{"id":2949,"date":"2009-02-12T22:42:54","date_gmt":"2009-02-13T03:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2009-02-12T23:16:55","modified_gmt":"2009-02-13T04:16:55","slug":"retro-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/12\/retro-2\/","title":{"rendered":"retrospective…"},"content":{"rendered":"
I don’t want to leave town in a lousy mood [Gregg’s withdrawing]. I’m actually kind of pleased with Barack Obama’s first three weeks. I had no idea that the Republicans would put on such a show, or that their Media would be this vicious. Just goes to show you how naive old guys can be sometimes. Obama calls it their "old habits." Well some "old habits" are really addictions that require a lot of rehabilitation, compliance with a rigorous recovery program, are frequently associated with recurrent relapses, and are sometimes fatal. I suppose that it’s just part of the political game but lordy, lordy this seems like a loud version to me. So, that’s what puts me in a lousy mood. The task before us just seems so vast that adding this political game on top of it feels like too much. Maybe I’d have had more patience for it when I was Obama’s age.<\/div>\n

My take on this crisis is from the perspective of an older man. The current Republican meme dates back to my college days when Goldwater and Ayn Rand were real, living people. John Kennedy became President in my Freshman year in college and was killed in my Freshman year of Medical School. There was the Bay of Pigs, the early Viet Nam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, Folk Music from the Depression, and the Great Communist Experiment had yet to show signs of cracking into a million pieces. . All of today’s issues were swirling in the air around us – inchoate spirits not yet coalesced into today’s form.<\/p>\n

I would never have dreamed that the Great American Conservative Experiment [the Bush years] could’ve happened. Then, it was the stuff of summer beach novels, the Right Wing takeover of the country thwarted just in time by a lone hero and his beautiful sidekick. But it happened. From my vantage, this experiment that should never have been has been a horrible disaster – destroying our place in the world and unleashing the greed on Wall Street at levels unimagined in those salad days of college in the early 1960’s. They really did it big.<\/p>\n

Obama’s election will put a stop to it, but not "just in time." It’s actually already late. Nor will his election immunize us from its resurgence. As the results of their experiment play out, they’ll blame it on the Democrats, and try to make a comeback. How far down will we have to go before the notion of a greed-driven, unregulated economy with a government that essentially stands for no governing will finally go the way of the Berlin Wall? I expect it will be past my time when this sad phase of our history is laid to rest. That’s the source of my dipping into lousy moods.<\/p>\n

One the bright side, even with the financial crisis, compared to a year ago, we’re in splendid shape even though my meager net worth has halved and continues to fall, I wouldn’t want to go back. On this day<\/strong><\/a> last year, the Senate passed the bill giving the telecoms immunity, and I wrote:<\/div>\n
\n
But giving them immunity says that what Bush and Cheney did with the F.I.S.A. Courts is okay. It isn’t okay. Somehow, Bush has gotten Congress to grant immunity to our torturers and the companies that let him tap our phones. Maybe they don’t want to punish others for Bush’s misdeeds, but I don’t think that’s really it. I suspect that they’re bowing to lobbying from the telecoms. Even worse, maybe they’re just not willing to stand up to Bush and Cheney. Whatever their motives, I hate this vote.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And two years ago today<\/strong><\/a>, it was early in the Libby Trial:<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Finally, right at the end, there’s this strange business of giving his article to a lobbyist friend, Rick Holt:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n