the Wendy Gordon bailout plan

I actually don’t have an opinion on everything.  The financial bailout plan, for one thing.  I still don’t understand securitized mortgages or securitized credit, although obviously bankers don’t either.

Even more confusing is the proposed automakers bailout.  I would prefer not to see these major companies and major employers go out of business.  ON the other hand, to do so would be to suffer the natural consequences of bad business decisions, and isn’t that how the free market supposedly works?  Why should small businesses go bankrupt all the time without anyone lending them a helping hand, while huge corporations get government bailouts? The automakers are threatening that the sky will fall if they aren’t given a huge infusion of financial aid, but isn’t that the same fear mongering tactic the financial services industry used last month?  The CEOs of the Big three automakers flew to DC to testify in their individual corporate jets;and just like the AIG executives who went on a hunting trip to England in between their big bailout checks, the high likelihood is that they will use any money they receive for their own benefit and will not make any changes in the way that they produce cars or do anything to improve the well being or job security of their employees.

Yet suppose the government bails out the automakers but imposes stringent requirements as to their operation? Wouldn’t that be equivalent to nationalizing the industry? That used to be referred to as Communism, but I guess its now the New Capitalism.    Nationalized industries as a rule have failed because they remove any link between performance and payoff, totally destroying any incentive to do a good job.

So let me proposed the WEndy Gordon bailout plan.  It’s just bare outlines, but I think those outlines are significant:’

1)  this would be a government LOAN program.  Just like a college loan, the money would need to be repaid over time.

2) any business–all sizes, all types–could apply

3) recipients would have to employ only US workers

4) all offices/manufacturing sites/whatever would need to be on US soil and all corporate money must remain in US banks

5) until the loan was completely repaid there would be limits on pay and benefits for all employees

6) every business must follow appropriate environmental guidelines

Any takers?

wendy’s sales report

Like most situations, the current financial crisis is far more nuanced than headlines make it out to be.  If you were to listen to the talking heads bouncing about on the financial news, you’d think the sky is falling.  And if  you’re a bank that made foolish investments, or a bloated, overstretched corporation, it probably is. But underneath the radar screen (or the TV screen) life goes on.  People eat; shop for clothes; renovate their homes, go out to the movies.  They get married.  They celebrate birthday parties.  There is plenty of room, even in this difficult environment, for a tightly structured, well run business that actually provides something people need or want.

Secondly, there are various different levels and shades of economic transactions.  If that seems a clumsy phrase I am purposefully trying to avoid the word “consumer” because I hate it.  Is that what we as humans want to be thought of, as voracious globs consuming everything in our path?  To be a consumer is a very different thing than to be a part of a balanced economic system.

A lot of people in this country lack basic necessities–healthy food, adequate shelter, a warm coat for the winter.  A lot more people lack less urgent, but more global needs:  access to quality health care; access to education; the opportunity for work commensurate with one’s education and skills; a lifestyle which allows for personal relationships, community involvement, exercise and recreation more creative than plopping exhaustedly down in front of the TV.  These are the needs that society should be addressing.

But all too often what I hear is how consumers–yes, the yucky word applies here-aren’t buying enough cars or TV or junk foods, and that Christmas sales will be off.  Surely, we can base our economy on a better premise than infusing people with the artificially generated desire to buy more and more possessions each year!  Our environment can’t survive a guiding principle as rapacious and vacuous as this, and now it’s evident that our economy can’t either.  I may be delusional, but I get the impression that as a culture we are in the slow process of taking a deep breath and finding a more satisfying and less costly way to live.

So let the companies that deserve to fail, fail, and those that need to downsize or change direction, let them do that too. The process will be painful, like many necessary things.  WE don’t need car companies churning out gas guzzling SUVS that are poorly built to boot, we don’t need a Starbucks on every corner, we don’t need an American Eagle OUtfitters in every mall, we don’t need nearly as many malls, we don’t need to upgrade our home electronics every year.  We could live without all these things perfectly comfortably and instead “spread the wealth around” (sorry, Joe the Plumber) so no one in this country goes hungry or without health care.  WE could have a few less sales executives and a few more teachers, doctors, and artists.

recipe of the day–broccoli bottoms soup

It’s gray November in Portland, and my soup cravings are in full flower.  One of the things I like best about making soup is the feeling of creating something from virtually nothing.  This recipe makes for a satisfying, tasty soup using a part of the broccoli that most people throw away.

BROCCOLI BOTTOMS SOUP

one half pound pasta

one and a half teaspoons salt

3 broccoli stalks, trimmed and sliced crosswise about one eighth inch thick (or however many stalks makes up 3 cups)

2 cups large white beans (lima, cannelllini, fava, etc.), cooked

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 T olive oil

1 healthy sized clump fresh parsley, minced

chicken broth as needed

black pepper and additional salt to taste

lemon slices and grated parmesan for garnish

Cook pasta until al dente, approximately 8 minutes.  Pour off approximately two-thirds of the water, return pan to heat and add the salt.  Add broccoli and beans.  REduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for approximately 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, lightly saute garlic in olive oil.  Remove approximately one cup of soup and puree with immersion blender.  Adjust salt and pepper to taste.  If more liquid is needed, add chicken broth until desired texture is reached.  Garnish with lemon, parmesan, garlic oil, and parsley.

garden of last days

I heard Andre Dubus III speak at Wordstock yesterday and he was certainly a fascinating man, as intense and emotionally perceptive as his books indicate.  Lots of things he said resonated with me as a writer, but one thing in particular resonated politically as well.  Dubus was talking about his most recent book, Garden of Last Days, in which one of the characters is a 9/11 hijacker named Bassam.  To bring the character of Bassam to life, Dubus spent five months “just reading” about fundamentalist Islam and terrorism, as well as reading the Koran all the wya through twice.  He also interviewed many people from the Arab world.  His conclusion about terrorism?  There aren’t many terrorist out there, so we shouldn’t be nearly as scared of “Islamic terrorists” as we are.  ON the other hand, those few terrorists that really are out there, are very scary people indeed.

When 9/11 happened, I jumped to what I guess is a standard liberal assumption that terrorism arises from poverty and desperation.  Address these root causes and terrorism disappears.  Trouble is, this pleasant, humane sounding theory doesn’t hold water.  Almost all the 9/11 hijackers, and many other violent Islamic terrorists throughout the world, were well educated sons of middle to upper class families.  They are not even necessarily from religious families.  In many cases, their families were as horrified by their actions as we were.  Poverty and desperation do breed anger and violence.  They may increase sympathy for terrorist acts but they won’t make the average individual strap a bomb on their chest and blow themselves up.  Nor will religion, per se.  Most fundamentalists of any religious stripe are content to go privately about their business, raising their families, practicing their rituals, praying and debating arcane theological issues.  NOr will ideology.  Ideology leads to political, and sometimes violent action, even wars–but again, not suicide bombings.

The root of terrorism is something mysterious and deeper–call it psychopathy, call it man’s inherent capacity for evil.

The Bush administration’s actions in response to 9/11 have been so overreaching, foolish, and morally repulsive that it’s easy to forget that something profoundly evil happened that day, and that its perpetrators have gone unpunished.  Maybe its too late to capture Osama Bin Laden and his associates.  Maybe events have spiraled too far out of control.  Maybe the United State’s hands are too dirty.  I don’t know, but it still doesn’t seem right.  It doesn’t seem like justice has been done.

What is clear is that combating these terrorist acts isn’t a matter of militarily attacking other countries and governments.  NOr is it a matter of humanitarian aid, as valuable as that is. It is a matter for diplomacy, as the countries of the world need to work together to control the terrorists in their midst.  And to some degree individual communities can reach out, through their schools, families, social agencies, whatever to try  and prevent children from growing into terrorists, because it seems like almost anybody has some latent humanity that can be reached and tapped.  I can’t help but believe that cohesive, caring communities leave less room for these type of aberrant and destructive individuals to fester. Once a terrorist act is committed,  it becomes a matter of policing.  Terrorists are criminals, and they should be prosecuted as such, and as individuals, not as representatives of a religion or ideology. There aren’t a whole lot of them around, but we don’t want those that are on the loose and unpunished.

the sweet bleating of the right wing goats

One of the minor pleasures of the last couple days is to hear right wing blabbermouths like Rush Limbaugh bleating like goats (I always confuse my similes–should it be squealing like a stuck pig?  Or a pig with lipstick?  Or a moose on the run from Sarah Palin?)  Sorry, Rush.  The day of you and your cohorts being taken seriously on the national stage is over.  You are so out of here.

What the Obama Administration (it feels so good to say that!) can’t afford to ignore is the 46% of the population that voted for John McCain.  They still comprise a large part of our country, and their voices deserve to be heard.  There are a lot of facets of traditional conservatism (small, local government, self-reliance, the very idea of “conserving”, as in conserving resources) worth considering as we pull ourselves out of the Bushie muck.

But as I mentioned in my pre-election post, a lot of that reaching out is going to have to come from the McCain voters.  “Liberal”, before Rush and his crew turned it into a swear word, means tolerant.  The world is changing around middle American mainstream man, and it will serve his interests best to develop more tolerance, to expand his comfort zone.  Look at who voted for Obama.  People in urban areas, overwhelmingly.  Urban populations are not only more diverse, ethnically and culturally, they are also more tolerant, as urban residents daily come into close contact with others who are not like them.  Educated voters, overwhelmingly.  ATtending college not only exposes you to different intellectual ideas, it also exposes you to many types of people you might not meet if you stayed in your hometown.  Young voters, overwhelmingly. Its a generalization, but as a rule young people are less rigid in their thought pattern

recipe of the day: Obama artichoke dip

I couldn’t figure out what kind of food to serve at our election gathering yesterday:  I was a proponent of deep dish Hawaiian pizza (merging Obama’s Chicago and Hawaiian roots) but still can’t convince my husband that pineapple on pizza is a good idea.  I had a craving for hot, creamy, fattening artichoke dip so I settle on this (and it did bring good luck, didn’t it?)

OBAMA ARTICHOKE DIP

1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and finely chopped

8 oz cream cheese or goat cheese

one-third cup mayonnaise

one-fourth cup half and half

1 tsp salt

dash pepper

dash hot pepper sauce

three-fourths cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup toasted bread crumbs

Mash everything except one-fourth cup of the parmesan cheese and the bread crumbs in a food processor or else vigorously by hand.  Put in a small baking dish (Note:  this recipe is small and can be readily doubled) and top with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs.  Bake in a 350 oven until bubbly (around 20 minutes).  Serve with bread and/or crudites.

national redemption

Yay! Yay! Yay!  Yahoo!  I haven’t felt this happy about our country since Earth Day 1970, when I held hands with my friends, encircling the Washington monument, and truly believed that a new day was dawning and we could change the world.

It’s taken a long, long time but we really did change the world last night.  What truly strikes me as special about Obama is not that he’s “black” but that he transcends those categories.  He’s biracial.  He’s binational.  He was raised in Kansas, Hawaii, and Indonesia.  He is a citizen of the planet and recognizes that the rest of us are too.  Our victory today wasn’t the sixties-style victory I anticipated in 1970–it leaves those battles behind.  It renders them irrelevant.

Obama ran a fantastically organized, grass-roots campaign.  He never lost his cool or his integrity.  Nevertheless, he still might have lost if it hadn’t been for two things outside his control:  McCain’s appalling vice-presidential choice of Sarah Palin, which cast major doubt on his judgment and shot his “experience” argument to hell; and the economic crisis, which resonated with the American people in a way that the Iraq war and global warming never did.  Wall Street’s collapse brought home in a tangible way the utter failure of the Bush administration –its greed, corruption, pseudo conservative vision, and frankly, utter stupidity.

Sure, I realize Obama inherits a mess.  But, unlike his predecessor, he’s too intelligent and too respectful of nuance to reduce the complexities of that mess to sound bites and comic book black and white.  Cleaning up this mess feels satisfying, like rolling up your sleeves and finally clearing out that foul slop that’s been moldering in the basement.

Yay! Yay! Yay! Two days after my oldest daughter was born, Ronald Reagan was elected, setting in motion the trends that would lead to the mess we are in today.  My youngest son has never known any President except the idiot George W. Bush.  Now we have a leader my children can look to with pride, who can enlighten and inspire.  What a pleasure it is to throw off all that despair and the cynicism that arises from it.

In my superstitious way, I paid attention to the song playing on my radio alarm clock when I woke up yesterday morning.  It was Harvest Moon, by Neil Young, an OK enough omen, given Young’s outspoken political views.  Then came “Come Together”, by Jesse Colin Young, a song I’ve always loved, which is sappy and idealistic but profoundly true.

Yesterday we held the key to love and fear all in our collective American hand.  This time our hand did not falter.

Thank you.

choose your meal on spaceship earth

Did you know that one day before the election fourteen percent of voters are still undecided?

Consider this analogy (from David Sedaris–it’s not original):

Imagine you are on an airplane flight and the flight attendant comes by with your meal.  She offers you two choices:  the first is chicken, and second is a plate of shit with broken glass.

To be an undecided voter is akin to having that choice and still asking how the chicken is prepared.

There’s been a lot of talk this election about being fair and imbalanced and trying to understand the other fellow’s point of view.  (mostly from the standpoint of latte drinking coastal liberals trying to understand middle American mainstream man–I haven’t seen too much tolerance or even curiosity extending in the other direction).  And yes, I realize that Mc Cain /Palin voters are often kind decent folks who work hard, love their families, and are good friends and neighbors.  Let’s take it a little further and concede that Iraqis and Afghanis are also decent folk and that even the terrorists who crashed the airplanes into the twin towers had hopes, dreams, and mothers that loved them.  Hey, even Hitler was kind to his dog.

I do not question anyone’s shared humanity.  I don’t question most people’s good intentions. But that is a different matter than questioning their choices, and drawing a distinction between them.  Good people can do bad things.  Good people can make bad choices, and the difference in Presidential candidates this election is as clear as the choice between chicken and a plate of shit and broken glass.

So all I can think, on the eve of the election, at the close of the long and destructive era of George W. Bush, is “pray for Obama”.  I hesistate to phrase my feelings that way because that implies that God is on Obama’s side and no doubt a ton of evangelical Christians are certain that Mc Cain and Palin on on their sides.

I don’t think God is on anyone’s side.  i think he/she is probably too busy with all the goings on in the universe to be paying much attention to our little election.  But I do think we’ve been granted this planet at this point in time and the free will to take care of it (or not).  So I pray that people will make the right choice.  That they will vote for unity instead of division, for diplomacy instead of war, for living sustainably as citizens of the earth instead of dominating and destroying.  I pray that people will vote from a place of hope and strength, and not from fear.  Like it or not, we are all stuck together on spaceship Earth.  United we stand. Divided we crash.

Pray for Obama.

That’s a vote for Obama.