During the 2008 election primary season, I learned from Geraldo Rivera that there is a black genius camp somewhere in the country where smart black folks are invited to learn how to master the American political machine. When I found this out, my first thought was, "why the hell wasn't I invited." I'd never even heard of the place... Apparently they're very secretive about who has attended the camp... it's like a black summertime skull & bones thing... but I'm pretty sure Cory Booker got an invite.
1. Kwame Kilpatrick - just because at every all-black function there's a G... (Unfortunately I hear he got kicked out because he didn't know what the price of arugala was, in fact, during an argument with Barry Obama, he contended that arugala isn't salad at all, it's the sound you make after sex ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=arugala)
2. Barack Obama - No-brainer... I mean, it was probably his idea...
3. Deval Patrick - He's kind of the man... he made a biter of Obama? http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Geraldo_Obama_got_speeches_from_black_0222.html
4. Adrien Fenty - He's the head of the most powerful city in the world's local government...
5. Maxine Waters - just because I've met her in person... ( I admit that there should be more women on this list.)
6. Cory Booker: This guy could be the next black president... my next post examines what makes him such a stand-out.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
The American Nightmare: The Blind Leading the Blind
During the primary season here in D.C., it seemed like all anyone wanted to talk about was Obama, Clinton and McCain. Most of those conversations were pretty forgettable as everyone was sort of regurgitating the views of their favorite pundits. I do remember a couple of those conversations though: one conversation that truly stuck with me was at a friend of a friend's birthday party that I crashed. When I got there, I was escorted downstairs by the hostess' mother. Downstairs there were roughly 30 people, all young members of the black alumni population of one of D.C.'s Catholic private high schools, St. John's College. They were all sitting around listening to music and reminiscing about high school. I noticed immediately that my friend, who is notorious for being late, was not there yet. Since I was sort of crashing the party, I played the back a little bit trying to go unnoticed for as long as possible. I quickly decided to look for some liquor to loosen myself up and help me break in to the festivities smoothly. Luckily enough, the first person I asked was eager to run up and get a refill, so I was set.
When we got upstairs, a few people were struggling looking for wine bottle openers and cups so, as we waited for the liquor to come to us, he asked me what I thought about the election. He didn't seem terribly interested in my opinion, honestly. There seemed to be something that he really wanted to say so I gave him my quick, stock response, "I'm pretty excited about it. I wouldn't be too unhappy with any plausible result... at least Bush'll be gone." He forced a quick laugh and got right to it, "I don't want Obama to win, man. If he wins, considering how messed up shit is right now, the first black president is going to be presiding over the worst national situation in American history. How's he, or anyone, supposed to fix it. I'd rather somebody else be the fall guy." I had never really heard this opinion before and thought his point was interesting, so I sparred with him a little bit, mentioning that his point seemed to be underestimating Obama's abilities, challenging his assessment of the national situation, proposing that the health of the country is more important than the "black image" that his failure could damage, and suggesting that Obama might be someone that is truly post-racial and that, therefore, any failures that he might have wouldn't be attributed to blacks or detrimental to the "black image"... but I felt like there was something to his point. He said that he didn't think Clinton was in any way less equipped to take office, that "she's at least as experienced and she's probably just as smart and worldly, so, why don't we let her take the fall." "Wow," I remember thinking, "are things as bad as this dude is saying? Is the next president really signing up for failure?" I think it's become clear that times are just as bad as this guy thought and noone knows if Obama, or anyone else for that matter, is capable of fixing whatever is broken. But, we certainly know one thing: He will be given the credit for how our nation does over the next 4-8 years, be it good or bad. Let's not jinx ourselves by harping on every little success, and let's not say we've failed while the verdict is still out.
Yeah... before we pass judgement on whether the new administration is being effective or not, we must give them time to get things done. Some things take longer than others to accomplish. More to the point, certain things are really hard to understand, and some things may even be beyond human comprehension. Our hope, as citizens relying on the decisions made by Obama and his economic team, is that we are no longer making the 'go-with-your-gut' moves for which the last president will go down in infamy; our hope is that the powers that be truly understand the mechanics of this economy and are able to develop solutions based on science. However, our economy, with its enormous volume of transactions and all of its moving pieces, may be beyond human comprehension. The complexity of subjective human choices in the economy makes mathematical modelling of the evolving market extremely difficult (or impossible). So, despite the intelligence of Obama and his economic advisors, who include some of the brightest minds in economics, the blind is kind of leading the blind right now. Positive economics can tell you how things are, really shitty, and normative economics can't tell you anything real. Noone really KNOWS anything about the economy... Some people have THEORIES; but every economist that has a theory has a counterpart on the other side of the argument with equally good research. So we're left having to HOPE for better.
Obama is, if nothing more, an incredible story, but one has to qualify this... he's a great story SO FAR. How many times have you walked out of a movie or finished a book that you had been enjoying until you saw or read the awful ending? Obama's may turn out to be such a story: Opening Scene, the narrator asks us to live with the "Audacity of Hope" for ummm... change or something... He poetically invokes Martin Luther King, Jr. and describes Obama as the realization of the dream King once spoke of. The next scene sees Obama rise to the highest post in the land and... the rest of the story is yet to be written. All we know as yet is that the stage has been set, and it's looking like the set designer may well have Obama's tale mixed up with a modern adaptation of Dante's "Inferno". See because, taking on the role of president means alligning one's legacy with the state of the union, and things are pretty hellish right now. Obama will continue to be the American dream, but he wakes up everyday to a nightmare. But it's not really his fault... (ellipsis)
When we got upstairs, a few people were struggling looking for wine bottle openers and cups so, as we waited for the liquor to come to us, he asked me what I thought about the election. He didn't seem terribly interested in my opinion, honestly. There seemed to be something that he really wanted to say so I gave him my quick, stock response, "I'm pretty excited about it. I wouldn't be too unhappy with any plausible result... at least Bush'll be gone." He forced a quick laugh and got right to it, "I don't want Obama to win, man. If he wins, considering how messed up shit is right now, the first black president is going to be presiding over the worst national situation in American history. How's he, or anyone, supposed to fix it. I'd rather somebody else be the fall guy." I had never really heard this opinion before and thought his point was interesting, so I sparred with him a little bit, mentioning that his point seemed to be underestimating Obama's abilities, challenging his assessment of the national situation, proposing that the health of the country is more important than the "black image" that his failure could damage, and suggesting that Obama might be someone that is truly post-racial and that, therefore, any failures that he might have wouldn't be attributed to blacks or detrimental to the "black image"... but I felt like there was something to his point. He said that he didn't think Clinton was in any way less equipped to take office, that "she's at least as experienced and she's probably just as smart and worldly, so, why don't we let her take the fall." "Wow," I remember thinking, "are things as bad as this dude is saying? Is the next president really signing up for failure?" I think it's become clear that times are just as bad as this guy thought and noone knows if Obama, or anyone else for that matter, is capable of fixing whatever is broken. But, we certainly know one thing: He will be given the credit for how our nation does over the next 4-8 years, be it good or bad. Let's not jinx ourselves by harping on every little success, and let's not say we've failed while the verdict is still out.
Yeah... before we pass judgement on whether the new administration is being effective or not, we must give them time to get things done. Some things take longer than others to accomplish. More to the point, certain things are really hard to understand, and some things may even be beyond human comprehension. Our hope, as citizens relying on the decisions made by Obama and his economic team, is that we are no longer making the 'go-with-your-gut' moves for which the last president will go down in infamy; our hope is that the powers that be truly understand the mechanics of this economy and are able to develop solutions based on science. However, our economy, with its enormous volume of transactions and all of its moving pieces, may be beyond human comprehension. The complexity of subjective human choices in the economy makes mathematical modelling of the evolving market extremely difficult (or impossible). So, despite the intelligence of Obama and his economic advisors, who include some of the brightest minds in economics, the blind is kind of leading the blind right now. Positive economics can tell you how things are, really shitty, and normative economics can't tell you anything real. Noone really KNOWS anything about the economy... Some people have THEORIES; but every economist that has a theory has a counterpart on the other side of the argument with equally good research. So we're left having to HOPE for better.
Obama is, if nothing more, an incredible story, but one has to qualify this... he's a great story SO FAR. How many times have you walked out of a movie or finished a book that you had been enjoying until you saw or read the awful ending? Obama's may turn out to be such a story: Opening Scene, the narrator asks us to live with the "Audacity of Hope" for ummm... change or something... He poetically invokes Martin Luther King, Jr. and describes Obama as the realization of the dream King once spoke of. The next scene sees Obama rise to the highest post in the land and... the rest of the story is yet to be written. All we know as yet is that the stage has been set, and it's looking like the set designer may well have Obama's tale mixed up with a modern adaptation of Dante's "Inferno". See because, taking on the role of president means alligning one's legacy with the state of the union, and things are pretty hellish right now. Obama will continue to be the American dream, but he wakes up everyday to a nightmare. But it's not really his fault... (ellipsis)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Hard Times Inaugural Post
Everyone should have a blog...???
I'm not even sure if everyone should be able to vote but I should be able to... so I shall blog bitches...
TV a couple of nights ago was great... The President addressed the nation and answered questions from reporters for an hour or so in the White House. Reporters, in their endless search for the perfect, most jarring question, grilled Obama on his newly proposed budget. Questions beginning with the words"Isn't it true that your budget..." and, "Why did it take so long for you to..." were hitting Obama from every press seat in the room. To each question, Obama put forth an earnest attempt at comprehensively answering, but, each response made me question more and more if there is anything that can be done to preserve America's collective faith in our first black Commander in Chief. I decided to look into what the major factors affecting presidential approval ratings are... I found the following (and much more but, hey), "Economic hardship dramatically decreases presidential approval rating, because the president is considered the leader of America, and if we are in dire straits economically, obviously he or she has lead us there. Prolonged wars also decrease presidential approval because people don't like having their sons/daughters/husbands/wives far away from them for long periods of time. Also, it creates the image that we aren't as mighty as we like to think, and if we aren't mighty, it's because our leader isn't mighty, and therefore we don't like him."
Obviously there are some flaws in this logic, right? For one thing... the notion that the president is responsible for the current state of the economy ignores the fact that we don't live in Cuba, or Gabon, or Libya where leaders like Castro, Bongo, and Qadaffi have always been the president... there is a sort of discontinuum of responsibility here... but, we live in a society poisoned by the experience of having once had such easy access to gratification. We truly are as we so often are pegged an instant gratification society. The same ills that brought us to this terrible place: easy access to credit, a supercharged economy inflated to the point of near and eventual bust, false economic prosperity, and the greed at the heart of all of it, have conditioned America to be unreceptive to slow but steady change for the better. Even if that is the only way improvement is possible. So, if things don't MAGICALLY get better, Obama's kind of screwed. And there is no way to lead that won't have it's negative externalities... everything in the economy seems to be a compromise. You tell people things are better than they are, and they expect better results than you can deliver. Then you become the president who cried wolf come election time. You tell people things are as they are: really shitty; then things get worse because our economy has self esteem issues; it is so dependent upon its self-perception that you can't turn the light on in the bathroom. And everyone knows that MAGIC doesn't really exist. Even "Magic" Johnson proved susceptible to reality when he announced he was HIV positive and became the face of the AIDS epidemic. So, Obama's prescription for our ailing economy is, semi-ironically, fixing the health care system. I think it's clear that it's going to take a very strong PR campaign explaining exactly how this is going to help us in the future and why we aren't seeing immediate economic improvement... or goodbye to those high approval ratings. It would be awful to imagine that the condition the Bush administration left America made it impossible for next president to have any chance at a second term. But, that might be the case.
Later that night, a PBS documentary aired that laid out America's budget deficit history... The documentary made a number of interesting points. The first important point was that the Republican love affair with the hollow policies of low tax rates, tax cuts and overall fiscal unruliness typified by George Bush, Sr.'s famous words, "I repeat, no more taxes," has been the bane of America's fiscal existence. Another thing the documentary laid bear for me was that while Bush Sr.'s legacy is not entirely positive... he was intelligent and realistic enough about the American economic situation created by his heavy military spending agenda and his extensive tax cuts to renege on his campaign promises. (This is only admirable RELATIVE to his retarded son.) This was not politically popular (add maintenance of an honest political image to the list of factors affecting presidential approval ratings) and cost him a second term. But it put America in a position where it could be saved by a couple years of fiscal discipline; years that Clinton was able to bring us. "When the sins of our fathers visit us we do not have to play host," but Bush, Jr. couldn't resist. W. learned all the wrong lessons from his father's experience. People don't like to be taxed, duh... people like government spending programs that give them stuff, duh... people don't like it when you tell them you're not going to raise taxes but you do anyways... duh. W. seemed to govern with these lessons echoing in his head as he signed spending bill after spending bill and promoted tax cuts year after year. As a result, what Obama has inherited is much worse than what Clinton had to deal with... much deeper... and much scarier. Nobody knows what's going to happen in the coming years so nobody knows what all should be done to fix our economy. But America needs to be taxed more in order to build government revenues... that is clear. And, despite Obama's bold statements during the presidential campaign suggesting that Americans would have to "pitch in" to fix the economy, Obama's plan, at least as it has been publicly described, is cowardly about taxes. If it is not currently possible to increase taxes and maintain a level of consumer spending that won't seriously threaten American businesses then we, of course, should not increase taxes... YET. But, ultimately taxation is necessary in order to pay off our national debt and regain ownership of our economy. Obama's plan is, understandably, focused on fixing the leading drag on the American economy, the health care system. This is undoubtedly necessary. But other necessities have not been addressed by Obama... particularly the necessity to request of Americans to pitch in more. Obama needs to stop being so damn sheepish about tax raises... Bush Jr.'s fear of the political ramifications of paying as we go and telling it like it is are exactly why we're in this situation. The "plan" is understandably shy about asking an increasingly economically depressed work force to contribute at all. But just cause we can understand it doesn't mean it's right or okay or acceptable. We simply have to be asked for more of what we have, and we have to give it... more more more. If not, someday soon, America as we know it may no longer be.
I'm an American whose mother is Bahamian... my mother's nation will be underwater by as early as the year 2050 due to a global warming phenomenon that has been caused, largely, by my paternal nation. I would hate for my country to experience a fate of figurative equivalence to my mother's... (ellipsis)
I'm not even sure if everyone should be able to vote but I should be able to... so I shall blog bitches...
TV a couple of nights ago was great... The President addressed the nation and answered questions from reporters for an hour or so in the White House. Reporters, in their endless search for the perfect, most jarring question, grilled Obama on his newly proposed budget. Questions beginning with the words"Isn't it true that your budget..." and, "Why did it take so long for you to..." were hitting Obama from every press seat in the room. To each question, Obama put forth an earnest attempt at comprehensively answering, but, each response made me question more and more if there is anything that can be done to preserve America's collective faith in our first black Commander in Chief. I decided to look into what the major factors affecting presidential approval ratings are... I found the following (and much more but, hey), "Economic hardship dramatically decreases presidential approval rating, because the president is considered the leader of America, and if we are in dire straits economically, obviously he or she has lead us there. Prolonged wars also decrease presidential approval because people don't like having their sons/daughters/husbands/wives far away from them for long periods of time. Also, it creates the image that we aren't as mighty as we like to think, and if we aren't mighty, it's because our leader isn't mighty, and therefore we don't like him."
Obviously there are some flaws in this logic, right? For one thing... the notion that the president is responsible for the current state of the economy ignores the fact that we don't live in Cuba, or Gabon, or Libya where leaders like Castro, Bongo, and Qadaffi have always been the president... there is a sort of discontinuum of responsibility here... but, we live in a society poisoned by the experience of having once had such easy access to gratification. We truly are as we so often are pegged an instant gratification society. The same ills that brought us to this terrible place: easy access to credit, a supercharged economy inflated to the point of near and eventual bust, false economic prosperity, and the greed at the heart of all of it, have conditioned America to be unreceptive to slow but steady change for the better. Even if that is the only way improvement is possible. So, if things don't MAGICALLY get better, Obama's kind of screwed. And there is no way to lead that won't have it's negative externalities... everything in the economy seems to be a compromise. You tell people things are better than they are, and they expect better results than you can deliver. Then you become the president who cried wolf come election time. You tell people things are as they are: really shitty; then things get worse because our economy has self esteem issues; it is so dependent upon its self-perception that you can't turn the light on in the bathroom. And everyone knows that MAGIC doesn't really exist. Even "Magic" Johnson proved susceptible to reality when he announced he was HIV positive and became the face of the AIDS epidemic. So, Obama's prescription for our ailing economy is, semi-ironically, fixing the health care system. I think it's clear that it's going to take a very strong PR campaign explaining exactly how this is going to help us in the future and why we aren't seeing immediate economic improvement... or goodbye to those high approval ratings. It would be awful to imagine that the condition the Bush administration left America made it impossible for next president to have any chance at a second term. But, that might be the case.
Later that night, a PBS documentary aired that laid out America's budget deficit history... The documentary made a number of interesting points. The first important point was that the Republican love affair with the hollow policies of low tax rates, tax cuts and overall fiscal unruliness typified by George Bush, Sr.'s famous words, "I repeat, no more taxes," has been the bane of America's fiscal existence. Another thing the documentary laid bear for me was that while Bush Sr.'s legacy is not entirely positive... he was intelligent and realistic enough about the American economic situation created by his heavy military spending agenda and his extensive tax cuts to renege on his campaign promises. (This is only admirable RELATIVE to his retarded son.) This was not politically popular (add maintenance of an honest political image to the list of factors affecting presidential approval ratings) and cost him a second term. But it put America in a position where it could be saved by a couple years of fiscal discipline; years that Clinton was able to bring us. "When the sins of our fathers visit us we do not have to play host," but Bush, Jr. couldn't resist. W. learned all the wrong lessons from his father's experience. People don't like to be taxed, duh... people like government spending programs that give them stuff, duh... people don't like it when you tell them you're not going to raise taxes but you do anyways... duh. W. seemed to govern with these lessons echoing in his head as he signed spending bill after spending bill and promoted tax cuts year after year. As a result, what Obama has inherited is much worse than what Clinton had to deal with... much deeper... and much scarier. Nobody knows what's going to happen in the coming years so nobody knows what all should be done to fix our economy. But America needs to be taxed more in order to build government revenues... that is clear. And, despite Obama's bold statements during the presidential campaign suggesting that Americans would have to "pitch in" to fix the economy, Obama's plan, at least as it has been publicly described, is cowardly about taxes. If it is not currently possible to increase taxes and maintain a level of consumer spending that won't seriously threaten American businesses then we, of course, should not increase taxes... YET. But, ultimately taxation is necessary in order to pay off our national debt and regain ownership of our economy. Obama's plan is, understandably, focused on fixing the leading drag on the American economy, the health care system. This is undoubtedly necessary. But other necessities have not been addressed by Obama... particularly the necessity to request of Americans to pitch in more. Obama needs to stop being so damn sheepish about tax raises... Bush Jr.'s fear of the political ramifications of paying as we go and telling it like it is are exactly why we're in this situation. The "plan" is understandably shy about asking an increasingly economically depressed work force to contribute at all. But just cause we can understand it doesn't mean it's right or okay or acceptable. We simply have to be asked for more of what we have, and we have to give it... more more more. If not, someday soon, America as we know it may no longer be.
I'm an American whose mother is Bahamian... my mother's nation will be underwater by as early as the year 2050 due to a global warming phenomenon that has been caused, largely, by my paternal nation. I would hate for my country to experience a fate of figurative equivalence to my mother's... (ellipsis)
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