Happy Joy

What a great day for reason we have witnessed.  Joyful for this household.  And Senator Martin Heinrich, a believer in science based decision making, will take up his post soon.

My Day

Today will consist of therapy, ice packs, pain, and election angst.  This will be edgy in every respect.  My money is still on Obama with at least an Electoral College win.  

Metaphor

This knee therapy reminds me of the presidential campaign.  Every day you do it as instructed it seems that the stress of the stretching actually makes you less flexible.  It gets harder, just like Obama's campaign.  Friday I could flex the knee 90 degrees.  Yesterday it had gone down to 81 degrees.  But, I am told this is normal and that one day I will get up and it will be in good shape.  Just like Obama on Wednesday morning.  The difference between us is that he did self surgery on himself in the form of that first debate.

 I am still putting all my bets on Obama.  Those electoral votes look heavily skewed for him in the tossup states.  I shudder to think of the new challenges awaiting either candidate after election time.  Obama will still govern with a beating heart.  Romney will govern with a tax rate.

I hope this post makes sense.  I just took a pain pill.  WooHoo!

Pain Killers

I have never had to take high powered pain killers before.  Frankly, I don't know why people get addicted to them.  I don't get any high from them.  They do work.  I guess I will see what all of the dangers are once I go off them in a week or two, or go to something less powerful.  I do appreciate their effect in making physical therapy much more bearable.

One of the biggest pain killers I received in the last few days was a comment from Frank Conway, alias Bubba Munster, that Romney is now planning to prove his chops with the auto industry by funding the comeback of the Ford Edsel.  Laughter is the best medicine.

Dennis Jett Ambassador

Here is the latest from my friend  Ambassador Dennis Jett and the McClatchy News Papers.

Rallying the R's as electoral strategy

Long before Mitt Romney, and not just for the sake of alliteration, the Republican Party could have been described as the party of the "r's." That's because its base, the core constituencies it has to energize to win elections, all begin with "r." For a long time there were five, but they recently added a sixth.

First, there are the rich. They vote Republican because the GOP favors reducing their taxes as the answer to every problem. They feel that giving anything back to the government is just plain wrong. Even hedge fund managers who make a billion dollars a year think their tax rate is too high even though theirs, like Mitt Romney’s, is lower than that of many middle class families.

Romney says he is going to cut everyone’s taxes by 20 percent and make up all the revenue lost by eliminating the loopholes of the wealthy. Who knew he is secretly the enemy of the rich? Maybe they aren’t paying attention. Or maybe it’s not going to work out that way under President Mitt.

Then there are the rural. They see little need for government and want to be free of its regulations. So they favor the party that sees little need for government except in a few selected areas like handing out agricultural subsidies.

One other area where Republicans see a strong role for government is in making health care decisions for women and determining who can marry. That generally gets them the support of the third “r”, the religious. They buy the idea that government should dictate their brand of morality with a fervor that would embarrass the Taliban.

Then there are the rabid. They see the threat of world government at every turn and their right to buy weapons with no limits as the only defense against it. Fox News commentator Dick Morris has even written a book targeting this market called “Here Come the Black Helicopters.” He claims the title is only used as a metaphor, but those who buy it no doubt have the whine of aircraft that don’t show up on radar in their ears.

Rounding out the traditional five “r’s” are the racists. In the two elections in the 1950s in which Dwight Eisenhower, a moderate Republican, beat Adlai Stevenson, a liberal Democrat, Stevenson carried no states outside the Deep South. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, he turned to his aide Bill Moyers and said he had just lost the South for the Democrats for a generation. He was optimistic. Ever

since Richard Nixon launched his southern strategy, the GOP has had an iron grip on the South.

The only other thing that has changed since the Democratic Party was the party of choice for racists is the rhetoric. George Wallace once declared, after losing an election to an even bigger racist, that he would never be out-niggered again. Today Republicans rely on dog whistles to communicate with the same audience Wallace was speaking to. The sound isn’t there, but the message is the same.And Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump and the rest can’t stop blowing those whistles. Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim, an angry black man, and the food stamp president who wants to put more people on welfare. He won’t show his transcript because he got by thanks to affirmative action. Colin Powell endorsed him only because they share the same skin color. And so it goes.

And finally the most recently added “r” is for rapists. The pitch to that demographic is demonstrated by Republican candidates who talk about legitimate rape, pregnancies resulting from rape being part of god’s plan, the health of the mother being just an all-purpose excuse for an abortion and that fetuses, like corporations, are people too. The candidates sometimes claim they misspoke, but that is what politicians say when they inadvertently reveal what they really think. It just another coded appeal for votes and not simply a callous and complete disregard for the health and rights of women.

Not every Republican falls into any of the six “r’s”. The electoral strategy of the GOP, however, seems based on the hope that those that do show up on election day and give Romney the right to rule the rest of us.

Progress

I think I am feeling better being at home.  Slept pretty good.  Now awaiting my first home therapy.  So far it still is easier than I feared.  Thanks to Lovelace Westside and Dr. Mcennerney.  I would give the hospital a rating of 10 except for one nurse.  So, they get a nine.

I just will concentrate on all of this for a while.  Politics seems a little secondary right now.  Although my blood pressure went up after watching a commercial from the far right that suggests the Chinese will be running our country in a few years.  All because of the stimulus program from the Congress and Obama.

I would like to see some journalists track down the people who are responsible for these commercials.  I want to see their pictures because I wonder if they look as crazy as they are.  They probably all look like Trump.

Home Soon

I will be out of the hospital in a few hours and will be trying to navigate around the house.  I got up today feeling stronger.  Yesterday was a hard day but I feel great now.

OUCH

It will be a hard day, but still not as bad as I had feared.  I see from the polls today things are looking up for Obama.  Romney hated FEMA, then loved FEMA yesterday.  His flip flops have caught him.

Checking In

It is around 7:30 PM a day after surgery.  Lots of painkillers, a little pain and some therapy are behind me.  I have to say that this Lovelace crowd at the West Side Hospital are really professional and friendly.  Only one more tube to be taken out tomorrow.  That is the nerve block so the hurt might increase a little.  However, so far this has been less traumatic than I expected.

Speaking of trauma.  Romney's assertion during the republican primary, remember that carnival, that he would do away with FEMA and give their duties to the states is causing some pain for him today.  I just love it when some one is hoisted by their own utterances.  

Awake

I am still alive and feeling pretty good. The drugs are fantastic. Very little pain so far. Pretty soon the therapist will arrive and I will have to get up and walk should be interesting.

Sent from my iPhone

SCIENCE

As I trundle off to a total knee replacement surgical procedure this morning I am thanking science and technology for providing this kind of opportunity to regain mobility.  I also think of the incredible ability to predict the course of Hurricane Sandy and the tidal surges that will accompany this perfect storm.  This science of meteorology and oceanography etc. will save many lives in the next few days.

However, I do not much appreciate the beating science and education are taking right now from the far right republican party.  Their science book is the bible.  That is the book written by fishermen and shepherds 2000 years ago. The GOP evens thinks if a woman gets raped that her body will know how to 'shut that whole thing down.'  This comes from a republican senate candidate who was on his way to victory before he managed to make just about every female on the earth wonder what planet he came from.  It is probably from the same place where the term 'clean coal' was thought up and the climate change deniers were funded and organized.

It is might also the place where the current publisher and editor of the Albuquerque Journal are getting their logic.  On a day when their front page feature on the possible demise our forests from drought and heat is presented, they go ahead and endorse for Senate a puppet of the fossil fuel industry, Heather Wilson, over a sane and rational Martin Heinrich who looks to the future rather than the past.  This all on a day when a friend sent an article about the richest people in every state of the union.  The richest guy listed in New Mexico is Peyton Yates of Yates Petroleum with a fortune near $800,000,000.

I will be out of rational thought for a few days while I cruise in a sea of pain and painkillers in the hospital.  I don't know when the fog might lift.  I will check back in when I can string together a sentence.

The Good and the Bad

Watching the news on KRQE last night was a chore and a bore except for Larry Barker, investigative reporter, going after a corporation instead of some low level public employee.  But before I watched that report I had to endure multiple police department provided videos of non news events including a stolen truck filmed from a chopper.  It is like the news directors have discovered a way of cutting back on staff by having the law enforcement agencies turn over highly unwatchable and low quality videos.  This of course saves the bottom line station manager from having to spend money on HIDEF video cameras and the professionals who operate them.

Larry Barker went out after a rip off insurance company that takes state employee premiums and then refuses to pay off death benefit claims for deceased employees families.  I really can't remember the last time a reporter did something of this nature on New Mexico TV.  My hat is off to Barker on this one, but why did he not interview the Governor on what she proposed to do about the situation?  Maybe she refused in order to take herself out of having to say something bad about American corporations.  The name of the corporation is the Standard Insurance Company which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Misc.

This Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock who seemed infer that forcible rape and resulting pregnancy of the victim is all part of "God's" plan may hurt Romney by some small amount.  Which is a lot right now!  When ever I hear this term "God's Plan", I wonder how that plan is arrived at.  Does the Archangel of Planning in Heaven figure this rape thing out and send it to God for approval?  Or is the planning really just nothing more than having humans believing there is a plan?  It is all hilarious to me, but dangerous too.  I think this "God's Plan" thing is really nothing more that an fundamentalist filing cabinet for pulling folders out to support their wacko beliefs and neurosis.

I am wondering where the Governor's attack on the leadership of the New Mexico Senate will get her.  I have never seen this kind of blatant gutter level tactics being waged by one branch of government upon another.  She isn't going to win no matter what happens.  The Senate will remain Democrat and the Governor will be blocked at every turn.  Oh, thats right, it doesn't matter since she has no program whatsoever.

Anxiety is rising here.  I get knee replacement surgery on Monday.  I have not spent a night in the hospital since I was 7 years old and had my tonsils ripped out.  I hear the drugs are pretty good!

The New Boogie Man

It is starting.  The right wing Albuquerque Journal and the Governor will now become a tag team on over kill for the state's Public Employee Retirement System.  Yes, there are some things that need fixing like the automatic 3% hike in benefits every year.

But, what you will begin to see is an over reaction to a fall in growth in the 12 billion dollars in the pension funds.  Of course this is happening because of the incredible greed of a gaggle of bankers and mortgage giants who melted down the economy.  These folks will now seize upon the moment to try and destroy the last good retirement system in the state even though they are the ones who set up the current financial difficulties.  They will do so in the hopes of keeping more of their profits from being taxed.

When the economy starts healthy growth again, and it appears it is beginning, then those retirement funds will grow their way out of insolvency.  It will happen quickly.  So the Governor and her 1% backers will seize the moment to once again vilify hard working public employees.  The Governor will do so at her own peril.  You can only treat your employees like dung for so long.  She might be forgetting that many of those employees voted for her two years ago, but hey, just another available scapegoat group and we know the GOP loves to scapegoat.

Yes, I have a retirement from PERA.  It  is a 20 year cumulation of my contributions and the states.  It is an agreement we made when I first entered public service that I would receive this pension at the end of my service.  Just the same kind of agreement the Governor has made in her public service.  Maybe her 1% backers will make sure she doesn't need to rely on a pension at the end of her career.  

Hiding in Plain Sight

Governor Martinez is turning out to be a master of hiding in plain sight.  At least when it comes to what she and her administration might stand for.  Of course we know beating up on immigrant families is the public face of her rightwing inspired rule so far.  That gets people's blood running hot.  A wedge issue.  But as I watched and thought about politics during the  Presidential debate last night I realized that Martinez has still not put a real face on to her tenure as Governor.  She is just there.

It is a smart way to do things these days.  Have  you ever noticed that the most long lived politicians never really stand out for pushing a program?  Of course there are some exceptions.  Governor Jack Campbell years ago left us the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  Governor Bruce King left us the Severance Tax Permanent Fund that finances public works.   Bill Richardson was around a long time even though he pursued projects like the Space Port and Rail Runner.  Can anyone think of such projects under the Martinez administration?  Something that will be around a long time to serve New Mexicans?

It  is somewhat  like Gary Johnson some years back.  I can't think of one thing he left behind after being  Governor for eight years.  Yes, he did talk about a sane drug policy but little came of it.  And so he will in the end be one of those forgotten quirky pols.  That is where Martinez will end up and it is sad.  She is squandering a chance at remembrance by listening to the extreme right wing.  Deep down I don't even think she believes in that stuff.  And given her humble beginnings, if she does believe it, it is very sad.

Fossilized Pol

Heather Wilson showed what a luddite and fossil she was last night in her debate with Martin Heinrich.  She is sort of a 90's kind of pol.  1890's that is.  She was music to the ears of the Oil and Coal boys.  They were her lovers for the hour long debate and she showed how much she adored these planet busting characters.  Martin was a guy looking to the future as far as energy production goes.

I got to thinking about Mitt Romney and his strange attitude on women.  I was reminded of a great movie from a few years back called "Pleasantville".  It was about two modern American teenagers who are transported back into a 50's TV sitcom where women were not much more than baby machines and domestic servants.  I have a feeling that Romney would be comfortable in that kind of era.  Check this movie out.  It might give you some insights into Romney.

Religion Again

We went and saw the movie Argo.  Many scenes contain a background of newscasts in 1979 and the chaos caused by the Iranian revolution in the Middle East.  Nothing has changed.  One could just edit those newscast scripts with different names and places and the stories would be the same.  It is all insanity and we should leave them alone to sort it out.  But we won't because of the fossil fuel boys and  our national warrior tradition.

Then someone would say that we can't let young girls like the Afghani who was shot in the head, for the good of Allah, for wanting an education go unsupported by this country.  But at the same time in the U.S.A. the GOP and religious right are assaulting women's ability to chart their own course of healthcare.  Maybe we should fix things here first?  It is all fundamentalist religious posturing.  Christians and Moslems working together to persecute women.  Romney and Billy Graham burying the hatchet in the name of repressing independent women.

Enough

Every morning our radio goes on at 5am for the start of the NPR newscast.  But, this morning the dam burst.  I just couldn't take it any more.  Listening to Romney and Obama news and the 40th hour of the debate rehash almost made me nauseous.  I told Bobbi to turn it off.  I was wanting to hear something other that this endless campaign crap.  Anything would do really, even country western music which I have always thought sounded like dying cats.(making more enemies here I suppose.)  I mean every country western song sounds like the last one, over and over, like the campaign crap but at least there are some women singing some of them.

The corporate bosses would always fight any attempt to shorten our campaigns because they know that their money would have less impact.  How else can one explain the ascension of people like bush/cheney and romney/ryan into national leadership contention.  But these two year long campaigns drive a wedge into America with the constant attacking, lying and propagandizing.  It just needs to end.  

When couples in bad marriages get tired of the constant combat they usually end it by divorce.  Thats what we need to do as a nation.  Divorce ourselves from long and damaging campaigns.  Lets cut them down to about 6 months maximum to shore up American unity.  

Funny

This is kind of funny.    At the end you could substitute Romney's magic underwear.

36 Hours

I don't know if the new proposed UNM hospital is needed or not.  Perhaps more information is required, although having to wait up to 36 hours in the emergency room before being sent up to a room in the hospital seems outrageous and hardly therapuetic.  But, that  seems to mean little to the Governor's handpicked Board of Finance right now.  This is all caused by poor people who don't have insurance after all.  Poor American people that is.  The Martinez minions just want to wait to see if the nation's new health care plan is repealed.  Stop and think about this logic.  They base this on Romney's promise to repeal this legislation.  Except only congress can really do that and that is unlikely.  Even critics are starting to see the good in this new law.

So, the logic seems to be that it is okay that poor people are denied health care.  Shoulder to Shoulder in the E.R. is fine for them.  Don't build a hospital that would care for them, right?  I am pretty sure all members of the Board of Finance have health insurance, so why should they give a damn?  It is kind of like Romney's complete lack of knowledge on the struggles of the lower and middle class in the nation.

I thought Obama ran away with the debate last night.  I am glad he seemed angry at Romney's inane generalities.  I think Obama shored up his base last night after they were disillusioned with his last performance.  Romney certainly showed his fealty to the fossil fuels crowd while Obama spent some time talking about future renewable energy production.