The Tattlesnake: December 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Emperor Christie Fiddles at Disney World While New Jerseyans Burn

Left click on image to enlarge.

Clueless Christie's Katrina Moment and Palin Takes a Dive

"Hanging out with Mickey Mouse while backs all over New Jersey ache under the strain of shoveling two feet of snow will probably not help his [Christie's] poll numbers at home either. The Hill also reports that Christie's popularity in New Jersey slipped five points in a Quinnipiac poll released this month."
-- Joshua Norman, "Chris Christie Under Fire for Disney World Vacation During Blizzard," CBS News, Dec. 28, 2010.

Is Snowstorm Aftermath NJ Gov. Chris Christie's Katrina?
-- Sara Kugler Frazier, AP, Dec. 30, 2010.

"Alaska doesn't care for Sarah Palin. In fact, other than (predictably) Massachusetts, the ex-governor's home state has the 'dimmest' view of the reality TV star in the entire nation. That's one of the takeaways in Public Policy Polling's new report, which paints a discouraging portrait of the Sarah Palin's drooping favorability ratings across America and on her home turf. Only 33 percent of Alaskans have a favorable opinion of Palin, and only 60 percent of Alaskan Republicans have embraced her (as opposed to 80 percent of the GOP faithful in 'most places' across the country)."
-- Erik Hayden, "Palin Loves Alaska, But the Feeling Isn't Mutual," The Atlantic Wire, Dec. 29, 2010.

Poll: No Longer 'Sarah Palin's Alaska'
-- Jordan Fabian, The Hill, Dec. 28, 2010.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Tattlesnake – East Coast Blizzard Buries Snow-Job Political Futures Edition

Your Tattler remembers well the Chicago blizzard of 1979 that buried the city under several feet of the stuff, along with the political future of Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic. Days after the snow stopped, the side streets were still not plowed, main arteries were narrow two-lane ruts in the snow, and parking was a matter of driving into a snow bank and digging your car out the next day. If that was not aggravating enough, Bilandic had the chutzpah to go on TV and assure Chicagoans all was well and that things had been plowed – including designated public parking areas – that were not. The anger of city-dwellers reached the boiling point over those jaw-dropping pronouncements and, in one of those incredible political miracles, Daley Machine inheritor Bilandic lost his sure-thing nomination to Jane Byrne in the Democratic primary, and Byrne went on to become Chicago's first woman mayor.

New York City's independent 'No Labels' Mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently forgot the lesson of Bilandic, if he ever learned it. Yes, voters often have short memories, but not when it comes to the tangible physical and mental stress engendered by a massive snowstorm. Seeing your expensively-attired billionaire mayor, appearing dry and comfortable on TV, braying that everything is fine, all that can be done is being done, and to stop complaining, is not the message snow-besieged proles want to hear. I think this stunt finishes Bloomberg's future in politics, just as NYC Mayor John V. Lindsay's presidential ambitions were plowed under by his failure to adequately respond to a Big Apple blizzard 41 years ago.

Next door, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the GOP's emerging Golden Boy already declining in popularity back home from his managerial incompetence – he lost $400 million in federal aid for state public education due to bumbled paperwork, for one – and obsessive Republican addiction to cutting any program, including state pensions, that benefits the 'little guy' while protecting his wealthy benefactors from economic pain, will likewise see his political future melting like a Newark snowball in June, as the clueless Guv has remained on vacation in warm and sunny Disney World in the aftermath of the crippling storm. Christie has, as yet, made no public announcement or curtailed his vacation in order to deal with his state's weather crisis – perhaps an acknowledgement that his blustery Tony Soprano style of governing may intimidate some, but not Mother Nature.

Massive blizzards demonstrate the need for full-capacity city and state services during a time of crisis, the very things manic cost-cutters like Bloomberg and Christie have put on the chopping block; and the need for leadership that understands what's happening on the ground, even when that ground is covered with snow; something these conservative budget-balancers forget, to their political peril.

President Bloomberg? President Christie? Fuhgedabouit!

© 2010 RS Janes. LTSaloon.org.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Sarah Palin Has Some 'Work Done' Over the Holidays

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."-- Ben Franklin

Left click on image to enlarge.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Tattlesnake – I Read the News Today, Oh, Boy! Edition

A Christmas retread from the past.

For once, the old curmudgeon will climb down off his sarcastic perch and scribble about a story I read in a local newspaper years ago.

I don't remember the family's name right now, but I recall the gist: A middle-class father and his two pre-teen boys were driving around Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago, handing out free sandwiches and coffee to the men and women living in cardboard boxes down there.

They got up early several days a week and made the sandwiches and brewed a large urn of coffee; the man paying for all the ingredients himself.

They did this on a regular basis year-round, and they were not part of any religious or charitable organization; the father had just seen these people living in terrible conditions and wanted to do whatever he could think of to help. This is what he thought of. He also wanted to teach his sons to appreciate how lucky they were and a lesson in person-to-person generosity. (I hope they learned it.)

I once knew a lawyer who, after getting all the required degrees, decided to spend his time providing free legal work to those who could not afford it. He made his living doing part-time jobs other than law. (I almost wrote 'outside the law,' but that wasn't the case, excuse the pun.) He was not rich by measurable material standards, but he was wealthy in the immeasurable, and more important, ones, and, unlike some of his colleagues in the legal field, he could stand to look at himself in the mirror without wincing and he didn't need any bodyguards.

A Chicago cop who got sick of looking at all the miserable homeless people on her beat retired from the force and opened a restaurant for hungry people, a place that treated those who were down on their luck with some dignity and humanity.

She reasoned that the best way to get people to act better was to treat them better, so the meals at her free restaurant were served at the table by volunteer waiters, and in every respect the place operated like a neighborhood coffee shop, except the diners didn't have to pay a bill.

Does it work? I don't know, but it sure beats treating people like cattle to just to get a bite to eat.

Countless musicians and entertainers I've known have offered their time and talents gratis for benefits for numerous causes; these were not the glitzy eventsyou see on TV; these were the unheralded kind that happened in small bars, union halls, and the like, unknown to but a small fraction of the human race.They didn't stay in expensive hotel suites or get their expenses paid; they did it out of the kindness of their hearts.

I've also personally known many of our fellow human beings who courageously kept their wits about them and persevered in the face of extreme personaltragedy and the most depressing of circumstances to ease the suffering of another, even when the situation was hopeless. They won't get any medals for their efforts; they wouldn't want any.

This is the idea of America that our forebears knew; they believed in the concept of 'commonwealth', meaning you take care of those who can't take care of themselves, (some of our states, like Massachusetts and Kentucky, are still called 'commonwealths'). These are the Americans some from other countries occasionally get a chance to know and like; they are not grasping politicians, greedy power-brokers, self-absorbed celebrities, sociopathic corporatists, or some of the other despicable rabble that dominate the news. Their goodly efforts are rarely covered by the media.

For whatever their minor flaws, there are legions of Americans that indulge in altruism regularly; and what this country, regardless of the vainglorious patriotic hoopla generated by the cynics and manipulators in the skyboxes, is really all about. There are millions and millions of them out there committing acts of selflessness and compassion on a daily basis and they can't be stopped; they are of every religion and none; they are as persistent as gum stuck to a shoe; they are an America the rest of the world barely knows, but they are the best thiscountry has to offer because they understand and practice this timeless creed: When you make the world a better place for others, you make the world a better place for yourself.

As Bernard Baruch said, "We didn't all come over on the same ship, but we're all in the same boat."

These are the people who keep that boat from sinking.

Copyright 2002 R.S. Janes