Living Up To Your Words

"I Hear the Voices - - "

-George W Bush

"My greatest fear as a Christian was not

that one day my life would come to an end

but rather that my life would

Never Have A Beginning"

My acquaintance with certain spirit guides

actually precedes my acquaintance with Christianity

So I can't be accused of a spiritual "Carley Manning"

or adopting an Alternate Belief System to Christianity

once I deduced that all HOPE was Gone

Before we begin tonight's feature presentation on our esteemed President's State of the Intercourse message last night, I would first like to talk about a period in my life I made the mistake of sharing with Pastor Don 25 years ago. I have a feeling he was thinking things about me that were never said out loud, at least to me. It's probably significant that I met my first spirit guides not while living at my parent's address but "On the road to San Barnadino" to quote a lyric. There happened to be three of them but the number was not at all significant, and by the way for you B O C fans, they were not dressed in black and they didn't say "Don't Report This". "He said one - and one - and one - is three" (That line is more relevant but for a different reason) The period from September first 1954 to April 3rd. 1955 is a period which, if I were my parents I wouldn't feel comfortable talking about, besides if they said anything it would probably not be accurate. When I was little I would have these dreams where this white incandescent sphere would be floating past me and it would frighten me, and contrary to what Sylvia Brown says, I don't think it was an angel". I'll take it up with her some day.

Well yesterday morning I made certain statements. Many of them were prompted by a “spirit guide” if you will, I refer to by the initials of F H. He said that Obama would be in full scale retreat and do everything he could to impress the republicans to keep the status quo and that security and restrictions of civil rights further would be trumpeted and that he would announce that he wanted to scrap most of the health bill in the spirit of compromise. None of that happened. Instead I was impressed with the way the President stepped up to the plate. He said all the right words, and now it’s incumbent on him to walk by them. The speech didn’t begin real promacing since there was rhetoric about “I feel your pain” and letters from children and “we all have concerns” and “America is still number one” and other puffery that could just have easily been given by a Republican. But then he got into the nuts and bolts of our pressing problems. The speech began at 6:12 and ended at 7:22 making the speech an hour and ten minutes – definitely one of the longer speeches. He told congress on the health bill, “Just get it done”. He threatened to veto any bill that contained pork barrel projects and said all such pork should be plainly posted on the internet. He said the money saved would make up for the money spent this year on the recovery. He outlined everything Bush did that got us to this point. But he said the freeze in spending would not begin till 2011 “when the recovery was stronger”. That makes sense. He said to put an end to the partisan bickering and “Just because the republicans have the power to do something (like stop government) doesn’t mean they should do it. He promised to rewrite the tax laws so that it would not be adventagious for corporations to relocate off shore. He chided the media for their endless sound bites and encouraging the division to get ratings. He criticized the Supreme Court decision of last week and urged congress to pass laws barring foreign corporations from funding U S campaigns. He took on the lobbyists. He said no lobbyist was getting any government post. He said most of the TARP money had been paid back but with the remaining money it should be used to generate small business loans. I did not hear anything specific about restoring Glass – Steigel. He spoke of how all of this would not be easy but hard but this was one of those moments in US history that demanded decisiveness and bold action. He also coined a term, at last for the past decade, which is now coming to be called “The Lost Decade”. In my life there are times when I think of it as the Lost Decade. I would sure rather be 49 than 59 given the choice. The President spoke of winding down the war in Iraq and mentioned North Korea and promised to get tough with Iran if the situation demanded. He said we should put away talk of “which party is tougher on terrorism than whom”. Then he mentioned civil rights around the world raising examples such as women in Afghanistan trying to get an education. He also talked about how American youth needs a first rate education if they are going to get first rate jobs and has a new government program for that. He also talked about the need for new domestic energy in ways that impressed me such as “Drill, baby, drill”. He spoke of clean coal and of revitalizing our nuclear plants, and new green jobs. Finally he did what I never thought he had the cajones to say. He said that “Don’t ask; don’t tell” must end and gay people deserve equal rights. He only spend about ten minutes on foreign policy, understandably, given these trying times. Nobody can accuse the President of being timid in this speech. Well, like I say, he’s said all the right words, and that is an important first step. He realizes what he has to do; now it’s time for us to do it.

Apple today introduced their “I Pad”. That name is so obvious I’m surprised I didn’t predict it ahead of time. The I Pad will do for E books what the I Pod did for music. Well, at least we’ll save a few trees – I think. Many say they won’t buy now however because they’ll just come out with a better, cheaper one this summer. The screen is a touch screen - - but it’s big enough to watch HD movies on and do other things. I’m a little surprised that apple didn’t yank the rug out today because lately people have been “set up” to expect a new thing from apple that they didn’t deliver.

You know - - I think America in some ways is more demanding of the television media today. They’ve done some things right. You have more avenues than ever to generate feedback on what you like and don’t like. The renaissance of the game show I think is a healthy sign. Competetion is always healthy and generates character. The rise of the reality show is also healthy. People have been saying for decades that TV was divorced from real life, but now real life has come to TV in a major way. More than ever news is covering things like health issues, that makes the public more informed. There is a awful lot of Entertainment gossip type stuff on, but at least when you have conversation at cocktail parties - - even the un hip won’t come off as a blithering idiot.

I thought of adding “Oh My Love” and “New York City” to the John Lennon compilation. The reason why I am not is because people from the Federation were saying, “John already has more albums dedicated to him than the other Beatles, and these fifteen songs cover the period well enough already without overdoing it”. Besides John Lennon himself says he has soured on “New York City”.

President Obama announced High Speed Rail transport for transportation and employment. I think that’s a pretty good idea. But I didn’t hear any specific proposal in tonight’s speech. But if it’s actually on the table, let’s just hope the Republicans like it.

Now Oregon wants an initiative to organize a state bank to serve the people.

I bookmarked ABC’s “Good Morning America” the other night for Videos.

The other day I changed a sentence to read “Judas had to think fast” in the “anointed” file, or rather, the blog that was lifted from that file -and hopefully my adding in a sentence will make it easier to follow. Yes, it is just a “story”, but one worth telling. This is information that readers of the Karmic suicide blog will want to know.

Obama Orders Full-scale Rightward Retreat

President Obama is in full scale retreat to the right now. He’d ordered the freeze of all discretionary federal spending which some say is an accounting trick because this spending only accounts for one sixth of all federal spending. But throwing the Republicans a bone is useless and you think Obama would have learned this. Now they are making remarks like, “It’s like someone going on a diet after just winning a pie eating contest”. Dr. Levy is so upset about the prospect of the Bush tax cuts ending next year. But like Joe the Plumber he’s worried about nothing. Because he is “hoping to be soon in the $250,000 bracket. But even if Dr. Levy earned $375,000 - - two thirds of all that money would be taxed at the old rate. We’re talking about one third of six percent, or two percent of your income. If I earned 35 times what I’m getting now, I wouldn’t be sweating the two percent. Dr. Levy says “I’m just worried that those higher taxes will cut into my giving to charities”. Well, I guess that’s a problem for the rich. But I think the rich, who are the most blessed by this country - -ought to be instrumental in cutting this looming federal deficit we have now. They say that if we just taxed FICA on the full income amount instead of just the first one hundred thousand, that Social Security imbalance would be a thing of the past. That’s what Tim said a few years back, and I believe he knew what he was talking about. You’re never going to make the right wing happy. When I hear someone get up and attack Governor Swartzenegger for being too liberal by raising taxes, I say, “That’s too right wing for my blood”. The Governor just one year in 2006 gave what I’d call a forward-looking progressive speech. And by 2007 the negativity was back. Now they are saying there will be no further stimulus to get out of this recession because we can’t afford it. So Obama has contracted “Less is more” disease, we used to hear so much about. It’s time to dust off those “The Era of Big Government” posters. Now they are saying that unemployment will not only not decline this coming month (pardon the double negative) but unemployment is expected to remain at or above ten percent for this entire year. That’s a little much to take if you are one of the many who is out of a job. Thom Hartman says that Roosevelt had the CCC people out planting trees, two weeks into his administration. In Dr. Levy’s class they were talking of dissecting the Obama speech sentence by sentence. If they do that, I will be there to stick up for Reality. John Kennedy and Harry Truman were great leaders- - first of all because they led. They “grew” in office. They looked at the way things could be and said “Why not”. We need to educate the American people, who at this point are so messed up they don’t know what they want and will vote for anyone who uses the C word, meaning “change”. Sometimes you in truth do have to “stay the course”. The stimulus measures we have done are working despite the howls of protests from the right. The problem is that we need more of that to really get the job done. “Watching the grass grow” can be boring if you obsess on it, but in the course of time you’ll see it..

People forget what a bad President George Bush actually was. We have forgotten that there were so many “off budget” items in the Bush economy. So naturally when you return to honist accounting things are going to look bad for a while. Just when a private householder is getting out from under debt things will look bad for a while, as he now comes to grips with all the “trifles” he didn’t really think “counted” as expenditures. Dr. Levy changed my remark when I talked about “jobs going overseas”. He said that it’s all because we have higher taxes here. Well, we have higher wages, too. But nobody is proposing we return to paying workers a dollar fifty a day for their labors. The fact is we can flat out make certain economic activities illegal if we want to. The President, for that matter, can do a lot of things by executive order, like the whole “Don’t ask; don’t tell” thing but the president is choosing not to do it. People say “The problem with Obama is that he’s still behaving like a senator rather than a President, who exists in a leadership capacity”. Randy Rhodes says she talked to President Obama before orientation and after orientation, and was amazed by the difference. It’s like that drug they inject you with in the movie “Harvey” or something. It transforms your personality into another man. But I am also getting tired of this notion of “The left has to put up with whatever the president shovels out because we don’t want repeats of other disasters like 1968, 1972, or 1980 when the Republicans were victorious because the democrats were divided. I have a saying too, and that is “Don’t fight the present war with battle plans best suited to a previous war”. This is not your father’s political landscape. The Republicans are so far to the right they are off the radar screen, and can easily be attacked and unmasked, if someone just has the guts to do it. You know what they say. Victory is five percent inspiration and 95% perspiration. Another adage of mine is that “If you see a problem and do nothing to remedy it, aren’t you in truth giving the problem License to exist?” If there are sins of inaction, then in truth- - are you not Sinning- - in a Biblical sense? A lot of people say they are spiritual, but the bigger question is, "Are they righteous".

A President at the Political Crossroads

As President Obama looks forward to the State of the Union message he’ll be giving this week he must be racked with disappointment. He had spoken of the trifecta of universal health care, increased funding for education, and tackling the energy and carbon “footprint” problems. But now he’s done none of that. He had no agreement on energy he can hold in his hands and wave before the public. People were hoping that perhaps he could point to members of the Bush Administration that were in jail today because of his actions. The President cannot recite economic statistics which proclaim that the recession is a thing of the past and we are well into recovery. In short he won’t be able to call it “Morning in America” once more the way President Reagan could. One would hope that he would have encouraged the restoration of Glass – Steigel laws. But from here it looks as if last Thursday’s words on the banking community were more just a lonely shot in the dark. What he says he wants to do is “restore the spirit of Glass – Steigel”. Why isn’t he pressuring Congress to do that? What’s the problem? On George Washington’s blog one posting says “When it comes to bank reform I’ll believe it when I see it”. The whole idea is that banks cannot use customers’ money for risky financial propositions such as these “derivatives” or bets on bets and an general participating in what amounts to a gambling casino situation. But little time was spent on any Sunday show even discussing this possibility. The problem with President Obama is that he just is not believable any more. I’d like to see his words followed by corresponding actions. After all “actions speak louder than words”. Perhaps Roosevelt and Truman and Kennedy were activist crusaders, but Berock Obama is cut from a different cloth. Just because he is Black we can’t make the assumption that he has the soul of an activist. Instead his attitude tword progressives is throwing them a bone - - such as an occasional speech on their pet topics, but even these speeches are just watered down gruel. They say that he is an “academic”. Well he’s more like a robot. But to be honist, I’ve seen more emotionality from Commander Data on T N G than I have with the President. People like me like to listen to speeches like this from our Governor or our President, to gauge where their head is at. President Obama is at a crossroads and from what liberals have been saying, they are about at the end of their rope and will no longer look upon him as some ally they can count on but, alas, he will be just another part of the problem.

Google may be developing principles because it now plans to pull out of Red China completely if China continues to censor it’s web search results. It seems a Google account was hacked last week and the hack was traced to the Chinese government. People in the Obama administration are saying they are behind Google and urge the Chinese government to be more open, the way they should be.

The Afghan – Pakistani border is a nineteenth British Empire creation to denote the limits of their domain. But in the process they have split up basic tribal groups that now strattle the border. As such the area inside Pakistan will continue to be hostile to US interests, particularly with our bombing them with drones. Also Pakistani government sees Al Qaeda as an ally against the Indian government. With these two things in consideration, along with the natural corruption by US contractors, it makes little sense to continue this war in Afghanistan. That’s what re-think Afghanistan.com says now.

As I have said we may be headed tword a double-dip recession if China curtails our monetary financing, which they seem to have begun. Washington’s Blog had a chart of real estate foreclosures that spike in this year of 2010 and the chart indicates this spike in detail as something which has already taken place. There is so much lag time built into the system from delays in employee hiring to reduced tax revenues which send contractions in funding all through state government. We won’t see real economic growth till all of this “contraction” had thoroughly worked its way through the system. Instead of stocks continuing to rise, they say this week the Dow Jones Industrials were down over 450 points. We can’t have that. In order to have any real hope of a real recovery beginning, stocks should be making new highs as they were in Nov 1982.