By Ed Stein | February 4th, 2010
Toyota’s reputation for quality has been severely damaged by the latest problems with their cars. After decades of gridlock and the resulting inability to accomplish anything, the reputation of Congress can hardly be damaged further. At this point, it looks as though the Democrats, who failed utterly to use the power handed to them a year ago, face a humiliating defeat at the polls next November, probably on a scale to match the humiliating defeat the Republicans deservedly were handed last year. Meanwhile, the country’s problems mount, with no end to this absurd merry-go-round in sight.
Topics: Congress, election, House, incumbents, mid-term, opinion, Senate | 12 Comments »
By Ed Stein | February 1st, 2010
Medical marijuana shops are cropping up all over the place. We all know, of course, that this is a total sham; it’s a way to legalize marijuana while pretending that we’re doing it for purely ethical reasons. We won’t admit that the prohibition of ganja was as effective as the prohibition of alcohol, so we save face this way. But why stop there? There are equally good uses for dope, and times like these call for a little creativity. Here’s one way to expand the use of marijuana, also for humanitarian purposes.
Topics: economy, foreclosure, marijuana, medical marijuana, opinion, recession, unemployment | 2 Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 28th, 2010
I thought President Obama got it exactly right in his State of the Union address last night, chiding both Democrats and Republicans for their inability to solve any of the daunting problems facing the country. The Democrats are tied in knots, unwilling to wield the power the voters gave them a year ago, and the Republicans are living up to their reputation as the party of “no,” opposing anything before them now that they are in the minority. It remains to be seen if this is the emergence of a new, more aggressive Obama, who sat on the sidelines and failed to speak for his agenda for far too long while Congress dithered and the public burned.
Topics: agenda, Congress, Democrats, gridlock, Obama, opinion, Republicans, Washington | 8 Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 26th, 2010
In a word, the state of the union is ANGRY! The question for the president and for both parties to figure out is, at what? Because we have a two-party system, the only choice people have if they don’t like what’s happening is to vote for the other guy, even if the other guy is largely responsible for what’s happening, and the guy that’s in there now is in there because of the other guy’s mistakes. People are angry at deficits, largely run up by the irresponsibility of the Bush administration, and topped off by Obama. They’re angry that the bankers who got us in this mess are making millions while we lose our shirts, thanks mainly to deregulation promoted primarily by Republicans (but signed off on by Clinton). They’re angry about jobs, but there’d be a lot more of them if the stimulus package had been larger, which would have increased the deficit, which they’re angry about. They’re angry that Washington seems wholly beholden to special interests, so they’re going to vote for the party that loves special interests at least as much as the party in power now. They’re angry at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were started by the party they just voted out a year ago. They’re angry that Obama has accomplished so little of his agenda, so they’re going to vote for the party that has unanimously opposed every single aspect of it.
I’m angry, too, and I get to draw cartoons about what I’m angry about, which doesn’t solve any of the problems, but makes me feel good. I’m a Tea Party of one.
Topics: 2010, Congress, Obama, opinion, politics, State of the Union | 10 Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 22nd, 2010
In a sweeping decision that overturned more than a century of precedent, a bitterly divided Supreme Court ruled yesterday that corporations and unions were no longer subject to campaign spending limits, giving them the go-ahead to spend unlimited amounts of money supporting candidates of their choice. Abandoning all pretense of judicial modesty and restraint, the Roberts Court took a relatively innocuous case and used it to rewrite 100 years of law. This is a truly horrific decision, extending sweeping free speech rights to corporate entities that have been enjoyed up to now only by individuals. If you thought lobbyists and special interests had too much power in Washington before, you should be dismayed by this decision. Plus, the money is likely to flow unevenly, much more of it going to Republican Party candidates who unabashedly favor corporate rights over those of individuals. This is, of course, why a court appointed primarily by Republican presidents was so eager to game the system even more than it already is. So much for a government of the people, by the people and for the people, unless the people in question happen to be the ones who get seven figure bonuses. And good luck to the rest of us.
Topics: campaign contributions; Supreme Court; corporations; corporate campaign limits; campaign limits; McCain Feingold; campaign spending; opinion | 5 Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 20th, 2010
The Democrats were blindsided yesterday in Massachusetts, and they have nobody to blame but themselves. They have badly misjudged the mood of the American people for months, stringing out the health care debate ad infinitum while ignoring the growing anger over the slow pace of the recovery, the loss of jobs, and the obscene unfairness of the Wall Street bonuses. I don’t know what happens to people once they get to Washington, but they seem to lose the ability to understand anything that goes on outside the beltway. Health care reform is a must, but the long dither and the increasing complexity of the bill, not to mention the pork, special favors and lack of cost controls in the current bill have made it unpopular with the public. I don’t know that people actually oppose the bill so much as they have come to view the single-minded attention to it as an unwelcome distraction from more important things–namely easing the economic pain of so many millions.
The irony of the two-party system is that if the electorate has buyer’s remorse, they have only one place to go–back to the party that created so many of the problems to begin with. The Republicans smell blood in the water, but they shouldn’t be complacent, either. So far they’ve offered nothing but total opposition to anything Obama proposes. It’s still a long way to November, and the mood could shift again if they have no program other than more of the same.
Topics: 2010, Democrats, Massachussets, opinion, politics, Scott Brown, Senate, special election | 26 Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 19th, 2010
We have been here before with Haiti. Nothing on this scale, perhaps, but with each crisis, political and natural, the United States and other nations have pledged to help Haiti build a better society, with investments in stronger political institutions, economic reforms and improved infrastructure. Each time, as soon as the immediate crisis abated, the Haitian people were left to their own devices, with predictably dismal results. Will this time be different? Given the magnitude of the destruction and state of the world economy, even with the best of intentions, it will be difficult.
Topics: earthquake, Haiti, humanitarian aid, natural disaster, New Year's resolutions, opinion, relief | No Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 14th, 2010
Nothing like a disaster on the scale of what happened in Haiti to wake us up to reality. For all the shouting, all the anger and political recriminations, for all the overheated tea party rhetoric and the leftist hand-wringing, this country still functions pretty well. Haiti, on the other hand, is such a dysfunctional state, it is always one event away from a human disaster. That event was the massive earthquake that has killed as many as 50,000 people, and left three million in imminent danger of starvation and disease. The survivors have no ready access to food or water, no way to deal with huge numbers of decaying bodies, no medical services, no functional government able to help its people. As bad as the quake was, far worse may be coming. As depressing as what we are enduring here may be, let us be thankful for what we have.
Topics: earthquake, Haiti, natural disaster, opinion | 7 Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 12th, 2010
It’s bonus season, folks, which means another round of outrageous compensation for the Masters of the Universe, the ones, you’ll remember, who got us into this mess. The only subject of conversation this time around seems to be whether the top bonuses will be seven figures or eight. Some of the soon-to-be obscenely wealthier than they already were recently have come out with mea culpas, evidently expecting that a less-than-sincere apology will innoculate them against the public anger that’s sure to follow.
In a related story, the AARP Bulletin reports that in 2008, S&P 500 companies handed out $44.5 billion in stock grants and options to top execs, compared to $39.5 billion put into employee pension funds. Financial firms gave out $2.30 in executive stock for every $1 put into employee funds.
Topics: opinion; economy; banking; Wall Street; bonus; recession; CEO; compensation | 3 Comments »
By Ed Stein | January 6th, 2010
Yet another take on air safety. Short of strip- and cavity-searching every passenger and hand searching every piece of luggage, I have no idea how you make air travel perfectly safe from terrorists, and neither does anyone else, especially the people in charge of actually trying to make it safe. Their bureaucratic approach so far has made air travel, once so simple, an inconvenient trial at best and a nightmare of delay and inefficiency at worst. It’s impossible to know if all these security measures have actually made us any safer, but I doubt it.
Topics: airline safety, Homeland Security, national security, terrorism, TSA | 4 Comments »
