Autopsis » US Politics

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Change

Doug — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:52:04 +0000

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned." – from the play "The Mourning Bride" (1697) by William Congreve.

Our new president campaigned on a promise of “Change we can believe in.”

But a funny thing happened on the way to change. It got sidetracked by the reality of politics and power in modern America.

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Resistance is Futile

Doug — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:16:41 +0000

Yesterday, election day, I read the book Common Ground by Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel. I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than its brief, excellent summary of modern-era American politics. Its subtitle and core message - How to stop the partisan war that is destroying America - is my own personal mantra, so I obviously endorse the rest of the book as well.

In addition to reading the book, while waiting for the polls to close I also did some research on the American electoral process. During that research I stumbled across the following interesting tidbit in a Q&A section on MSNBC.com:

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Vote Today - Free Coffee

Doug — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:54:38 +0000

Today, 4 November, 2008, is Election Day in the United States of America.

If you are eligible to vote, it is your chance to cast a ballot to determine the elected representatives of the citizens of the U.S. for the next two to six years.

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The Endorsement from Hell

Doug — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:16:38 +0000

I was forwarded a copy of "The Endorsement from Hell," a recent editorial by Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times.

My comments on the editorial follow the "Read more" link. Mr. Kristoff’s editorial follows my comments.

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232 Times

Doug — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:00:06 +0000

4 July 2008

It’s been exactly five years since I sent out my message titled “Independence Day.” ( http://hackneys.com/blog/2003/07/04/independence-day/ )

In the intervening 60 months, we learned a few lessons about our own independence, our freedom, mostly related to how precious it is, how much we prize it and how we consider it the most important attribute of our lives. In the same intervening 60 months we witnessed citizens of other countries of the world long for and dream of freedom, or cling to and prize what little freedom their governments offered. In contrast, in those same intervening 60 months, most Americans continued to take their freedom for granted, consistently showing by their words and actions that alternatives such as entertainment, materialism and celebrity worship rank much higher on their value scale than the freedom their country provides.

The rest of the story is here: www.hackneys.com/travel/docs/232times.pdf

Parallels

Doug — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:49:30 +0000

In the early 1900s Argentina was the second richest country in the world. In subsequent decades its middle class enjoyed a very high standard of living. The country was rich in seemingly infinite natural resources, copious crop producing areas whose soils were as rich as any on the planet short of Iowa and vast, wide open spaces, ripe for exploration and exploitation.

In the subsequent decades the population of Argentina made a decision, whether it was conscious or unconscious is open to debate, but it was a decisive one, nonetheless. The large middle and smaller upper classes of Argentina decided to abdicate governance to a small ruling class while they enjoyed a life of leisure, decadence, and for many, a non-stop party.

The following decades brought a parade of one corrupt and incompetent regime after another, vacillating between right, then left flavors of greed, fraud and ineptness.

The alternating conservative and liberal governments used common methods to divert the population’s attention from their disastrous job of non-governance: radical partisanship, extreme nationalism, phony threats from across the borders and abroad, illogical wars, blaming all problems on foreign or world body institutions, etc.

All the while the population watched popular entertainment, cheered on their favorite football team and partied the night away.

Finally, after nearly a century, the party came to halt. The country’s public debts were enormous, unemployment rose, runaway inflation ensued, real GDP fell, the currency collapsed, the government defaulted on its bonds and the economy imploded.

Any parallels you may draw to a country you are closely familiar with are entirely up to you.

The Best and the Brightest?

Doug — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:14:30 +0000

As my friends and family back in Iowa head to the caucuses today I am half a world away. This year, of all years, with the most wide-open and potentially interesting presidential campaign of my lifetime in progress, I am overseas and will miss the entire show.

Mercifully, today will draw to a close a season of relentless television political advertising that has turned Iowa’s quadrennial moment of fame into a ruthless, multi-year long battle of attrition. Those few voters left standing after the mind numbing media assault will provide an early measuring stick of which candidates remain viable contenders.

Over the last year I have been following the race from afar, hearing the distant rumble of the campaign artillery, and occasionally taking in the rhetoric on CSPAN. Contrary to my nature and past practice, I have not followed the daily cut and thrust of the campaign. Thus, I do not profess to have intimate knowledge of the candidates.

Nonetheless, on this initial day of reckoning, I offer up the following candidate assessments.

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Buchanan’s Book, America and Immigration

Doug — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:02:05 +0000

What do you think of the idea that the United States of America is probably destined to disinegrate into clusters of independent states?

What is your opinion of the idea that America is divinely appointed as the world’s leader, now and forever?

How about America as the racially pure homeland of descendants of European immigrants?

Here’s what I think.

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Kodak and Our Future

Doug — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:37:03 +0000

Steven Sasson, the inventor of the digital camera, was inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame today.

He invented the digital camera in 1975.

Steven didn’t work for Nikon or Canon or Matsushita or Sony.

Steven worked for Kodak.

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Two Interesting Perspectives on the Housing Bubble

Doug — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:42:59 +0000

My comments last month about the U.S. Housting bubble generated a lot of comments, however, it came before I started this blog, so they all came back via email. This will be your chance to share your comments with a wider audience than just me.

Since last month we’ve seen a further erosion in market value of homes across the U.S. with price deflation in almost all markets. The contagion spreading from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and their back-end collateralized debt instruments, bonds and other financial delivery platforms has reached into the conventional mortgage arena as well as financial markets around the globe.

Being that we’re in a U.S. presedential election cycle, it was inevitable that this would turn into political fodder with candidates tripping over themselves upping the ante on who they’d bail out if only they had their hands on the checkbook. President Bush, bastion of conservative free-market forces himself, has jumped on board by opening up the FHA to distressed “misled” home buyers faced with foreclosure.

I viewed all of the bailout rhetoric as fairly benign but was introduced to a new perspective by an editorial in the Sunday Oregonian which follows.

For a more light hearted and humorous look, albeit bone chillingly sobering when you look at the numbers, check out this informative blog on poster-child examples of how we ended up in this mess, the “Real Homes of Genius” list http://drhousingbubble.blogspot.com/search/label/real-homes-of-genius (thanks to Floyd for sending this along). And just as a reference, our expedition vehicle that we’re living in has a footprint of 182 square feet. Keep that in mind as you read the prices that people have paid for <1,000 square foot homes.

Be well,

Doug

SUBPRIME MORTGAGES

No Sympathy for a Bailout
Sunday, September 09, 2007
PETER VILES

President Bush announced his intention Aug. 31 to reach out a hand to the “many Americans” who “may have been misled” in the subprime mortgage market.

Two days earlier, presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois called for fining “predatory lenders” to bail out “hoodwinked” families. In California, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon wants a $5 million revolving fund to “help homeowners on the verge of foreclosure.” The news media report on families losing homes, disabled owners facing foreclosure and newlyweds being tossed into the street.

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