Obama on the boob tube

Posted on October 28, 2010 by oddmanout215

2010 is like 1933, but without the good songs

“Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act. Or maybe not.” — Don DeLillo

I was re-reading DeLillo’s Libra and feeling paranoid, so I put down the book and turned on the TV, and there was President Obama taking questions from the sage of Comedy Central, Jon Stewart.

I shouldn’t knock Stewart, he did OK. He suggested a fitting revision to Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan (“Yes we can, but…”) and suggested that the White House had been “timid” on health care reform. Obama pooh-poohed him, noting that the new health care bill will result in coverage for 30 million previously uninsured people. He conceded that the country’s 9.6 unemployment rate (the unofficial rate is 17 percent) was daunting, but insisted that progress was being made. Blah blah.

Channel-surfing, I bumped into Garry Wills, the journalist and historian, who was pushing his new book on the Charlie Rose Show. Asked by Rose to assess Obama’s job performance, Wills said he was “enormously disappointed,” and he went straight to the health care issue to explain his response. Obama wasted most of 2009 trying to “ingratiate himself” with Republicans, Wills said, instead of pushing for genuine reform.

Wills added, “So what [Obama] did was get a health care plan with all kinds of crippling provisions, which means it’s going to cost more than the previous establishment… And it is because he would not say the only way to bring down costs is the public option.”

Exactly. Not proposing a public option — alternative coverage for people who can’t afford the insurance companies — was a major disservice to those of us who voted for him, but Obama is too arrogant to concede this point, on Stuart’s show or anywhere else.

I switched channels in time to catch the end of Gold Diggers of 1933, in which Dick Powell plays a millionaire composer who writes a Broadway musical that rescues a bunch of theater people from poverty. Ginger Rogers, backed by chorus girls wearing giant coins, sings “We’re In the Money.” Joan Blondell lip-syncs “Remember My Forgotten Man,” a song inspired by a phrase FDR used in a stirring speech during the Great Depression.

Watching this, it occurred to me that Obama isn’t likely to deliver any stirring speeches about the Great Recession. He’s more interested in defending his failed half-measures than in putting together an effective jobs program for the millions of forgotten men and women who had hoped he would do much more to jump-start the economy.

Even worse are Obama’s foes, from slimy John Boehner on down, who barely even pretend to represent anyone other than the small percentage of rich thieves who profit from the misery of the poor and near-poor.

Worst of all is the suspicion there is something almost criminal going on; that Obama, just like the lizards trying to bring him down, never had any intention of pursuing any policies that might threaten the interests of the thieves. (See Roger Hodge’s The Mendacity of Hope.)

I’d better stop reading DeLillo, or I might not even vote on Tuesday.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Depression, health care, mid-term elections, Obama, Uncategorized, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

(Nearly) fatal distraction

Posted on October 25, 2010 by oddmanout215

How can a poor man stand such teams and live?

“These days people want beer with their circuses, not bread.” – A contemporary South Philly descendant of the ancient Roman satirist Juvenal.

The beer flowed Wednesday night but the circus, telecast from San Francisco, was a flop. The Phillies and Giants swapped the lead and were tied for a while in a clumsy game that ended in the ninth inning when the Giants scored against Roy Oswalt. Why was the Phils’ No. 2 starting pitcher used in relief, and why hadn’t their No. 1, Roy Halladay, started the game? What was manager Charlie Manuel smoking?

This was the sort of setback I’d dreaded. The relentlessly grim unemployment figures, John Boehner’s Pledge to America, Zach Galifianakis having Mel Gibson fired from Hangover 2 — all of these horrors I’d withstood, but the thought of the Phils being eliminated in five games in the NLCS was pushing me to Kurt Cobain-level despair. I ordered Lafcadio, my longtime chef and valet, to hide my Glock 9 in a place I’d never guess.

All was not lost. On Thursday, The Phils rebounded thanks to Halladay and the relievers and some timely hits, including a ninth inning home run by Jason Werth, who looks like a cross between a movie Viking and an Appalachian meth cook. The series moved from the land of fruits and nuts back to Philly, where the stage was set for two dramatic contests that could end with another pennant for the Phils, followed by their third straight appearance in the World Series.

But there was only one more contest. Ryan Howard, the Phils’ $25 million chump, was caught looking at Strike Three in the ninth inning of Game 6 with the bases loaded and the Giants up 3-2. The circus was over and the beer went flat. I shouted, “Lafcadio, where’s my goddamn gun?” But my lackey remained mum, so I sulked for 24 hours, all the way through the Eagles game.

They lost, too. I went to the kitchen to fetch another beer and carve some beef off of last night’s roast, but Lafcadio had hidden all the sharp knives.

Posted in Great Depression, mid-term elections, Philadelphia, sports, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Take away my rights, not my toys

Posted on October 4, 2010 by oddmanout215

Why FDR’s words wouldn’t resonate today

“No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.”

Waiting for the new iPhone in 1934

In 1934, FDR’s point was obvious to most Americans, even those who were part of the tiny privileged class that is always immune to depressions and recessions. Nowadays, even the leaders of the Democratic Party don’t seem to make the connection between sky-high unemployment and the threat of serious social disorder. Apparently, they’re convinced a steady diet of beer and circuses will keep Americans enervated, even after homes are foreclosed on and unemployment checks stop.

They might be right, at least for now. The percentage of Americans who lack food, shelter and clothing is small compared to what it was in the 1930s, at the peak of the Great Depression. Most Americans, even the ones out of work and/or in danger of losing their homes, still have resources to fall back on, whether it’s savings or even emergency lodgings with relatives. There’s more food than there was then, even if most of it is swill, and a vast array of consumer goodies — TVs, iPhones, iPods, video games, vibrators and so on — that weren’t available 76 years ago to distract people from their misery, or impending misery.

Also, most people are oblivious to legal and political realities until they are hit over the head by them. I’ll bet not one in ten of us know the implications of the Patriot Act or care that it’s now legal for corporations to anonymously steer vast sums to candidates who represent their interests.

But will we remain as brain-dead if our toys are gone? If they are repossessed or can’t be had because our credit is exhausted? If we can’t afford to watch gladiators on cable TV or the new version of Grand Theft Auto?

It won’t come to that, at least for a while, if Wall Street witch doctors can conjure up another phony boom and we can keep it going with more borrowed money. But a new boom is unlikely, given the depth of the national debt, and the fact that most of the jobs lost so far in this century — millions of them — have been off-shored or eliminated by technology.

I’m going to stop writing now before I really depress myself. Besides, it’s almost time for the Phillies game and, after that, The Real Housewives of Pitman, NJ. Go team!

Posted in economic collapse, Great Depression, mid-term elections, unemployment, Wall Street, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A new casino in this economy? Are you crazy?

Posted on September 29, 2010 by oddmanout215

The utilitarian gambling hall erected on North Delaware Avenue at the border of Fishtown and Northern Liberties puts 1,600 slot machines and 40 card tables within easy reach of neighborhoods across the city, many of them low-income. With the illusive promise of winnings, look for the casino to feed gambling addictions that will trouble thousands of city residents.

— The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 23

For 30 years, Philly’s leaders made grand plans for the Delaware riverfront. In the end, all we got was a casino.

The editorial writers at the Inky have a gift for understatement. Gambling at the “utilitarian” SugarHouse casino — the building is functional but ugly — is likely to trouble a whole lot more people than the thousands directly affected by gambling addiction. Half of the drop at SugarHouse will go to the state treasury, ostensibly to be used for tax relief, and the rest will be kept by the casino, its parent company and investors. That giant sucking sound you’ll hear will be all that’s left of hundreds of millions of dollars disappearing from the local economy.

The situation invites big questions. How much of the loot kicked back to the state will actually benefit Philly taxpayers? To what extent will casino revenues funneled to Philly for tax relief be offset by increases in crime and other expensive social problems that inevitably occur in urban areas where casinos do business? Is casino gambling likely to help or hurt Philly in the long run?

The Inquirer has been confronted with these questions for years but to my knowledge it has never done any of the in-depth stories that might provide answers, or at least point the way to answers. Its editorials are consistently skeptical but its reporters rarely write anything other than standard news and feature stories on the casino issue.

That’s how it went on Sept. 23, when SugarHouse opened. There was the skeptical editorial and there was the news story by Suzette Parmley who, at times, writes like a publicist for a casino. Yes, it was cute that Ben Franklin and the Mummers were at the opening, and it warmed my heart that the casino’s owner, billionaire Neil Bluhm, “looked on proudly” with his two daughters, but what about the likely impact of a casino on a city with an alarming unemployment rate?

Parmley quoted Las Vegas gambling analyst Jacob Oberman, who declared that “the Philadelphia casino-goer will be the ultimate winner” because the presence of of a third casino in southeastern PA — Harrah’s in Chester and Parx in Bensalem are the others — will force “better and more numerous incentive offers” to gamblers.

Amazing.  If you were an editor, wouldn’t you have told Parmley to include counterpoint from an analyst who isn’t part of the casino industry, someone who might have pointed out that nobody ever wins against a casino in the long run?

A bigger question:  Where are the Inquirer and Daily News stories that would research the arguments of the many economists and other analysts who think ongoing expansion of casino gambling is a disaster; those who think casinos are exactly what we don’t need in the wake of a recession that has washed away the savings and assets of millions of Americans?

For starters, I’m talking about people like Temple University economist Fred Murphy; Robert Goodman, former director of the U.S. Gambling Research Institute and author of The Luck Business; University of Nevada economist William Eadington, who heads The Institute for the Study of Gambling & Commercial Gaming; and University of Illinois economist Earl Grinols, who started doing extensive cost-benefit reviews of casino gambling back in the 1990s.

SugarHouse is open for business, but that doesn’t mean the debate on the wisdom of expanding casino gambling is over. Unfortunately, few of the editors and  reporters at the Philly dailies seem interested in this debate.

Posted in casinos, economic collapse, mainstream media, Philadelphia, Politics, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fashion-conscious thugs prefer the Bronx Bombers

Posted on September 21, 2010 by oddmanout215

But you don’t have to be a hood to love corporate logos

From the Sept. 15 New York Times:

A curious phenomenon has emerged at the intersection of fashion, sports and crime: dozens of men and women who have robbed, beaten, stabbed and shot at their fellow New Yorkers have done so while wearing Yankees caps or clothing.

You, too, can be a walking advertisement for corporations

The writer notes that people who wear sports garb during or just after committing a crime are much more likely to be wearing New York Yankees clothing than that of any other pro or college team. One criminologist attributes the phenomenon to the popular rapper Jay-Z, who has been wearing Yankees caps for years, while other analysts are “wondering whether criminals are identifying with the team’s aura of money, power and success.”

Buried in the text is a more mundane explanation for the phenomenon —  the Yankees hold a 25.13 percent market share of merchandise licensed by Major League Baseball. In other words, how could there not be a disproportionate number of thugs wearing Yankees garb? A great many non-thugs are wearing it, too.

It’s not much of a story, so far as statistics go. The writer states that criminals who sport Yankees logos  are all over the country but he only supplies numbers for New York City crimes.

On the other hand, there’s poetic justice in the idea that fashion-conscious thugs would tend to identify with what has been, historically, the best team money could buy. A team whose players tend to be arrogant and proud of it, just like its owners.

If you wear a Phillies or Mets cap backwards or cocked to one side, you will probably look like a slob in a ball cap who has a favorite team. But if you wear a Yankees cap — forwards, backwards or sideways — you are more likely to be making a statement about how you worship the rich and powerful.

The real story is bigger than what’s in the crime blotter: Why are so many people — young  and old, crooked and law-abiding, sports fan or no — eager to wear clothes that corporate logos, to turn themselves into free advertisements? When and why did this custom become popular?

A comprehensive story on this subject has yet to be written. I can’t wait to read it.

Posted in globalization, mainstream media, New York Times, sports | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sorry, nepotism on the bridge!

Posted on September 14, 2010 by oddmanout215

One of these years, DRPA will finish bike paths

The mission: To get used to commuting by bicycle between Center City Philadelphia and Camden, NJ, using the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Peddling the mile-long stretch takes about 10 minutes, includes beautiful vistas of the Delaware River and is a cheap alternative to driving and public transportation.

The obstacle: The 84-year-old steel suspension bridge, like most thruways in the region, isn’t bicycle-friendly. Only a few hundred cyclists per day and roughly as many pedestrians make the bridge crossing, compared to about 100,000 motor vehicles and 40,000 commuters on the PATCO train line. Cyclists on the Philly side must brave heavy auto traffic on streets that have few bike lanes and don’t directly connect to the bridge’s concrete walkways, which double as bike paths.

The walkways – each is about 12 feet wide at most points – run on either side of the bridge’s seven vehicular lanes and above the PATCO tracks, bordered by steel suspension cables, sturdy metal railings and light fixtures. However, only one walkway is open on any given day, and signs posted by the Delaware River Port Authority, which maintains the bridge, caution that crossings are “At your own risk.”

The Ben Franklin Bridge's south-side walkway/bike path on a user-unfriendly day

The south-side walkway begins on an upward slope that continues for several blocks over Philly’s riverfront, past one of the stone towers built into the bridge to serve as public transportation stations. These were never used for that purpose because trolley use fell off drastically in the ’20s as more and more people began commuting by car.

Midway across the river the walkway slopes downward, passes another tower, narrows by half and then abruptly ends at the top of three flights of metal stairs on the Camden side. The north-side walkway is less frequently used because it narrows near Camden to the width of a cattle chute, so that cyclists approaching from opposite directions must dismount in order to squeeze past one another. One either side, one must carry his/her bike up or down the stairs or “walk” it along awkwardly placed ramps that run next to the stairs.

Biking over the bridge can feel bizarre but is not all that risky, if my two dozen crossings this summer are an indication. On a recent hot afternoon I encountered a dozen or so cyclists and joggers, alone or in pairs; a DRPA policeman in a vehicle just small enough to allow a cyclist to pass at the same time in the other direction; and a man and woman, both nearly naked, huddled next to one of the towers. The woman covered herself and shouted, “Sorry, having sex on the bridge!” This was perhaps to remind me that traffic on the walkways has been light for a long time and will only increase if government puts more money and effort into upgrading it.

John Boyle, research director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, recently said that improvements to the walkways are in the works, including a bike ramp to be built in 2012 to replace the stairs on the Camden side. He noted that bicycling advocates already have helped persuade the DRPA to extend the hours during which walkways are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the warmer months and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the fall and winter. Other proposed changes are listed on the Bicycle Coalition website.

Ed Kasuba, director of corporate communications for the DRPA, confirmed the interstate agency plans to replace the stairs with a ramp. He referred questions about the “At your own risk” signs to the DRPA’s legal department, which could not be reached for comment this week, possibly because it is busy fielding complaints about other matters. The DRPA has been under fire for months for patronage hiring, for providing free train rides and bridge passes to employees, and for spending millions of dollars on projects that have nothing to do with transportation. Maybe some of the money could have been used to improve the walkways.

Boyle’s advice to fans of the walkways: “Contact the DRPA and say I support further improvements. I use the bridge and would like my trip to be easier and safer.” The agency can be reached at 877-567-3772.

Posted in bicycling, Delaware River Port Authority, livable cities, NJ, Philadelphia, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Headless bodies and hapless Democrats

Posted on September 7, 2010 by oddmanout215

Think GOP’s morons can’t win midterms? Think again

Keith Olbermann knows Republican candidates are funny. He airs clips of their boneheaded declarations so that we who lean left can laugh, in an incredulous way, at how grotesque the right wing has become. We are indeed amused, but this year it looks like the morons might have the last laugh.

What rough (and headless) beast... slouches towards Washington, D.C., to be born?

Last week Olbermann mocked Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer for her poor performance in a debate with Terry Goddard, the Democrat running for governor, and for stirring fears about illegal immigration by falsely claiming that headless bodies had been found in the Arizona desert. Watching the show I wanted to say yes, Keith, Gov. Cactus Face is a liar and a bigot, but these facts don’t matter to her fans.

Sharron Angle, the Nevada Republican tea-bagger candidate for the Senate, believes abortion causes breast cancer, defends citizens who might resort to “Second Amendment remedies” (bang, bang) to get rid of federal officials they don’t like, and has opposed use of the color black (it’s evil) in high school football uniforms. She is kooky as well as stupid, and has been justly ridiculed by Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and other liberal commentators. And yet, as of Sept. 3, Angle was still running neck-and-neck with Harry Reid, the Democratic incumbent.

I could pick on many other ridiculous Republican candidates. The point is that supporters of Angle and her ilk aren’t likely to see the light and vote Democratic even if, by some remote chance, they happen to watch Olbermann’s TV show. They’re the same geniuses who think Barack Obama is a Muslim and Sarah Palin is qualified for national office.

More importantly, dissing the wackos isn’t likely to change the minds of so-called independents who are leaning toward not voting or voting Republican. Not because independents think the Republicans are competent, but rather because they want to express their anger at Obama and the Democratic congress for not taking bold steps to fix the economy. As for why independents would let anger get the best of them, to the point where they’d help elect candidates who would make the situation worse… well, that’s as much a mystery to me as it must be to you.

Update: Obama on Labor Day unveiled a $50 billion jobs plan directed at upgrading the nation’s infrastructure. Too little and way too late. If Obama had an ounce of political sense or nerve, he would have announced aggressive jobs creation plans in the first year of his term. He would have repeatedly condemned cynical Republicans who, as a bloc, fought to block any legislation that would have brought down the jobless rate.

Maybe Dems will succeed in salvaging a slim congressional majority by funneling the lion’s share of campaign funds to candidates who have the best chance of winning. I doubt it. This year “the best lack all conviction,” as W. B. Yeats wrote in an oft-quoted poem, and the worst are waiting for their savior.

Posted in Congress, economic collapse, immigration, mid-term elections, Obama, Politics, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

You, sir, are no Lonesome Rhodes

Posted on September 1, 2010 by oddmanout215

Where are the fire-breathing, chest-beating demagogues of old?

I saw clips of Glenn Beck exhorting the crowd to come back to Jesus during his “Restoring Honor” event in D.C. and I wondered, honestly, how this simpering buffoon rose from radio obscurity to become the de facto voice of the Tea Party movement.

About last weekend -- Is this the face of New Age nativism?

Even more puzzling is why some liberals compare Beck to Lonesome Rhodes, the menacingly jovial TV star and front man for fascism played by Andy Griffith in the classic 1957 movie A Face In the Crowd. Can you imagine strong, sexy Patricia Neil being smitten by the Pillsbury Doughboy?

Rhodes was a cross between Huey Long and P.T. Barnum, a born rabble-rouser but also a secret cynic. Beck is the champion of today’s touchy-feely right-wingers — New Age nativists? — who think they’re victims of a government in cahoots with Mexican immigrants, Muslim terrorists and gay solar-power salesmen. He’s graceless and prone to making ugly slurs, but he’s a sensitive demagogue, proud that he publicly blubbers while professing love of country, even if he sometimes fakes the tears (see video of GQ photo shoot, below).

I say bring back the two-fisted, actively alcoholic Joe McCarthy types who snarl non-stop. Better to fight them than some chickenshit ex-drunk who, when he’s not weeping, puts a smiley face on the fascist agenda of the Koch brothers. Beck is pissing off us cinephiles and shaming the Know Nothing tradition even as he demonstrates his devotion to it.

Quotable: “Glenn Beck’s rally was large, vague, moist, and undirected—the Waterworld of white self-pity.” — Christopher Hitchens in Slate.

Posted in economic collapse, mainstream media, Nativism, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ten signs you’ve slipped into the underclass

Posted on August 30, 2010 by oddmanout215

Here’s how to tell you’ve hit bottom

Make a list that traces your downward mobility. This is the opposite of what you’d do if you were reading “Six signs that you’ve made it to the middle class,” a recent article which states the obvious — the middle class in America is becoming extinct — but then lists items one must have in order to belong.

Can't afford this coat? You're in the underclass.

My list is, I hope, more in tune with the times. You know you’ve joined the underclass when:

1. Five-dollar dress shirts at the Wolf Street thrift shop begin to seem too pricey.

2. “Hey kids, we’re going to the ballgame!” means the softball finals at Palumbo Playground, not the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

3. You cancel your cable TV subscription because you can only afford channels that show “Three’s Company” and infomercials.

4. The family car has four flats and a 2009 inspection sticker.

5. You live in Philadelphia but the closest job opening in your field is in Bangor, Maine.

6. You see a movie called Eat Pray Love — about the emotional turmoil of a well-off American woman on yearlong holiday — and want to write a sequel called Load Aim Splatter.

7. Your most up-to-date musical gadget is a boom box, not an iPod.

8. Dining out means pizza slices at Lorenzo’s, not a table for two at Amada.

9. Dental insurance isn’t an option, so you decide your chipped front tooth looks ruggedly handsome.

10. You insist that hole in the roof you can’t afford to fix is really a skylight.

I hope this helps everyday people everywhere get their bearings. For a macro version of this list, try “Thirty-six sure signs that your empire is crumbling.”

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Can a daily biking regimen cause homicide?

Posted on August 28, 2010 by oddmanout215

Maybe not, but make sure you look both ways

Exercise might “moderate” one’s anger level, according to a research study reported by the Phys Ed column in The New York Times. Hmm…

In the study, scientists monitored the brain activity of 16 young men as they were shown films of the Ku Klux Klan, kids being fired on by soldiers and other disturbing images. The monitoring devices indicated that “the men were growing angry” as they watched. However, those who rode stationary bicycles after watching the images ”ended the session no angrier than they began it.”

Don't argue with an SUV. It's not worth it.

Brilliant stuff, Phys Ed. Now we know there’s a link between exercise, stress relief and anger management. This is like announcing yes, it’s true, a certain combination of hydrogen and oxygen atoms produces a clear liquid substance that quenches thirst.

Notice the research team used stationary bicycles. Would the anger of the subjects in the study have plateaued if they’d ridden bikes on city streets after watching anger-inducing images? My own study, involving personal experience and anecdotes from friends (yes, very scientific) indicates that an hour or two on the narrow streets of Philly’s grid is more likely to fill your head with Buckethead riffs and Road Warrior scenarios than keep your anger in check.

Not that you’re likely to use your bike to chase down and harm rogue drivers who breeze through stop signs, curse and spit at riders, make sudden turns without using signals and honk their horns when they’re directly behind you and speeding to beat a red light. You might picture these drivers in fireballs or crawling through wreckage or hurtling through windshields after high-speed crashes, but you wouldn’t want to play a part in making such horrors happen, perish the thought.

Besides, in that no man’s land between parked cars and moving traffic, who’s more likely to end up as roadkill, the bike rider or the oinker in the SUV?

I’m hoping, like Rodney King, that we can all get along. That bike riders who blow through red lights and ride against traffic will get their act together. That government will fund new ways to do right — more designated bike lanes, bike racks, bike sharing and so on — by the growing numbers of city residents who choose bikes as America transitions, ready or not, from the era of gas guzzlers to the era of livable cities (hmm, that’ll be the day).

Meanwhile, the streets would be a lot worse if it wasn’t for the stubborn advocates at Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, who are sponsoring Bike Philly 2010, a car-free ride on Philly streets, Sept. 12. BCGP works hard to foster peace between irritable cyclists (speaking only for myself, of course) and the spoiled hogs who poison our air and jam city streets, even though half of them could just as easily bike or use public transportation.

I could go on, but I think it’s time to get back on my stationary bike.

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