First Rumblings About Retirement Savings Plan in the State of the Union Address Tonight?

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

I won’t be watching the SOTU address tonight…sort of got out of the habit during the Bush years because I found him unbearable to watch and these days, the same thing applies to Obama…

A few days ago on an NPR report on the possible content of the SOTU speech I heard a passing reference to something about “retirement.” Having just completed two posts on the subject of IRAs and the talk about “encouraging workers” to sign up for a new savings program, my interest was piqued.

The New York Times also offered a preview of the speech and lo and behold!  there was a similar reference…in the first paragraph and later on (my bolding).

Obama to Offer Aid for Families in State of the Union Address

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: January 24, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama will propose in his State of the Union address a package of modest initiatives intended to help middle-class families, including tax credits for child care, caps on some student loan payments and a requirement that companies let workers save automatically for retirement, senior administration officials said Sunday.

snip

Another of the president’s proposals, a cap on federal loan payments for recent college graduates at 10 percent of income above a basic living allowance, would cost taxpayers roughly $1 billion. The expanded financing to help families care for elderly relatives would cost $102.5 million — a pittance in a federal budget where programs are often measured in tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. And the automatic paycheck deduction program would simply be a way to encourage workers to save, and would include tax credits to help companies with administrative costs.

Might one of those companies be AIG?   See the previous posts on the matter, links below.

Now, of course, the reporter follows up this paragraph immediately with this (which sort of sounds like a bit of editorializing, no?):

Such programs are, notably, much less far-reaching than Mr. Obama’s expansive first-year agenda of passing an economic recovery package, bailing out the auto industry, overhauling the health care system, passing energy legislation and imposing tough new restrictions on banks. That agenda has left him vulnerable to criticism that he is using the government to remake every aspect of American society.

Well, it remains to be seen whether this “encouragement” will be “much less far-reaching” than the New York Times writer assumes.

As I mused in the last post I did on the subject, the idea may be a good one in theory, BUT…the devil is in the details. And those details involve how much money is involved and which companies will be getting all those tax credits.  It seems to me that we might be looking at lots of nice credits being passed around as well as lots of fees that will cut into the amount of money that actually gets saved.    Sort of like Medicare Part D wound up…companies charging a bundle so we can have the honor of a prescription “plan” that often winds up charging about the same than what someone paid with a discount card and no premiums before Big Pharma got involved!

I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this in the future, unless it’s stuck in another bill somewhere where the sun don’t shine…

RELATED POSTS

The Next Shoe to Drop: IRA Grab Being Set Up NOW–Heads Up! (UPDATE 1X) January 14, 2010

More on the Possible IRA Grab–What the Vision Is and Who’s Behind It January 19, 2010

// //

More on the Possible IRA Grab–What the Vision Is and Who’s Behind It

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

A few days ago I posted information about a possible IRA grab (See my previous post, The Next Shoe to Drop: IRA Grab Being Set Up NOW–Heads Up! (UPDATE 1X).

Rumors have been flying around about this sort of thing since last year but there may be some movement now.  And since it seems to be a “bipartisan” affair, at least so far, it still may transpire no matter who is controlling the action in Congress.

The information I’ve found is by no means comprehensive, but it does offer a start at figuring out who’s behind this.  The actual idea may not actually be a bad one, but the devil is in the details, of course!  And who actually gets control of handling those details is another thing to watch out for!

The background…

In March 2009, a group called “Retirement USA” launched efforts to create a “universal, secure and adequate retirement for all Americans.”

Here’s a section of the “Preamble to the Principles for a New System”:

Underlying the principles we are putting forward today are the following shared beliefs:

• Social Security is the cornerstone of American retirement security. The current economic crisis and the resulting decline in individual retirement savings, combined with the continuing disappearance of defined benefit pension plans, are powerful reminders of the importance of Social Security. Social Security must be preserved and strengthened.
• Defined benefit pension plans remain the soundest vehicles for building and safeguarding retirement income security. We must make every effort to stabilize these plans and encourage employers to offer and maintain them.
• We must strengthen worker protections for 401(k) and other defined contribution plans, which help millions of Americans build retirement savings.

While we remain committed to preserving and improving those current pension and 401(k) plans that are providing adequate and secure benefits for workers, we cannot ignore the fact that the current system – regardless of how many changes are made – will remain inaccessible, inadequate and/or insecure for millions of workers. Therefore, we must begin a dialogue now about the type of retirement system we need for the future.

We are not here today to endorse any particular system, but to offer the following set of principles as guideposts against which all proposals should be evaluated.

The Preamble includes a link to a page entitled “Making the Case for a New System” which breaks down the data showing the need for another retirement stream/tier to augment the cornerstone proved by Social Security.

Retirement USA also states:

• Retirement USA has developed 12 Principles for a New Retirement System, which provide a framework for a system in which employers, workers, and the government would share the responsibility for the retirement security for all American workers.
• Retirement USA has issued a call for the submission of “visionary” proposals for a future private retirement income program. Selected proposals were presented at a Re-Envisioning Retirement Security conference in Washington, D.C. on October 21, 2009.

So far so good, as far as intentions go.

So who is actually part of this group?  As listed in the March 9, 2009 launch press release, “experts from the Economic Policy Institute, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the Pension Rights Center, and the Service Employees International Union launched Retirement USA. (A contributor to the TIAA-CREF policy brief below also mentions the AFL-CIO as one of the convening parties.)

A list of the speakers at the launch and an audio of the press conference are available at the above link.  I know that when I see SEIU involvement these days, my attention is aroused…

The Pension Rights Center maintains the Retirement USA site.  If you visit The PRC site itself, you’ll find a policy brief from December 2009 that was issued by the TIAA-CREF Institute entitled “Perspectives on Retirement Reform for the 21st Century.“  Five experts proved individual essays on the issue after the Exectutive Summary (my highlighting):

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Policy Brief provides essays from five experts in retirement research and policy analysis
offering their perspectives on worthwhile reforms to the U.S. retirement system. The authors
agree that retirement system reforms are needed to ensure that future generations of American
workers have a high likelihood of an adequate and secure retirement income. In particular, the
consensus view is that the current system tends to place too much responsibility and risk on
households for generating and managing retirement resources. Various reforms are suggested
that would encourage retirement income adequacy while providing more efficient risk
management and a more equitable distribution of retirement risk burdens.

I recommend scanning these essays, and particularly the one pn pages 7-8 by Alice H. Munnell entitled “Bigger and Better: Redesigning Our Retirement System in the Wake of the Financial Collapse.”

***

Now, who is the Republican joining Democratic Senators Jeff Bingaman and Herb Kohl to push this idea?

Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia used to be a pro-choice Republican until he went the usual route to being anti.  See his bio here.

More recently, remember the flap when voluntary end-of-life planning counseling sessions were proposed as a Medicare benefit and the far right talkers and Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich got hysterical about “death panels”?

Isakson was a co-sponsor of this amendment and in an interview with Ezra Klein in the Washington Post (8/10/2009), Isakson explained his interest in this area and had some strong opinions about Palin et al. Here’s an excerpt from “Is the Government Going to Euthanize your Grandmother? An Interview With Sen. Johnny Isakson“:

How did this become a question of euthanasia?

I have no idea. I understand — and you have to check this out — I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin’s web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You’re putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don’t know how that got so mixed up.

You’re saying that this is not a question of government. It’s for individuals.

It empowers you to be able to make decisions at a difficult time rather than having the government making them for you.

The policy here as I understand it is that Medicare would cover a counseling session with your doctor on end-of-life options.

Correct. And it’s a voluntary deal.

It seems to me we’re having trouble conducting an adult conversation about death. We pay a lot of money not to face these questions. We prefer to experience the health-care system as something that just saves you, and if it doesn’t, something has gone wrong.

Over the last three-and-a-half decades, this legislation has been passed state-by-state, in part because of the tort issue and in part because of many other things. It’s important for an individual to make those determinations while they’re of sound mind and body rather than no one making those decisions at all. But this discussion has been going on for three decades.

And the only change we’d see is that individuals would have a counseling session with their doctor?

Uh-huh. When they become eligible for Medicare.

Are there other costs? Parts of it I’m missing?

No. The problem you got is that there’s so much swirling around about health care and people are taking bits and pieces out of this. This was thoroughly debated in the Senate committee. It’s voluntary. Every state in America has an end of life directive or durable power of attorney provision. For the peace of mind of your children and your spouse as well as the comfort of knowing the government won’t make these decisions, it’s a very popular thing. Just not everybody’s aware of it.

What got you interested in this subject?

I’ve seen the pain and suffering in families with a loved one with a traumatic brain injury or a crippling degenerative disease become incapacitated and be kept alive under very difficult circumstances when if they’d have had the chance to make the decision themself they’d have given another directive and I’ve seen the damage financially that’s been done to families and if there’s a way to prevent that by you giving advance directives it’s both for the sanity of the family and what savings the family has it’s the right decision, certainly more than turning it to the government or a trial lawyer.

Still sounds perfectly sane to me.  I’ve already set up my own directives as part of my will.  (By the way, even Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL), who had said that the health care reform told seniors to “drop dead,” rejected the Palin/Beck/Gingrich stuff as “scare tactics.”)

So, we’ve at least got a seemingly sane Republican (at least on this issue) in the mix along with a couple of entrenched Democrats or whatever they are these days.

HOWEVER….there’s no guarantee that  this idea of creating another piece of the retirement income stream for Americans will be hunky-dory!  To me, it has the eerie feel of Medicare Part D, which was supposed to help with drug costs but is basically a shell game with Big Pharma and insurance companies coming out ahead all the way (and I speak from experience on this one…that donut hole comes awful fast!)  This time around Big Insurance, including AIG are in the mix.  Not to mention AARP, a little insurance center of its own.

So, we’ll have to watch to see how all this develops…if it develops.

***

“Healthcare Reform” PR Blitz, Screw Job on the Way–And YOU Can Join In!

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

In yesterday’s post , I picked up on a story about the friendly noises being made by Ted Kennedy toward proposals made by the health insurance industry, which is reminiscent of the way things went with the Bush Adminstration’s Medicare Part D and Big Pharma plan, with much “protest” at the time by Kennedy. (See The Past Week: November 30-December 6, Recaps and Random Thoughts (Freepers “Heart” GG; Obama & Chester Arthur; Healthcare “Reform”; Montana-Yes, MONTANA-Legalizes Assisted-Suicide; Greens Pic); (once again, a h/t to Not Your Sweetie for the source article). And, of course, the Democrats failed to change the plan as part of their “100 hours” agenda when they retook the House and Senate after the  2006 election.

“There’s a spirit of optimism about our work to ensure quality, affordable health care for all Americans — and today’s announcement adds to that optimism,” said Kennedy spokesman Anthony Coley. “The insurance industry has advanced serious proposals that deserve serious analysis and consideration.”

Meanwhile, there’s a new twist to the story (this particular version of the story features a big picture of Tom Daschle–inspiring, no?), along with the obligatory dig at the Clinton Administration/Hillary Clinton’s efforts:

Obama hopes to avoid Clinton health care missteps

Sat Dec 6, 2008 5:06 AM EST

Former U.S. Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle, right, who is the nominee for health and human services secretary in the Obama administration, greets U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., after Daschle’s speech about plans for reforming the country’s health care system during the 2008 Colorado Health Care Summit in Denver on Friday, Dec. 5, 2008. The summit capped off a 31-county tour of Colorado by Salazar to discuss the condition of the nation’s health care system with elected officials and business owners. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are determined not to repeat the mistakes the Clinton administration made 15 years ago in trying to revamp the nation’s health care system. That means applying some of the lessons learned — moving fast, seizing momentum and not letting it go.

Tom Daschle, Obama’s point man on the issue, discussed the early strategy, although details of Obama’s proposals won’t be finalized for a while. Already, however, the political and public relations parts are coming into place.

The strategy begins with giving people the chance to highlight their concerns and experiences. Daschle invited people around the nation to hold what amounts to house parties from Dec. 15-31. Obama’s transition team will gather the information from those meetings and post the material on its Web site, http://change.gov.

By asking anybody and everybody to share their health care experiences, Daschle is confronting one of the major criticisms of 15 years ago: that the effort to craft former President Bill Clinton’s plan for universal coverage was too secretive.

“We have to make this as inclusive a process as possible,” Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota, said in a speech in Denver. It was his first since Democratic officials confirmed last month he was offered the job as health and human services secretary and that he had accepted.

“They are clearly trying to do it differently and help the American public see the case for reform in human terms,” said John Rother, public policy director for the advocacy group AARP.

(MORE)

So, here are the healthcare “house parties,”  public relations blitz  and all that fake “transparency”  being rolled out. And are we supposed to be impressed with AARP which lost a load of members over its support of the Medicare Part D sellout??   The same AARP which is selling  more Part D policies than any other outfit? Are you buying any of this? “Reform in human terms?” (For an exhaustive history of AARP and it’s machinations, see  The Seduction: The Shocking Story of  how AARP Backed the Medicare Bill by Barbara T. Dreyfuss, the American Prospect, 2004.)

For a really great personal account of the Medicare Part D realities for seniors and what Obama’s “plan” means for Medicare and healthcare reform as a whole, check out this piece by James Ridgeway entitled “Medicare’s Poison Pill” which was published in the September/October 2008 edition of Mother Jones. Take note of this warning about what this could all mean for Medicare itself, not just the Part D drug plan:

None of these measures addresses the core weakness of the program—its obligations to the insurance and drug industries. Medicare Part D is a small-scale model of just the kind of system some Democrats, including Barack Obama, now propose—a government-subsidized health insurance plan, one that preserves the profits of private middlemen at a high cost to citizens’ and government coffers.

For conservatives, meanwhile, the goal is to take Part D as a model for the rest of Medicare—and they’ve already made some inroads. The 2003 law that established Part D contains a “demonstration project” beginning in 2010 that will require Medicare to compete with private plans (which, via a complicated pricing formula, will be rigged to have lower rates) in six metro areas. This is meant to be the model, the seed that will grow into the Brave New World of privatized Medicare.

Back before the drug bill passed, the senior advocacy group Gray Panthers saw the writing on the wall and denounced the legislation as “bait in an insidious strategy to undermine traditional Medicare and convert it into a private industry using taxpayers’ subsidies to pay for it.” They were right, and the way things are going, I may yet live to see it happen—as long as I keep taking my drugs.

Over at the The Obama-Biden Plan, there’s a vague reference amidst the scraps of Hillary Clinton’s plan (sans universality) to some sort of  “competition”:

Reform the insurance market to increase competition by taking on anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care.

Oh, really? When have we heard THAT sort of line before??

The last line of the entire “agenda” is billed as A Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility:

Barack Obama will pay for his $50 – $65 billion health care reform effort by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.

Oops, hasn’t that “changed” already??  Yes, it has!

***

Postscript:

Before the election my doctor reminded me to vote for Obama because we needed “healthcare.”  Post-election, another health provider, already souring a bit, told me the only thing they trusted Obama with was “healthcare.”  I told that person they shouldn’t trust him with anything. Next time I see either of them, I’m giving them a copy of this post…

**Related Posts

The Past Week: November 16-22, Recaps & Random Thoughts (Critical Thinking vs. Elation; Pics from “Elation Central”; Drying the Tears of Progressive Groups; Medicare Part D Surprise from the Democrats; Face Reading; Housewives & Ludacris; Stray Dog Update)(UPDATE 1X–Dog)

The Scanner-Politics 11/20/08 (CHANGE?? Daschle at HHS, His Wife and Lobbying; Organic Consumers Org. So Ticked at the Thought of Vilsack at Agriculture That Their Petition is Already Going Strong; Froma Harrop on “Palin’s Next Career Move” Will Raise Your Blood Pressure) (Updated 1X)

The Past Week: November 30-December 6, Recaps and Random Thoughts (Freepers “Heart” GG; Obama & Chester Arthur; Healthcare “Reform”; Montana-Yes, MONTANA-Legalizes Assisted-Suicide; Greens Pic)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

I’m going to start the roundup today with an announcement of MAJOR IMPORTANCE!  Actually, two…

1) Thanks to WordPress, we now have SNOW falling at IA through the holiday season! I got brave and took them up on their suggestion to check out “Extras” and went for the snow!  It doesn’t really accumulate on the mountain masthead, but that’s OK.  At least we’ve got snow down here in southern NM for the holidays! Sometimes we get a dusting here at about 4500 ft.  with a spectacular blanket on the peaks, which are over 8000 ft. high…but, alas,  it doesn’t last very long when we see it on the driveway here. The sun melts it very quickly. So, I’ll be happy with the “computer-generated” snow for now. THANKS, WORDPRESS!!

2) A member of our illustrious team has finally gotten the recognition she deserves. Hats off  to Grail Guardian on her much-deserved recognition over at…Free Republic!  Yup, her dictionary of English-Obamese (see link below) was picked up by someone there in full and got a huge bunch of hits in Freeperland.  I don’t know if she’s thrilled by the honor, but, hey…there aren’t many “progressive” sites these days that would want her!! LOL!!  By the way, we’d like to thank all the visitors who suggested “additions” to the dictionary. I don’t know if Grail plans to publish a second edition, but maybe we can persuade her on that score?

Now, on to the roundup…

***

On the subject of the lawsuit filed re: Obama’s eligibility to be President…

CaffineQueen had a very interesting slant on the subject this week in a post entitled This is NOT the first time this country has faced this issue.

CQ writes:

Like many people I thought this case of the “certificate gate” or whatever was unique and the first time we as a country had faced this particular challenge. Wrong!

Over the course of our history this issue has come up before. (Yet no one has done anything about creating a method for preventing it.)

I’m not talking about Roger Calero, the candidate from the Socialist Workers Party, who has been on the ballot in the previous two elections in spite of the fact that it is well known that he was born in Nicaragua and is not even a citizen but a permanent resident alien and therefore ineligible. (He has a green card) That is a different story. Though one can’t help but wonder why would he run knowing he is ineligible and why would his party put him on the ballot knowing this? (Shouldn’t there be some recourse against this as it is fraud of the highest degree?)

I’m referring to President #21, Chester Arthur, who apparently became President when one of his ardent supporters shot and killed President Garfield making Arthur, then Vice President, the President.

Apparently there was some question as to whether or not he met the “natural born” qualification and it was a very similar argument to the one the Supreme Court Justices are hearing in a conference today. Eerily similar in many ways.

(MORE)

Head on over to read the whole piece.  It’s really fascinating!

***

Health issues are back on the frontburner these days, and it looks like we’re heading down the wrong road already.  Over at Not Your Sweetie there’ a must read post which details how the insurance companies are going to be directing “reform.”  The same thing happened with Medicare Part D; Big Pharma was in charge then.  As I recall, Ted Kennedy was going to “fix” all this when the Democrats took the Senate back.   Well, that didn’t go anywhere, of course…and now it seems Ted is embracing what he railed against before:

“There’s a spirit of optimism about our work to ensure quality, affordable health care for all Americans — and today’s announcement adds to that optimism,” said Kennedy spokesman Anthony Coley. “The insurance industry has advanced serious proposals that deserve serious analysis and consideration.”

Having  just forked over $700 for inhalers thanks to the donut hole, I had a few choice words on the subject which I’m posting here:

Teddy Kennedy bloviated about saving Medicare Part D when the Dems took over Congress, then …crickets! Because it would be “too hard,” all those companies already being set up with their crummy marketing and all…
I’ve ranted about Medicare Part D before at IA, but I will rant again now…It is just an exercise in pushing papers around so that the companies remain “whole” and we foot the bill for the honor of supporting THEM! Meanwhile, it’s donut hole bigtime if you need an inhaler…

Recently I found out that about a month or so ago, you couldn’t try to avoid the donut hole anymore by purchasing cheap prescriptions at places like Kmart or Walmart! Nope, we are now FORCED to have all prescriptions processed through Part D so more of us can get into the donut hole! Who snuck that in?? Must have been the Democrats!!!!!!!

PS–monthly premiums are almost DOUBLING this year on my “cheap” plan…for the honor of getting a “discount” that is equivalent to the card I had BEFORE Medicare Part D.

It’s a TOTAL RIP OFF!

PS–If they stick Caroline Kennedy into Clinton’s vacated seat to muster public “empathy” for any shitty bill coming out of Teddy et al’s plotting, I will throw up!! Gosh, I hope the lack of a super-majority can convince enough Republicans to block this crap! But I wouldn’t bet on it, considering how they all gave us Part D!!!! (a pox on Olympia Snowe, who had the swing vote on that…remember how the GOP held the vote open and was coercing members to vote for it??)

Sorry for the salty language, but Medicare Part D is one of my pet peeves…the original way the bill was put together by Bushco, the lack of action by the Democrats after they took over in 2006, and now, the apparent willingness to do business just like the Republicans, by handing over legislating to big companies.

Meanwhile, there’s a new twist about the public relations onslaught that’s gearing up.  I’ll be writing more on the subject next week…stay tuned.

By the way, Ted…any plans for No Child Left Behind? Isn’t that another one of the issues you’ve “crusaded” about??

***

Just in case all this healthcare reform doesn’t work out for all of us, we can at least rest assured that we have another out.

Montana, of all places, has become the 3rd state to declare “assisted suicide” legal…

Montana third state to legalize assisted suicide

Ruling states that terminally ill can self-administer drugs to end own life

HELENA, Mont. – A Montana judge has issued a ruling saying residents of the state have the right to doctor-assisted suicide.

The ruling issued late Friday by state District Court Judge Dorothy McCarter makes Montana the third state in which doctor-assisted suicide is legal.

The judge said Saturday she ruled in a lawsuit filed by a terminally ill Billings man, four physicians and a nonprofit patients rights group, Compassion & Choices.

MORE

Montana?

***

This week in the garden: Harvesting collards this week.  I cut it into small pieces, steam it, and add it to pasta with lots of  olive oil. Yummy! The broccoli heads are about the size of 50 cent pieces now and I’m going to start picking arugula tomorrow! I still have way too much mustard for two people, but we’ll soldier on! I may have to freeze some.  Some of the peppers in pots are still growing little peppers and I’ve almost got at least one fig about to be harvested. Here’s a pic from a few days ago of the mustard (foreground) and the collards (background).

***

THIS WEEK’S POSTS

*With a contribution from kenosha Marge

**By Grail Guardian

Will Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State Be Undermined by the Appointment of a Middle East Envoy? See What MESH Thinks…

The Scanner–Politics 12/5/08 (Obama…Vagus Nerve “Elevation” Superstar?; Obama-Clinton Contemplate a Jump (see awesome video!); Hands Like Butter; “Conscience”; Politically-Motivated Abortion “Science” Blasted by Johns Hopkins Researchers

*Martinis with Michelle, 2nd Round: Ladies,There IS a Different Way to Join the Post-Modern Feminist Party!~~

Martinis with Michelle–A Times (UK) Writer Jumps the Shark as Palin Helps Block a Senate Super-Majority

The Other Side of the Mountain

**How To Communicate with an Obot: The **OFFICIAL** English to Obamese Dictionary

The Past Week: November 23-29, Recaps and Random Thoughts (Dogs; Obamabilia and “Mt. Crapmore”; Jobs; Black Politics; CNN Delivers In-Depth Report on Our Best Hope to Save Us from “First Lady Fashion Fumbles”)

The Past Week: November 16-22, Recaps & Random Thoughts (Critical Thinking vs. Elation; Pics from “Elation Central”; Drying the Tears of Progressive Groups; Medicare Part D Surprise from the Democrats; Face Reading; Housewives & Ludacris; Stray Dog Update)(UPDATE 1X–Dog)

~~Posted by InsightAnalytical-GRL

What is this, Week 2 of Clinton SOS speculation?  Which now seems to be moving toward a YES, she’s accepting it?

***

Over at the Black Agenda Report, we get to see what thinking citizens are mulling over. They’ve been holding Obama’s feet to the fire for months now, so it is not a sudden shift in their assessment.

Take a look at the piece this week entitled “Critical Thinking Amid the Elation.” Shannon Joyce Prince writes:

Obamist sections of the Left seem to believe it “doesn’t matter who Obama is, what he does, says, or stands for – he represents hope and change and that’s good enough.” Some folks are simply misinformed, and therefore blissful. “Many of the people that danced in the streets haven’t taken the time to do any research on Obama, so part of their euphoria is based on ignorance.” One is expected to partake in the party. “Those who castigate folks for not being appropriately jubilant at Obama’s election are insisting that blacks content themselves, in perpetuity, with symbolism instead of real change.”

MORE

***

But over at “Elation Central” (home office, Chicago) we see that there’s all elation, with not much thinking. Thanks to Chicago Correspondent Leslie for these items. She comments:

Honestly, I don’t think I can take much more of this

The larger picture was the front page of the RedEye today.

The smaller was in the Tribune.  I beg of whatever god(dess) there may be to rescue us from the madness.

(The larger picture shows people wearing tee shirts with a photo of that couple looking like they posed for the cover of vanity fair or glamour magazines)

***

We posted this week about how the Organic Consumers Association is already upset with Obama and Leslie sent us another set of messages from groups that are feeling a bit…consternated.  They include:

Peace Action which is upset about any possible “dial back” of Iraq withdrawal plans and the folks over at “The Progressive”:

“Dear Progressive Reader:

I imagine you’re feeling somewhere between exultant and ecstatic right now after Obama’s historic triumph. (I know that’s the reaction in my family, with my wife, daughter, and one of my sons all having knocked on doors for Obama.)

I want to take this moment to assure you that The Progressive and progressive.org will give you the crucial news about Obama in the days ahead.

The Obama Administration is taking shape before our eyes, and it is consisting largely of Clinton retreads.

As I point out in one of my postings this week, he has yet to throw a bone to progressives who helped elect him.” (big snip)

Matthew Rothschild
Editor, The Progressive”

Sincerely,

Gee, if this keeps up, I’m going to run out of thosed tissues that I’m using to help all these disappointed Obamacrats dry their tears…

***

Here in the reality-based section of what we call “life,” I had an infuriating moment when I went up to pick up my formerly $4/3 months supply of medication that I was buying “outside” Medicare Part D in a well-thought out plan to avoid the infamous “donut hole.”  Remember how Ted Kennedy et al vowed to change Medicare Part D for the better…then chickened out because it was just too darned hard to let the drug and insurance companies down easy??

Well, I had my 4 bucks out but was informed that it was no longer possible to buy outside Medicare Part D.  About a month ago, apparently, a directive came from on high that ALL prescriptions MUST go through Part D if you’ve got it.  I was entirely aggravated, wondering when all this had changed!  I then focused my hostility on the Democratically-controlled Congress, because who else would have been responsible for this change??  When did they slip it in and what was the deal?  I’ve been too busy to research it, but at this point, maybe it doesn’t matter…Democrats were in charge and approved. And, we pay more as a result…

Does this give you ANY confidence in what they will be doing for to us again in January?

***

Here’s something you might want to try out on all the bright lights now populating the skies of the incoming Obama administration.  It’s a new way to analyze personality, based on “face reading.”  Try it out!!

Check out this nifty free analysis tool here.  When I get some time I’m going to see how the results for Obama compare to what we wrote about here on Obama’s handwriting and manipulative skills via hypnosis/NLP techniques.

****

Now we enter the hazy depths of “American culture” (or whatever passes for it these days) with the news that the “Housewives of Atlanta” drew huge ratings, even beating the “Housewives of Orange County” series. I glimpsed at some moments of HOA and was rather grossed out by the blatant adoration of really gross bling and the mostly uncouth group of women passing for Atlanta society.  But I see from the previews that HOC is also going to get a lot trashier.  Ah, womanhood!  This is what American seems to accept as normal and admirable, or at the very least, worth wasting a lot of time watching, while Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton get crucified.  We truly are a “trash country,” it seems.  I’m waiting to see what shows up at the White House…If I see Ludacris show up, I’ll want to know if he sleeps in the Lincoln Bedroom.  Clinton had donors in there, but I don’t think any were of the same ilk as Ludacris…

Maybe he’ll do his Obama is Here opus at a State Dinner…

***

For you cooking fans, here’s something that I don’t know quite what to make of.  See what you think about “The Spon.“

***

Finally, a garden and stray dog update…

The garden took a few real cold nights and I finally put up my plastic “greenhouse.” Have no pics yet, maybe next week.  I harvested the last peppers, or so I thought. I’ve been covering the plants in the pots and there are actually a few more big enough to be worth harvesting.  The mustard has gone crazy and I’ve spotted a few tiny broccoli heads already!

News on the stray dog….well, I actually went out a cam a couple of days ago and never caught anything although the food disappeared as usual.  I was thinking the dog came in from the side of the house to eat because I didn’t see any activity coming up the driveway.  The dishes weren’t visible, so today I moved them so I can actually see who’s eating the food! I’m wondering if it’s the white doves or crows, but it just doesn’t seem to be their work. And what about that black hair?  Unless it’s a cat who likes dog food?  That would explain a visitor coming up over the wall from the arroyo and visiting the water and food in the front of the house. And, there are cats who roam the nearby streets here and then go home.  But, who knows? I have a bunch of video I have to review, so I may have an answer tomorrow.  I’ll update this when I find out for sure!

UPDATE 1X

Well, it looks like yesterday’s afternoon visit was by…BIRDS!  I think they drank a bit and played around with the kibble!  Hard to tell if they were all doves or grackles…some were definitely dark, but not as big as crows.  I’ve got the camera on this morning so we’ll see if someone else shows up. Yesterday, you could tell from the messy area and one of the kibbles in the water that it was most likely birds.  But in the AM especially, the dish is cleaned with nothing left behind, so we’ll have to see if it’s the birds that are more polite eaters in the AM or whether it is a dog!!!

THIS MORNING…There were birds on the AM video and when I got the paper at 8:30 AM I saw the bowl was completely empty, except for crumbs. The birds were on the video so they may have been pecking at those crumbs. So, if it’s a dog, it is coming before 7:45 when I turned on the cam…I thought originally that it was coming between 6:30 AM and 7:45 (about about 7:45 kids start walking past on the way to the school bus stop).  I’ve been getting up later the last few days, so I haven’t been out to check at 6:30. With Sunrise at about 6:45, I’m  not sure the cam will catch anything because the area where I have the food is in the shadows as well…so, it may be too dark to see anything!  I’ll just have to get very early tomorrow to turn on the cam and see if it’s too dark to be useful…or post myself by the window and do a low-tech observation!!

THIS WEEK’S POSTS

*Submitted by Chicago Correspondent Leslie

**By Grail Guardian

***By Kenosha Marge

*Saturday “Toons” from Our Chicago Correspondent Leslie

**Howard’s Agony: Seems Like We’ve Been Here Before

The Scanner-Politics 11/20/08 (CHANGE?? Daschle at HHS, His Wife and Lobbying; Organic Consumers Org. So Ticked at the Thought of Vilsack at Agriculture That Their Petition is Already Going Strong; Froma Harrop on “Palin’s Next Career Move” Will Raise Your Blood Pressure) (Updated 1X)

Find the Sexism in the Picture, Learn “The Code”

**Attention NeoProgs: You DID NOT Defeat the PUMAs!

***The Rise and Fall of Great Expectations

The Past Week: November 9-15, Recaps & Random Thoughts (Suddenly Soiled Sarah Gets Advice from Katie Couric, Joke “Journalist”; Gov Luv; Sunday Telegraph, UK Previews More Clinton Trashing?; Major Stray Dog Update (Update 1X–Clinton Trashing in Progress in U.S. via AP)