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America is in the midst of a giant anxiety attack!
Really, it’s true. You can feel it. It’s palpable. You can see it in people’s face. No one is smiling anymore. No one is looking anyone in the eye. Run into an old friend at the supermarket and you get first, a furtive glance, then maybe a tentative hello, and finally, a pouring out of all the tumult in his life.
Stand in line at your local Wal-Mart, the place where the rich meet the poor these days, and listen to virtual strangers pour their hearts out. Everyone has a story about their spouse losing a job, or their investments going south, their kid or grand-kid not being able to find a job. They have to sell their home in a hurry because they are over-leveraged. Retirement isn’t happening any time soon.
So it is no surprise that exit polls in this off-year election showed that most people were casting their votes because of their pocket books and the fact that nothing was in them. Yes, according to the pollsters, mostly what is bothering American voters these days is their financial situation. All their woes stem from that.
Costs are rising, but investment income is down. If you run a small business, your accounts pay late. If you need a bridge loan from the bank, fer git about it! Insurance premiums continue to rise, fuel, too. Ten percent of Americans are out of a job, and that number is depressingly a low-ball figure. In other words, for Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe, life isn’t a box of chocolates, Forrest Gump.
Valium anyone?
How did this happen? Just a year ago Americans were filled with the newly-elected Barack Obama’s hope and dreams for a better future. Even if you weren’t a believer, you couldn’t help being hopeful that Mr. Obama would prove, finally, to be a new and different politician. Then, too, we’d been down so long there seemed no place to go but up. Of course, the bottom fell out and here we are.
Oxycontin, Rush Limp-baugh Limbaugh?
TARP saved the banks and Obama saved the auto industry, but ain’t anyone out there lookin’ out for the little people. And no one on Capitol Hill seems in much of a hurry to do so. Health Care reform legislation that was supposed to help you and me has been pared down to what amounts to insurance reform. And although President Obama promised us health care legislation by the early fall, Majority Leader Harry Reid now says no one should expect a vote in the Senate until 2010.
Here, have some Prozac.
Apparently, President Obama has. Our President, the one and only Barack Obama, once heralded as the great communicator, able to leap tall buildings in a single bounce seems anesthetized and is bizarrely missing from America’s conversation.
While the rest of us agitate, the president of the United States cogitates, and seems decidedly insensitive. Knock, knock, is anybody there? It’s no wonder voters said their votes weren’t a referendum on the president. What president would they referen-dumb? The skinny guy, who seems to come to life mostly while playing golf on Sunday afternoons or when he is courting his wife at chi-chi dinners? Hey, just a thought. Is Barack Obama depressed? He sure has the symptoms.
Maybe you should try Zoloft, Mr. President?
Because one can only wonder what happened to the electric candidate of the 2008 campaign. Mr. Kool seems to have turned into Mr. Cold and Uncaring. It’s as if the president is in some sort of stupor. He seems like an apparition of his old self. Where’s his spirit, his spunk, his force of character? To describe the president of the United States as detached seems an understatement. Clearly, he is missing in action (MIA).
I think Obama needs electric shock therapy to bring the man back from the dead. OK, give this guy a script for Cymbalta.
Or how about a session with Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke at the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous? We miss you, Mel Brooks. We really miss you, Barry O!
But, all kidding aside -- although I’m not kidding -- what’s the deal? Where did The Audacious Mr. Hope disappear? Has he become the boy in the bubble of the White House? Why does he seem so remote? What happened to the iconic dream weaver? Is he nothing but a dreamer? In the Illinois legislator Obama made a name for himself for too often voting ‘present’ rather than taking a hard stand. Is that because he isn’t present?
Have you ever tried Paxil, Mr. President?
Truly, this seems to be the winter of Obama’s disconnect and American’s discontent. Americans are anxious about how they’re going to pay their bills. How they’re going to afford the price of their newly-prescribed medicine. They’re holding their breath not only from worry but from fear of breathing our polluted air. The president has decided not to attend the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen. Instead, he plans to travel to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for the peace we’re not even close to having and he’s not doing much to get.
Anxiety afflicts Americans. They worry. Is that crazy Ahmadinejad going to nuke us all? Or will it be Kim Jong-il who does us in? What happened to candidate Obama’s promise to get Bin Laden? Never mind the Taliban; by the time the president makes a decision to move more troops into Afghanistan, Bin Laden will have moved out of the region. And what about Iran and Obama? The Arabs and Obama? The Muslims and Obama?
I keep wondering: Why is Barack Obama so willing to talk to them, when he has so little to say to us, the anxiety-ridden Prozac Nation over which the seemingly depressed president presides?
c. 2009 Reprints with permission.
Halli Casser-Jayne is the author of A YEAR IN MY PAJAMAS WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA, The Politics of Strange Bedfellows. You can read more of her opinions @ http://www.thecjpoliticalreport.com
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
SEN. BYRD, DIRTY MONEY & THAT OL' COMPANY STORE
Here’s a dirty little secret: The worst thing to ever happen to the State of West Virginia may be its venerable Senator Robert. C. Byrd.
While surely there is no nicer, kinder, smarter, caring but misguided man on Capitol Hill than West Virginia’s senior senator, aka the pork barrel king, Robert C. Byrd, in large measure is responsible for the fact that West Virginia ranks 49th in per capita income, can boast that Huntington West Virginia has the poorest health ranking in the country, ranks 51st of 51 states and territories who have students completing a bachelor’s degree, ranks 48th of 50 states where people have achieved a high school diploma.
On the other hand, surprisingly, West Virginia is not in the top ten states with the highest unemployment. Through Sept. 12 of this year, the state had taken 86,752 initial claims for benefits, up about 64 percent from the same point last year. Surely, this is not something to be proud of, but West Virginia has always suffered from job shortage.
And that brings me to the reason why Robert Byrd isn’t necessarily the best thing that ever happened to West Virginia.
Think coal and you’ll understand where I’m going. West Virginia is coal country and King Coal has had no better friend than the esteemed Senator. Coal has barely kept West Virginia afloat or mountaineers employed at a rate equal to that of the rest of the country. It has kept the mountain state next to last in per capita income. Yes, West Virginians are dirt-y coal poor.
But coal has made Senator Byrd a very powerful man, while it has kept most of the state stuck in a time warp. (Coal hasn’t hurt Senator Rockefeller, either). Travel to southern West Virginia where the mines thrive and you’ll feel like you’re in the depression-ridden 1920’s. Men old at age 40 sit on dilapidated porch swings tied to their oxygen tubes, their lungs riddled with black lung disease. If they wanted to, they can’t get another job because there are no other jobs in their part of the state, really, in the state at large.
Thanks to Byrd and all the other politicians in West Virginia funded by King Coal, there has been very little effort to change the dynamics of the state’s commerce. Even as the mines are automated, and mining jobs become scarcer by the day, West Virginia’s piece of the Federal pie most often goes to mining, or other projects that please the mine companies. The state’s coffers are filled with the dirty money of the coal industry, as are the deep pockets of the politicians running the state.
Recently, West Virginia hit pay dirt when Senator Byrd managed to bury more than $4.6 billion in money for the coal industry into a Senate version of the economic stimulus package. Last year Senator Jay Rockefeller added $2.8 billion for the coal industry in the massive Wall Street bailout, a dirty shame.
Imagine if in his over fifty years in the Senate, Byrd had put his efforts to bringing real commerce to The Mountain State. Instead, he is mostly responsible for pork projects like fisheries throughout the state that employ only a few. Only recently he brought the FBI, Coast Guard and the National Wildlife Training Center to the Eastern Panhandle, which, by the way, the rest of West Virginia doesn’t even consider part of its state. Here it is 2009, and not much has changed in West Virginia in half a century.
You could probably say the same thing for the rest of the coal producing states. No fewer than 25 states produce coal, which not only generates income, jobs and tax revenue, but provides a disproportionately large share of their energy. Yet, what was once a gift horse is now an albatross around the coal-producing states. Coal is dirty in every way: for our air, for our heating, for our politicians.
If you live as long as Senator Byrd, 91 years, you’re bound to see changes. And whether Senator Byrd, the State of West Virginia or King Coal likes it or not, the change is now. Coal is under fire by the environmentalists, as well it should be.The United Nations Climate Change Treaty was adopted in 1992. It committed the world to “avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system.” Yet, since that time, greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to rise.
The United States has proved to be the biggest foot-dragger, snubbing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and refusing to implement any effective domestic emissions controls.For these dirty truths, you can thank Senator Byrd and the leaders in the other coal producing states. Again, their power is fired by King Coal.
As we head into the global summit in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the U.S. is once again the focus of unease. American politics remain strongly divided over climate change – though President Barack Obama has new opportunities to break the coal-jam…but for Senator Byrd and the other leaders of the coal-producing states who stand in his way.
Sadly, President Obama has announced he will not speak in Copenhagen, but will instead collect his Nobel Prize in Oslo, where he says he will address climate change, in deference to Senator Byrd and his coal-powered associates?Robert Byrd, of course, has done much good for his state. But he sold his soul to the company store a longtime ago. Nevertheless, he may be finally seeing through the dirty smoke hovering over the Blue Ridge Mountains and the land he claims to love.
In a recent coal-dust-up with the Massey Energy Company, the largest producer of Central Appalachian coal -- led by the unrelenting villainous character Don Blankenship -- over the refusal of the company to pay to move an elementary school in the contamination field of a Massey project, Byrd spit coal fire at Massey for what he called Massey’s "disregard for human life and safety."
"Let me be clear about one thing -- this is not about the coal industry or their hard-working miners," Byrd said. "This is about companies that blatantly disregard human life and safety because of greed. That is never acceptable."
Byrd, by the way, the son of a coal minor, added, "At a time when coal is under such close scrutiny, coal companies operating in West Virginia should be working together to put their best foot forward.”
Not completely un-self-serving, but proof that at, 91, Senator Robert C. Byrd is not too old to learn dirty new tricks.coal,
While surely there is no nicer, kinder, smarter, caring but misguided man on Capitol Hill than West Virginia’s senior senator, aka the pork barrel king, Robert C. Byrd, in large measure is responsible for the fact that West Virginia ranks 49th in per capita income, can boast that Huntington West Virginia has the poorest health ranking in the country, ranks 51st of 51 states and territories who have students completing a bachelor’s degree, ranks 48th of 50 states where people have achieved a high school diploma.
On the other hand, surprisingly, West Virginia is not in the top ten states with the highest unemployment. Through Sept. 12 of this year, the state had taken 86,752 initial claims for benefits, up about 64 percent from the same point last year. Surely, this is not something to be proud of, but West Virginia has always suffered from job shortage.
And that brings me to the reason why Robert Byrd isn’t necessarily the best thing that ever happened to West Virginia.
Think coal and you’ll understand where I’m going. West Virginia is coal country and King Coal has had no better friend than the esteemed Senator. Coal has barely kept West Virginia afloat or mountaineers employed at a rate equal to that of the rest of the country. It has kept the mountain state next to last in per capita income. Yes, West Virginians are dirt-y coal poor.
But coal has made Senator Byrd a very powerful man, while it has kept most of the state stuck in a time warp. (Coal hasn’t hurt Senator Rockefeller, either). Travel to southern West Virginia where the mines thrive and you’ll feel like you’re in the depression-ridden 1920’s. Men old at age 40 sit on dilapidated porch swings tied to their oxygen tubes, their lungs riddled with black lung disease. If they wanted to, they can’t get another job because there are no other jobs in their part of the state, really, in the state at large.
Thanks to Byrd and all the other politicians in West Virginia funded by King Coal, there has been very little effort to change the dynamics of the state’s commerce. Even as the mines are automated, and mining jobs become scarcer by the day, West Virginia’s piece of the Federal pie most often goes to mining, or other projects that please the mine companies. The state’s coffers are filled with the dirty money of the coal industry, as are the deep pockets of the politicians running the state.
Recently, West Virginia hit pay dirt when Senator Byrd managed to bury more than $4.6 billion in money for the coal industry into a Senate version of the economic stimulus package. Last year Senator Jay Rockefeller added $2.8 billion for the coal industry in the massive Wall Street bailout, a dirty shame.
Imagine if in his over fifty years in the Senate, Byrd had put his efforts to bringing real commerce to The Mountain State. Instead, he is mostly responsible for pork projects like fisheries throughout the state that employ only a few. Only recently he brought the FBI, Coast Guard and the National Wildlife Training Center to the Eastern Panhandle, which, by the way, the rest of West Virginia doesn’t even consider part of its state. Here it is 2009, and not much has changed in West Virginia in half a century.
You could probably say the same thing for the rest of the coal producing states. No fewer than 25 states produce coal, which not only generates income, jobs and tax revenue, but provides a disproportionately large share of their energy. Yet, what was once a gift horse is now an albatross around the coal-producing states. Coal is dirty in every way: for our air, for our heating, for our politicians.
If you live as long as Senator Byrd, 91 years, you’re bound to see changes. And whether Senator Byrd, the State of West Virginia or King Coal likes it or not, the change is now. Coal is under fire by the environmentalists, as well it should be.The United Nations Climate Change Treaty was adopted in 1992. It committed the world to “avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system.” Yet, since that time, greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to rise.
The United States has proved to be the biggest foot-dragger, snubbing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and refusing to implement any effective domestic emissions controls.For these dirty truths, you can thank Senator Byrd and the leaders in the other coal producing states. Again, their power is fired by King Coal.
As we head into the global summit in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the U.S. is once again the focus of unease. American politics remain strongly divided over climate change – though President Barack Obama has new opportunities to break the coal-jam…but for Senator Byrd and the other leaders of the coal-producing states who stand in his way.
Sadly, President Obama has announced he will not speak in Copenhagen, but will instead collect his Nobel Prize in Oslo, where he says he will address climate change, in deference to Senator Byrd and his coal-powered associates?Robert Byrd, of course, has done much good for his state. But he sold his soul to the company store a longtime ago. Nevertheless, he may be finally seeing through the dirty smoke hovering over the Blue Ridge Mountains and the land he claims to love.
In a recent coal-dust-up with the Massey Energy Company, the largest producer of Central Appalachian coal -- led by the unrelenting villainous character Don Blankenship -- over the refusal of the company to pay to move an elementary school in the contamination field of a Massey project, Byrd spit coal fire at Massey for what he called Massey’s "disregard for human life and safety."
"Let me be clear about one thing -- this is not about the coal industry or their hard-working miners," Byrd said. "This is about companies that blatantly disregard human life and safety because of greed. That is never acceptable."
Byrd, by the way, the son of a coal minor, added, "At a time when coal is under such close scrutiny, coal companies operating in West Virginia should be working together to put their best foot forward.”
Not completely un-self-serving, but proof that at, 91, Senator Robert C. Byrd is not too old to learn dirty new tricks.coal,
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