2008 Elections

The votes have been counted and recounted, and the result is clear: Al Franken, the former Saturday Night Live star, has won a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota.

But his opponent, Republican Norm Coleman, and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, another Republican who must certify the election results, are obstructing Franken from taking his seat and representing the state. It’s a GOP ploy to manipulate the system to either declare Coleman the winner of the election somehow or to delay Franken from joining the Democratic majority in the Senate for as long as possible.

The latest news from Minnesota is that a panel of judges has declared Franken the winner with a 312-vote lead. Coleman has said he will appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court. He has even indicated it might take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court as well. Meanwhile, Minnesota is left with only one Senator, and the situation could drag on for weeks or even months as Republicans continue to obstruct.

No one disputes this was an extremely close election, and it’s reminiscent of the 2000 presidential election between George Bush and Al Gore with one major exception: This time the GOP wants the recounting to go on. In the end, it’s typical, self-serving politics.

It would be inexcusable at this point to conduct another count of any votes or to just declare Coleman the winner in the election. If Franken is not seated, the election will seem corrupt and the overall Minnesota political system will seem corrupt. Certainly, the GOP should be disappointed, but in today’s political world elections are sometimes extremely close.

Minnesota Republicans should heed the advice of Bush’s 2000 campaign chairman, Don Evans, who said during the Gore/Bush morass: “Our democratic process calls for a vote on Election Day, it does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome.”

Franken won. Give him his Senate seat. The U.S. Senate needs his intelligence and creativity. The people in Minnesota deserve representation.

Give it up, Norm.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how the GOP and its complicit enablers in the mainstream media were trying to argue that there is nothing seriously wrong with the economy right now and Americans were simply whiners.

Lost your house? Get over it already, whiner. Can’t afford that medical test you need? Quit your bellyaching. Can’t afford the gasoline to get to work? So what, crybaby? You got it good. Can’t pay for your college tuition or get a college loan? You’re simply in a “mental recession.” Yeah, that’s right. You’re crazy. Vote for John McCain and everything will be just as hunky-dory as it is now.

After the era of propagandist Karl Rove, these Republican talking points initiatives are incredibly transparent to anyone who is paying attention. This time it appears the Orwellian talking points have backfired on some level, but this GOP idea that everything is okay economically for Americans is probably not going away anytime soon. It will surely manifest itself in some other insidious lie during the months leading up to the November election.

Neoconservative ideology has desperately failed this country’s citizens, and the GOP leadership has no way out of that argument, except to lie that things aren’t that bad. In this way, the Republican political operatives hope to continue to appeal to that certain segment of voters who don’t vote based on economic issues.

The most recent example of this particular talking points initiative came when former Republican U.S. Senator Phil Gramm, a McCain surrogate, said Americans were in a “mental recession.” He also said, according to media reports, “"We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."

McCain supposedly disavowed the remarks, but the Gramm comments give us a good idea where the GOP is headed in terms of its political rhetoric this year.

Obviously, on some level, the Gramm comments echo the standard clichéd “America, love it or leave it” philosophy advanced by narrow-minded nationalists who goosestep in unison to the belief that this country’s government can do no wrong when, in fact, it now sanctions torture, unconstitutional wiretapping of its citizens and an imperial presidency.

In addition, a recent poll by Pew Research Center also concluded that Baby Boomers were a bunch of whiners. The Pew poll shows the fix is in on this particular talking point for the Republicans. The logic of the poll’s results goes like this: Baby Boomers have it better than people who grew up in the Great Depression so they should just shut their mouths. By extension, the logic would seem to be that unless you’re standing in a soup line, you should keep everything the same, i.e. vote for John McCain (wink, wink).

The main question is this: Why would any organization even conduct such a poll right now unless it is to supposedly prove the GOP talking points? But that’s how the political and media system work right now.

The point is not that there isn’t hope and optimism among voters this year. There is. But voters are saying over and over this country needs a major change in direction, and that is one of the major political stories this election year. Obviously, Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, represents change. McCain, in his political essence, is the status quo, Bush redux.

The GOP’s complicit enablers in the corporate media have finally solved all the country’s current problems and just in time for the November elections.

Here is the new message: Everything is actually okay. Americans complain too much. The media (gosh, darn us) make everything seem so bad when, in fact, all is well. Americans are doing great. We do not need to change a thing.

Rising energy, gasoline, college tuition and grocery costs, lack of health insurance or adequate medical care, the mortgage crisis, stagnant wages, well, apparently these are relatively minor issues that get exaggerated, according to the new spin. By historical standards, the numbers show everything is hunky-dory.

Here’s the The Washington Post on the issue:

Ask Americans how the economy is doing, and their answer is stark: It is not just bad, it is run-for-the-hills terrible. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. Only 12 percent of Americans think the economy is in good shape. On the Internet, comparisons to the Great Depression are widespread.

But the reality is different. According to most broad measures of how the economy is doing, it's not all that grim.

So why all the silly whining?

Some analysts attribute Americans' negative views on the economy to media coverage, which tends to play bad news more prominently than good news. There is ample research proving that, say, a drop in the stock market or rise in the unemployment rate gets more extensive news coverage than a move in the reverse direction. (In other news, newspapers tend to cover plane crashes more extensively than a safe landings.)

This creates a real problem for our country’s great and revered financial leaders, according to The Post.

This paradox has created a unique challenge for those guiding the economy, who worry that Americans' pessimistic views will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Two-thirds of the economy is consumer spending. So if people's negative outlook leads them to cut their spending, a steeper downturn could happen.

On a local level, The Oklahoman, which is the nation’s most conservative metropolitan newspaper, has jumped on the bandwagon with an editorial urging everyone to cheer up. The editorial (“Bad news bearers: Image can really be everything,” June 24, 2008) cites a Wall Street Journal article by a think-tank pundit who follows the GOP line on the economy.

And yet, polling shows Americans feel about as bad as they ever have about the general state of things. Why? Easterbrook points largely to the media. "Whatever goes wrong in the country or around the world is telecast 24/7, making us think the world is falling to pieces ...” he says. "If a factory closes, that's news. If a factory opens, that's not a story.”

The editorial then urges Oklahomans to “take some of what you read and watch and hear with a grain of salt. And cheer up.”

Of course, all rational people here have taken The Oklahoman with a “grain of salt” for decades, and these rational people also know a GOP talking points initiative when they encounter it.

If the GOP and their enablers in the media can convince a certain number of Americans that their bleak financial situations are really not that bad, then maybe they can convince them that this country really does not need to change directions. Consequently, if the country does not need to change directions, then the 71-year-old John McCain will do just fine as president preserving the status quo.

These specious arguments about how things are not so bad are part of a political ruse in the Karl Rove tradition. The Post numbers, for example, lack context. Maybe the unemployment numbers are supposedly not as bad as in 1980, but how many people have left the work force under the President George Bush regime because they cannot find jobs? The article does not even mention the rise of hungry, broke families. The country’s food banks, for example, have been stretched thin in the current financial crisis. Even The Oklahoman has mentioned this issue on a local level. Who can even trust the government numbers this article cites?

Does anyone still believe any information or statistics released by the current presidential administration?

What about the worker who does not have the money to pay the health insurance co-pay on a simple medical test? What about those people who have lost their homes recently to foreclosure? What about rising energy costs beyond gasoline for our vehicles? What about college students who have faced steep tuition increases in recent years? Of course, people do not think the current government will do anything about these issues. Of course, they are pessimistic. They should be.

It comes down to this: If you want change, then throw the GOP bums out of office. Do not vote for John McCain.

Does this mean everything is gloom and doom? No. This is not yet the Great Depression. No one pretends it is. Still, where is the reform?

Do you think health insurance premiums or health care costs will ever be lowered in this country without government intervention? Do you think the oil companies will reduce their profit margins to help Americans drive to work? Do you think the utility companies on their own will reduce rates to help out struggling families?

After the long, gruesome Bush years, we need a federal government that cares about and is responsive to ordinary people and families in this country. The only way that will happen is if people vote for their interests this November.

The Oklahoma College Tuition Paradox

The recently announced tuition increases of 9.9 percent this coming fall at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University are the result of the state’s recent income tax cuts, which heavily favored wealthy people.

As state revenues decline because of the tax cuts, universities and colleges are forced to raise tuition just to meet basic operating costs, such as utility expenses.

Sure, you might have received a $100 break on your Oklahoma taxes over the last two years or so, but now your college tuition or your children’s tuition has gone up so much it has wiped out any net gain. Do you or your child drive to school? Well, that is going to cost you a lot more as well given the country’s energy crisis that the neoconservatives have done nothing about. Fees and textbook prices are up as well. But you have (or once had) your $100 and you can feel good knowing the state's rich people get an extra vacation or two using their tax break money