Turkey Trot

November 28th, 2009

The famous cover from the Saturday Evening Post by Norman Rockwell

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving, one that filled both your belly and your heart; my Dad was able to come home so ours was brimming with gratitude. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes … what would I do without you!

There is some very heartening news about Obama lowering the boom on lobbyists that I’ve posted first. I’m sure there will be a zillion wrinkles, but it’s a huge step and a good one. The man they’re calling the Chess Master needs one resounding, indisputable WIN on his proposals — too much of what he’s put in motion is hanging fire. When that happens, he’ll pick up the speed he needs to finally give us a sense if he’s Republican Lite as so many accuse, Moderate Dem or the Progressive we need. I still think the structural changes he’s putting in place shift us Left in ways we don’t notice, but like the stimulus, it’s hard to plead the success in “it could have been much worse.”

Next a read or two, including link to my weekly, about Thanksgiving. The first is Borowitz, zeitgeist of our times and amusing — the last is a piece by a Randian, which is the mindset that seems to be driving the philosophy of the Right from Wall Street to Sara Palin to the hillbilly’s in the Pea Patch. I post it in counterpoint to the Goodall piece, and mine — they represent the competing philosophies that are wrestling for the upper hand at the moment … this Shifting moment for all the marbles. In that read, Digby’s final remarks echo mine. Here’s an Ayn quote that explains why the NeoCons and the Progressives can no longer hold a reasonable conversation:

“Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.”

Pfffffft! We’d be glad to leave them alone if they’d quit throwing their egocentrism into the necessary changes! But as long as they insist we swallow their parallel universe whole, it’s not going to happen. The arrogance of Rand’s philosophy assumes superiority in the individualism that defies reality; but in my experience, the individual that completes the interior journey of Self finds his/her place within the whole in quiet confidence. Much like the repair of self esteem, if you need to fight for it, you’re still broken — the Randian’s are still trying to inflate individuality and fix themselves. They have not entered the whole of us, and until they see that as where they must go next, they will behave as enemy to the collective.

Rand was half-baked and so are her devotee’s. And if the milk of human kindness aides digestion, then a good many Randian’s had a belly ache and hangover yesterday!

The White House did a little preview of coming attractions in pardoning Courage the turkey — who will live his short shelf life in Disneyland until he falls dead due to breeding for being eaten, not living a long and natural life. Kinda cute. They still have a sense of humor; more than I can say for a lot of citizens. See it here.

If you need something to feel good about, play some of the clips from CNN’s tribute to heroes — real heart-tugging stuff, not phony, found here.

I’m on countdown now to catch a plane on Wednesday, home for my annual visit to see the grandarlin’s and my Angelic family in San Diego … and not a minute too soon; I need to see some Glad faces! I’ll try to sneak in a post before I leave, but if I don’t, you’ll be hearing from me more regularly in December.

Jude

Obama Pushes Lobbyists Off Federal Advisory Boards
Huffpost
11-27-09

In a little-noticed blog post published on the White House website in September, President Obama’s special counsel for ethics and government reform Norm Eisen announced that the administration no longer wanted federally-registered lobbyists appointed to agency advisory boards and commissions.

These appointees to boards and commissions, which are made by agencies and not the President, advise the federal government on a variety of policy areas. Keeping these advisory boards free of individuals who currently are registered federal lobbyists represents a dramatic change in the way business is done in Washington.

As has been reported, the President has made a commitment to close the revolving door that has in the past allowed lobbyists and others to move to and from full-time federal government service. In furtherance of this commitment, the President issued Executive Order 13490, which bars anyone appointed by the President who has been a federally-registered lobbyist within the past two years from working on particular matters or in the specific areas in which they lobbied or from serving in agencies they had lobbied. The aspiration we are announcing today builds on this commitment.

While the letter of the President’s Executive Order on Ethics does not apply to federally-registered lobbyists appointed by agency or department heads, the spirit does and we have conveyed that to the agencies who are responsible for these appointments.

On Friday, the Washington Post reported that the move “may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama,” resulting in “hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists” being ejected from federal advisory panels.

Not surprisingly, lobby groups, corporations, and other K Street influencers are up in arms.

The reaction from the lobbying community has been swift and overwhelmingly negative. Some of the loudest criticism has come from the Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs), a collection of more than a dozen panels that provide policy advice and technical assistance to the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative. The ITACs, whose roughly 400 members include at least 130 lobbyists, officials say, have taken the lead in attacking the White House policy as misguided and harmful to U.S. business interests; a letter to Obama from committee chairs last month included executives from Boeing, IBM, Harley-Davidson and International Paper.

“This action will severely undermine the utility of the advisory committee process,” the letter read. “. . . The characteristics that make many Advisors valuable to the Administration [are] the same characteristics that are being used to artificially disqualify them from participation in the Committee system.”

Read the full Washington Post story here. You can read Norm Eisen’s full letter responding to lobbyists’ critiques of the decision here. ++

bonus

Pardoned White House Turkey Slays Nine
Andy Borowitz, Smirking Chimp
November 26, 2009

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - In a potentially embarrassing situation for the Obama White House, a turkey pardoned by President Obama earlier this week went on a three-state killing spree on Thanksgiving Day, killing nine.

While authorities were still piecing together the motivation behind the recidivist fowl’s homicidal rampage, a chorus of Republican critics complained that pardoning the feathered killer was symptomatic of the Obama administration’s misguided policies.

“First they close down Guantanamo, then they let killer turkeys run free,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). “Next thing you know they’ll put this turkey on trial in New York.”

Elsewhere, a person believed to be a party-crasher who attended this week’s state dinner and acted inappropriately turned out to be Vice President Joe Biden. ++

A Jane Goodall Thanksgiving
Michael Winship, Smirking Chimp
November 25, 2009

Coming Home to Potlatch
Judith Gayle, Planet Waves
11/27/09
Thursday, November 26, 2009

A Thanksgiving Tribute To Me
digby, Hullabaloo

All American values:

What should we really be celebrating on Thanksgiving?

Ayn Rand described Thanksgiving as “a typically American holiday” whose “essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers’ holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.” She was right.

This country was mostly uninhabited and wild when our European forefathers began to develop the land and then build spectacular cities, shaping what has become the wealthiest nation in the world. It’s in the American spirit to overcome challenges, create great achievements, and enjoy prosperity.

We recognize that individuals free to produce create enormous wealth. We uniquely dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. It’s no accident that Americans have a holiday called Thanksgiving - a yearly tradition when we pause to appreciate the bountiful harvest we’ve reaped.

What is the contemporary version of this bountiful harvest? In spite of the current state of the economy, it’s our affluence. It’s the cars, houses, and vacations we enjoy. It’s the medicines we rely on, the movies we watch, and the safe, clean streets we live on. It’s the good life, for the long haul.

How do we get this bountiful harvest? Watch any hardworking American. We create it by working hard year after year, and by wanting excellence for ourselves and our loved ones. What we don’t create ourselves, we use our best judgment to trade value for value with those who have the goods and services we need, such as our bankers, hairdressers, and doctors. We alone are responsible for our wealth. We are the producers and Thanksgiving is our holiday.

So, on Thanksgiving, we should thank ourselves and the other producers who make the good life possible. Why don’t we?

From a young age, we are bombarded with messages designed to undermine our confident pursuit of values: “Be humble,” “You can’t know what’s good for yourself,” “It’s better to give than to receive,” and, above all, “Don’t be selfish!” We are scolded not to take more than “our share” - whether it is of electricity, profits, or pie. We are taught that altruism - not mere benevolence or generosity, but selfless sacrifice for others - is the moral ideal. We are taught to sacrifice for strangers, who inexplicably have a claim to our hard-earned wealth. We are asked to bail out failing banks and uninsured patients. We are asked to serve rather than lead. We are taught to kneel rather than reach for the sky.

But morally, each one of us should reach for the sky. Electricity, profits, and pie can only be truly earned through individual production - giving each of us the right to savor their consumption. Every decision, from which career to pursue to whom to call a friend, should be guided by what will best advance an individual’s rational goals, interests, and, ultimately, an individual’s life. We should take pride in being rationally selfish.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to appreciate and celebrate the fruits of our labor: our wealth, health, relationships, and property - all the values we most selfishly cherish. We should thank authors whose books made us rethink our lives, engineers who gave us the BlackBerry and iPhone, and financiers whose capital has helped build entire industries. We should thank ourselves and those individuals whose production makes our lives more comfortable and enjoyable - those who help us live the much-coveted American dream.

As you sit down to your sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner, think of all the talented individuals whose innovation and inventiveness made possible the products you are enjoying, even if the spread is a little smaller this year.

As you celebrate with your chosen loved ones, thank yourself for everything you have done to make this moment possible. It’s a time to selfishly and proudly say: “I earned this.

Debi Ghate is vice president of academic programs at the Ayn Rand Institute, which promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”

I especially hope that those very special people who made billions speculating and then taking home even more when their companies failed and the taxpayers bailed them out are enjoying their turkey.

And if millions of people got fucked in the process? Too bad. The “producers” earned it. The rest of you are parasites. ++

“I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington … I’m asking you to believe in yours.”
~ Barack Obama

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Entry Filed under: Political Waves