Sometimes the hypocrisy stands on its own

Today:

The administration used the Newsweek incident to criticize other, unnamed news organizations. "One of the concerns is that some media organizations have used anonymous sources that are hiding behind that anonymity in order to generate negative attacks," said presidential spokesman Scott McClellan. But he said the administration's own use of anonymous sources was not a major problem.

SIGH.

The 100 Most Important Americans???

Any list that has Dr. Phil as one of the most 100 important Americans shouldn’t be taken seriously enough for any analysis, but what the hell. This is a breakdown of Discovery’s such list -- . In reading the rules, the general public voted on this, which pretty much says all that needs to be said about our education system.

My List From The 100 (in alphabetical order)

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Alexander Graham Bell
3. Alexander Hamilton
4. Amelia Earhart
5. Andrew Carnegie
6. Babe Ruth
7. Benjamin Franklin
8. Bill Gates
9. Carl Sagan
10. Charles Lindbergh
11. Chuck Yeager
12. Dwight D. Eisenhower
13. Eleanor Roosevelt (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt)
14. Elvis Presley
15. Frank Sinatra
16. Franklin D. Roosevelt
17. Frederick Douglass
18. George Patton
19. George Washington
20. George Washington Carver
21. Henry Ford
22. Jackie Robinson (Jack Roosevelt Robinson)
23. Jesse Owens
24. John F. Kennedy
25. Jonas Edward Salk
26. Malcolm X (Malcolm Little)
27. Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
28. Martin Luther King Jr.
29. Michael Jordan
30. Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.)
31. Ray Charles
32. Ronald Reagan
33. Rosa Parks
34. Sam Walton
35. Steve Jobs
36. Steven Spielberg
37. Susan B. Anthony
38. Theodore Roosevelt
39. Thomas Edison
40. Thomas Jefferson
41. Wrights Brothers (Orville & Wilbur Wright)

Let's be clear here - there are some pretty shaky, sentimental choices above as well. I love Ray Charles, so he's in. But does he belong there? Also, in the great scope of things, will anyone really remember Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg, or Sam Walton? I do keep the top three athletes of all time (Ruth, Ali and Jordan) as well as Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier.

Culling more from the list...
People who, idiots, are NOT Americans – at least not born and raised here, which seems to matter in a list like this.

Albert Einstein
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Cesar Chavez
Nikola Tesla


Perhaps this is xenophobic, but it seems if we are making a list of important Americans, it should matter where you are born and raised. Would anyone consider Ivan Lendl a great American? Or Tracy Ullman, who just got her citizenship? I think not…more importantly, no one would think of them as Americans. It’s a stretch that doesn’t need to be made.


People who have NO business being considered an all-time most important American

Barack Obama – Love the guy. He’s a ONE-TERM SENATOR RIGHT NOW.
Barbara Bush – No first ladies, aside from Eleanor Roosevelt HAVE EVER DONE ANYTHING.
Bill Clinton – The best president of my lifetime still doesn’t belong here.
Bill Cosby (William Henry Cosby, Jr.) – why?
Billy Graham – He’s plenty evil, but I don’t see it.
Bob Hope - aside from being a good comedian and living a long time...I'm not seeing it.
Brett Favre – Look, if a QB is going to show up, it’s Joe Montana. And he has no business being here.
Christopher Reeve – nice sentiment, but…no.
Clint Eastwood – why?
Colin Powell – For being such a gigantic pussy?
Condoleezza Rice – Oh, now I’m getting angry…
Donald Trump – Somehow, I feel like he made sure this would happen.
Ellen DeGeneres – If her coming out had changed gay rights one iota, sure.
George H. W. Bush – For sucking?
George W. Bush – For being the Worst President Ever, perhaps.
George Lucas – no. If any movie makers belong here, it’s Spielberg and Welles.
Hillary Rodham Clinton – no first ladies ever. Even her tenure in the Senate isn't that noteworthy.
Howard Hughes – no way he’s here if The Aviator hadn’t come out last year.
Hugh Hefner – nice impact, but no.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – Oy, with the first ladies.
Jimmy Stewart – Great guy, great actor…still no.
John Edwards – Good lord. He served one term and had a failed VP bid.
John Wayne – Almost kept him in.
Johnny Carson (John William Carson) – Him too, but nope.
Laura Bush – AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!
Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone) – No way. Plus she talks with a British accent now.
Marilyn Monroe – no.
Martha Stewart – good lord.
Mel Gibson – Oy.
Michael Jackson – He almost made it, but the molester bit kind of taints him, no?
Michael Moore – Christ.
Oprah Winfrey – She does have an impact, but I HATE HER.
Pat Tillman – A nice sympathy vote for a good man. Not nearly close to one of the most 100 important Americans though.
Dr. Phil McGraw – This is so preposterous…he’s a fat fake shrink.
Rudolph W. Giuliani – right now, he was just a good mayor of NYC. And Bernie Kerik’s buddy.
Rush Limbaugh – seriously, was this list designed to make me angry?
Tiger Woods – Great golfer, got kids to start golfing but…who cares, really? And I golf.
Tom Cruise – Good lord.
Tom Hanks – See Tom Cruise.


The rest of the list are people I can’t really complain about but I just don’t agree with the relevance. But GOD, can’t we do better? If we are including sports stars, where is Arthur Ashe? Where is Thurgood Marshall? John Adams? Milton Friedman? What about Philo Farnsworth – he invented the lifeblood of every American, the TV…anyhow, it’s a dumb list.

Questions

Why is it that so-called conservatives always talk about the good old days, and want to return the country to the puritanical culture of the 1950s...but when it comes to OTHER things, moving backwards is anti-American and smells of Communism? An example, a good one I think, is the growing disparity between executive pay and workers pay. To quote Paul Krugman:

In 1968, the head of General Motors received about $4 million in today's dollars - and that was considered extravagant. But last year Scott Lee Jr., Wal-Mart's chief executive, was paid $17.5 million. That is, every two weeks Mr. Lee was paid about as much as his average employee will earn in a lifetime.

That's just not right - and it's led to a lot of other associated problems. Disparity in education, disparity in healthcare (and the associated things that come from not having adequate healthcare).

Look, I am a graduate of one of the most conservative business schools in the world, and my life is fantastically better than it would otherwise be because of capitalism. But it doesn't mean that it's a perfect set-up, and that left to its own devices, some things have gone quite wrong in the past 50 years or so. Does it mean there has to be government regulation in order to quell this? I'd love to say no - I'm no fan of government intervention when it's not necessary, and lord knows the government is bloated enough. But I can't see how this tide turns on its own without someone stepping in.

Politics over Policy

It seems to be a "truism" that Social Security is in massive trouble and that while Bush's "plan" to solve it might not be the best, anyone who thinks the program isn't in trouble is just in denial. What doesn't seem acceptable to point out to the same people pandering this tripe is that it's in trouble because of Bush's tax cuts. The shortfall of dollars could be immediately solved by repealing the tax cuts to those making over $350,000 a year -- but that's off the table. No, instead we need to solve this "problem" by cutting benefits for those making over $20,000 a year.

This is politics over policy, W style, and finally it appears that Americans aren't buying it. Anyone who thinks George W has them in mind when he's legislating and who also doesn't make at least half a million dollars a year is simply OUT OF THEIR MIND.

Furthermore, Social Security is funded through 2040, 2041 or 2042 depending on what study you care to believe. On the other hand, Medicaid is about ten years away from going bankrupt and no one is doing anything about it. Why? Cause rich folks don't care about Medicaid.

What seems to stun my Republican voting friends is the fact that there are some of us who don't vote with our wallets. That's a term that's often applied to the free market - e.g., if someone puts out an inferior product, people won't buy it. But many people go to the voting booth and vote based on who is going to put more money in their pocket...or, more accurately, who they think is going to do that. Bush whacked most of the non-millionaires with the AMT despite cutting the income tax rates for a lot of people, and he knew it.

Worst. President. Ever.

This quote from John Kenneth Galbraith makes me want to read a lot more by him:

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

Of course, any economist who doesn't support Bush's tax plans is a liberal hack (see: Paul Krugman), according to those who don't want to hear the truth.

Gotta Be Starting Something...

Starting a post with a Michael Jackson song lyric probably ain't too smart given that he's on trial for almost assuredly molesting little boys, but I'm a gambler. I throw caution to the wind and have a little fun with it.

I am not sure why I don't post to this blog, aside from the fact that I forget a lot of things. Sometimes it's to take the chicken out of the freezer to defrost it for dinner, sometimes it's to call home and tell my folks I love them...and sometimes - often - it's to write here.

It's not for lack of subject matter. Politically, things are crazy - and finally, perhaps, more than 49% of Americans are realizing that the Republican Party has lost its nut, lost its original purpose and gone straight off into the Deep End of Crazy Religious Nuttery. Or, maybe they haven't and I'm just optimistic, but it starts looking that way with Social Security, Schiavo and Tom DeLay's seppuku going on.

In sports, the Niners drafted Alex Smith #1. In the first place, watching the NFL draft and NOT waiting hours for the first 49er pick was pretty fucking odd. And I'm not sure I want that to happen again anytime soon. But who the heck knows about this kid? I sure didn't get a lot of University of Utah games on my DirecTV, or at least I didn't watch any. So maybe the kid can play. He's smarter than Jim Druckenmiller and that's a big plus. It seems like they want him to start the season, which means he's going to struggle - at least he isn't following in the footsteps of a legend like another quarterback from Utah who did pretty well here. As far as baseball goes, the Giants aren't going anywhere with Barry and Benitez on the DL, but roto is pretty fun. Sharing a team with Jonny has been loads of fun and yesterday we made a trade I probably wouldn't have done on my own - we gave up Jeff Weaver for Jim Brower. The thought is that Brower will remain the closer, a la Matty Herges and Tim Worrell of years past. (Sad that there is so much history in middle relief guys ending up in our closer spot.) By the time the season ends, it will be clear if that was smart or not - but the reality is we have six guys we like at starting pitcher more than Weaver and if we'd waited to find out if Brower had the job, we would have had to pay a lot more to get him than just the DreamWeaver. So, it's a good gamble on our part.

More so, Hank is just about the cutest little kid I've ever seen. He gurgles like --- well, I don' t know like what, but it's funny as hell. I held him today and he smiled - sure, it was cause he was taking a poop, or dreaming - but DAMN that was pretty great. I love my lil' nephew.