What's It Take?

It takes grit to make it in America
It takes more than you have to get what you need.
It takes blood to bleed and teeth to gnaw through bone.
It takes courage to pay down what you can't own.
It takes not only charm but love to Make Love.
It takes gumption to see what cannot be shown.
It takes sight beyond sight to fly without flight.
It takes not dying to keep on not living
and
It takes luck to build again once all is blown.

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Empty Things & Hollow Rings

Things you
got goin'
ain't goin'
no place
at all.

Maybe
you ought
to go
and get
going on
getting
over
things you
don't get
and will
never
ever
have your
hands on.

And if
you are
fixing
some tricks
to make
it in
the mix;
get to
thinkin
sick things
to see
if that
which is
hollow
also

rings.

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Obama & McCain Respond To Bailout Failure

Candidates Show Difference In How They Will Govern

Obama:

Obama said he's confident a deal will be reached on a bailout plan, despite it failing in the House.

Explaining why he was delayed at the start of his event, he said in this town about 20 minutes outside Denver, "I was on the phone with Secretary Paulson as well as the Speaker of the House and the Congressional leaders, because they are still trying to work through this rescue package. And obviously this is a very difficult thing to do. It's difficult because we shouldn't have gotten here in the first place.

"We meet here at a time of great uncertainty for America. The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led us to a financial crisis as serious as any we have faced since the Great Depression. They said they wanted to let the market run free but instead they let it run wild, and in the process they trampled our American values of fairness, balance, and responsibility to one another. Now, because of speculators who gamed the system and regulators who looked the other way, your jobs, your life savings, and the stability of our entire economy is at risk."

McCain:

When McCain boarded his campaign plane with Rob Portman in preparation for his flight to Des Moines, just as the bailout legislation was defeated on the House floor, he ignored questions shouted by reporters from under the wing about the fate of the bill.

It's unclear if he could hear the questions, but when he heard reporters shouting his name he turned and waved.

Question:

How long before Obama gets 60% in the polls?

Source: NBC News.

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McCain Wants To Be A Part-Time President

In Difficult Times, Americans Want An FDR, Not A Hoover

Imagine that if after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that President Franklin Roosevelt didn't address the Congress and the American people by inspiring confidence and strength, but rather he decided that he could only attend to one crisis at a time.

FDR was already taking on The Great Depression when the United States was attacked. After he described December 7, 1941 as "a day that will live in infamy", he went on to say,

"With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph."

Even though the United States was struggling through double-digit unemployment and a shaken economy during The Great Depression, FDR knew that he had to mobilize the nation and the world against dire threats to their liberty, sovereignty and safety.

John McCain, ever the maverick, decided that approach wasn't for him.

Upon what has been described as one of the worst economic crisis' since The Great Depression, John McCain has decided to focus on one thing while ignoring another important thing.

This week, John McCain said that he would suspend his campaign, and he had requested to delay the Presidential Debate scheduled for Friday at 9PM E.S.T.

Apparently Sen. McCain who has been the Congress' most absent Senator is in a rush to fix the economic crisis that he, Bush and the Republicans in Congress helped to create.

McCain insists on ignoring one important task to work on a crisis that he is admittedly not qualified to handle. He does this despite the fact that whoever wins this election will have to be a full-time Commander-In-Chief, a full-time steward of the economy, and a full time President.

If FDR didn't multitask and show a willingness to take on one of the worst domestic crisis' in US history along with the greatest crisis' of war simultaneously, we would be a very different country today.

Would we have been better off if FDR decided not to fight World War II so that he could focus on the economy? Probably not.

McCain's decision is further evidence of his poor temperament and erratic decision making process, which has recently disturbed even the most conservative political observers.

The President of the United States doesn't get an excused absence. When a candidate for President asks for one, he shouldn't be taken seriously.

Barack Obama on the other hand, has called McCain out. He remarked that it is especially important for the American people to hear from the people who will eventually be responsible for this mess.

In about 40 days, the American people will have their say on who is best equipped to lead through this and every crisis we will endure for the next four years. Because of this, it is now especially important for Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama to have an audience with the voting electorate about where they intend to lead this country.

Barack Obama understands that, if elected, he will have to be a full-time President.

McCain doesn't.

Do We Need A Hoover or Do We Need A Roosevelt?

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Whatever Happened To Wartime Prosperity?

Those who are out to discredit Franklin Roosevelt and progressive government always remark that it wasn’t the New Deal that pulled America out of the Great Depression, but rather World War II. The people who espouse this platitude do so because it gives them an opportunity to criticize liberalism AND endorse war.

In the story All My Sons by Arthur Miller, Chris, a World War II veteran remarks about the guilt that he has about post-war prosperity. He somehow feels that his newfound wealth, his new car, his new appliances, and even his new woman came out of the tragedy of World War II. He said that there was blood on all of it. He felt that all there was to enjoy out of the war was somehow loot born out of death and destruction.

But where is the wartime prosperity today? We have blood on our hands but nothing in our pockets. You would think that Bush’s vision of perpetual global war would mean perpetual American prosperity, but this is not the case. Those who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs see their wages are in decline, especially against an alarmingly rapid rate of inflation. Four dollar a gallon gas hurts not only those who commute regularly, but it also hurts anyone who buys food or anything else at the store that is shipped by truck, rail, or air. It costs more to ship produce, dairy and meat; so the cost is of the shipping is passed along to the consumer at the checkout lane; it’s a phenomenon called cost-push Inflation.

At onetime there was a widely held belief that under Republican governance you would have competent stewardship over foreign affairs, even if you had to put up with economic mismanagement, legislative proselytizing, and garish jingoism. There is no longer any reason to subscribe to the illusion that there is a positive trade-off under GOP rule; because today the middle class and the truly destitute endure a gradual genocide of negligence as America loses two foreign wars. Still, there will be people who insist, as Barack Obama says, “that John McCain serve-out George Bush’s third term”.

The reason I’m thinking about this is because this weekend I am visiting my hometown of Muskegon, MI. Muskegon is along the coast of Lake Michigan, and it has great beaches and woodlands. Trough it runs two major highways, a river, and railroad. It even has an airport. It has much of the same things as many of America’s great cities, but somehow this town has not only failed to leap ahead but it has fallen behind.

Like so much of the Midwest it is still an aging Rustbelt town. Its local economy is dominated by industrial parks that feed the tragically faltering auto-industry. The only other work available is seasonal employment in the tourism industry, which is basically low paying jobs at campgrounds, amusement parks, and resort restaurants. And the tourism industry of course takes a major hit as it becomes more expensive to travel. There are no opportunities for an educated person here, despite it’s clear geographic advantage.

Whenever I travel any distance, I try to take my meals at a place that is unique, at a place I can’t get anywhere else. It irks me that anyone would go to McDonald’s when traveling to L.A. given the availability of In-And-Out and endless other opportunities. On this particular visit, I decided to visit Mr. Quick’s because it’s not something I can get in East Lansing. In fact, I started writing this while sitting in line at the drive-through.

Allright, I got my cheeseburgers. Let me explain Mr. Quick’s to you. It is an exclusively Muskegon franchise. It’s a burger joint, and I can’t really say that any that stuff is better than McDonald’s, it’s certainly less processed-tasting. They have four locations, but they used to have more. It has somehow managed to not go under, possibly because it is a popular location for the elderly because of its senior discounts. There are often old folks in there before 11am ordering Biscuits and Gravy and full breakfasts including fried eggs, the quality of which I can’t remark upon because I haven’t tried it. They do have a quality Pork BBQ sandwich that’s on special every Wednesday; I used to pick one up now and then on my way to my third-shift as a security guard at Michigan Adventure.

But what I really go to Mr. Quick’s for is the infamous Bargain Bundle. No one who values their own life would order the Bargain Bundle more than once every year or two. The Bargain Bundle is five cheeseburgers and a quarter-pound of fries that in the mid-nineties cost less than five dollars. I went though the line today and I paid about 7.50 for the same deal. I suppose that isn’t a bad deal in era of $4.00 a gallon gas.

Mr. Quick’s though has a reputation for being skuzzy. While a student at Fruitport Middle School, I was exposed to a popular rumor that Mr. Quick’s used road kill to make its burgers. I was always in disbelief about this rumor chiefly because I figured that the burgers would be bigger. My disbelief was the product of my own youthful innocence and a less cynical time. If I were a pre-teen during the Gee-Dubya Bush Administration, I would have easily believed that there were assholes out there that would not only serve you road kill, but that they would also undersell road kill. I don’t know if I am less skeptical or if I am more cynical today, but as a seventh grader, I would never have believed that anyone would both poison you and rob you at the same time. These days, I don’t write it off.

I ate the burgers hours ago, and I report that I am slowed down and nauseous but I am still alive.

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