Wednesday night thoughts.

Slaughter the bill. Rep. Louise Slaughter said today: Supporters of the weak Senate bill say 'just pass it-any bill is better than no bill,' I strongly disagree... a moment of sanity in D.C. this Christmas week. It now looks as if the final bill will not be ready before the State of the Union...though I question this floated meme. We shall see. Obama is so driven by the need to be seen as a saviour I wonder if the poll numbers on the health care bill are finally spooking him. It may be politically advantageous to pass it after his next big speech - then move abruptly to jobs creation talk. POTUS can use the speech to emphasize jobs...the health care debacle concludes disconnected from an Obama speech. Imagine BHO triumphantly entering the House the day after the most partisan, least popular bill in 100 years has passed. Well over half the nation would fine the imagery revolting.

Move on malfeasance. Tamerlane forwarded an email from Move On arguing against the Senate HC bill. I'm so disturbed by the bill I find any opposition gratifying. Move On's 5 reasons:
#1 Deny Americans the choice of a public option. In contrast, the House bill contains a national public option, the key to real competition, greater choice, and lower costs.#2 Leave insurance unaffordable for some lower income and working people. Both bills require virtually all Americans to buy insurance. But even with the subsidies provided, some families could have to pay up to 20% of their income on health care expenses.#3 Impose dangerous restrictions on women's reproductive health care. Unfortunately, both bills do this and the House provision is worse. Both versions would be a dangerous step and neither should be in the final bill.#4 Tax American workers' health coverage to pay for reform. The Senate would pay for part of reform by taxing the hard-won benefits packages of some working Americans. The House, on the other hand, pays for reform with a small surcharge on only the wealthiest Americans-a far better approach.#5-Allow insurance companies to remain exempt from anti-trust laws.

I mostly agree on these points. However, Move On deserves what it is going to get soon enough- pitched into the rubbish bin of irrelevancy. Their despicable ass kissing of Obama in 2008 is not forgotten or forgiven.

Finally: A horror story. A number of thinkers have wondered aloud when Mexico will become a failed state. One must now ask - has it already collapsed in all but name? Mexico drug raid hero's family slaughtered

Mexico falling.

Living as I do in the second largest Spanish speaking city on earth, Los Angeles, I interact and live with many Mexican-Americans and Mexicans. Rather happily, I'll add. Mexican cultural contributions to my city are incalculable, and probably the largest influence - more so than "North American" influence. Not to mention the backbone. Until the recent crash one could, quite truthfully, state that many of the jobs held by the Hispanic underclass would not be done by others. This is not new in the American experience. Immigrants, legal or not, grab the low rung.

I no longer think others are not be available for the low rung labor jobs. Everyone is spooked. The shift in my neighborhood, Koreatown, in the last 6 months is palpable. Not long ago I never heard English in the neighborhood markets, only Korean and Spanish. Now English is as normal as Spanish. No, all the second language graduates did not suddenly invade. English speakers have been priced out of richer parts of town. (Mostly white, but not all. Black Americans are rolling downhill, too.)

I don't participate in the immigration wars much. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have it wrong. Conservatives demonize Mexicans and Mexican culture in a way I find reprehensible. Fear of the "other" oozes whenever I hear a talking head pop off about "illegals". From my observation, few cultures have a work ethic as embedded as Mexican culture. Certainly American culture is much more beholden to the "something for nothing" ethic now, bromides about the Puritans not withstanding.

Liberals are, as usual, in their own sort of denial. A victim is found (immigrants)- and all rational thought leaves the discussion. Of course, sovereign nations have the duty to protect their borders. Duh.

Further, Mexican migrants in the Southwest are not at all the same as Irish migrants during the potato famine. Yelping "We are a nation of immigrants" is...well...dumb and beside the point. Mexico is different from Ireland for the most obvious reason - Mexico is right there. There is no ocean between us and them. An immigrant is not cut off from the homeland in the same sense. Certainly a migrant is a foreigner here. But vast swatches of Los Angeles are, for all intents and purposes, Mexican. People and commerce move back and forth in a kind of nether land. Mexifornia. Irish, German, Indian, Italian immigrants had no such experience. When they left their homelands, THEY LEFT.

That's a weather report, not a judgement. It is what is. Which is why I find the implosion of Mexico the most under reported story of the new year. The collapse of Mexico is a real possibility and not one American leader (including my favorite, SOS Clinton) seems remotely concerned with it. Northern Mexico is a few steps this side of civil war. A breakdown of Mexico would unleash a "humanitarian disaster" to use the hackneyed phrase. And not on our doorstep - in our living rooms. Why is next to no one discussing this?

Lunch Break

Moon over Obama: Wrong Wright replaced by Sun Moon?

Sock in it: Every time the Obama Admin makes a statement or reveals a plan the market sheds value. Are they trying to make it worse?

Tough calls: Tomato/Tomahto, Serena/Sabrina, Obama/Reality, Serena/Venus, Inflation/Deflation.

Cartman says: I am seriously! Look south, my friends. That civil war you see in the rear view is closer than it appears.

Future Shock: I want to live in Chimerica!

Music:





Quote: Bill S. speaks about the phenomenon of throwing people under the bus:

But 'tis a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
(Brutus at II, i)