Lily and Herman Munster must be ecstatic!
In accordance with the American Dream that any child can grow up to be president, their little boy Eddie seems to have grown up to be Paul Ryan, Romney's pick for being "a heart-beat away from the presidency."
The name is different but it's the same guy. Paul Ryan IS Eddie Munster. You can tell by the strange, dramatic hairline across the forehead. That deep dark dip of ever-so-black hair, that mark of the werewolf/vampire. Yeah, it's Eddie all right.
You can also tell by Paul "Eddie" Ryan's politics. The infamous Ryan Budget will suck the blood out of the middle class, the elderly, and the poor in order to lavish further tax cuts on the wealthy. This is not a Hollywood-created horror plot; it's the real thing. The diabolical Ryan scheme actually exists on paper and has been twice adopted by the GOP-controlled House.
Enter the Catholic Bishops! It's time for an exorcism!
Last April, when the House was about to adopt the Ryan vampire scheme, the Catholic bishops wrote a letter to the House, decrying the draconian Ryan attack on the poor and on families. But the House GOP members ignored the plea of the bishops to act humane and instead persisted in being monsters. Cut those school lunches for hungry kids! Cut those Pell grants for struggling college kids! Heads still spinning around gleefully, the House GOP joined Ryan in dancing on the coffin of the American people. (Where's Richard Burton when you need him?)
Of course the Senate rejected the killer plan, and the American public (and the media) promptly forgot it like a nightmare on wakening. But now Paul Ryan and his "Menu for Devouring the People" are going to be front and center in the presidential election. Not only will this wrap a lot of garlic around Romney's neck, but it may also win the House back for the Democrats. All those House members who took Democratic seats in 2010 and then voted for the Ryan Budget are stuck with the mark of the beast. Until now their snooting the bishops and their cruel proposals have gone unremarked among the sleeping, vulnerable American people. But no longer!
Paul Ryan and his budget may not only cost Romney the election but may take the House GOP down with him. The old TV show "The Munsters" may turn into "Titanic" with Paul Ryan starring as the iceberg.
Sorry, Lily and Herman. Sorry, Grandpa Munster. Your dream for your little Eddie is our nightmare. Paul Ryan cannot be vice-president. We Americans may be a bit idiotic but we are not complete idiots.
The only way little Eddie can become Vice President Ryan is for the GOP to steal the election through voter suppression in Ohio and Pennsylvania. We Democrats won't let that happen, will we? This won't be like Florida in 2000 or Ohio in 2004, will it? (Democratic voters had to wait 22 hours in line to vote in Ohio cities in 2004, and many gave up. Ohio thus gave GW his second term.)
How can we put a stake through the heart of the GOP plan to steal this election? Volunteer for registering voters and for get-out-the-vote! Send Obama a few bucks to hire lawyers to fight the voter suppression. (Even volunteer lawyers have to meet the expense of staff and court filings.)
Richard Burton is not coming to our rescue as the brave priest in "The Exorcist". Hollywood is not going to write a happy ending for our current morality play. Ryan and his fellow Catholics of GOP persuasion are not going to heed the social-conscience cries of the Catholic bishops.
The ending of this nightmare is up to us. Is Grandpa Munster going to dance on our coffin? Or can we defeat The Forces of Darkness?
HELL, YES, WE CAN!
*******
P.S. Hey, Romney, where's your tax returns? And little Eddie's?
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Ryan for VP Means GOP Will Steal This Election?
Romney has hit the panic button and picked Paul Ryan for his running mate. It's "McCain Picks Palin" all over again, and Ryan can't even see Russia from his front porch.
Why would Romney pick a running mate who has done the biggest no-no in politics: threatened Medicare and Social Security? The Ryan Budget ends Medicare and replaces it with a voucher system that - at minimum - would cost a senior an additional $6400 per year. That's about half of what the average senior gets in Social Security per year, and many seniors have no other income because the 2008 crash destroyed their investments or drove interest-earning down to pennies. The 2008 crash also shows why privatizing Social Security is idiocy. After 2008 if you still want to privatize Social Security, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
The Democrats are now in the gleeful position of shooting fish in a barrel (though I've never understood why someone would want to shoot fish). Here comes that ad showing a Ryan-look-alike pushing Grandma over the cliff in her wheelchair. Remember that one? Or how about one that depicts a Romney-Ryan bus with the sign, "Throw Grandma Under Here"?
And how about an ad explaining that YOU will have to pony up FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS in order to pay for the Ryan Budget tax cuts for the rich-and-getting-richer?
And how about ads telling America to kiss goodbye to its National Parks, its food inspection, its airport control, etc. etc.? The entirety of our domestic spending! That's what happens by 2024 under the Ryan Budget!
So why did Romney - cautious to the point of being a wus - pick the worst VP choice in the universe?
Because he's losing and he knows it! That's what his choice of Ryan really tells us. (It also tells us what the GOP's real plan is for winning the fall election, but more on that later in this piece.)
Fox, CNN, and Reuters polls all gave him bad marks this past week. He's down nationally by seven to nine points among these three polls that usually lean a bit GOP (except Fox, which leans a lot). Nate Silver, the super analyst, gives him only a 26.7% chance of winning.
His "don't like Mitt as a person" number is way up above his personal positive. He's the most disliked major party candidate ever to run for the presidency!
Only one-fourth of voters would be "comfortable" with Romney winning.
When losing, go "bold". That's what McCain did. But Romney has gone even further. McCain didn't know a damn thing about Palin so he couldn't know how bad she'd be, that she'd scare off all but the 24% who were as dumb as she was. In Romney's case, he KNOWS that Ryan is a gift to the Democrats.
So why do it? Panic. Panic means a rush to the exits where everybody gets trampled. It doesn't make sense. It ends badly. But fear makes it feel right.
All that's left for the GOP now is to hope the economy crashes or - far, far likelier - that they can steal this election.
That's always the GOP fall-back plan. It worked in 2000 in Florida. It worked in 2004 in Ohio. It almost worked in 1960 when armed "gringos" kept Latino voters away from the polls in California's agricultural Central Valley and gave Nixon the state in the belatedly counted absentees, thereby holding JFK to one of the narrowest national victories ever.
And they've got it rigged for this year. That's the purpose of the voter-suppression laws in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. (The GOP enacted such laws in a lot of other states too, but most of them are darkly red already.)
Ryan's VP candidacy won't win this election for us. Nothing will win it for us if the GOP can steal it. We've got to have volunteer poll-watchers at every precinct. We've got to fight hard to get our voters to the polls and to be sure they can vote when they get there. Now - MORE THAN EVER - you must sign up to help because now we know that the GOP will have to fall back on stealing this election.
ONLY YOU can prevent that happening!
Romney's panic choice of Ryan is not enough. His hoof 'n mouth campaigning is not enough. Obama wiping the debate stage floor with him is not enough. YOU have to be there on election day to make sure they don't steal the election and our future. Can we prevent another such steal at home plate?
With your help, YES WE CAN!
And, Mitt, we haven't forgotten about your tax returns? And what about Ryan's while you're at it?
Why would Romney pick a running mate who has done the biggest no-no in politics: threatened Medicare and Social Security? The Ryan Budget ends Medicare and replaces it with a voucher system that - at minimum - would cost a senior an additional $6400 per year. That's about half of what the average senior gets in Social Security per year, and many seniors have no other income because the 2008 crash destroyed their investments or drove interest-earning down to pennies. The 2008 crash also shows why privatizing Social Security is idiocy. After 2008 if you still want to privatize Social Security, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
The Democrats are now in the gleeful position of shooting fish in a barrel (though I've never understood why someone would want to shoot fish). Here comes that ad showing a Ryan-look-alike pushing Grandma over the cliff in her wheelchair. Remember that one? Or how about one that depicts a Romney-Ryan bus with the sign, "Throw Grandma Under Here"?
And how about an ad explaining that YOU will have to pony up FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS in order to pay for the Ryan Budget tax cuts for the rich-and-getting-richer?
And how about ads telling America to kiss goodbye to its National Parks, its food inspection, its airport control, etc. etc.? The entirety of our domestic spending! That's what happens by 2024 under the Ryan Budget!
So why did Romney - cautious to the point of being a wus - pick the worst VP choice in the universe?
Because he's losing and he knows it! That's what his choice of Ryan really tells us. (It also tells us what the GOP's real plan is for winning the fall election, but more on that later in this piece.)
Fox, CNN, and Reuters polls all gave him bad marks this past week. He's down nationally by seven to nine points among these three polls that usually lean a bit GOP (except Fox, which leans a lot). Nate Silver, the super analyst, gives him only a 26.7% chance of winning.
His "don't like Mitt as a person" number is way up above his personal positive. He's the most disliked major party candidate ever to run for the presidency!
Only one-fourth of voters would be "comfortable" with Romney winning.
When losing, go "bold". That's what McCain did. But Romney has gone even further. McCain didn't know a damn thing about Palin so he couldn't know how bad she'd be, that she'd scare off all but the 24% who were as dumb as she was. In Romney's case, he KNOWS that Ryan is a gift to the Democrats.
So why do it? Panic. Panic means a rush to the exits where everybody gets trampled. It doesn't make sense. It ends badly. But fear makes it feel right.
All that's left for the GOP now is to hope the economy crashes or - far, far likelier - that they can steal this election.
That's always the GOP fall-back plan. It worked in 2000 in Florida. It worked in 2004 in Ohio. It almost worked in 1960 when armed "gringos" kept Latino voters away from the polls in California's agricultural Central Valley and gave Nixon the state in the belatedly counted absentees, thereby holding JFK to one of the narrowest national victories ever.
And they've got it rigged for this year. That's the purpose of the voter-suppression laws in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. (The GOP enacted such laws in a lot of other states too, but most of them are darkly red already.)
Ryan's VP candidacy won't win this election for us. Nothing will win it for us if the GOP can steal it. We've got to have volunteer poll-watchers at every precinct. We've got to fight hard to get our voters to the polls and to be sure they can vote when they get there. Now - MORE THAN EVER - you must sign up to help because now we know that the GOP will have to fall back on stealing this election.
ONLY YOU can prevent that happening!
Romney's panic choice of Ryan is not enough. His hoof 'n mouth campaigning is not enough. Obama wiping the debate stage floor with him is not enough. YOU have to be there on election day to make sure they don't steal the election and our future. Can we prevent another such steal at home plate?
With your help, YES WE CAN!
And, Mitt, we haven't forgotten about your tax returns? And what about Ryan's while you're at it?
Friday, August 10, 2012
YOU Just Got the Gold!
More accurately, you just awarded the gold to Obama!
And how did you and he become such champions?
98% v. 24% - that's how. And what a win-in-a-walk that is!
The 98% is the percentage of Obama's contributions last month that were $250 or less. The 24% is the percentage of Romney's fund-raising that came from $250 or less. (This disparity holds even excluding super pac money!)
We small donors who support Obama outnumber Romney's by almost a 4 to l ratio. I love it!
More than anything else this shows how Obama is the champion of "the little guy". And we little guys know it!
It also shows that Obama has some volunteer troops out there while Romney may not have as many. This being America, people tend to follow their own money. Where they have "some skin in the game", that's where their heart is. She who plunks down her $10 or $100 contribution is likely to plunk down her feet on the precinct sidewalks on election day and ferret out those Obama voters who haven't yet voted.
That's where this election will be won or lost. It's ALL about voter turnout this time. In 2008 Obama had such a big edge, voter turnout wasn't as key. Face it: this time we don't have that margin. We've GOT TO get our voters to the polls!
And in key states we have an uphill fight. GOP-controlled Ohio has cut down the early voting period that was a big help to Obama in '08. GOP-controlled Florida has purged Democratic voter registrations in massive numbers. GOP-controlled Pennsylvania has adopted a voter ID law so bad that it will likely keep 750,000 of our Democratic voters out of action.
Unless we win a court case (argued last week) to overturn this noxious PA law, we may have to kiss Pennsylvania goodbye. And thereby kiss the presidency goodbye too. Obama can't win re-election without Pennsylvania.
Thus we may have to find hundreds of thousands of new voters in PA or get IDs for those who don't have the ones the state requires. That's a lot of work and will take a lot of volunteers.
So here's the punch line: Have you taken your vacation yet?
If not, come to Pennsylvania for a week or two of fun and games. Help register voters and help get out the vote. Campaigns ARE fun. And the fight to win this year's election is the greatest game of all!
Or go to Ohio or Virginia or Colorado. These are three more swing states that will determine the outcome, and each is hanging by a thread. Plus the Senate seat in VA, one we now have but could lose to GOP George Allen. Remember him - the "caca" man, the potty-mouthed racist of 2006? We beat him in 2006 by a whisker, but now he's back! If we get a good turnout for Obama in VA, we put "Caca" Allen away again!
(I don't know if I'm spelling "caca" correctly or not. Guess I'll have to ask a three-year-old kid.)
Or send money. The dollars can pay for the Obama HQ on that Main Street in that town in PA or VA or Ohio. The Obama sign on that HQ will attract that local volunteer who can do the work you can't do because you're not there. Maybe you're already working in your own town in a relatively safe state for Obama. Or maybe you're an ex-pat. Lots of you ex-pats are reading this blog. Wherever you are, GET IN THE GAME!
Meantime, here in Pennsylvania, please come help! Day or night.
We'll keep the light on for you.
******
Attention, Mitt Romney! Calling Mr. Romney! Where are those tax records, Mr. Romney?
And how did you and he become such champions?
98% v. 24% - that's how. And what a win-in-a-walk that is!
The 98% is the percentage of Obama's contributions last month that were $250 or less. The 24% is the percentage of Romney's fund-raising that came from $250 or less. (This disparity holds even excluding super pac money!)
We small donors who support Obama outnumber Romney's by almost a 4 to l ratio. I love it!
More than anything else this shows how Obama is the champion of "the little guy". And we little guys know it!
It also shows that Obama has some volunteer troops out there while Romney may not have as many. This being America, people tend to follow their own money. Where they have "some skin in the game", that's where their heart is. She who plunks down her $10 or $100 contribution is likely to plunk down her feet on the precinct sidewalks on election day and ferret out those Obama voters who haven't yet voted.
That's where this election will be won or lost. It's ALL about voter turnout this time. In 2008 Obama had such a big edge, voter turnout wasn't as key. Face it: this time we don't have that margin. We've GOT TO get our voters to the polls!
And in key states we have an uphill fight. GOP-controlled Ohio has cut down the early voting period that was a big help to Obama in '08. GOP-controlled Florida has purged Democratic voter registrations in massive numbers. GOP-controlled Pennsylvania has adopted a voter ID law so bad that it will likely keep 750,000 of our Democratic voters out of action.
Unless we win a court case (argued last week) to overturn this noxious PA law, we may have to kiss Pennsylvania goodbye. And thereby kiss the presidency goodbye too. Obama can't win re-election without Pennsylvania.
Thus we may have to find hundreds of thousands of new voters in PA or get IDs for those who don't have the ones the state requires. That's a lot of work and will take a lot of volunteers.
So here's the punch line: Have you taken your vacation yet?
If not, come to Pennsylvania for a week or two of fun and games. Help register voters and help get out the vote. Campaigns ARE fun. And the fight to win this year's election is the greatest game of all!
Or go to Ohio or Virginia or Colorado. These are three more swing states that will determine the outcome, and each is hanging by a thread. Plus the Senate seat in VA, one we now have but could lose to GOP George Allen. Remember him - the "caca" man, the potty-mouthed racist of 2006? We beat him in 2006 by a whisker, but now he's back! If we get a good turnout for Obama in VA, we put "Caca" Allen away again!
(I don't know if I'm spelling "caca" correctly or not. Guess I'll have to ask a three-year-old kid.)
Or send money. The dollars can pay for the Obama HQ on that Main Street in that town in PA or VA or Ohio. The Obama sign on that HQ will attract that local volunteer who can do the work you can't do because you're not there. Maybe you're already working in your own town in a relatively safe state for Obama. Or maybe you're an ex-pat. Lots of you ex-pats are reading this blog. Wherever you are, GET IN THE GAME!
Meantime, here in Pennsylvania, please come help! Day or night.
We'll keep the light on for you.
******
Attention, Mitt Romney! Calling Mr. Romney! Where are those tax records, Mr. Romney?
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Romney Wants YOU to Buy Him Another Horse!
You want to buy Mitt Romney another dressage horse? Only $77,000!
Here's the deal. Under his tax plan, Mitt Romney wants to collect $2000 from each of you.
He will keep at least $87,000 for himself, get another horse, and have $10K left for feed. And he will give every average millionaire $87,000 of your money. That's $87,000 of YOUR money going to each of those who already earn a million a year, the ones among us who DO NOT need it.
How's that for a deal?
Rotten, you say? Well, pal, THAT is Romney's tax plan.
He wants to cut tax rates "across the board" by the same percentage for everyone. He says he will make up the cost by "closing loopholes". Two things are very, very wrong about this plan.
First, using the same percentage to cut taxes means the people at the top get the biggest amount of dollars. In this world, dollars are what count, not percentages. If Romney gets a 20% reduction on his income of $20 million a year, that's a BIG pile of moola! And remember, he's already paying only 13.9%. If you get the same percentage cut, it's small potatoes by comparison.
BUT you won't even get that! That's because of the second very bad aspect of this plan: the "loopholes"Romney would take away are the "deductions" YOU now use to reduce your taxes. Goodbye, deductible home mortgage interest! Hello, taxes due on employer-paid health benefits! Etc. Etc. So you'll end up paying $2000 more on average in order to finance the $87,000 give-away to Mitt and each of his wealthy friends.
Such is the analysis of a non-partisan study group co-chaired by a former George W. Bush White House staffer.
Though Romney hasn't come out and admitted that he wants to take away your deductions (he's awfully secretive about tax stuff, isn't he?), the study group points out that only by closing off these deductions for the middle class can there be enough taxes collected to pay Romney and his pals their $87,000 gift.
Let's hope that Romney does indeed use his $87,000 gift from you to buy another dressage horse. That would fit right in with the creaky old GOP "trickle-down" economic theory: "Give the rich more money and they'll invest it and the benefits will trickle down to the masses." (Except this doesn't work. We tried it beginning with George W's tax cuts, and it's been downhill ever since.)
If Romney gets another $87,000 from you and buys another $77,000 horse and spends $10,000 on feed - well, you can see what's coming! You can smell it too. What "trickles down" on us is horse piss and horse poop! And we'll be the same old stable hands we have been these past years, trying to clean up the financial mess made by our "betters".
After all we are just "you people", disdainfully labeled such by Anne Romney. We don't have lots of homes. Some of us have lost the one home we had. We don't drive multiple Cadillacs or have elevators for our cars. We're just peasants in the Romneys' eyes, people who wear cheap raincoats and can't bake cookies to Mitt's tastes. "Dressage" to us means how-on-the-hell are we going to pay for the kids' school shoes this month?
If we do buy Mitt that horse, let's make him promise not to tie it to the roof of his car.
Or how about this? Instead of giving Mitt your $2000 next year, why not send Obama $200 now or even $20 or even $2? What a bargain! Help a guy who is on YOUR side and thereby avoid Mitt Romney picking your pocket. BE SMART!
And, hey there, Mitt! Speaking of taxes, where's those tax returns of yours?
Here's the deal. Under his tax plan, Mitt Romney wants to collect $2000 from each of you.
He will keep at least $87,000 for himself, get another horse, and have $10K left for feed. And he will give every average millionaire $87,000 of your money. That's $87,000 of YOUR money going to each of those who already earn a million a year, the ones among us who DO NOT need it.
How's that for a deal?
Rotten, you say? Well, pal, THAT is Romney's tax plan.
He wants to cut tax rates "across the board" by the same percentage for everyone. He says he will make up the cost by "closing loopholes". Two things are very, very wrong about this plan.
First, using the same percentage to cut taxes means the people at the top get the biggest amount of dollars. In this world, dollars are what count, not percentages. If Romney gets a 20% reduction on his income of $20 million a year, that's a BIG pile of moola! And remember, he's already paying only 13.9%. If you get the same percentage cut, it's small potatoes by comparison.
BUT you won't even get that! That's because of the second very bad aspect of this plan: the "loopholes"Romney would take away are the "deductions" YOU now use to reduce your taxes. Goodbye, deductible home mortgage interest! Hello, taxes due on employer-paid health benefits! Etc. Etc. So you'll end up paying $2000 more on average in order to finance the $87,000 give-away to Mitt and each of his wealthy friends.
Such is the analysis of a non-partisan study group co-chaired by a former George W. Bush White House staffer.
Though Romney hasn't come out and admitted that he wants to take away your deductions (he's awfully secretive about tax stuff, isn't he?), the study group points out that only by closing off these deductions for the middle class can there be enough taxes collected to pay Romney and his pals their $87,000 gift.
Let's hope that Romney does indeed use his $87,000 gift from you to buy another dressage horse. That would fit right in with the creaky old GOP "trickle-down" economic theory: "Give the rich more money and they'll invest it and the benefits will trickle down to the masses." (Except this doesn't work. We tried it beginning with George W's tax cuts, and it's been downhill ever since.)
If Romney gets another $87,000 from you and buys another $77,000 horse and spends $10,000 on feed - well, you can see what's coming! You can smell it too. What "trickles down" on us is horse piss and horse poop! And we'll be the same old stable hands we have been these past years, trying to clean up the financial mess made by our "betters".
After all we are just "you people", disdainfully labeled such by Anne Romney. We don't have lots of homes. Some of us have lost the one home we had. We don't drive multiple Cadillacs or have elevators for our cars. We're just peasants in the Romneys' eyes, people who wear cheap raincoats and can't bake cookies to Mitt's tastes. "Dressage" to us means how-on-the-hell are we going to pay for the kids' school shoes this month?
If we do buy Mitt that horse, let's make him promise not to tie it to the roof of his car.
Or how about this? Instead of giving Mitt your $2000 next year, why not send Obama $200 now or even $20 or even $2? What a bargain! Help a guy who is on YOUR side and thereby avoid Mitt Romney picking your pocket. BE SMART!
And, hey there, Mitt! Speaking of taxes, where's those tax returns of yours?
Friday, August 3, 2012
Why The Olympics
Sometimes politics aren't everything. Sometimes what counts is just people. Like in the Olympics, present and past.
I was born the year that Jesse Owens wiped Hitler's eye at the Berlin Olympics.
When I was fifteen I went to a high school track meet and got hooked forever on track and field.
When I was in college I saw Bob Richards clear 15' in the pole vault in a practice vault at the LA Coliseum in the 1956 Olympic tryouts. It was the old-fashioned pole. No whip from it as from its successor, the fiber glass pole. We all held our breath as he motioned for the bar to be raised and then started his run. He soared! No one had ever made 15' before. There were only a couple of hundred of us track and field fans in the stands that beautiful June day. Seats for 100,000 people, and we few - we blessed few - had the place to ourselves. Track and field was not widely popular then as it is now. You could go right down and talk to the athletes that day at the Coliseum. For heaven sakes, we knew some of them from school!
I knew the first American to beat the four-minute mile. Don Bowden. June, 1957. I knew him at Cal Berkeley. Every afternoon I'd leave the Daily Cal offices and walk past Hearst Field where he was running, rain or shine. We always waved to each other. At the end of that school year I was in New York as a Mademoiselle magazine guest editor when Don broke the 4 minute. There he was, front page of the New York Times. He was a very nice guy, and I was so glad for him. Besides I'd just got to New York and was homesick. Hometown boy makes good! Do people still remember this great athlete?
Little Max Truex of USC was all heart. He didn't have the height and long stride for distance running but - God! - he gave it everything. He was only 5'5". When he made it to the Olympics in 1956 he was the smallest American ever to be an Olympic competitor in track and field. But he was sidelined with an injury before his event and had to fight his way back to the Olympics in '60 as the only American to qualify in the 10K. He finished sixth in a field of nineteen of the world's fastest, longest- stride, distance runners. Then came Parkinson's and a struggle of another kind for Max. Half a century after I watched him in collegiate races battling against the odds, I still remember him for his courage. And still borrow from his example.
There were so many who were so wonderful. Wilma Rudolph, Olympic track star who had worn braces on her legs until she was ten years old. Her story inspired my youngest son, who had epilepsy and needed all the inspiration he could get. I told him about her when we went to the LA Olympics together in 1984. That boy and I had a fantastic time! It took me a year to pay off the credit card, but it was worth every penny!
He died before the next Olympics having in the meantime become a cross-country runner. He was sixteen years old when he died. The doctor said that the running probably kept him alive longer than would otherwise have been the case. The night before he died, we sat at the kitchen table while he worked on an essay assignment: "The Thing That Changed My Life". He told me he'd chosen to write about cross-country running and how hard it was and how he just kept going no matter what.
"I've never won a race, Mom, but I finished every one."
We put that on his tombstone: "He finished his race."
May we all finish our race and do it in good form. With the inner grace of a Jesse Owens running in a racist world, the dignity of Bob Richards, the modesty of Don Bowden, the courage of little Max Truex, the determination of Wilma Rudolph. And the sweetness of my boy, who never complained about his illness.
Enjoy the Olympics and the beautiful things they have to teach us. Ignore the schlock and commercialism. Ignore the supposed competition between nations. It's not about nations. It's about individuals - young people and not so young - doing their best and doing it beautifully, often having overcome great odds just to get there.
We are each the star of our own Olympics. We are each the hero of our own story. Life is our event. Let the games go forward!
I was born the year that Jesse Owens wiped Hitler's eye at the Berlin Olympics.
When I was fifteen I went to a high school track meet and got hooked forever on track and field.
When I was in college I saw Bob Richards clear 15' in the pole vault in a practice vault at the LA Coliseum in the 1956 Olympic tryouts. It was the old-fashioned pole. No whip from it as from its successor, the fiber glass pole. We all held our breath as he motioned for the bar to be raised and then started his run. He soared! No one had ever made 15' before. There were only a couple of hundred of us track and field fans in the stands that beautiful June day. Seats for 100,000 people, and we few - we blessed few - had the place to ourselves. Track and field was not widely popular then as it is now. You could go right down and talk to the athletes that day at the Coliseum. For heaven sakes, we knew some of them from school!
I knew the first American to beat the four-minute mile. Don Bowden. June, 1957. I knew him at Cal Berkeley. Every afternoon I'd leave the Daily Cal offices and walk past Hearst Field where he was running, rain or shine. We always waved to each other. At the end of that school year I was in New York as a Mademoiselle magazine guest editor when Don broke the 4 minute. There he was, front page of the New York Times. He was a very nice guy, and I was so glad for him. Besides I'd just got to New York and was homesick. Hometown boy makes good! Do people still remember this great athlete?
Little Max Truex of USC was all heart. He didn't have the height and long stride for distance running but - God! - he gave it everything. He was only 5'5". When he made it to the Olympics in 1956 he was the smallest American ever to be an Olympic competitor in track and field. But he was sidelined with an injury before his event and had to fight his way back to the Olympics in '60 as the only American to qualify in the 10K. He finished sixth in a field of nineteen of the world's fastest, longest- stride, distance runners. Then came Parkinson's and a struggle of another kind for Max. Half a century after I watched him in collegiate races battling against the odds, I still remember him for his courage. And still borrow from his example.
There were so many who were so wonderful. Wilma Rudolph, Olympic track star who had worn braces on her legs until she was ten years old. Her story inspired my youngest son, who had epilepsy and needed all the inspiration he could get. I told him about her when we went to the LA Olympics together in 1984. That boy and I had a fantastic time! It took me a year to pay off the credit card, but it was worth every penny!
He died before the next Olympics having in the meantime become a cross-country runner. He was sixteen years old when he died. The doctor said that the running probably kept him alive longer than would otherwise have been the case. The night before he died, we sat at the kitchen table while he worked on an essay assignment: "The Thing That Changed My Life". He told me he'd chosen to write about cross-country running and how hard it was and how he just kept going no matter what.
"I've never won a race, Mom, but I finished every one."
We put that on his tombstone: "He finished his race."
May we all finish our race and do it in good form. With the inner grace of a Jesse Owens running in a racist world, the dignity of Bob Richards, the modesty of Don Bowden, the courage of little Max Truex, the determination of Wilma Rudolph. And the sweetness of my boy, who never complained about his illness.
Enjoy the Olympics and the beautiful things they have to teach us. Ignore the schlock and commercialism. Ignore the supposed competition between nations. It's not about nations. It's about individuals - young people and not so young - doing their best and doing it beautifully, often having overcome great odds just to get there.
We are each the star of our own Olympics. We are each the hero of our own story. Life is our event. Let the games go forward!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
GOP Medals in The Long Throw!
This next week we will get to see the world's greatest throwers of the discus, the hammer, and the javelin. But this past week we have already witnessed the GOP out-throwing even these world champs.
And what are they throwing? You guessed it! Colossal BULL!
First throw: John McCain and his GOP cohorts are claiming - get this! - that Obama is to blame for the deal cut last summer to reduce defense spending and non-defense spending equally beginning (in stages) after January 1.
Obama is to blame? They've gotta be kidding!
Only they aren't. They really expect people to believe this nonsense.
The trillion in cuts, including the $500 billion in defense, was the result of the House GOP refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Remember? It was hostage money! Now the terrorist GOP who extorted the deal are complaining. And blaming Obama! That's like kidnappers blaming the victim's family for paying the ransom!
What are these GOP Senators smoking?
Second throw: And this one comes from the Romney campaign and is even more ludicrous. A new Romney ad claims that jobs were LOST because of Obama's bailout of the auto industry. These Romney people are not only smoking stuff; they must be on the sauce! The auto industry rescue SAVED a million jobs! But Romney's people found an auto dealer that had to shut down after the bailout. Turns out GM denied him further credit, and he had thirty cars on the lot. Do you see any reasoning in this that would explain GM's decision? A decision that seems to have had nothing to do with Obama? Somehow Romney & Co. don't see the real reason?
And Romney is supposed to be the guy who really understands business. Tell me, please, what would have happened to this erstwhile auto dealer if Romney's "let Detroit go bankrupt" had prevailed?
Third throw: And how about Jack Gilchrist, the "businessman" in that other Romney ad? The one who claims he built his business by himself and is so incensed that Obama - so Romney falsely claims - is suggesting that he didn't.
This Jack the Entrepreneur had FOUR different government handouts!
He is such a fake that he makes Joe the Plumber look like - well. a plumber. Which Joe wasn't.
Are the Romney folks desperate? They are sure acting like it. And it's understandable. It is just awfully hard to run a campaign without a candidate.
Moral of the story: if you haven't got a viable candidate, tell lots of lies.
By the way, Mitt, what about those tax returns?
And what are they throwing? You guessed it! Colossal BULL!
First throw: John McCain and his GOP cohorts are claiming - get this! - that Obama is to blame for the deal cut last summer to reduce defense spending and non-defense spending equally beginning (in stages) after January 1.
Obama is to blame? They've gotta be kidding!
Only they aren't. They really expect people to believe this nonsense.
The trillion in cuts, including the $500 billion in defense, was the result of the House GOP refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Remember? It was hostage money! Now the terrorist GOP who extorted the deal are complaining. And blaming Obama! That's like kidnappers blaming the victim's family for paying the ransom!
What are these GOP Senators smoking?
Second throw: And this one comes from the Romney campaign and is even more ludicrous. A new Romney ad claims that jobs were LOST because of Obama's bailout of the auto industry. These Romney people are not only smoking stuff; they must be on the sauce! The auto industry rescue SAVED a million jobs! But Romney's people found an auto dealer that had to shut down after the bailout. Turns out GM denied him further credit, and he had thirty cars on the lot. Do you see any reasoning in this that would explain GM's decision? A decision that seems to have had nothing to do with Obama? Somehow Romney & Co. don't see the real reason?
And Romney is supposed to be the guy who really understands business. Tell me, please, what would have happened to this erstwhile auto dealer if Romney's "let Detroit go bankrupt" had prevailed?
Third throw: And how about Jack Gilchrist, the "businessman" in that other Romney ad? The one who claims he built his business by himself and is so incensed that Obama - so Romney falsely claims - is suggesting that he didn't.
This Jack the Entrepreneur had FOUR different government handouts!
He is such a fake that he makes Joe the Plumber look like - well. a plumber. Which Joe wasn't.
Are the Romney folks desperate? They are sure acting like it. And it's understandable. It is just awfully hard to run a campaign without a candidate.
Moral of the story: if you haven't got a viable candidate, tell lots of lies.
By the way, Mitt, what about those tax returns?
You Control the One Percent
No, not the one percent with all that wealth. Apparently no one controls them.
I'm talking about the one percent that will decide this election. This one percent is ENTIRELY within your control.
Here's how you get your power. First, it's going to be a very, very close election, according to all the calculations. But there is one calculation that shows how really close it will be. That calculation is the one utilized to adjust current polls (which are based on registered voters) to results for "likely voters".
As of now, most pollsters are still polling registered voters. When they switch to just polling likely voters, Obama will probably take a hit in the numbers. So say the experts. That's because Democrats don't turn out to vote with as much reliability as do GOP voters. Sad, but true - and it has always been that way. So we already know that.
Now, however, master statistical analyst Nate Silver of the New York Times, who has the most sophisticated analysis program of all, has announced that the figure he normally uses to adjust current polling of registered voters does not use a large enough reduction to represent likely Democratic turnout, given the other data he has. This is a long-winded way of saying that he sees signs the Democratic stay-at-homers will be nearly TWICE as numerous as usual. The difference is one per cent versus a two percent adjustment.
Oh, folks, this is really bad news! It's so obviously bad news that I need not carry on about it.
But this is also what delivers this election into YOUR hands!
GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE! This is your grandma screetching at you! GET THAT ONE PERCENT TO THE POLLING PLACES!
Make your plans now to be in Pennsylvania or Ohio or Virginia for the Obama get-out-the vote effort. That's where this election will be decided, by all present and historical indications. Without two of those three states, Obama will LOSE. Most important of the three is OHIO because, without Ohio, Romney CANNOT win.
No excuses. Just get yourself to one of those three states. Planes, trains and automobiles. Or buses. Even hitchhiking. Get some folks to go with you. Maybe the local campaign can get you a place to bunk in. JUST DO IT!
And if you can't go - because you're in prison in Algiers or you're having a baby that week - SEND MONEY! The Obama campaign is overspending to hit Romney hard now with ads to show people how inadequate the man is. But the Obama campaign also needs money for more organizing at the grassroots level. Even grassroots need some feeding.
Can we get that critical one percent to show up and vote for the man? Oh, baby, yes we can!
But will we? Let me put it like this: We damn well better! Or we can kiss tomorrow goodbye. For us, for our kids, for our grandkids.
And that other one percent who now have all the money and much of the power? On election night they will drink a champaign toast to those of us who let them win this election. And that toast will be our curse to bear for a long, long time to come.
P.S. Hey, Mitt! Where's those tax returns?
I'm talking about the one percent that will decide this election. This one percent is ENTIRELY within your control.
Here's how you get your power. First, it's going to be a very, very close election, according to all the calculations. But there is one calculation that shows how really close it will be. That calculation is the one utilized to adjust current polls (which are based on registered voters) to results for "likely voters".
As of now, most pollsters are still polling registered voters. When they switch to just polling likely voters, Obama will probably take a hit in the numbers. So say the experts. That's because Democrats don't turn out to vote with as much reliability as do GOP voters. Sad, but true - and it has always been that way. So we already know that.
Now, however, master statistical analyst Nate Silver of the New York Times, who has the most sophisticated analysis program of all, has announced that the figure he normally uses to adjust current polling of registered voters does not use a large enough reduction to represent likely Democratic turnout, given the other data he has. This is a long-winded way of saying that he sees signs the Democratic stay-at-homers will be nearly TWICE as numerous as usual. The difference is one per cent versus a two percent adjustment.
Oh, folks, this is really bad news! It's so obviously bad news that I need not carry on about it.
But this is also what delivers this election into YOUR hands!
GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE! This is your grandma screetching at you! GET THAT ONE PERCENT TO THE POLLING PLACES!
Make your plans now to be in Pennsylvania or Ohio or Virginia for the Obama get-out-the vote effort. That's where this election will be decided, by all present and historical indications. Without two of those three states, Obama will LOSE. Most important of the three is OHIO because, without Ohio, Romney CANNOT win.
No excuses. Just get yourself to one of those three states. Planes, trains and automobiles. Or buses. Even hitchhiking. Get some folks to go with you. Maybe the local campaign can get you a place to bunk in. JUST DO IT!
And if you can't go - because you're in prison in Algiers or you're having a baby that week - SEND MONEY! The Obama campaign is overspending to hit Romney hard now with ads to show people how inadequate the man is. But the Obama campaign also needs money for more organizing at the grassroots level. Even grassroots need some feeding.
Can we get that critical one percent to show up and vote for the man? Oh, baby, yes we can!
But will we? Let me put it like this: We damn well better! Or we can kiss tomorrow goodbye. For us, for our kids, for our grandkids.
And that other one percent who now have all the money and much of the power? On election night they will drink a champaign toast to those of us who let them win this election. And that toast will be our curse to bear for a long, long time to come.
P.S. Hey, Mitt! Where's those tax returns?
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