Amidst the noise, we may have picked up the tidbit that former Senator Phil Gramm, an economic consultant to McCain, has called us a "nation of whiners." "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day, said Gramm" "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said. McCain tried to quickly try to distance himself. Never mind that he champions the Bush tax cuts and every pro-business policy that comes around and that in April, McCain himself said, "A lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological." I heard him myself on NPR saying that the housing crisis was just the popping of a bubble, in so many words, as if the government had not failed to regulate the housing loan industry.

So who is Gramm? He Chaired the Senate Banking Committee between 1999 and 2001 and helped push through a banking deregulation bill that broke down firewalls between financial institutions that had been put up after the Great Depression. Who did this benefit? His wife's employer and his own key campaign contributor - none other than Enron. Later, he was paid by a Swiss bank to lobby congress about the US mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain on economics. He is a crook and a lot of what's happening is his fault and he advises someone who will perpetuate the problems.

Damn right I'm whining! I am whining about my general diminishing status in life: aging of the body, difficulty in providing for family, lack of healthcare for much of family and extended family, shrinking currency prohibiting travel, shocking gas pump reaction and rapid evaportion of both nest egg and housing assets. Oh yeah, and living in a country where the US is kind of ignored at the G8 because we don't matter much now.

Here are some more things to whine about, from Center for American Progress.

HOUSING FORECLOSURES INCREASING: As a result of the subprime lending crisis, "housing foreclosures nationwide were up 50% in June compared with the same month in 2007." In California alone, foreclosures have reached an average of 500 per day.

HOMELESSNESS INCREASING: The number of homeless people in America over the age of 50 is "steadily increasing."

HEALTHCARE COSTS RISING: According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, "health-care costs are growing much faster than the economy." Costs are rising so significantly, some Americans are delaying retirement.

GAS PRICES RISING: The national average gas price is $4.09, up 33 percent from this time last year. Gas prices are now expected to hit "$4.25 by the fall and then stay at more than $4 a gallon until the end of 2009."

JOB LOSSES INCREASING: In the first six months of this year, a total of 438,000 jobs have been lost, bringing unemployment to 5.5 percent. The CEO of Bank of America commented, if unemployment continues to rise, "all bets are off."

FOOD COSTS RISING: "U.S. food prices rose 4 percent in 2007" -- the fastest rise in 17 years -- and as a result, food stamps have considerably less buying power.

HEATING AND ELECTRICITY COSTS RISING: Heating oil costs across the North are expected to be "up 60 percent from last year," and utilities across the country are "raising power prices up to 29%."

REAL WAGES DECLINING: "Slower wage growth and faster inflation has led to falling real hourly and weekly earnings for most workers."

LEISURE SPENDING DECLINING: As a result of the rising cost of living, Americans are "tightening their belts and thinking twice about spending extra bucks on entertainment and leisure products."

VALUE OF DOLLAR DECLINING: The dollar "has been declining steadily for six years against other major currencies, undercutting its role as the leading international banking currency."

It's not abstract any more. Just this week, I've met and talked to several people who had lost or were losing jobs. My own son can't quit his temp job until it's completed or he can't use them to get a real job, yet he can't increase his hours at his part-time low-paying job enough in time to make open enrollment period for benefits. He will have to make a hard decision. Our washer conked out and the axle broke on one of the vehicles and there went the economic stimulus checks.

Yesterday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What does it all mean?

Ideas .. (will continue to add)

The Panic of 2008:A Turning Point"

From the late George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings butshorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, moreexperts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

& from Katharine van den Heuvel, Editor of The Nation:

Are you a pro-democracy patriot? I am. Like millions of Americans, I experienced a surge of hope after the most nationally inclusive race for a presidential nomination in US history. It was that hope -- a sense that the time is ripe and right -- that moved me to write a manifesto about how to invigorate our democracy and capture greater power for the people. My essay, "Just Democracy" addresses the crisis of our democracy, the opportunity we have to repair it and the steps we can take to build a more perfect union.

While The Nation has published clarion calls for change before -- most recently in 2001 and 2004, the confluence of events suggests there may never be a better time to renew our electoral process. Just a century ago progressive forces brought about a flurry of constitutional amendments, including women's suffrage and direct election of senators. We have a similar opportunity to pass the reforms that will build a more just democracy. A pro-democracy movement already has the grassroots and netroots in place, as well as the principles and concrete proposals. Of course, it will take political will, savvy strategy and hard-nosed organizing -- organizing that should be integrated into the 2008 campaign and continue after this year's voting is done.

By developing a holistic and galvanizing democracy agenda, the larger public interest and progressive community can unify and amplify particular issues -- health care, the environment, an end to reckless war and economic injustice.

What would a core agenda be? How about Just Democracy -- a program to ensure that every voter can vote, that every vote gets counted, that money talks no louder than the many and that every challenger gets to make his or her case? Many of the reforms I propose are embodied in legislative proposals that have already been introduced in Congress.

A Just Democracy movement will require determined idealism and hard-nosed realism; it will demand a broad coalition committed to making these reforms a high priority. Working together, I believe we can repair the broken system we've been handed and confront the crisis of disenfranchisement that has overtaken our democracy. We want 100 percent registration. We want increased participation. We want full representation with majority rule. We want the right to vote. We want to vote without fear--that our votes will not count, or be counted by hacked machines.

Isn't it long past time to place democracy at the center of our politics? This July 4th, let's begin to make America a more perfect union.

When I was at the first YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas in 2006, the reporters of the "mainstream media" showed up in droves for the bigger-name speakers such as Harold Reid and Howard Dean. I asked one of them whether he was going to stay for some of the panels, which were substantive. He snorted, "I have a deadline." By the second convention, in Chicago last summer, I expected the press to behave in this manner and focussed instead on photographing the bloggers, who seemed comfortable and adaptable. Change is happening fast as newspaper readership is down, on-line participation is up, and most newspapers now have their own blogs, popular comments sections and reporters with their own blogs. Campaigns have blogs with a bigger role for each successive election, funds are raised on the internet and YouTube is a player as well.

In three weeks, Net Roots Nation will meet in Austin and the month after that, the DNC convention in Denver will include a Big Tent for all types and levels of professional and citizen journalists. Ironically, they will cover the candidate who is comfortable with a computer who is running against a candidate who is computer illiterate. At issue will be who is most qualified to help draw the line between the civil liberty and free speech vs surveillance and security in the age of information.

Roy Greenslade wrote about the relationship between bloggers and journalists, in a Guardian-UK blog article which is excerpted below.

WHY JOURNALISTS MUST LEARN THE VALUES OF THE BLOGGING REVOLUTION

The debate over blogging's usefulness to journalism tends to get stuck in a cul de sac, mainly because too few people - well, too few journalists - treat it seriously. At conferences I've attended recently, speakers have referred to blogging as little more than a sad ego trip. It is not regarded as having any real public service value. I'll scream if I hear yet again that the blogosphere is a form of anarchy, a cacophony of self-centred and mischievous voices who are either talking to each other or talking to no-one at all. I'm not denying that aspect, though I don't see why people sitting at computer terminals day after day and downloading their thoughts should threaten civilisation as we know it.

When we journalists talk about integration we generally mean, integrating print and online activities. But the true integration comes online itself. The integration between journalists and citizens. Of course, there should be no distinction between them. But journalists still wish to see themselves as a class apart. We have to open ourselves up to a new thought process. There is no us and them. I had a sudden thought to end this posting with a Marxist-style call to arms: "Bloggers of the world unite". But it is the lack of unity that makes blogging so vibrant, so critical and also so self-critical. And, of course, so revolutionary.

Meanwhile, as Matthew Carnicelli alerted us to, the networks are avoiding war coverage. They may be tired of it, but those of us who haven't forgotten should remember when we vote next.

Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner

Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network.

“Generally what I say is, ‘I’m holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,’ ” she said last week in an appearance on “The Daily Show,” referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. “ ‘It’s aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don’t put my story on the air, I’m going to pull the trigger.’ ”

Ms. Logan let a sly just-kidding smile sneak through as she spoke, but her point was serious. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever.

“If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said.

- more -

N Y Times

From the above article:

Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The "CBS Evening News" has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC's "World News" and 74 minutes on "NBC Nightly News." (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)

Meanwhile, US taxpayers have funded with $500 million dollars a propaganda network in the middle east, designed to counteract sources there, with failed results. (see Middle East Hearts and Minds)

He spoke about his book, The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain.

Lakoff's thesis is that the progressive movement has been stifled by a faulty theory of mind and that progressives think arguments are won using facts and reason whereas conservatives have poured money into think tanks. Therein, they made up neo-con terms like "tax relief" which are then parroted by the media.

Lakoff likes Barack Obama's "hope" strategy. Elections are about values and identity, he said. Conventional thinkers might be skeptical of Obama's "cult of personality" but historically, people relate more to ideals than to campaign promises. He felt that Hillary Clinton realized this late in the game and that people connected with her as a person after awhile but that her "run to the center" strategy was not well timed for this election.

Lakoff believes that there is not so much a pure left and right, but that progressives and conservative frames are activated for a variety of issues. Obama thus has a central theme which is empathetic and people can say that it's just "rhetoric" but it doesn't look good to attack someone who is showing empathy with others.

As for Lakoff and cognitive linguistics, he also goes on in his book to discuss "mirror neurons", which exist in our body which relate to empathy. "Mirror neurons" happen to be something I've been reading about with respect to autism. I may just have to read Lakoff's book.

I did turn to a review in New Scientist.

According to this interpretation, Lakoff wishes to employ wisdom from cognitive science in order to defeat the conservatives in November, which seems a worthy proposition. His take is that progressives buy into the 18th century Enlightment view that humans are thinkers: rational, logical and attentive to facts. I know that I would certainly like to buy into that view.

Yet he argues then that humans are not rational but affective, imperfect and easy to trick since we combine passion and emotion with thought. Karl Rove obviously learned this a long time ago. As Lakoff says, "There is a name for those who use this knowledge to gain power. In America they are called Republicans."

Rather than changing minds through arguments and evidence, politicians often configure people's neural pathways through repetition, comforting words and appealing narratives as well as mantras and mottos. "Politicans who control brains win elections."

Americans like "redemption." According to Lakoff, Bush had been an alcoholic with DUIs, an avoider of service and a failure in business but his team portrayed him as a redeemed man and people bought it. They have carefully framed ways of talking about taxation as theft of the fruits of labor and a war that is supposedly against terror itself. Lakoff thinks this was all no accident, as repetition of phrases like "war on terror" strengthens neural connections.

As in his last book, he goes back to the family as a metaphor and compares the strict father with the nurturing parents. Conservatives knuckle under to authority who then is to protect us from evil, using force if necessary. The strict father thus doesn't need to win public approval, as he knows best. Progressives are moved by empathy and Lakoff would like to help them set up progressive think tanks to make and push policy using frames that will capitalize on their strengths.

This is why Lakoff would have been having dinner with the Northwest Progressive Institute and I am looking forward to hearing a firsthand report about what I missed.

I was impressed by this passage, written by one of RFK's surviving children, in the New York Times, at a time when we face not only crucial national and local elections, but are at war for no good reason, with our economy in tatters.

There was no quality my father admired more than courage, save perhaps love. I remember when one night after dinner he picked up the battered poetry book that was always somewhere at his side and read aloud Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade." We listened aghast to the story of the soldiers whose commander orders them to ride into an ambush. They know they will be slaughtered, but they obey the command anyway. My father then explained that he and my mother were going on a trip and challenged us to memorize the poem while they were away. I did not win that contest, but one famous stanza has remained with me:

Kerry Kennedy

Then he began to remember - about the other side - the conservatives who want the negatives to go on right through the convention and election. If we hate each other, who wins? He thought about the voting machines and disenfranchisement. Then he took action. He got ahold of a film and invited everyone to see it.

The invitation to the film:

The film I am showing exposes how deep the election corruption goes. Democrats are not the only ones getting crushed by this corruption juggernaut. You may not want to hear about it or maybe you think you know all about it. I was wrong. So is everyone else. This is a much larger issue. I never wished this happened, but the proof is in this film. I spent my own money to purchase this DVD. I am not a rich person, but all I ask here is come and watch this film and talk about what this means to you.

This is the film:

UnCounted:The Movie

This is the trailer:

UnCounted:The Trailer

This is the "blurb":

UNCOUNTED is an explosive new documentary that shows how the election fraud that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006 - and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election. This controversial feature length film by Emmy award-winning director David Earnhardt examines in factual, logical, and yet startling terms how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S. Noted computer programmers, statisticians, journalists, and experienced election officials provide the irrefutable proof.

UNCOUNTED shares well documented stories about the spine-chilling disregard for the right to vote in America. In Florida, computer programmer Clint Curtis is directed by his boss to create software that will “flip” votes from one candidate to another. In Utah, County Clerk Bruce Funk is locked out of his office for raising questions about security flaws in electronic voting machines. Californian Steve Heller gets convicted of a felony after he leaks secret documents detailing illegal activities committed by a major voting machine company. And Tennessee entrepreneur, Athan Gibbs, finds verifiable voting a hard sell in America and dies before his dream of honest elections can be realized.

UNCOUNTED is a wakeup call to all Americans. Beyond increasing the public’s awareness, the film inspires greater citizen involvement in fixing a broken electoral system. As we approach the decisive election of 2008, UNCOUNTED will change how you feel about the way votes are counted in America.

This is from the Co-Producer:

Global Acceptance
We just received notice that Uncounted was accepted into the Globians Film Festival in Potsdam, Germany in August with an additional screening in Berlin at Babylon:Mitte, Berlin's preeminent art-house facility, in September.

Uncounted, International Film of Mystery!
But it's not just this one festival that has us excited. Uncounted has been shown by groups like Democrats Abroad at screenings in Germany, France, India, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Cambodia, and England, and individual copies of the DVD have also sold in Belgium, Canada, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Switerland, South Africa, and Egypt. Upcoming international screenings include Melbourne, Australia at The Loop on May 28, Gottingen (Germany), Brussels (Belgium), Oxford and Cambridge (England), and Mubai and Chennai (India).

The Plural of Chad is Chad
Kevin Spacey was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann to promote Recount, the HBO movie about the Florida recount during the 2000 election. I know Kevin Spacey isn't an expert on all matters electoral, but it was still disappointing that Keith didn't take the interview one step further - the 2008 election. And its not just Olbermann. With all the publicity surrounding Recount, now would be the perfect time for the media to take the national conversation to the next level and ask the most logical follow up questions, 1) Why wasn't our electoral process equipped to handle margins of victory so small and margins of error so big in 2000?, and 2) Are we equipped to do so now? Watch the video...

--
Mary Mancini
Co-producer, "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections"
If you have not yet seen "Uncounted," please find a way to do so. Your vote is supposed to count and you expect it to count toward the candidate you support. But the voting machines are not reliable and they can be manipulated. They have been manipulated. Our democracy depends on the fair process of elections. This is not paranoid ranting. See the film. Then call your state and federal representatives. Insist that a paper ballot be available for each one of our votes in November.

7:52 A.M. Richard opens the Sunday new York Times and reads this aloud:

When the Golden Rule Insurance Company rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified.

She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section. Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it. A letter from the company explained that if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 and had given birth two or more years before applying, she might have qualified. (Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times)

"Another reason we are leaving," he says.

8:00 A.M Richard shifts to the Washington Post and reads this:

U.S. Campaign to Promote Abstinence Begins
Groups Are Enlisting Parents in Effort to Lobby for Changes in Sex Education

"There are powerful special interest groups who can far outspend what parents can in terms of promoting their agenda. But we recognize that parents more than make up for that by their determination and motivation to protect their own children," said Valerie Huber, the group's executive director. By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer)

I don't know about you, but we now feel we have to stop pouring so much of our money and energy into promoting UNSAFE sex for our kids. We don't want all those PRO-TEEN-SEX organizations to outspend Parents for Truth, after all...

Richard and I agree to tell the kids we are joining the abstinence-only movement...just for the momentary looks on their faces.

8:10 am: I start calling the kids. No answers on their cells. I wake Larry's father and ask him to engage with our son. This is going to be a PROCESS...

Updates to follow. Meanwhile, feel free to share the news of the day, as we will be moving on from the instant news cycle...
***

9:15 AM: The drama continues. Will Larry make the 9:20 train? He has called three times already, trying to renegotiate the deal he agreed to, proposing an 11:30 am arrival instead of the 10 am arrival he was supposed to achieve. Who does he think he is? Harold Ickes? His Dad is on the case and on the job, promising me that he WILL be on that train...

9:19: The girls just called. They are "running late." Pancakes will be at 10 am instead of 9:30...shocking. Also, they asked "how long this will take." I told them no more than 10-15 hours.

Rick Steves, the travel guru who is based in Edmonds, WA, has made a career of travel, with his unconventional travel guides PBS documentaries. His philosophy has always been to travel "close to the ground" and to get to know the real people and in so doing, to be a cultural ambassador. He is also politically active and opened his travel agency as a call center during the last election and has raised money for causes he believes in. He has inspired me to travel in the past, and I have now been invited to go to Russia as a People to People Ambassador, a life's dream, but need to decide whether to accept (due to practicalities related to money and time.)

A peek at Tehran, and ourselves is the name of the recent article written by Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times:

Rick Steves likes to say that travel is more than a vacation. It's a political act. He means each journey abroad is micro-scale diplomacy, opening a mind at a time to our common humanity. Quiet politics. Quiet is not how anyone would describe the Edmonds travel guru's own latest junket.

Steves, known for enthusiastically sipping and sampling his way across Europe, has gone in-your-face gonzo. Last week, he set off on a 10-day TV foray into a country we won't even talk to, Iran. The goal, he wrote, is to "give 'collateral damage' a face." To humanize an enemy so as to pre-empt a war before it starts. "If I can help avert an extra war — even just a little bit — this will be a brilliant personal investment — and lots of people will owe me big-time," Steves wrote on his Web site, ricksteves.com.

That's about when the shootout started here at home.

"Sounds like a fun trip," one man wrote Steves. "See if you can interview the Iranians coming back from Iraq. Get a count of the American soldiers they have killed." "Perhaps they will take you on a tour of a terrorist training facility or show you the place they kept the hostages while Carter was president?" wrote another. "Good for you, Rick," said another. "In your discussions with Iranians, you might want to avoid your positions on legalized marijuana or prostitution (or for that matter, gay marriage). They don't tend to be as tolerant about differing opinions there."

Hundreds of his customers posted opinions, many lauding him for going beyond the "Axis of Evil" caricature of Iran. But others unloaded, calling him a propaganda tool. Jane Fonda, off to Hanoi. One mother of a U.S. soldier in Iraq said she's a huge Rick Steves fan. But his "condescension" toward America made her livid. "So long Rick," she wrote. "From now on, I'm traveling without you."

Steves is still in Iran and not available to comment. So far, his Web reports are not puff pieces. The shots of him grinning with soldiers or hijab-wearing women are interspersed with commentary on the "creepy" authoritarian feel or "Death to America" posters. Still, the reaction to his trip makes me wonder: Are we even ready for cross-cultural diplomacy in this country? It has been clear for some time that the Bush doctrine — you're either with us or against us — is over. But what will we replace it with?

If a travel guide can't go to Iran without being branded a traitor, what'll it be like for a new president who wants to reach out?

Now, Steves did bring some of the vitriol on himself. Mostly by comparing himself to the "strong-hearted Americans" who enlisted in the military after 9/11. "While the fire in my gut is just as hot and the concern in my heart just as real, my choice of weapons is different," he writes. "Like them, I don't care about my safety, the cost or the work ... I want to do this. I have to do this." Uh, Rick? You're filming a travel show at the invitation of a country open for tourism. It's hardly house-to-house combat. Still, the reaction to Steves' trip is worrisome. When will we change our posture toward the world, if not after so colossally failing at being the globe's bully? Traveling, like talking, is not appeasement. It seems like a more confident country would get that.

Rick is blogging his trip to Iran. From Rick's Blog:

Sometimes you don’t see an excess in your own world until you find a different world without that excess. Traveling in Iran, it’s clear to me that in the US, our religion is freedom...and materialism. Just about everywhere we look, we are inundated by advertising encouraging us to consume. Airports are paid to drone ads on loud TVs. Magazines are beefy with slick ads. Sports stars wear corporate logos. Our media are driven by corporate marketing. In Iran the religion is Islam. And — at the expense of the economy — billboards, Muzak, TV programming, and young peoples’ education preaches the teaching of great Shiite holy men.

Still, I am impressed by how unreligious this famously religious place is. Unlike other Muslim cities I've visited, such as Istanbul and Cairo, there are almost no minarets breaking the skyline, and there's no noisy call to prayer. I've barely heard a call to prayer since we arrived.