Calhouns Can(n)ons

Oops, It’s Dat Ol’ Karmic Wheel, Again

The prison guards union, ticked off over the failure of the Governator to cough up various demands and increases in their contracts and other such like, has announced a petition drive to recall Gov. Schwarzenegger.

HoHoHoHo.

I predict the effort will go nowhere because 1) people HATE recalls and 2) they’re busy with national politics and likely don’t give a hoot about the prison guards who, in this economic downturn, still have jobs that pay well and have benefits, so what are they whining about anyway? and 3) the budget impasse isn’t all the Governator’s fault -- we’ve got a totally polarized state assembly and senate filled with enough people who have drunk ideological kook-aid and are locked into No Taxes No Time No How, or No Cuts No Time No How, all running a system that’s been a dysfunctional mess for a long time.

The weird thing about so much of what’s happening across the country is this: When you devalue the commons and shove all kinds of infrastructure needs off the table –“ Nuh-huh, I’m not going to raise taxes to fix roads, let’s get Mikeeee to do it” and, of course, Mikeee doesn’t do anything – eventually something has to be done when bridges start falling down and cars disappear into sinkholes, and state parks are turning into a crumbling mess due to lack of maintenance budget, and so forth. But by then the price tag is waaaayyyy more expensive than if things were maintained all along. Every homeowner knows this reality. But the voters apparently don’t. Neither do our elected officials.

Instead, the voters, who know better – they really do – vote into office Anti Tax Idealogues who promise to maintain the status quo (or vote to repeal a luxury tax on yachts – clearly a state priority!) and things crumble down around their ears, whining all the way, but refusing to bite any bullets and fairly set things right.


Sign of the Times

Headline in the L.A. Times story, “CEOs’ golden parachutes,” concerning the heads of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (and dozens of other private corporations) who will walk away from the companies they ran into the ground with gazillions of dollars . “It’s just another example of pay for failure,” said Amy Borrus, deputy director of the Council of Institutional Investors. “How can we pay these people these exorbitant amounts of money when they brought us to the brink of financial disaster,” said Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor and former director at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.”

HoHoHoHo!

Because we live in the Era of No Accountibility, that’s why. Thieves and idiots and other no accounts can run amok in this country and not only are they never brought to any kind of justice, but are given sacks of money and another company to run. Even our Commander in Chief, the top guy, will waltz out of the White House with fat book contracts, a vast array of huge speaking fees and a nice life indeed, while those young soldiers he sent to their pointless deaths will still be rotting in their graves, and the wounded warriors who returned will continue to see their benefits cut as they’re shoved off the radar. No accountability.

Meanwhile, Americans have forgotten everything and are now ripe for more bamboozling on the campaign trail and will likely go vote for the next guy they feel they want to have a beer with. No accountability, no coherence, no understanding of history, no connecting the dots, it’s all Karl Rovian sound-bites, a country run on advertising slogans, where up is down and MSNBC “Hardball’s” Chris Mathews is now setting up a GOP Veep Watch to count how many times Palin repeats that phony “Bridge to Nowhere – Thanks But No Thanks” claim, well after all major media outlets demonstrated its patent falsity.

So far the number is up to 7 repeats and counting, with no indication that Palin (or McCain) even cares that she’s out on the stump repeating a lie, and no indication that the voters even care. Give ‘em snappy patter and pass the snake oil and they’re happy.

Oh, yeah, and be sure to tell them that Mikeeeee will foot the bill for all the pudding they demand and pudding they’re being promised. Yep, the bill goes to Mikeeee, but not to them. Noooo, noooo. Never them.

Hell of a way to run a company. Hell of a way to run a country.