Grown Ups Talking

The republicans are good at doing nothing. After a year’s worth of bickering and bargaining and meeting in smoke-filled rooms, the republicans in the Senate can proudly stand back and say, hand on heart, We got nothing done this year! Woo hoo!

It’s easy to say no. Could you vote for a modified health care bill? No. Could you vote for an even more modifed health care bill? No. Would you like a doughnut? Well…

The filibuster power in the Senate is making the most successful politicians the ones that prevent anything getting done.

But even republicans acknowledge there is a problem. Health care costs are out of control, the number one cause of bankruptcies is catastrophic health bills, businesses are getting skewered by insurance costs. Turning around the Health Care Oil Tanker is difficult for anyone.

Their answer is that if we scupper enough democratic legislation, we will get in next time. Then we’ll do wonderful things.

Problem is that next time it’ll be the dems turn to Just Say No.

When I was a young Donald Trump launched a short-lived venture into air travel. For what seemed like a couple of weeks, Trump bought a mini-airline that traveled between New York and Boston. In those days I went to Boston frequently, and I had the opportunity to fly Don Air once.

It was festooned with logos. The stewardesses wore Don Air uniforms, carried Don Air trays with Don air coffee cups and pastries formed into the face of Don. The carpet had Don Air logos woven in, the seat backs were tricked out with Don Air doo dads, and the toilet seat had engraved Don Air logos which meant you walked around with Don Air embedded into your behind for the next half hour (a fitting statement).

Fast-forward to the mayoral election, and this syndrome seems to have taken over the entire city. Mike Bloomberg is projected to have spent $100 million dollars on his mayoral candidature, according to the New York Times. He has ads in newspapers, magazines, television channels, my poor aching mailbox, internet sites, internet videos, telephone messages, celebrity endorsements. Soon he will be shining his face onto clouds á la Batman, and foaming his message into daily cappuccinos.

This is 16 times more than his opponent, Bill Thompson. Thompson has been hopelessly outgunned by an uber-rich competitor.

Is this what we have come to? Not just purchasing your elected office (see The Regency Period), but doing it publicly?

I’m not a stick-in-the-mud about these things, if Bloomberg spent 2 times as much, or even 4 times as much, you can almost shrug it off. I even think he’s done a pretty good job. But 16 times? This is practically royal entitlement. It’s obscene.

Bill Thompson seems like a good guy, he has civilized ideas about education and taxing rich people (change, but not too much change). There’s no way IN THE WORLD that he will win this election.

But apart from my lifelong reluctance to ever vote for any republican anywhere, the main reason I am going to vote for Thompson it to get on with irritating Bloomberg.—Pomerol

I think a lot of this is psychological. Republicans think they can still stymie Democrats. Democrats think they didn’t win the election. You listen to these guys talk and it sounds like last October.

Meanwhile the slipper has been gaining some modest success with one of his projects, I haven’t been laid off yet, knock on wood, and I may go nuts and go jogging (jogging!) tomorrow. Education, so far, is muddling through in Brooklyn, and while part of my income is education based, we won’t be completely screwed for a while.

But stores are closing down. Students are quitting school. 20,000 people are getting laid off at Caterpillar. Those politicians need to look reality in the face and realize that there is an enormous tribe of unemployed growing everyday and if nothing is done, there will be what? riots? massive strikes? blood? probably all three.

Someone said, the hardest thing to do is to get people to do something a different way. This starts at the top. Or not.—Pomerol

I was never a big fan of A-Rod (New York Yankees slugging third baseman Alex Rodriguez), and I feel no need to drone on about his status as a fallen hero. I think the guy did the right thing by coming clean about his steroid use between 2001 and 2003. He has nipped all the controversy in the bud. It is hard to keep the rumor mill pumping when the truth is out there quickly.

Instead, I’d rather address the issue of hero worship. My thoughts: Stop it.

If you need a hero, don’t pick the athlete that makes the most money or the one with the most trophies or endorsements. Look up to someone because they give their time to charity (Roberto Clemente), have a formidable work ethic (Cal Ripken), come to the ball park everyday for the love of the game (Joe Jackson), or do their job with quiet grace and toughness (Joe Dimaggio).

Professional athletes may be super human on the playing field, but they are human, with all the blemishes and faults the rest of us have – only they are in the spotlight. Remember, Ty Cobb was a bastard; Mickey Mantle was caught carousing drunk in public, a lot; and the 1919 White Sox threw the World Series.

Do they have a responsibility to young people who may idolize them? Sort of. It’s just decent to be nice to kids and if you are in the glare of the spotlight, it’s probably a good idea for your career to try to do the right thing.

But ultimately, kids need a bit of guidance when hanging all their hero hopes on one superstar that most adults can clearly see is sending the wrong message. We all might just do better to look around at the people we work and play with every day, and find the hero in them.

In that way, we can leave all the hype created around pro athletes where it belongs: in the world of entertainment, somewhere between American Idol and Survivor. – Chianti.

If I hear one more word about how it is UnAmerican to cap executive salaries my head is going to explode. I am talking about, of course, President Obama’s new rules to limit executive compensation at the financial institutions that took government bailout money.

As you know, one of my pet peeves is the claim that America is a free market. It is not. It may be the closest thing the world has to a free market, but it is not the Real McCoy. If it was, we would have let dozens of big banks – and hundreds of little ones – fail. But we did not.

No, the great free market cheerleader, Cowboy Bush, rushed to rescue the banks, which was probably a good move. Then yesterday, President Obama placed rules around executive compensation for any company that took taxpayer money to prop up their bank.

That too is a good move. Until the company pays the taxpayers back, they have to be responsible with their money.

The big outcry over the cap – including all the jabber coming from Fox Watchers (my friends and relatives that watch Fox News and somehow think the reporters and commentators have something valid to offer) – is that these financial institutions will not be able to retain competent managers if they cannot use golden handcuffs. In other words, if the banks don’t offer huge pay and perk packages, these captains of the banking industry will walk away from their jobs.

That argument falls flat on its face. If these guys were so competent in the first place, then why did their banks nose dive as soon as the economy got shaky, and insist on a government handout to survive. You say it’s the economy? Well, not exactly – big banks like the Royal Bank of Canada and little banks like Kearny Federal Savings and Loan – are doing just fine. That’s probably because some banks had competent managers.

Let’s face it, paying someone a lot of money was never a true measure of competence – it was just a measure of bold deal making and aggressive negotiations. And that’s what got banks into trouble in the first place.

If the bigwigs don’t like the salary cap, let them leave; within 5 minutes of their departure, 100 more bank executives will be lined up to take their place. After all, that’s how the free market works. – Chianti