“Indian Girl Hanged Herself After Parents Banned Her from Facebook”

That’s a headline from a Fox news report. The headline tells pretty much the whole tragic story. The parents wanted their daughter, a college student, to focus more on her studies. 

It also raises important questions about social media. I’m on Facebook. Most, not all, folks I know are on Facebook. It helped me reconnect with a lot of old friends I hadn’t seen in years. It is a place to see photos of friends and family as events take place. It’s entertaining and fun. It also is too much information
about some folks. But I can turn them off my feed. Twitter helps me keep track of breaking news (if you have reliable sources to track). Beyond that, I’m not sure I understand Twitter.

Social  media is allowing some folks to live their lives literally out loud. People need to be careful it does not become a substitute for human contact – contact in this regard being defined as verbal conversation between two or more people. I know some folks report significant life events – engagements, births, injuries and more – on Facebook.  I’d rather hear that news personally if it affects a loved one. I know someone who received a text from a loved one that said, “Call me immediately.” Uh, that person couldn’t have called instead of texted? Do you see what I mean about living life through social media or texting?

So, human beings, let’s not forget human contact. Social media isn’t as social as human contact.


 

 Five things I’m happy about today:

1)   I’m happy that I don't live in Virginia anymore. In the Dominion State, the choices for governor this year are: Ken Cuccinelli, a Tea Party favorite, and Terry McAuliffe, whose main credentials are: he raised gazillions of dollars for the Democratic Party, was Democratic National chairman, and is BFF to both Clintons. Virginia, there may not be a Santa Claus this year.

2)   I’ve never been a huge fan of Kentucky Senator and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell but I’m happy he stepped up in the government shutdown/debt ceiling talks last week. He also said yesterday that as far as he was concerned, the lesson learned from the government shutdown is – never do it again. Amen, brother.

3)   I’m happy the Red Sox are in the World Series. Not because I’m such a Red Sox fan (I went to college in Boston and came to really hate Boston fans) but now I have friends and family in Massachusetts who are just so happy about it that it makes me happy. The city can use such happiness after the Patriot’s Day bombing.

4)  I’m happy I’m a Tony Bennett fan and not a Justin Bieber fan. Did you hear about the 33-year-old who spent five years and $100,000 to have plastic surgery to look like The Bieb/Beeb? As the kids say, OMG! I doubt any plastic surgeons have heard the sentence, "Can you make me look like Tony Bennett?"

5)   I’m glad I’m not writing about the government shutdown or the debt ceiling today.

The budget/debt limit issues are resolved, for the moment. Once again, Congress took us to the brink, peeked over the edge and retreated and kicked the can so we go through this again around Christmas. We can’t keep doing this. It is no way to run a country.

But, as we learned, there is little “we the people” can do once “those” guys are in office (“those” defined by whatever your political/ideological perspective). So, what can the voters do about keeping us out of this now more than annual dance
with economic disaster and uncertainty (which is what the business community fears most)?

I’m open to ideas, so feel free to comment. But here’s my beginning list:

1)  Vote, it’s the most valued right we have and the one that takes the least effort. So, exercise your vote. But voting isn’t the only thing we owe our country.

2)  Engage. Don’t let the “other guy” do the heavy lifting. This is what moderates tend to do, lay back. The time for laying back is over.

3)  Give money, if you can. And, if you can’t give a lot, give a buck or five. If I were running a political/grassroots organization I need money, but politics is a game of money and numbers. If I can’t raise the big bucks, I at least want to say that “I raised $50,000 from 200,000 donors.” Not a bad position when the other side has to say things like, “I raised millions of dollars from a couple hundred donors."

4)   Understand and engage in redistricting. It only happens once every 10 years, but it happens in your state legislature. You can affect it, but you have to get involved. Maybe form a group and find a, dare I say, lobbyist who understands it or a, dare I say it, lawyer who can engage. You may even find one or the other who will do it pro bono. This is where the districts are drawn and where voters, basically, are chosen. This is why you have districts that stay Democrat or Republican or, now, where many Republicans don’t fear losing the general election, but are scared to death of a “primary challenge from the right” which pushes them further to the right. The way the districts are drawn pretty much determines which party will win.

5)   Pay attention. I’ve heard lots of people voice very strong views over the debt limit fight that had no idea what the debt limit is. It does not limit what money the Congress can spend. It pays what we have already obligated ourselves to spend. Not sure we really need one since it would seem that once Congress has voted to pass a budget, implicit in that is we need money to pay for the spending and, if we don’t have it, we need to borrow it. Pressure on the debt ceiling does not lower spending.

Now that we have a little breathing room, let’s figure out how we can avoid this kind of nonsense in the future while still putting pressure on our elected officials to control spending without the cliff rushing up to meet us.

Dear Tea Party-ers and your sympathizers,

I’ve been a Republican for more than 30 years. I worked for Ronald Reagan, who many of you call your political guru and who, I'm sure, would not approve of your behavior today.  I am embarrassed by your behavior. I am furious that with just over 24 hours to go before this great nation runs into its debt limit, you still are holding back your approval. I’m disgusted that you have closed our government for 16 days and counting. I am fearful that your irresponsible behavior may cost me my savings, which means my retirement, which means I have lived my working life for nearly no benefit. More broadly, I abhor that you are about to watch as the United States leads this world into a depression.
 
Selfish bastards.

I’m on the verge, and I’m sure this would make you all very happy, of abandoning the Republican Party; this after working for two presidents, a Republican cabinet member, and four national Republican chairmen. Why don’t I leave the party?
Because, if I thought any of you were aware of me, you wouldn’t give two shakes of salt (I cleaned that up). Plus, I like to think – hope – that our party can survive your selfish, holier-than-thou-approach to what you think is governing
this great nation of ours that, in about 24 hours, will be far less great than today. And today, it is less great than when you started your no-end-game strategy of defunding a law that you couldn’t stop from passing, that the United States Supreme Court has upheld, and you clearly don’t have the votes to change. You think Obama is hurting our position among other countries? Look at what you’re doing. The world, and our enemies, are thrilled at what you’re doing
because what you’re doing is knocking this great nation off the pedestal much of the world has us on.

I was trying to explain to friends of mine that you are “true believers” and it’s hard to get a true believer not to believe, hard as we may try. Your beliefs, at this stage of your political “development” cannot be backed up by votes but you
do apparently have enough votes to stop things from happening.

Selfish bastards.  

I’m  sure you all laugh when you get together at night and count all the good things you stopped from happening. I’m sure you could care less that Republicans in the House are under 10 percent approval. I’m sure you are thrilled that you are stymying a Democratic president from governing.

I have no idea what your goal is other than destroying our government, pushing the world’s economy into decline and ruining the lives of millions of people.

Selifish bastards.

Maybe they’ve hoisted themselves with their own petards. And maybe that is the cure to the sickness.

For years, I’ve wondered how one turns the Republican Party back into the caring party it once was; inhabited by moderates who wanted to move the ball down the road, and, shudder to say, compromise to get there from here. For the last 20 or 30 years, the party has been moving steadily to the right including  now when we see a minority of tea party types leading the party into the abyss.

I never thought to look into the “enemy” to see the solution. This time, over the budget and debt ceiling, they set a strategic trap and maybe caught themselves in it. Polls can’t go much lower than today when it comes to disapproval of the Republican Party. They are so low, in fact, I’m not sure the common sensical GOP members in the House are even approving of the job they’re doing.

 Sen. Ted Cruz, with the aid of his barbs aimed at the White House, may just have opened the door to the defeat of his “no compromise” mates. His Cruz Missiles seem to have boomeranged.

We are seeing stories now that business groups who traditionally supported and FUNDED Republicans are rethinking their strategies. Now they are considering funding moderate Republicans against vulnerable tea party types. They see what these extremists are doing to the country. And maybe, just maybe, that is how we can turn the GOP around. Back in 1978 I worked on a gubernatorial campaign. We came up with a four-point program on aid to the disadvantaged and when we showed it to our senate minority leader he said, “We can’t do that. We’ll never get it passed.” I said, if we don’t do this, we’ll never get elected. You can’t govern if you can’t win.

Even the Koch brothers, who have funded the rightest of right-wing efforts, now seem to be backing away from the tea party types. If money is the blood that keeps politics alive, those who supply that blood are now rethinking their election strategies. Thank goodness.

Without a true leader to take lead us back from the abyss, we can’t get there. And who woulda thunk that the fellas who provide the money would be those leaders? I hope.

The budget mess seems to be on the road to solution. The government should be back at work soon and we should avoid defaulting on our debt. Note I said “should” because I’m not totally convinced yet but I do believe the sane have retaken the asylum over these issues and we’re on the road to compromise. Those who have been verbally assaulting Speaker Boehner, in the aftermath of the resolution, may begin to see why they are lucky to have him standing between financial default and resolution of the issue. As much as he has been attacked for "not having the guts" to stand up to his right flank, let's see if he gets the credit he will deserve for bringing us back to sanity.

I just hope that when this budget/debt crisis is resolved, we don’t forget who caused it and I hope the business groups follow through on their strategies to fight against the No Compromise Crowd.

I remember a time when I believed that presidents, senators and, yes, even House members knew more than I did so I trusted their decisions. As we get older, we realize that, of course, isn’t true, but I always wanted to put my elected
officials on a pedestal. I do still think there is information they have that I don’t have. But sometimes not. Let’s take a look at some of the quotes from our elected officials regarding the debt limit issue. The reasoning doesn't add up. All quotes reported in the New York Times:

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC): “We always have enough money to pay our debt service. You’ve had the federal government out of work for close to two weeks; that’s about $24 billion a month. Every month, you have enough saved in salaries alone that you’re covering three-fifths, four-fifths of the total debt service, about $35 billion a month. That’s manageable for some time.”

Uh, one point, senator: You and your colleagues voted to give those furloughed workers back pay when (if) the shutdown ends. Thus, you can’t count that money twice because you’ve already obligated that money (but that’s what you do on everything, isn’t it? Spend our money a few different ways with the same dollars?)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “It really is irresponsible of the president to try to scare the markets. If you don’t raise your debt
ceiling, all you’re saying is, ‘We’re going to be balancing our budget.’ So if you put it in those terms, all these scary terms of, ‘Oh my goodness, the world’s going to end’ — if we balance the budget, the world’s going to end? Why don’t we spend what comes in? ... If you propose it that way, the American public will say that sounds like a pretty reasonable idea.”

True. But, if my understanding of the debt ceiling is correct, it’s about what we already have committed, not what we plan to spend.  So, senator, if you do put it that way, you are putting it inaccurately.

Representative Paul Broun, (R-Ga.) and a candidate for the Senate: “There are a lot of things that are going to affect our economy. The greatest threat right now is Obamacare. It’s already destroyed jobs, it’s already destroyed our economy, and if it stays in place as it is now, it’s going to destroy America.” 

Seriously, Congressman? We are facing default and you blame Obamacare which took affect nine days ago? Maybe, down the road, you’ll be right. Let’s talk about that later but today, Obamacare is not  the greatest threat. You are.

Put simply, as I understand it, if we accept that we run out of money on Oct. 17, which the government claims, here’s the
situation: We have $30 billion in hand. We will owe more than $200 billion to things like interest on the debt ($35 billion), Medicare and Medicaid ($69 billion), Social Security ($49 billion), military pay ($108 billion) and that’s not counting education, Defense vendors and more.

It’s like you having a monthly budget (mortgage, car payment, groceries, etc.) of $1000 and you have $300 in the bank. But the payments are all due. Based on the congressmen above, that means you balanced your budget. But you didn’t, did you?

So, Mr. President and Mr. or Ms. Congressman, I think I do understand enough to know that the silliness should have ended weeks (years?) ago. Pass the debt ceiling and put our government back to work. Then, resolve whatever issues you can, if you can.

The stock market has been down 11 of the past 14 sessions. The Dow dropped another 160 points today. That’s on top of 140 yesterday. A Wall Street guy predicted that if the Congress doesn’t extend the debt limit, the S&P will go down 45
percent. That’s the measure most 401k’s are tied to.

Is it panic time yet?

Based on statements made today by President Obama and Speaker John Boehner, nothing has changed. The President is still saying he’ll talk, but that doesn’t mean he’ll deal. And Boehner is still saying no president has refused to talk. Well,
neither is Obama. He’s just putting limits on what he’ll do. As is Boehner.

So, guys. If you have nothing new to say, why do you call a press conference which typically is called to make news? No news in this case is not good news. We need someone to blink. Send a signal. Do something. We are running out of time. I assume they each called a press conference because that’s how they are talking to each other (OK, they had  a real
phone call today but from what we know of that call, it was pleasant but not productive).

Everyone, nearly, thinks that a deal will be done before it’s too late. I think that’s because a deal always is done. I’ve been saying for weeks, I fall in the camp of believing the Speaker will, at some point, do the right thing. But I’m not 100 percent on that. The Crazy Caucus in the House cannot be predicted. They are true believers. They will watch the country go over the edge.  

Let’s remember, though, that caucus has at best about 30 votes, far from controlling the outcome.

Someone has to blink. Boehner says he wants talks to start today. I’m with him. I think if they sit down, they will figure it out. This is a political problem, not a substance problem. We have a debt. We have to pay that debt. Simple as that. We
have a government. We have to fund that government. Simple as that.

People want to talk about defunding Obamacare, fine. But don’t make that a criterion for discussions. It passed. It’s law. While I don’t love the way it was passed (with only votes from one party), it passed. It’s law. Nothing in the Constitution says anything about what percentage of a party’s vote needs to be cast for a bill to become law.

I read a story today about a woman who has a rare form of cancer who was denied access to a drug trial at the National Institute of Health because of the budget shutdown. Are you kidding me? This isn’t about political brinksmanship. This is
about people’s lives. You want to negotiate over this particular program or that one? Do it in the normal course of business. Not when people’s lives are at stake. Not when people’s life savings are at stake.  

Start talking. In the same room. No preconditions. Talk.

Lots of stories today on what's going on -- or not going on -- in the Congress to resolve the shutdown and the needed debt limit extension.
 
One story quotes an anonymous Republican strategist as saying Speaker Boehner knows he can't spend capital on the budget vote and then, on its heels, expect to have capital left to deal with the debt. So he is aiming for the debt limit -- the more dangerous of two dangerous issues if it isn't resolved favorably. The debt limit could (I say would) return us into full recession mode, and risk the world economy. The shutdown/lack of a budget "only" risks the poorest in our country, the oldest in our country, the middle years trying to buy houses, etc. It's just like an election: choosing between two bad options -- which brings me back to my primary (other than resolving the issues, of course) issue here: We have no leaders. 
 
The White House and Tea Party nutcakes (House and Senate) are backing Boehner into a corner. He becomes the one fingered as the problem because he won't bring a "clean bill" to the floor. Knee-jerk liberals will object, but Boehner is a
good guy, an experienced Congressional hand, who isn't a nutcase. He certainly knows more about Congressional rules, strategy and dynamics than I ever will. If it falls to him to act, I think he will. I think he will do the right thing.

I also think it's sad that it comes to that -- relying on one man's courage to do the right thing rather than, literally, dozens. As we speak, the most Democrats and Republicans -- on the Hill and off -- are lemmings just doing what they think the party or movement thinks they should. They were elected to lead ,not follow. I get that the 30 or 40 Tea Party-ers in the House have districts where their supporters want them doing exactly what they're doing. But that's 30 or 40 out of 435. A minority.

For those who think power is the only commodity in Washington, I disagree. Sure the extremists on either side get the visibility and the media make it worse because they exploit that, but I think there remains in DC the few who want to do the right thing. And I put Boehner on that list. Is he trying to save his Speakership? I don't think so but, as I've said before, I hope he retains it, because I'm not a fan of the options if he is pushed out.
  
As we approach Oct. 17, the date the Treasury Department says the U.S. will be out of money to pay its debt, the positions harden even more. The White House seems energized that it's "winning" the game, as one of its anonymous
spokesmen said. That's the problem. Some officials look at this as a game -- it isn't. This is serious business. This is peoples' lives, literally. I'll speak for myself. I've worked hard for decades, been lucky and been smart and frugal. I've got some money saved up for retirement. I could lose it in the next few weeks if my "leaders" don't do the right thing. At my age, there are no jobs out there for me to make up any losses. The next few weeks are crucial to me.

That's not a game. That's my life. And I, like  almost every other American, want to win that game.

Today, the blog is formally reborn! It has retired the name of Write On! and transformed into The Screaming Moderate. A name suggested by my friend and former boss, Marlin Fitzwater. Thank you, Marlin. And a new logo thanks to my friend and colleague Jack Lanza.

After reading my blog for the fist time, Marlin told me I am a "screaming moderate" and....he's right (again).

If you've read my posts (and I assume you have) you'll see it's true. I'm a "Republican." I worked for the party for many years, in state campaigns, in the federal government and at the Republican National Committee. But those were different times. There actually was such a thing as a Republican moderate. An endangered species today. The party has moved rightward more and more over the years and, now, many of my friends are what "they" call RINOS (Republicans in Name Only). I would dispute that because, as my old boss the late Lee Atwater said in a speech we worked on together, the GOP is a Big Tent.

The tent seems to be shrinking, though.

We're watching it play out in the government shutdown and the coming deadline to raise the debt ceiling. The Tea Party is holding everyone hostage, but looks like those 30 or 40 House members, finally, will be trumped by the speaker of the house, John Boehner who, reports say, will move to raise the debt ceiling without their support. Those ending the so-called Hastert Rule which says votes won't happen unless every Republican votes "yea." Finally, someone saying nay to a stupid rule that really isn't a rule.

I hope the Speaker does it. And I hope, too, that it is the end of such silliness on the Hill and maybe, maybe, Moderates will make a comeback. Just a hope.

“There will be no negotiations over this.”

So sayeth the President. So Sayeth the Speaker of the House. So sayeth the Majority Leader in the Senate.

Really,  guys? If we pass Oct. 17 with no resolution of the debt ceiling we’ll get there with no one talking to each
other? Sure, there was a meeting last night of the Hill leadership and President. It was called “cordial” but nothing was accomplished. Why’d they have the meeting??? No one had anything to put on the table?? WTF as the kids say now.

I don’t think the President should negotiate on Obamacare – it passed the Congress, albeit with no Republican votes, but it passed. Law. Done. Move on. But he has other things in his power to negotiate with. Can’t he even try?

He gives a speech now and again, but he’s mostly absent on this budget issue. Granted, the power is in the Congress, not with the president but he is the president, for gosh sakes. He has power. He has the bully pulpit. Imagine Lyndon
Johnson president right now. Would he sit on the sidelines? Would FDR? Would Ronald Reagan? Granted, times have changed, power has shifted. But the president is still The Leader of this country. 

Speaker Boehner is in a tough spot. At some point, I'm assuming, hoping, he puts a clean bill on the floor and we move on. 

Let me be clear: I blame the Congress for the situation we’re in. I blame the 30 or 40 nutcake Republicans. I blame Ted Cruz who had some great rhetoric (for his crowd) but no end game. And, I blame President Obama for not engaging (other than one meeting with the Hill leaders) in this and finding a solution. Trust me, there is a solution. It isn’t defunding Obamacare … but there is a solution.  What it is, I don’t pretend to know.

But where there is a political will there is a way. Let’s find the political will.