08/29/2002

Unfinished Business

I’ve been spending my free time listening to Bruce Springsteen’s new CD, the one about the aftermath of September 11th. I can’t exactly say I’m enjoying it, but I appreciate it. The words and music are a reminder of the depth of our personal and national wounds and how fresh they still are. It’s hard to get things done when the CD is playing, the songs pull me up short and leave me thinking about how much some people lost and how much I still have and hold.

The date itself is less than two weeks away. There will be other anniversaries – 10, 25, 50 – but this is the year when September 11th passes from the time-suspended present and begins to slowly recede into the past.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
08/22/2002

Rich Man Wins

Once upon a time, in Washington DC, I was invited to join a weekly poker game. The first week, I found myself in a cash game with no limit on bets or raises. I rarely got to see the cards of the successful gambler that night, because the outcome of more hands was determined by reckless betting than shrewd card playing. That particular version of poker is called “rich man wins.” “Rich man wins,” is also an apt description of the electoral politics system in the U.S. Most the elected officials in Washington get there by outspending their opponents. Congress passed and the president signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms this year, but it seems the political appointees at the Federal Elections Commission will make sure the legislative intent of Congress will not survive into practical application.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
08/15/2002

The Devil You Know

If you spend any time watching Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s press briefings, sooner or later you’ll hear him do his bit on “knowns and unknowns.” Mr. Rumsfeld divides threats to the U.S. into three categories: “knowns,” something like the size of the Iraqi air force; “known unknowns,” something like the Iraqi biological weapons arsenal – we assume it’s out there, but we know almost nothing about it and “unknown unknowns,” threats to the nation we cannot anticipate. Many would classify the September 11th attacks as “unknown unknowns,” although it would be more fitting to file them under “unknown should-have-known.” The point is, Donald Rumsfeld thinks we cannot be too cautious in defending ourselves against terrorist acts. Mr. Rumsfeld’s view, however, is by no means universal in the Bush administration.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
08/08/2002

Feat of Clay

Remember Play-Doh? It’s been several decades since I was intimate with Play-Doh, but every so often I’m near a small person who pops the lid off a can and the aroma sends me back to Mrs. Sibs’s kindergarten class.

For nearly 50 years, children have been modeling, mashing, squishing, sculpting and let’s not forget eating, Play-Doh. And that’s OK, because Play-Doh is made from water and flour and salt.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
08/01/2002

Hacking for Hollywood

One of the enduring American fantasies is that of the Hollywood discovery. The daydreamer imagines him or herself going about the daily routine when an agitated talent agent swoops in from nowhere screaming, “That face! That face! I’ve got to have you for Scorsese’s next picture!”

Or maybe it’s the record company rep, similarly agitated, bursting from the tiny crowd at the community-center sock hop, waving a contract and promising to make your garage band the next Nirvana.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
07/25/2002

Business as Usual

Return with us once again to those distant days of 2000, when the Republican presidential ticket – AKA “Bigtime” – stumped across the country, promising voters that, if elected, candidates George Bush and Dick Cheney would use the skills they’d acquired as businessmen to run the country. Chalk one up for promises kept.

Since 1980, it has been a Republican mantra that local, state and federal governments would be more efficient if they were run like businesses. The recitation went like this: “The problem with government is, there’s no accountability. In the business world, if a CEO doesn’t show a profit, he knows he won’t be CEO much longer. Accountability is built into the system.”
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
07/18/2002

In the Pipeline

The Government, in its unending quest for homeland security, has begun a program encouraging one in 24 Americans to snitch on his or her neighbors. The TIPS program – that’s short for Terrorism Information and Prevention System – is recruiting letter carriers and meter readers to snoop under your porch and in your basement. Some fun, huh?

The Bush administration also wants to repeal the 100-year-old prohibition on deploying the military within the nation’s borders. The White House has been vague on specifics, asking Congress to trust and go along.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)