Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Our Choice For 2008/Voodoo Revisited/Trees Tarnish


(P1) Political

Oprah Winfrey For President 2008

I'm passionate about this choice! Let's start a grassroots movement now!

The Democrats really have nobody to go up against such Republican candidates as iconic Rudy Giuliani. The Democrats have abandoned their liberal base. They've allowed "liberal" to become a dirty word rather than a symbol for open-mindedness and caring. As unpopular as it might be for me to say so, I believe we were sold out by Bill Clinton due to his fervently ambitious embrace of the "middle." Examples include welfare "reform," the total botch of the healthcare issue and the resulting grotesquery called "managed care," and finally the total weakening of his presidency when he couldn't keep it in his pants. Hillary Clinton will never be elected. Her candidacy would prove to be divisive, and she really has also been rushing to the ineffectual middle. The closest the Democrats have come to uncovering a leader has been John McCain, a conservative Republican.


Unlike other potential "candidates,"


1. Oprah can win!
2. She actually does things for people.
3. Oprah is willing to speak out.
4. She also can be diplomatic.
5. She has the financial resources.
6. She has the media.
7 . She would get the vast majority of the women's' vote, the ethnic vote, and a surprising percentage of the total vote.
8. Oprah is not a Washington insider.
9. In my opinion, the only real thing that needs to be done is to CONVINCE OPRAH TO RUN.


If every one of the several hundred readers of this blog were to begin getting out the word to five or more people, the grassroots groundswell would begin to be felt and would soon get back to Oprah Winfrey and the press.

Google, which owns Blogger, disseminates and catalogues blog postings like this one and gets them out to the general reading public.

Guess what? As I was completing this post, I actually found an Oprah For President Website! Check it out. Ooops! It was up and running yesterday, but the website currently is down. Keep trying. I will too.

Please add your comments below.

Let's make a difference! Support the effort to make Oprah Winfrey President of the United States!


Please Post Your Comments Here
and/or Read the Comments of Others. You can sign in as "blogger" or "other" but add your name to your text. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. We need your feedback.


(P2) Philosophical


What is the best way for Americans to contribute to the general well being, national defense, and preparedness in 2005 and the years to come?

Let's pay more taxes. Now, please don't tune me out. I'll keep this as short and to the point as possible.

Since the Reagan years, something called "Supply Side Economics" has prevailed. Here is a working definition:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Supply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought which emphasizes the importance of tax cuts and business incentives in encouraging economic growth, in the belief that businesses and individuals will use their tax savings to create new businesses and expand old businesses, which in turn will increase productivity, employment, and general well-being. While all macroeconomics involves both supply and demand, supply-side economics emphasizes the importance of encouraging increases in supply.

Ok, ok. I admit there is a bit of a seductive quality to this. We don't pay as much out of our pockets. On the other hand, our schools have deteriorated; we're paying hundreds of billions of dollars for a war in Iraq; the earliest true projection of the non-construction cost of Hurricane Katrina in $150 Billion; first responders in U.S. cities are not receiving adequate funding; the poor are getting poorer; health care coverage would be a joke were it not a nightmare, etc.

The nation increasingly will be in debt to such wonderful creditors as China. The deficit is going through the roof...of Saturn! Doesn't it therefore appear that, if it wasn't previously, America is now in a Demand Side situation. America needs to pay its debt. Americans need to pay for their services. Once we resume doing so, we may grow just a bit more critical of the way in which our money is being used to support Industry rather than People and Services.

I could offer a lot more here, but I promised to be brief, and I want to elicit your comments regarding the perceived need to at least take a critical look at what the major economists were referring to as "Voodoo Economics" during the early 1980's.


Please Post Your Comments and Suggestions here and/or Read the Comments of Others. You can sign in as "blogger" or "other" but add your name to your text. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. We need your feedback.


(P2) Poetical

When Trees Tarnish


When trees tarnish
the green (let us call it silver)
tans white in the sun
beneath a cloudless sea
that is a sky

Nothing is what we’ve been told.
Why would we believe
trees are green
leaves turn brown
sky is blue
sky is sky?
What if the broccoli of scrub oaks were
a sauté-toasted garlic-rich
side dish for birds?

The blueness of sea sky
effulgent with mackerel
netted by fisherman
silent as hawks.
June is the month for
spooning and spawning
August the hunting
the harvest the catch.

With my dog named Lady,
her blackness is vital
her mouth and her eyes
blaze forth with a smile.
She knows not of August
but lies like a puddle,
they say there’s no color
for dogs or the sky.

(8-05)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ed, I am so right with you...let me know where I can sign up, volunteer...let's go...what did they say at 9/11? Oprah for President in 2005! Ed, Did anyone anyone ever compliment you on your uncanny political acumen? Actually, here is myamendment to your draft of Oprah for VP...How about Barak Obama for VP? By the way, have you seen "The Ariscrats" yet?...m

Anonymous said...

Nice try.

My vote is for Betty White...

I'm thinking of the early Betty White when she had
a 1950s television show called "Life With Elizabeth".
Found a copy at Tower Records the other day.

Best wishes,

Don

Ed Coletti said...

To Michael Matthews,

Thank you for the compliment.

To become involved in Oprah For President:

1. Go to the website I linked to in the main post and look for ways to help. Buy a tee shirt too.

2. Tell your friends and associate to tell their friends and associates and start the snowball rolling.

Anonymous said...

I think you're right, crazy as it may sound. I think if she got enough financial and political backing, Oprah could be elected President of the USA. She makes a lot more sense than Ronald Reagan did, and look at the legend he left behind. I don't find this far-fetched at all. Chiara

Ed Coletti said...

Dear Chiara,

Your point about Ronald Reagan is well taken. Oprah has far more grassroots popularity than did the great communicator. However, he wanted it badly and worked hard to get it. We just have to get Oprah wanting it. You go, girlfriend!

Anonymous said...

I agree with almost everything you said about Oprah BUT just not sure she can win! Perhaps my head is still filled with all those red/blue state statistics from the last election. Do we think America can rally behind a total NON POLITICIAN? At some point, the Arnie & Jessie Ventura supporters wake up to reality.

Alas, The Bush Machine keeps on rolling! We finally had a minor victory when Brown resigned from FEMA. But I am still waiting AND hoping to derail that Bush Train. The plot sickens....

Oprah? Hmmmm. Veddy interesting.... Perhaps????

Anonymous said...

I completely agree and have been thinking it for awhile. Oprah has become, I believe, the most powerful woman in America. If she ever agreed to run, I'd be behind her 100%. Imagine, like Michael Matthews suggested, Barak Obama as VP. I can't think of a better combination - I've been really impressed with him myself. I didn't happen to see Oprah's show about her going into the Astrodome in the aftermath of Katrina but that was quite a presidential thing to do, now, wasn't it?
Here's a person with both compassion and integrity and frankly, everything else I would look for as the president of my country. She is known world-wide and respected world-wide. An important element these days. She could really make a huge difference in our world if given the chance. Actually, she already has. Maybe it is time to go to the next level.

Anonymous said...

correction - Superdome not Astrodome - I'm not much of a sports fan I'm afraid and get these confused! excuse please. Anyway, I was just on Oprah's site and she has quite a lot of info on her visit to the Superdome. Go to Oprah.com
I was also looking for any mention of the possibility of her running for pres. Maybe one day, with enough of us, there will be...

Ed Coletti said...

Lucia, Thanks for the comments. Oprah has the experience. The right type of experience that's not as easy to quantify. She'd have to pick a smart and dynamic cabinet. I agree with Mike that Barack Obama should be her VP and gain his political experience during President Winfrey's 2 terms before running himself and serving as Pres from 2016-2024. My God! I'll be 80 when he leaves office! But it will be a more pleasant 16 years than the current 8.!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ed!

Instead of focusing on the economic theory du jour, wouldn't it make more sense to look at how are taxes are wasted before suggesting paying more taxes?

Does anyone really believe that FEMA justified their budget this year? Not likely.

How about the pork barrel allocation of $20 million for a ferry service in the heart of an ecologically sensitive area? You know that $20 million will go to the legions of lawyers that will sue and counter-sue over the project for the next decade. Was that a wise allocation of capital?

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not against paying my fair share. I just think we should answer the following question first.

Is the "investment" we taxpayers surrender to government paying off or are we going to "throw good money after bad" by paying more taxes?

Interesting question isn't it?

Paul S.

P.S. I checked out your philosophy instructer's book out of the library. It looks interesting so far. Thanks for the recommendation.

Ed Coletti said...

Yes, Paul, I totally understand and agree with your concern over how the tax monies are spent. I, for example, fully supported their use to go after Bin Ladin in Afghanistan. I, for example totally oppose the much more costly use for the ill advised adventure in Iraq. Your comment about FEMA expenditure is quite thought provoking. Perhaps we should devote a more significant portion of the budget to Inspector General type oversight and consequently get more eficient bang for the buck. In any case, we cannot continue to cut taxes and especially not when those cuts are disguised as alleviation of the sinister sounding "Death Tax" which really means cutting inheritance taxes on the 3000 wealthiest Americans.

Sooner or later, we have to pay off a deficit that's costing hundreds of millions a day in interest alone! And/or stop these ridiculously expensive military adventures.

Thanks for reading and commenting. I hope you enjoy Needleman's book.

Ed

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Funny-I've thought about this before.

Poem: first stanza especially nice.

-John C

Anonymous said...

Dear Ed,
I guess I'm just too far out of the "main stream" of American life. I don't see Oprah as President, ever. I'm not necessarily against it, I just don't see it. Okay, I'll resist the pessimistic thoughts and address the concept.

Oprah is a TV celebrity with a lot of money, who has a huge TV, I repeat TV, following. Ronald Reagan was a so-so actor who had a huge political following and a very clear political agenda. Arnold is a celebrity with a lot of money and huge box office following. Is he a good governor? He said he didn't need special interest money because he has his own and then immediately began dealing with special interests. A big disappointment to me.

My main question: Has Oprah the cahones, well, backbone, to stand up to special interests and to legistators who must vote for her programs?

I want a candidate, of any party, who has absolutely no political ambitions of any kind following term of office, who has no favors to pay back and who can manage and govern without compromise. Maybe that's Oprah, but then we get back to the pessimism. I believe there will be a president of Hispanic descent before an African American, male or female. There's more, but that's a start.

Anonymous said...

Scooter, a lawyer is in the bucket, now maybe we'll see some justice, perhaps he will be found guilty and sentenced to 6 months suspension of his law license?