Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Posted here Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 11:44:54 AM     From ABC news's The Note for today http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=156238 In fact, the greater long-range consequence of the events in Asia gives the Leader of the Free World and the Commander in Chief another extended opportunity to sit astride the world look tough and compassionate at the same time. It looks like Bush can do anything, and the rest of the country is powerless. Social security, environment, .. And "If anything, the history of the Bush presidency so far is that it isn't following historical trends. One reason Mr. Bush has 'beat' history is that the nation is in the midst of a realignment that has been a long time in the making. The war on terror and the end of the Cold War has already transformed foreign policy. Building liberal democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq is also giving the nation a fresh look at its own moral underpinnings. Meanwhile, voters are being confronted with changing the definition of marriage and saving Social Security — the bedrock of the New Deal — from bankruptcy." That might not be exactly correct, but it is providing a winning mindset and formula for the party in power. Krugman's "Medicare and Medicaid are bigger problems" mantra is one that the White House is just waiting to bash back. Protecting social security would itself be part of a larger social policy that just doesn't exist in a quotable form. The President is untouchable and the country is going broke. The second gives him leverage to do what he wants because the democrats have no real alternative that deals with declining revenues, jobs, security and social well-being. the specter of socialism lays its shadows across any proposal for amelioration or social investment.   ********

Posted here Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 10:09:04 AM     Time to return. What a few weeks! The start of a new year has not been under such a cloud for so many since ww2 or 1968. The emerging question in the Indian Ocean tsunami aftereffects is whether the awareness of the conditions of real lives, so many, so fragile, will have any impact on the direction the leadership, the press, and economics will take. Governance and the media live ion a  self serving narrow partial illusion. Can we expect this to get better? What can we do? That is, is there an emerging alternative that has a chance of creating a coherent society we, humanity, could actually step into, out of our current ways, without capsizing in the attempt?   ********