Rose-Colored Glasses

Today I did not pay much attention to anything. Somehow, the market went up 200 points on the news that the Federal Reserve would keep pumping money into the financial markets because the several trillion dollars that they have already put in still has not eased the liquidity crisis and the house passed the newly proposed $819,000,000,000 stimulus plan; more money above and beyond the $700,000,000,000 plan passed last September and the additional trillions that have been injected by the Treasury Department under its own programs. So the answer still is to throw even more money at the problem.

Maybe the GOP is right, maybe this is too much debt to take on despite the state of the economy. It is ironic that the GOP presided over the run-up of federal debt during the last 8 years and now they are the ones crying that the debt is too high to spend any more dollars to help boost the economy. I don't know, it is all going in circles and no one is guilty; all the corruption was on the fence but was it all really illegal? Now the enriched have enough money to convince us that they should be allowed to keep the money, no matter how ill-gotten; as long as you have enough of it, money talks.

Speaking of money, I have now spent way too many hours, probably to the detriment of myself, trying to find a good deal on hotels for my trip next week. So far I am fairly satisfied with my flight plans and rental vehicle costs. I have reserved a hotel but I'm not 100% convinced; I am surprised that in this economy hotel rates are still so high and they charge for every additional amenity; in many cases after paying an exorbitant room rate, you still have to pay for internet, breakfast, parking, beach chairs and towels and other resort fees. Excuse me but aren't those fees included in that exorbitant room rate? Then again, the last time I went on vacation was years ago so I must not have kept up with the inflation.

Years ago you would call a travel agent and that would be that. Now, there are so many internet sites to check, it is impossible to feel comfortable with your choices. I checked all the sites, I'm sure I did not miss any: AAA, American Express, Hotels.com, Kayak, Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline (except I did not want to bid and end up with someplace I really didn't want), Trip Advisor for all the reviews, Yahoo Travel, Away.com and numerous others. I am compelled to check daily to see if there is a better deal.

Nevertheless, it does seem that there must be enough people going on vacation to justify these room rates and charges. Some people must still have some cash lying around somewhere. Or maybe we're all doing the same thing, escaping now before the real crash and burn.

"R" Word Comes Out of the Closet

Today, the National Bureau of Economic Research finally played the "R" Card. Not only is the U.S. economy in a Recession but it has been so since last December. What? The Think Tank of Think Tanks finally deigns to call a spade a spade almost a year into the card game. How long was it going to take before the experts recognized the Commerce Department's sleight of hand as it issued false positive GDP data all year long (only to revise the numbers long after the fact and when we stopped looking.) There was barely an eyebrow raising last week when they released their revised data.

All of us little people have known the truth for as long as it has taken for the experts to parse the numbers. With major banks crashing, major industries crashing, 30 U.S. States deeply in the red, retailers going belly-up, the stock market at an all time low and Wall Street firms in disarray, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve having spent trillions trying to shore up the financial markets and so on, we needed to wait til December 1 to find out the truth. We have been drowning in so much negative data that we have plum forgotten the stimulus package we the people received last Spring, the first of many handouts that was supposed to save the economy.

Of course this "new" bad news sent the markets down nearly 700 points for no reason whatsoever. No surprise here, just another round of end of the world scenarios to get our knickers in a twist over. Tomorrow, the slightest smidgen of good news can provoke a rally in the other direction. Meaningless.

Yes, we have been in a Recession for quite some time. If this is news to you, then you must be too rich to notice and in that case, I want to be your friend.

Pre-Election Fatigue

Since I started my job, the television sets in the break-rooms have all been tuned to CNN, all day, every day, without a break. I wonder if someone will turn the channel, maybe, after the election. I am not sure if this is the custom or borne of necessity; satisfying the news-addicted selves that many of us have become. Nevertheless, every time you get water, coffee, prepare your breakfast and/or lunch, there is one of them talking, Obama, McCain, Palin and sometimes Biden; his rallies get the least coverage.

When I come home, we have the news on, with a little more flexibility in that we flip through all the news channels, listening to all the pontification on the election as if it is a sporting event; the play by play with all of the obvious commentary and conclusions batted about with authority. The all-knowing pundits making fools of themselves especially those sincerely defending the erratic actions of the McCain/Palin campaign; so dark, so extreme the comedy. But now, I have to say, I am absolutely sick of it!

Today, as I was in the kitchen and Obama was on, a co-worker commented that he was just as "dirty as the rest of them," and he was not saying anything new; it was the same old yadda yadda that he's been hearing for weeks, no months, probably a year at least. Before I go on I must interject, why do citizens expect impeccable behavior from politicians when the nature of the beast dictates that you have to get your hands dirty to succeed? It is a necessary evil if you want to survive; serving the people sometimes means subverting the people in order to continue to serve the people.

No politician can be pristine yet the expectation of some kind of morale facade is deeply rooted in the election process. And, for the duration of said election cycle, the politicians sling mud at each other while we all pat ourselves on the back resplendent in our candidate's ability to take a moral highground just a little higher than the opponent's. Satisfactory. Job well done. And if not, what he or she should or should not have said with the same jawboning of an academic exercise. Filler. Commercial. Filler. Flip the Channel.

Anyhow, I digress. I deftly steered my co-worker to some non-partisan websites and explained that one can separate the stump from the message and when you dig deep into the message you get a different picture of the candidates that will clarify all the sound-bites. After he conceded that I was right about Obama, he happily went on and I happily scored another one for the cause. But, I couldn't help that he was right about the elections season overload. I am starting to turn away from all the noise; not just me, many of us are now suffering from pre-election fatigue, all wanting the election to be over, to be done with the incessant partisan rant and to be happy that we have elected a better President than what we now.

So tonight, I found TiVo again and tried to reclaim some connection to the fall TV season. What, 6 episodes behind on Mad Men? I've got a lot of catching up to do.

VP Debate Delivers As Expected

The Vice Presidential debate tonight will probably deliver as expected. After all, the stakes have been set so low that as long as Sarah Palin proves she can walk and chew gum at the same time, she will have done well. No matter how well he performs, Joe Biden will be Joe Biden so he will not have any measurable affect.

Palin has been so demonstrably incoherent in her last few interviews that any stringing of words together will be an achievement. The sad fact about Sarah Palin’s position tonight is that she is the representational recipient of every prejudicial and sexist treatment that could possibly be bestowed upon a woman. Since she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate just over a month ago, she has been shielded from the usual interaction with the media that is the normal rite of passage for any candidate, male or female, who runs for higher office.

We the people have the right to ask questions and the media is typically our surrogate in this regard. However, McCain’s campaign decided to put on the white gloves with her and browbeat all of the media outlets into compliance screaming bias and elitism and every ignorant smear in the book. The result is that the most popular governor in the United States, who originally started out smart, charming, brash, and forthright, has devolved into a clueless, unworldly, fundamentally incurious sycophant right before our very eyes. When your own words are used verbatim in a comedy sketch, the only people that are still on your side are the diehard Republicans, albeit those with a lower IQ.

Unfortunately, the McCain campaign overplayed their hand and left enough room for us to draw the same conclusion they had that she was not adequately prepared to assume the role of Vice President at this juncture. They should have let her talk to her instant fans, all day, everyday, and they may have grown to love her more and may not have be doubtful of her abilities on the eve of what will prove to be her defining moment. Alas, McCain mishandled her well pretty much how he has handled all women. If we vote this woman into office, she will undo every benchmark to equality that women have fought for and kept; for this, she cannot win. Maybe she can come back in a future campaign when, having learned her lessons well, she will be equipped to completely fool us the next time around.

P.S. She delivered on style but not substance; Biden delivered on substance but not style. Tie.