to believe?  I would suggest that what we can believe is facts.  Not “Spin”.  Not “Talking Points”.  Not fancy speech’s.  Reality.  Facts.

The “Troubled Asset Relief Program”  (T.A.R.P. for short), which began under the Bush administration,  was originally scheduled to be a $700,000,000,000.00 (700 Billion) program to “Save” the Banks and get them to start lending again.  A big chunk of this money seems to have disappeared;  maybe to the 15th Congressional District in Arizona?  And, the banks have tightened up on lending.

We were told (by the Obama administration)  that if we passed the $787,000,000,000.00 (787 Billion) Stimulus Bill that millions of new jobs would be created and unemployment would not rise above 8.5%.

By the governments own statistics the unemplyment rate is 10.2%.  This same government does not deny that there is another group that has given up looking for work and still another that is “under”employed, that is working either just part time or at jobs that pay much less than the jobs they were working at 6-18 months ago.  Total unemployment rate is somewhere in the 17+% range. 

I could go on with many more examples.  The question is:  Are they lying to themselves or are they lying to us? 

Another question:  How long will it take for our government to figure out that what they are doing is not working?  Its been tried before and it didn’t work and its being tried now and it is not working.  The first rule is: When you find yourself in a hole – stop digging!  You cannot borrow your way to prosperity! 

At some point the old addage comes to mind:  Lie to me once, shame on you!  Lie to me twice, shame on me!  What do I see when I look in the mirror?  Do I see the truth or only what I want to see?     -Bob

Living in California is a little like being trapped in an episode of The Simpsons.

I am specifically thinking of the episode in which the entire family went to Electric Shock Therapy at Doctor Marvin Monroe’s Family Therapy Center.  Each of them was given a button with which they could Zap another member of the family during the Therapy session.  Once started, they continued to Zap one another until they finally caused such a drain on the electrical grid that  the lights across the whole town started to flicker.

California is now like that.  A dysfuntional state that is in the process of Zapping itself into darkness.  Functional if not literal darkness.  Zap, lets solve our financial problems by laying off fire fighters and law enforment personal.  Zap, lets solve some more of our financial problems by releasing felons from prison.  Zap, lets solve this years financial woes by borrowing from future budgets.  Zap, more Regulations to drive business out of the State.   And, maybe my favorite:  zap, lets raise taxes so more people who pay taxes will leave the state.  Zap, Zap Zap —- The lights are starting to flicker.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor I think many of us Californians thought we had Conan the Barbarian riding to our rescue.  Certainly he would jump in, muscles rippling, crack some heads, slay the evil Serpent King Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) and we would all live in peace and prosperity.

But Conan had never met an enemy before quite like the Simpsons.  Little did we all suspect that we would see our hero morph into a kind of Conan the  Simpson.         

 Bob Bandy

Credits: The Simpsons 1994 – Theres No Disgrace Like Home – Matt Groening/Creator  Conan the Barbarian 1982 Directed by John Milius – Universal Pictures/20th Century Fox