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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Inauguration Day Madman
February 3, 2009
DC Hypocrisy
Why is it that those with the most either have a nearly irrepressible need to
keep it all; or conveniently forget that they have responsibilities resulting
from their great wealth?
We have seen the financial industry thumbing its collective nose at us as they
cut up some $700 billion of our US taxpayer money and offer themselves big
bonuses for several jobs poorly done. Likewise, we have seen the likes of former
US Representative and Top Gun pilot Randy "Duke" Cunningham use his position to
illegally obtain even greater wealth than his position could have ever given him
(and wind up in jail for it).
The nominating process for President Obama's Cabinet have produced "mea culpas"
from too may of his nominees. Confirmed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had
to explain away his neglect in failing to pay taxes from his world Bank days (he
was confirmed and sworn in); Governor Bill Richardson gave up his bid to become
Commerce Secretary due to his state's Pay-to-Play issues; and now we hear that
former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (DEMOCRAT-SD) failed to pay taxes
totaling somewhere in the area of $120,000. Today, he has taken his name out of
the running.
The Right had been all over these giant tax foibles by Geithner and Daschle, and
so has the main stream media. But here's the rub: they're right to be on it.
Even though the houses that these barbs come from (the GOP and the media) aren't
the clean houses they claim to be, it doesn't make their argument any the less
valid.
And that holds especially true for Daschle.
Some of you might remember that Daschle's own words helped him to lose his
Senate seat to Republican John Thune in 2005. From an audio tape that came out
of nowhere, Daschle's words came out and made a close race a losing proposition:
"I'm a DC resident,"
-Daschle, as seen in a Thune for Senate ad, and elsewhere
Today, it's the $120,000 that did Daschle in.
It's not so much that Ex-Health and Human Services Chief Nominee Daschle owes
some back taxes, it's the amount he owes and how that amount came to be.
$120,000 is a lot of money - two-and-a-half times the median family income
(about $45,000). In order to owe $120,000, the earnings, or services received,
were probably in the area of one million dollars.
“My failure to recognize that a use of a car was income and not a gift from a
good friend was a mistake and I deeply apologize,”
-Daschle
That's all well and good, senator Daschle, but Americans hate hypocrisy, and the
air of entitlement that exudes from Washington, DC is just impalpable. And it's
especially so after years of Bush-rule.
It's not that Daschle should know better: it's that if he hadn't been nominated
for the HHS post, no one would have even found out about it. How many more
politicians do we have to nominate to get fairness out of those who supposedly
lead us?
It makes my hair hurt.
Back during the Bush years, we were subjected to the financial escapades of
those like Cunningham (who entered his "enterprise" prior to Bush's election as
a member of the House), former Rep. Tom DeLay and a whole corral of other
criminals and otherwise absent-minded millionaires who made their fortunes in
government.
Apologies are good, but when is enough truly enough? Surely Daschle was
qualified for the spot at HHS. Some might say that he has even earned it.
However, I want to know if the only way we can now get the truth from our
elected and appointed officials is to offer them up even better and more
lucrative positions?
Perhaps we should be calling on all members of Congress to explain away their
various fortunes? Only when there is a scandal or when a new and better job
comes up do we even have a chance to find out about the dealings of our
Representatives.
What is too much, anyway? Senator David Vitter (LA) has been caught spending
tens of thousands of dollars on the DC Madam, yet he's allowed to stay in office
and be a judge of so many who haven't squandered dollars for personal
gratification. The excuse used by so many is that it's his money and he could do
what he wishes with it.
But it isn't "his money" because it was money earned with our trust. And that
should be worth more than the sum amount of a US Senator's salary and campaign
coffers (which become his property upon retirement).
I'd like to see each and every member of Congress be brought to task and have
their books audited like they were running for President. Then we should be able
to kick the ones who present themselves as honorable, but really are just bums,
out.
Tom Daschle could be, and probably is sorry about his failure to pay taxes on
the services-as-income he received, but that doesn't negate the deed itself. It
should be a part of the conversation for any public trust position.
Although it's not likely, I'd like to Howard Dean named as Daschle's
replacement. As a doctor, former Governor (Vermont) and the original author of
the Democrats' fifty state strategy after John Kerry's defeat in 2004, he should
have been President Obama's choice for HHS in the first place.
-Noah Greenberg
THE LAVENDER TUBE: SHAME, SHAME,
SHAME
by Victoria A. Brownworth
copyright c 2009 San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, Inc.
So we admit it–we’re kind of riding the wave of the new Administration. We like
hearing President Obama on the evening news every night, either overturning
something awful the Bush Administration put in place or reinstating something
good the Clinton Administration put in place or just doing something that should
have been done a long time ago, like the Lily Ledbetter Act.
But sometimes TV has trouble catching up beyond the sound bites. There appears
to be a disconnect between how much the TV media loves Barack Obama and how much
they’re still in the habit, after eight years, of letting Republicans speak for
the nation on every newscast.
No wonder Obama had to remind Republicans last week, “I won.”
We thought once Obama was sworn in that the Republicans might actually step
back, realize they’d made a mess of things and regroup somewhere in private
where we didn’t have to watch. But since they know no shame, the Republicans
continue to monopolize TV time as if they still run the country.
It’s not our liberal imagination. Thanks to the folks over at Media Matters, who
watch even more TV than we do so you don’t have to, during the debate over the
stimulus package–that would be the package that not a single House Republican
voted for (imagine what the Democrats could have done with such monolithic
voting!)–Republicans were featured on the news more than two to one discussing
the issue.
Did TV news networks forget that the economy went down the toilet as a result of
the Republicans and the Bush Administration? So why would they be the go-to
folks to discuss what to do with the economy? As Jon Stewart said so
appropriately to John Thain–you have no good people to run things.
According to Media Matters careful review, five cable news networks–CNN, MSNBC,
Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC–hosted more Republicans to discuss Obama’s
stimulus plan than Democrats by a ratio of 2 to 1. “The networks have hosted
Republican lawmakers 51 times and Democratic lawmakers only 24 times.”
Memo to TV news outlets: You never gave the edge to the Democrats when they were
the losing minority. Time to turn the page and let the Republicans crawl back
under the rocks from whence they came. Introduce Americans to the Democrats they
voted for overwhelmingly. When all the networks look like Fox, it looks like we
aren’t reporting real news, just ideological cant.
Speaking of disgraced conservatives, Bush-supporting evangelical pastor Ted
Haggard was featured on “Oprah,” “Nightline,” “GMA” and HBO last week talking
about his fall from grace after he was caught having a three-year sexual
relationship with a male prostitute in Nov. 2006.
We admit, we enjoy watching folks get hoisted on their own petards. Haggard had
preached the sin of homosexuality on a daily basis for decades, and then turned
out to be a big closet case. So it was interesting to watch Haggard being
shunned by his own church and community–the one he built himself–the way he had
shunned queers.
Compassion, apparently, is not high on the list of values held by members of
Haggard’s church. The church forced him and his family (guilt by association) to
leave not only the church, but their home and *the state.* Thus the HBO
documentary, “The Trials of Ted Haggard” shows the former preacher literally
going door to door looking for work like some itinerant handyman instead of the
wealthy mega-church leader he had been for over two decades.
One could almost feel sorry for Haggard as he became increasingly desperate and
frightened by his and his family’s plight as they moved from borrowed house to
borrowed house in other states, eventually ending up living in a motel, their
funds utterly depleted.
Yes, those petards can be uncomfortable in the extreme.
Oprah made it no easier. Dressed in a Sunday-go-to-meetin’ suit with her hair
pulled back and her make-up and earrings subdued, her demeanor signaled just how
judgmental she would be. America’s high priestess was succinct: hypocrisy is the
most grievous sin.
If you missed either the HBO documentary or Oprah’s Jan. 29 show, both are still
viewable. HBO is repeating the special (check listings) and all of Oprah’s shows
are available online at Oprah.com.
We recommend the Oprah hour because it shows a side of Haggard the documentary
does not. While “Trials” shows what Haggard went through during his year in
exile (he has since been allowed, if not welcomed, back into his own home and
the community), the Oprah hour shows a man in serious ongoing conflict over his
sexuality.
With Oprah, Haggard admits to being a liar and having life-long sexual feelings
for other men. Those feelings are clearly a daily issue for him and Oprah
suggested he might want to just acknowledge being gay. She did get him to admit
he’s not completely heterosexual. (“It’s complicated,” he explained.)
What was clear from watching him squirm and equivocate under Oprah’s badgering,
is that Haggard is a gay man who can’t bear the thought of giving up
heterosexual privilege and security. Does he love his wife and children?
Undoubtedly. But it’s equally obvious he would like to spend the rest of his
life engaging in sex with men. His de-gaying therapy clearly didn’t work. He
still has rampant homosexual feelings which he views as something he must
continually fight against.
His wife Gayle doesn’t help. A smart, good-looking woman, she clearly runs the
household and has a zealot’s belief that homosexuality can be “cured.” She
acknowledged to Oprah that her husband had informed her when they got married
that he had had life-long feelings for other men (and she still married him!),
but that he was controlling those feelings.
Oprah disagreed with her repeatedly as Gayle mouthed the evangelical Christian
line on homosexuality, saying that all her husband needed to do was “choose” to
be heterosexual. Oprah said it was her understanding that it was not a choice.
It was a painful hour. Haggard’s two oldest children were also in attendance.
Their perspective was that Haggard’s disgrace had made him more human, less on a
pedestal and thus a better father for them. Apparently Haggard’s perfectionism
was difficult to live up to for his children.
The saddest aspect of the Haggard story is that it is far from singular. All
over America men and women are in denial about their sexuality because the
reality is too frightening for them to acknowledge. Ministers of the sort
Haggard was just exacerbate this painful legacy with their preaching that only
punishment awaits gay men and lesbians. Haggard told Oprah that being homosexual
is a sin and that only heterosexual married life would take him to God.
But that statement was not delivered with rapture, but with barely disguised
pain.
The Haggard story is a cautionary tale–and recent allegations, substantiated by
Haggard to Oprah–that Haggard was inappropriately sexual with a former teenaged
congregant who came to him for counseling just proves how humans cannot fight
their natural sexuality. The harder we try, the more damage we do–to ourselves
and others.
A similar story to Haggard’s was played out in fictional time on “As the World
Turns” as Brian married Lucinda while harboring feelings of desire for Luke.
“ATWT” has pushed that storyline to the back-burner when Brian’s feelings were
revealed and Lucinda divorced him, but we would urge CBS to finish the storyline
with what happens to Brian next. This is so common a story in real life, that
presenting its complexities in the context of a daily soap opera would help
viewers understand how to deal with similar situations in their own families.
One problem that befalls people who refuse to acknowledge their sexual identity
is trust–or lack thereof. Denial leads to situations like that on “ATWT” or
Haggard’s real life. Or, as has been played out on “All My Children,” inability
of a partner to believe their lover has changed sexual teams.
Bianca and Reese are set to marry on Valentine’s Day. But the specter of Reese’s
heterosexual past continues to wreak havoc on their relationship and Bianca’s
trust in her soon-to-be wife.
Bianca and Reese have one of the only real lesbian relationships on the tube.
Yes, “The L Word” has returned for its sixth and final season–replete with all
the *sturm und drang* of real lesbian life. But “The L Word” is a lesbian show.
And while we’re sure there are many heterosexuals who watch it, the audience for
a show that is wholly queer is, obviously, predominantly queer.
On network TV where realistic queer characters are infrequent, Bianca and Reese
represent a real departure from the status quo. Not only are the two a couple,
but they have a child together. They are planning daytime’s first lesbian
wedding and the first legal lesbian wedding in TV history outside of “The L
Word.”
Soap opera formula dictates that no couple live happily ever after, regardless
of sexual orientation. With Bianca and Reese, the complicating factor is Reese’s
former relationships with men (except for a brutal rape, Bianca has been sexual
only with women) and Bianca’s brother-in-law, Zach’s attraction to her fiancé.
One of the questions that remains for both real-life and TV life is whether one
can live a wholly queer life and be/feel accepted, rather than anomalous. Ted
and Gayle Haggard are “making it work,” but it’s difficult to imagine how either
can be happy given the circumstances of Ted Haggard’s true sexual orientation.
On “ATWT” Brian acknowledged that as a middle-aged man with two failed marriages
to women, he was terrified of admitting he was gay and pursuing life as an
openly gay man. He felt safe in his heterosexual marriages, even though his
desires for men were unfulfilled.
But on “AMC,” Bianca and Reese appear to be a happy, contented couple. Yet
questions remain. Can Bianca believe that Reese is really in love with her and
has given up her heterosexual past? Will Zach interfere in their relationship
because of his developing feelings for Reese? Does Zach feel a level of
entitlement to approach Reese because lesbian relationships don’t have the
social value that heterosexual relationships have?
As queer lives play out on the small screen, the questions posed by real life
queer drama like Haggard’s and fictional ones like those on “ATWT” and “AMC”
will require more intense development. It used to be enough to just stick a gay
or lesbian character into the straight lineup sans storyline. But in 2009,
that’s no longer enough. What remains to be seen is whether TV can draw queer
lives with the same intricate strokes as it has drawn heterosexual lives and do
it outside of the confines of a wholly queer show like “The L Word.”
“AMC” and “ATWT” have taken bold steps in that direction. The question is, who
will follow suit?
Stay tuned.
In response to, "I'm from the GOP and I'm here to help(?)," Anonymous writes:
The GOP is just a bit more devious. Notice that Obama wants to give everyone a
tax rebate but spread through the year. Too many of us used the big rebate from
the Bushies to pay down debt. How do we make sure that the money is spent, is
actually put in play? Instead of a check for $500, give me $20 in each of my 24
or 26 checks. I won’t even notice the $20 but if several million people don’t
notice it and spend it, then the goal is accomplished. Seems like all of those
anti-business Democrats have figured out what the titans of finance in the
Republican party have yet to consider.
But, now watch what McConnell and his minions are doing. Obama wants to give
each taxpayer money to spend by a rebate. McConnell wants to cut the rate.
Bottom line – we pay less in taxes and money is circulated in the economy. Not
so fast, Groucho. Here’s the challenge: when the economy recovers, Obama’s plan
is part of a successful history. But, if McConnell’s plan is adopted, the lower
tax rate is still with us. Permanently. That means less revenue to the federal
treasury, greater incentive for the Republicans and the equally devious Blue
Dogs to cut expenditures. And, where are the expenditures cut? In the programs
that benefit the poor and the middle class, as always. You can bet your last
dollar that the Pentagon and the contractors who robbed us blind in Iraq and
Afghanistan will be in line to get their share. The current proposal from the
novo-Bushies is to cut the rate in the lowest two brackets. Who can object to
that? Certainly I can’t, but where does the replacement money come from? The
McConnell answer – it doesn’t, so cut spending and, by the way, here’s the list
of things to cut. Ya gotta watch these guys. They are crooks from the beginning.
It’s like the old street pea game – ya gotta watch them very carefully.
And David W. sends this:
The "FDR Failed" Myth
Contrary to the anti-government myths and ideology-driven arguments of
conservatives like Amity Shlaes, the facts show FDR's New Deal quickly brought
rapid growth to the nation's economy during the Great Depression.
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg