Who the Hell Do They Think They Are?

We apologize if we come off a bit blunt today, but it struck us that in recent discussions with other media professionals around the country, the comment that keeps finding its way into our conversations - even from some of our Republican colleagues - about the current GOP Congressional "leadership" is the same: "Who the hell do they think they are?"

We're glad that President Obama finally took on the hubristic Republicans yesterday at his press conference, both on the budget and on the issue of leadership. Frankly, we think he should have done it a LONG time ago.

If you missed the President's press conference, you can watch or read the full transcript at Whitehouse.gov, when you have time. In the spirit of being blunt, however, we decided to rewrite our own short version of his remarks yesterday. This is the address we wish he'd given.

"Good morning, everybody.

We all know how crappy the economy still is out there - and I know there are a ton of people, especially on the Republican side, bitching and whining that my administration still isn't doing enough to fix our economy after they nearly destroyed it. I don't think I need to remind you - again - that I'm not the only one that controls this government. At a certain point we need to say to our Republican friends that they just need to do their own damn jobs.

Right now, there are a whole list of things Congress could do, if they truly wanted to get off their asses and deal with reality. Right now, Congress has a bill they're sitting on that would make it easier for entrepreneurs to patent a new product or idea. Right now, Congress could send me a bill that puts construction workers back on the job rebuilding infrastructure, by providing loans to private companies, states and local governments. Right now, Congress could pass some new trade agreements which would actually help level the playing field for once between the U.S. and countries in Asia and South America. And right now, we could give middle-class families the security of knowing that the tax cut I signed in December will be there for one more year. All of these things are the homework that is sitting on the desks of Congress, RIGHT NOW, still half-finished, after they've had a LONG time to complete it.

My 10 year old and 13 year old daughters get their homework done before their deadlines every day - what the hell is your problem, Congress?

We all know the single biggest thing we could do to help the economy and create jobs is to get this budget done, and tackle the nation's deficit. Our budget committee, led by Vice President Biden, has busted butt to find more than one trillion dollars worth of spending cuts already.

Still, that hasn't been enough for our Republican friends. They want to defy the laws of mathematics, and never raise taxes again, especially for millionaires and billionaires. Yet somehow, they still expect to magically balance the budget. EVERY economist - ours, theirs, economists from other countries - have all said the same thing: What the Republicans want isn't possible. Period.

It would be nice if we could keep every tax break there is, but we’ve got to make some tough choices here if we actually want to reduce our deficit, instead of just BS-ing everyone about this. For instance, if we choose to keep tax cuts for billionaires, then college kids, cancer patients, and old people will suffer - and you won't ever again be able to trust that hamburger you love so much.

The bottom line is this:  Any agreement to reduce our deficit is going to require tough decisions and balanced solutions by leaders on all sides. Only a few people have what it takes to make the tough decisions in life. That’s why they’re called "leaders".

There’s no point in procrastinating any further. We have got to get this done. If, by the end of this week, we have not seen substantial progress on the budget, then members of Congress are going to have to suck it up and cancel their vacations - which they seem to be on all the time.

They're in one week, they're out one week. They come back for a few days, and leave again. And then they have the gall to say, "Obama has got to step in and take care of this." Congress? You need to be here. I’ve been here. I’ve been doing Afghanistan and bin Laden and the Greek crisis. I've done healthcare reform, and Iraq, and Wall Street - and I've even been on diplomatic missions around the world while I did all this. It's time you stay here and get your work done, for once.

Let’s get it done, people. I'm tired of being jerked around - and so are the American people. It's time you did your job."

First, They Came For The Parade...

It's with some concern for certain friends of ours that we've noticed a heightened level of anxiety lately, specifically about the Federal budget and the debt negotiations going on in Washington, DC.

It's not that we aren't concerned with the insane obstinance and utter stupidity of the Republican leadership in Congress - or the repeated naiveté of the Democratic leadership - on the issue of the debt. We've been concerned enough about the topic of sensible budgeting - both bringing in more revenue and cutting wasteful spending - that we've discussed the topic at least once a month, every month, for the entire history of this publication.

That being said, we're not overly worried that the government of the United States will end up breaking its proverbial neck on our debt ceiling, regardless of what kind of hostage techniques Congressional Republicans try to pull off. As former corporate lawyer and longtime legal journalist, Reynolds Holding noted in a column for Reuters on Tuesday, America's constitution - specifically the Fourteenth Amendment - doesn't technically allow for us to default.

Still, even if we take a Pollyanna-like approach that the federal budget and debt negotiations now being led by President Obama will work out, that sadly won't change the selfish, self-centered, poisoned atmosphere that permeates much of America.

In our hometown of Lincoln, we used to be proud of a crazy annual community event known as the Star City Holiday Parade. We're intimately aware of how unusual it is for a midwest city to host an outdoor parade, annually, on a morning in early December (Our web guru helped host that parade for his former radio station, outside, in the cold, for seven years in a row). As crazy as it was, it was an event that brought the community together, attracted huge crowds, and had grown over its 25 years to become Lincoln's kickoff to the holiday season.

When the economy crashed, the funds for the parade went away, and we highly doubt it will return. It was an unusual event, but one that raised both the economy and the quality of life for everyone in the area. Even more unusual, was the fact that none of Lincoln's "money guys", including members of the Lincoln Independent Business Association, were willing to step up to the plate with checkbooks at the ready to continue this long-standing, successful community tradition. They should all be ashamed. We surely are.

Now, instead of acting together as one community to do things that will benefit the greatest number of our citizens, even "family friendly" Lincoln, Nebraska, seems to have turned inward and selfish in many ways.

Yes, the citizens of Lincoln did vote to build a new entertainment arena last year, a vote that was easily twenty years overdue when it passed. But a single vote doesn't improve the overall quality of life in a community. In fact, instead of working to make the venue more energy efficient and less of a drain on the pocketbooks of future Lincolnites, Lincoln's Mayor has recently decided that the city can't spend a little more money now, to make sure the arena is built right the first time.

After all, the arena suites are scheduled to go on sale soon for between $45,000 and $65,000 a year - and Lincoln simply couldn't ask for more money from the poor little rich folk, who can afford such extravagance in our current economic climate, right?

As syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. noted last weekend, there are reasons all of us, rich and poor alike, pay our taxes. Making our communities worth living in is one of those reasons. Paying the debts we all owe is another.

Getting past the debt ceiling argument won't be the hardest thing America does in the near future. The hardest thing we'll do is finally address the question of what kind of America we actually want to live in.

We hope that the America that we collectively choose doesn't end up being one where we toss out traditions and things that have made our country such a great place to live and work for so long, in order to make way for the "suite life" of the super rich. If that turns out to be the case, then we at The Daily Felltoon will be truly concerned.

For now, count us as worried - but holding tight to the Fourteenth Amendment.

Playing Dumb

We have a strange idea for a litmus test of sorts, for whomever is going to win the 2012 Presidential election.

We think that whatever candidate is going to win the election, which will give them the keys to the largest and most powerful military and nuclear arsenal on the planet, should know the difference between John Wayne - famous actor from Winterset, Iowa - and John Wayne Gacy - the serial killer who posed as a clown and killed 33 young men and boys in the 1970s. That's not to mention the difference between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, or that the founding fathers did not, in fact, seek to end slavery.

Sadly, the latest entrant into the Republican Presidential primary race, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, doesn't know any of these things - or at least, she appears not to.

We have friends who live in Minnesota - solid, sane, Republican friends - who are horrified by the thought of Ms. Bachmann as the President of the United States. They don't even really like her as a Representative, for many reasons. They've said she's pretty enough - but it seems almost beyond belief that she's really as stupid as she appears. Our Democratic and Independent friends there concur - Bachmann should not be underestimated.

It's an old actor's axiom that the people who play dumb the best are actually highly intelligent. If a person's intelligence can be accurately judged by their degrees and accomplishments, Ms. Bachman must be much smarter than her actions lead most people to believe. She worked on President Jimmy Carter's campaign in college. She earned both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Law, and was a practicing federal tax lawyer for five years. She's even ridden the wave of Tea Party discontent higher than any other national politician, establishing the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, for which she is the chairperson.

As journalist Matt Taibbi points out in the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Bachmann is anything but a joke.

For one thing, the base of people Ms. Bachmann appeals to includes a large portion of people who have longstanding grudges against those who are better educated than her base. In Bachmann, her base voters see someone just smart enough to possibly get elected as President - and just dumb enough to hate all the same people they do.

Of course, the rubes she's trying to pull a fast one on don't seem to have learned - yet - about the nearly $30,000 in state and federal funds that her husband's business has received over the last five years. They also haven't learned that her family's farm in Wisconsin, in which she is a partner, received over a quarter million dollars in ag subsidy money during a similar time period. The subsidies that are lining Bachman's pockets now are the same ones she's been railing about for several years, when she continually wailed  that the federal government and state governments need to reduce wasteful spending - like unnecessary agriculture subsidies.

If we didn't know better, we'd think Ms. Bachmann was trying to run for the presidency of the Lincoln Independent Business Association - but that spot is already occupied by another hypocrite, who makes a living criticizing the pay and benefits of public employees while feeding at the private sector trough.

The truth is, if politics were always about the better candidate, we'd never be concerned about Michele Bachmann going up against Barack Obama for the highest office in the land. Unfortunately, as we've all seen far too often over the last ten-to-twelve years - including a presidential race decided by a 5-4 Supreme Court vote - that's not how politics works these days, in America.

If you know anyone who thinks Michele Bachmann is a viable choice for President, we ask that you point out to them the facts behind her lies - and then remind them of the old actor's axiom we cited earlier in this column.

Bachman may appear stupid - but she's way too good at it to really be that dumb.

Silent "Civil" Marriage Wins Loudly

With a triumphant shout from the gallery in the New York state senate Friday night, and the signing of the bill by Governor Cuomo on Saturday morning, New York state did something that only five other states and the District of Columbia have done so far - legalize same-sex civil marriage.

Note the use of the word "civil" in our comment. It's not a mistake or a typo. In fact, it's likely one of the most important words missing from the debate on same-sex marriage in the United States.

There has nearly always has been a separation between religious laws and the secular laws of America and most of its states. There have been those individuals, from time to time who have used the power of the government to inflict their religious codes on others. Over time, however, American law has always swung back (so far) to re-establish the important division between the two.

On the subject of marriage, there is a vast difference between "civil marriage" and " religious marriage." Because of that separation, the State has no ability to force religious institutions to acknowledge the actions of other religions - or even sub-factions of their own religion. This was a fact specifically acknowledged in the New York law.

The government DOES have the ability to regulate "civil marriage", however, as it's a specifically defined category of legal contract. Every type of contract has specific rules that govern its enforcement, from bilateral real estate contracts, to unilateral contracts of action; from inter-corporate contracts to that special kind of contract between two individuals that covers many different laws, levels, and specifications with one word: the marriage contract.

Civil marriage contracts are mostly agreements that cover personal property rights - things like death benefits, tax relief, and the rights to make medical decisions for one's partner. It's a very specific class of contract - and there is no separate or similar kind of contract that bestows the holder with the same rights anywhere in the U.S. or any of its states or territories.

Even in states where "civil unions" are allowed between same-sex couples, the rights of those individuals are not the same as those relationships acknowledged with a legal label of "marriage" by the state. There are over a thousand benefits on both the federal and state level that only married couples enjoy, while those under civil unions receive approximately about 300 similar benefits. Such stark differences further drive home the fact that separate is not equal.

If anyone has a problem with same-sex couples using the word "marriage" to define their legal status, we would be completely fine if that legal label was disallowed for gay couples - so long as it was also disallowed for straight couples, and a new label given that would apply to all couples, across the board.

Until then, bigots and ignorant folk are simply going to have to learn to hear the silent "civil" when gay couples speak of their marriages to each other.

For our part, we're very glad for our friends in New York as well as for Americans around the country who will soon be able to go to New York and enter into fully legal civil marriage contracts. [New York has NO residency requirement for marriage.]

Passing this law wasn't merely an honorable action for the New York state government. Economists also estimate that in the next three years, the boom in same-sex marriages in the Empire State will bring more than a quarter of a billion dollars in new revenue to their state. So this law not only helps America be more just - it may rapidly help America, and New York specifically, to generate more tax revenue AND more jobs.

More jobs and new sources of revenue for the government, in a time when America needs both so desperately, are things we think even the most hate-filled homophobes should eventually cheer for.

Friday Funday: The Way Out

Normally on Friday, we try to keep the mood lighter - and that is our intention, though it may not seem like it as we we begin today.

But first we have to report another vicious blow to America, with the incredibly stupid decision by Gannett Newspapers to put at least 700 more Americans onto the unemployment rolls.

We could rail against the insanity of such a decision - and internally, we are doing just that.

But it's Friday, so we're not going to dwell on the decisions of those who are incapable of seeing beyond the quarterly earnings statement. In time, the market will crush them into dust for their lack of vision - something successful investors like Warren Buffett continue to remind others about.

What we wish to point out to our former print colleagues in the media is something our web guru has been preaching to newspapers and radio stations and other "old school" media for years, now...

The idea that newspapers are dead is bull.
Old newspapers never die. They just get digitized - like every other type of media.

The problem that so many inside and outside the media field continue to have is that they confuse the medium with the message, just as Marshall McCluhan pointed out nearly fifty years ago.

The fact is, even though we have a huge number of new ways to consume media - Kindles, iPads, cell phones, and more - the MEDIA that we're taking in is the same as it was before. Someone has to draw the cartoons, someone has to write the words, and someone needs to edit the content and make sure things aren't misspelled or misinterpreted (Hear, us, bloggers?). If it's pictures, someone has to shoot the images. Of course, someone has to edit, lay out, and publish all of this content, as well.

Here's what the "newspaper" giants like Gannett won't tell you - they're really doing quite well financially, thanks to all their other divisions. Divisions which almost always crib their content from the original content created for "print products." Without the "print" creators, their other divisions will crumble.

Think about Hollywood movie blockbusters right now - where would they be without comic book writers and artists?

What's more, media consumption is on the increase worldwide. In America, we're taking in nearly 35% more media than we did just a few years ago. By the way, that increase came during the recession we're all still suffering through.

It's not that people aren't reading the newspaper any more. They are. You're reading a version of a newspaper right now. It's just one made up of pixels and glass, instead of ink and pulp.

So if you're one of our media colleagues suddenly looking for work again, take heart - your creative talents are still needed, and will continue to be needed in the future.

People will always have a need for someone creative to write, draw, photgraph, and edit the things they all enjoy reading.

No Surprises

We watched the President's announcement of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan last night - and if you haven't seen it yet, we suggest you put aside about fifteen minutes and watch it. At the very least, read the transcript.

Frankly, there wasn't anything that surprised us about the speech.

It's not that we're jaded. We know the stereotype of people who work in media and communications - and while that cliché may have some basis in reality, it didn't color our opinion of the President's address - or the reactions of our colleagues in the media that we observed last night.

First, to the speech.

Several media organizations had already leaked earlier this week that President Obama would be calling for 10,000 troops to come home by the end of this year. Others leaked that Obama would call at least 30,000 troops back in the next fifteen months. Neither piece of news shocked us when the President confirmed them both.

We weren't even surprised that the President made his announcement this month. Eighteen months ago, at West Point, the President told the country then that he was sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in order to actually try and complete the mission initially assigned to those troops a decade ago. The initial mission was to subdue the Taliban, help bring back a secular government, and kill Osama Bin Laden. Eighteen months later, all three goals have been accomplished - and true to his word, President Obama is now beginning to bring the troops home.

Certainly, there were other factors in the President's decision, the cost of the wars being one of the largest. Overall though, this President has - more often than not - completed the goals he's set for himself, and worked to fulfill his promises. One look at Politifact's "Obmaeter" confirms that he's only broken his promises on 42 of 508 promises made before he took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Sadly, we remain unsurprised at how the partisans on both ends of the simplified political spectrum attacked the President after his speech.

On the left, the anti-war liberals immediately jumped on the President as not moving fast enough, and harped on the fact there will still be more troops in Afghanistan than there were when he was inaugurated. Of course, they'll conveniently ignore the fact that his predecessor never even sent the recommended number of troops to either Afghanistan or Iraq in the first place.

On the right, the members of the 101st Kowardly Keyboard Kommandos' Chickenhawk Division immediately jumped to the idea that ANY significant troop reduction is a choice between a safe America and an unsafe America. As we've noted before, we'll never know if they'd feel the same way if they'd been the ones serving four or five tours of duty in war zones over the last decade, instead of living off the largess of their parents and others.

We're not even surprised at the general lack of reaction from Afghans and Pakistanis. Regardless of when we leave, the Afghans will likely revert back to their age-old habits of tribal squabbles and corruption. And Pakistanis still aren't sure killing Bin Laden was a good idea.

Everyone knows where they stand on this issue - and it's no different than it was before the President's address last night. The only thing that might surprise us about his speech is if we found someone who actually changed their opinion of the war after the President's address.

We won't hold our breath we'll find anyone like that.

Up In Smoke

When it comes to the combined idea of politicians and credibility, we're reminded of the old George Carlin jokes about "jumbo shrimp,", "business ethics" or "plastic glasses.". While the two ideas are not completely mutually exclusive, we can certainly understand how many Americans see the idea of a credible politician as something of a rare species. Many of the people on Capitol Hill who were screeching with righteous indignation for Congressman Anthony Weiner to resign (even though he did nothing illegal) still have little to say about Congressman David Vitter's solicitation of prostitution (which IS a crime), even several years later.

Take a look around - even the former main conductor of the "Straight Talk Express" seems to have once again singed his own credibility, after taking his tongue for a walk right into the tinder-dry thickets of arguably racist comments.

We admit that there's a lot of evidence that speaks again John McCain being a racist, not the least of which is the Senator's adopted daughter, Bridget.  Still, a long-time veteran of the political process like McCain should know that just one unguarded or poorly phrased statement can be misconstrued, inflated, and come to dominate the news cycle. Even things not specifically stated - like McCain's adoption of a daughter from Bangladesh - can be twisted to make a political figure appear to be something they're not, as Karl Rove did to McCain back in 2000.

Unfortunately, just being aware of the pitfalls of a media environment that is constantly salivating for more juicy content isn't enough to protect someone from sometimes triggering a media feeding frenzy - which is exactly what Senator McCain has done over the last few days.

At a press conference last weekend, Mr. McCain made some comments about both wildfires and immigrants that - frankly - may have appeared racist to people who only saw clips of the press conference, or even read his main quotes. Those comments could easily be interpreted as inflammatory by a media consumer who isn't fully informed about the problems that affect the Senator's home state of Arizona, or even those who may not have seen the entire press conference.

The problem with Sen. McCain's credibility on this issue is that his media assistants seem to have forgotten how charged and primed the media environment surrounding his state is, with respect to any racial comment. The fallout created by SB 1070 still hasn't been settled, nor have the immigration challenges facing border states. These are all things that Mr. McCain is well aware of.

Sadly, in today's media environment, facts cannot always extinguish the blaze of inflammatory comments taken out of context in a 140-character world. That may have once been the case - and we still believe wholeheartedly in basing our viewpoints on facts. But going on the Today Show and saying that he was, "…puzzled ... that there should be any controversy," didn't help Mr. McCain's credibility. In fact, it may have hurt him, as some people now see him in the same light that they see Grandpa Simpson - old and out of touch.

We have family in Arizona - and we understand that what the Senator was saying may have some embers of truth to it. After all, fires in the desert are used for all the things he said immigrants use them for - as signals, to keep warm, and as diversions - by both immigrants and citizens alike.

The real burn for Mr. McCain - not to mention his staff - seems to be the inability to put out this kind of media firestorm.

Public figures take note: when you spark a flame with an offhand, easily misunderstood comment, apologize, and walk away. You may indeed have the facts on your side, but as one of our staff members has been known to say, "Do you want to be right, or do you want to get your message across?"

Justice, Inc.

The golden rule was on full display in Washington, DC yesterday, right across from the Capitol Building, and just down the street from the Library of Congress - but it may not be the golden rule you're thinking of.

In case you missed it, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday made a decision to throw out a long-struggling, class action employment discrimination lawsuit against the country's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. The decision was not the slam dunk that media outlets on either side are claiming it was.

The court was unanimous in saying that the lawyers for the plaintiffs had sued Wal-Mart using the wrong part of the law, one not concerned with monetary damages. That's the part of the story you'll hear crowed about in the right-wing media, when it comes to this story. Sadly, it was the failure of the lawyers for the former Wal-Mart workers to properly navigate the labyrinth of legal tangles that led to that 9-0 decision - which had nothing to do with the key part of the case.

The real meat of the decision was the 5-4 ideological split, which said - in short - that class-action lawsuits that seek money from employers for discrimination in the workplace are non-starters in the eyes of the Supremes.

As Columbia University law professor John Coffee said in the LA Times, this ruling "… largely eliminates the monetary threat facing big employers [if they decide to discriminate]… if there is no money relief at the end of the road, there is no incentive to bring the suit."

We've understood for quite some time now that the Roberts Court has been overly friendly to corporations, big businesses, and the wealthy, while treating the concerns of those the court is supposed to focus upon - the unjustly afflicted or unjustly accused - as annoying, uninteresting, or unworthy of justice.

Just to add insult to their injury to the justice system, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court also ruled, in a separate case, that states have no duty to provide legal counsel in civil court matters, "even if that individual faces incarceration," due to the circumstances of their situation.

This can - and likely will - open a huge can of worms for certain people caught in the gears of our legal system. Those people, once accused and arrested, if caught in the system, could then be punished not for their own failures but the failures of the system. Each time the system fails them, they - not the system - could be given an additional charge, but they won't be provided with legal counsel any more.

As the bipartisan Constitution Project noted Monday, the ruling "undermines the fundamental fairness of our justice system, putting Americans in danger of losing their liberty simply because they cannot afford a lawyer."

If this sounds eerily close to the skewed legal system Europeans often faced under unjust kings and other aristocratic rulers - one of the very reasons Europeans escaped to America in the first place - you're right.

The golden rule that we mentioned earlier, that the U.S. Supreme Court was displaying Monday, isn't the one in the Bible.

It's the rule that he or she who has the gold, makes the rules.

As history proves, that rule often works, for a time. As history also proves, that rule only works as long as they who have the gold can stay alive long enough to use it.

That version of the golden rule may be what our legal system is turning into - but don't call it a justice system.

Justice doesn't look anything like this.

Right Track, Wrong Track

As we pointed out over a month ago, when one of the many Tea Party groups announced its endorsement of Nebraska Republican Attorney General Jon Bruning for the current U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, such backing may not have been the kind of boost that outsiders may have thought it was.

In our travels since that announcement was made, we've heard more than a few comments from conservative readers - and even read a few letters to the editor at different newspapers - that support our claim that Mr. Bruning's choice to side with the insane right will only hurt his chances against Ben Nelson.

It's quite obvious the Attorney General/Senate Hopeful hasn't paid heed to the voices we've been hearing. Last week he signed the ridiculously named "Contract from America" that a second, different Tea Party group is promoting.

That Bruning signed a document pushed by an opposing Tea Party group from the one that previously endorsed him only shows us that he's clueless about the differences between the two factions. It also displays to us - as well as his opponents in the Republican primary race - that he feels desperate enough to "prove" his current supposedly conservative credentials that he's willing to beg for the approval of nearly any far-right political group. That Mr. Bruning has a history that proves his less-than extreme conservatism may also have something to do with his maneuvers.

No one is being fooled by the actions of candidates like Mr. Bruning, or the actions of candidates like Mitt Romney, who facetiously claimed last week that he was unemployed. Their actions are pure pandering, and in a party that claims to be the bastion of general ethics, personal morals, and family values, those kinds of actions are a certain sign of being a complete and total hypocrite.

We have yet to figure out how a candidate from ANY political party, who claims to be representing a large group of people with high ethics and deep moral codes, will actually be able to win a general election in the fall of 2012 with a performance like this now, before the primary events.

The political atmosphere around the country is not what many in the major mainstream corporate media on either the right or left seem to have been pushing forth lately. Sadly, it was comedian Jon Stewart once again pointing out the media's bias this weekend on Fox - not that it has a liberal bias, but that it has a bias in favor of sensationalism. We saw that in the stories surrounding the Anthony Weiner media fiasco over the last three weeks.

What we also saw in the more legitimate stories about "WeinerGate" - more than once - was that some voters don't really seem to care about scandalous but not illegal actions by their elected officials. When asked many times, if they would vote for him again, or if he should step down, the majority of Mr. Weiner's constituents consistently said the same thing: that they didn't care what he did on his own time. He did his job for them better than anyone else, and he got them results.

That's what anyone who truly wants to run government like a business would say about the people they hire - that while they're at work, if they get the right results, they should be able to stay.

Meanwhile, likely Republican voters have made it clear in other polls; they don't really care what the beliefs of their 2012 presidential candidate are - just as long as he or she beats President Obama.

For a group of people who want to claim the mantle of the party of values, we've got to say: if that's the way you're going, your train is not heading in the right direction, in any way - politically, ethically, or on the track to winning it all in 2012 and beyond.

Leaders don't need to beg.

Friday Funday: Thanks For Dads.

With all the "Hallmark holidays" and non-holiday holidays that are out there these days - like National Flip Flop Day (which is today) - we understand that people often tend to either overcelebrate or downgrade almost every chance to celebrate important people and events in their lives.

Don't get us wrong - we're not the kind of people who think that every occasion needs its own party section in the gift and card store. We also don't think that "Talk Like A Pirate Day" should be just as important as Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Independence Day.

What we do think is that important people deserve a little bit more attention at least once a year, on a day reserved for just such gratitude. Moms and dads certainly each deserve their own special day each year, if only for all that they've put up with from their kids.

Maybe you're the kind of person that sends cards or e-cards on occasions you think are important or special. If you are, we hope you've taken the time to pick a special card for your dad - and maybe even written your own special message to go along with it. If you're more the telephone type of person, we hope you take some time to dial up your dad, stepdad, or other father figure this weekend - and whatever you do, don't call him collect.

If you're someone who would rather let your actions say thanks for you,  you may want to buy lunch for your dad today at the UNL Dairy Store. It's a P.O. Pears day at the Dairy Store - and we know quite a few dads who would probably love a fresh-grilled burger that they didn't have to cook themselves. Spring for the ice cream cone too - your dad is worth it.

Maybe you'll be at NebraskaLand Days in North Platte and you've got a dad who is HuskerNutz. Conveniently, the Sowers Club will be selling 2012 Paul Fell HuskerNutz calendars at NebraskaLand Days - so we hope that helps your favorite HuskerNutz father feel appreciated.

The important thing about holidays like Father's Day is that we take a little bit more time to let the fathers and father figures in our lives now how important they are to us.

They're special people. They deserve a special day of gratitude.

Happy Father's Day.

Looking On The "Bright" Side

For those of our readers affected by the flooding going on throughout the Midwest, the phrase, "It could be worse," is small comfort, indeed.

At this point though, if you're directly affected by this flooding situation, small comfort, your family, and your laptop or a cell phone may be the greater share of your possessions not crammed into your friend's and relative's garages.

With that in mind, we're giving you a list of people today that have it just as bad as you, in different ways.

We can start with President Obama.

If we ignore those extremists on the far right who never think the President can do anything correctly, there is still a whole heaping helping of major issues that have just crashed down on his desk.

Yes, he's got some responsibility through FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for the floods happening from Montana to Mississippi. Those agencies are also still taking care of the tornado disasters in Joplin and Tuscaloosa, and the massive fire in Arizona.

Then there is a new coalition of Democratic and Republican members of Congress who've decided they all want to play Commander In Chief. This group has rapidly decided - after a decade - that America suddenly needs to get out of Afghanistan, regardless of what those involved with operating the war say. Many of these folks were also the same people who insisted that President Obama listen to the Generals on the ground before he made any decisions to stay or go.

At the same time Mr. Obama is dealing with the "Let's leave Afghanistan NOW" coalition, he's also having to face another bipartisan group of lawmakers trying to sue him over the War Powers Act over the United States' involvement, through NATO, in Libya. If that weren't enough, the President's legal advisors at the State Department tried to explain their opinions by saying that American forces haven't REALLY been involved in hostilities in Libya - it's just been our little robot aircraft flying over Libya, while our troops outside of Libya refuel the fighter jets of other NATO countries.

That was just President Obama's Wednesday.

You could also be Mitt Romney, who appears to be running into a candidate who has contradicted virtually everything he's said in the last few years - himself.

Or you could be Newt Gingrich, abandoned by his entire campaign staff - except his wife, who seems to know exactly how to keep Newt exactly where she wants him.

Or Tim Pawlenty, who - after wimping out on confronting his chief rival Mr. Romney, at the debate Monday night - is pretty much considered a political lightweight by anyone interested in the campaign.

You could even be Congressman Weiner, who had to face his wife, as she returned home from a long, overseas business trip as chief assistant to the Secretary of State. Now THERE'S a fellow whose shoes we're happy to NOT be occupying.

So... if you're waiting out the flood waters in the Midwest today - or if you've suddenly found your house filled with extended relatives who don't have anywhere else to go - as uncomfortable as you are, remember there are still other people out there who are up to their neck in things just as nasty as floodwater.

Separate And Unequal Can Only Lead To One Outcome

It's been disgusting to note the multiple double standards in full effect in America over the last two weeks as the Anthony Weiner non-sex "sex scandal" has flashed itself in front of nearly every media outlet in the nation.

It's obvious that one set of people - congresspersons, televangelists, sports and entertainment stars - can make horrible personal mistakes, and be crucified by the media in ways that make Pontius Pilate look like an amateur. These same people - who have done nothing legally wrong, by the way - can then go to resort-style "Treatment Centers" and come out a short time later "cured" of whatever personal failing they were convicted of, in the court of public opinion.

The rest of us, of course, if we find ourselves in a similar situation, merely have to face the chin music of our spouses when we get home.

It should be obvious that these actions have set up a separate and unequal system of injustice in America - both for those who are digitally tarred and feathered, as well as for the rest of us.

Now, our description of this tiered system may have brought a smile or smirk to your face - but the attitude of the entitled is nothing to laugh about.

In Wisconsin, that attitude is about to start a statewide civil war.

In case you missed it, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a decision led by a judge who is a former head of that state's Republican Party, handed extremist right-wing Governor Scott Walker a victory on Tuesday. That happened when the court overturned the stay on the unconstitutional union-killing bill passed under shady circumstances in the Wisconsin Legislature.

If this decision stands, as it appears it will, not only will workers in Wisconsin no longer have the right to organize for fair wages and benefits. The state's GOP is also set to roll back child labor laws, wipe out protections for renters (both private and commercial), and turn the public school system into a private, voucher-based system (albeit, paid for with public tax dollars). Even small beer brewers are being attacked.

We feel the need to remind you, dear reader, that we do not support or recommend violence as a means to redress one's grievances, even with actions as heinous as those happening in Wisconsin.

That being said, the actions behind these attitudes - those of Wisconsin's extremist, regressive Republicans - are ones that will not likely end well for people on any side of this conflict.

A rash of recall elections has been scheduled for this summer and fall - and it's nearly certain that Democratic and Republican candidates will even be running in each other's primary elections. Millions of dollars is expected to flow into the state from outside sources.

The state has become a laughing stock, and we've had more than one contact tell us businesses are beginning to leave. Meanwhile the Republican Party continues to become fully engaged in an ideological war of words and legal maneuvers against their Democratic counterparts that may yet turn into actual fist fights - or worse.

As our friend and colleague John Nichols said recently, "it is not too late for responsible Republicans... to reject the crude pay-to-play politics that Walker and the Fitzgeralds have imported from outside Wisconsin."

We hope that he's right.

As a wise Republican President once said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

Going For Broke On Jobs

For most of the last two-and-a-half years, since President Obama first came to office, we've been repeating the mantra of "Jobs, jobs, jobs" as the biggest single problem facing our country. While President Obama has made measurable headway in bringing the country back from the Bush recession, America still isn't back where we'd like it to be.

If you were looking to see any GOP presidential candidate seriously address the issue of how they'd bring more jobs to the U.S. economy, at the Republican Presidential Debate on CNN last night, you wouldn't have heard any answers coming from that bunch of presidential hopefuls. Complaints, yes. Criticizing, yes. Legitimate plans on how to fix the problem? No.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the U.S. Senate have been screaming at the President to focus on job creation, as we pointed out in the links section of yesterday's Daily Felltoon. Yes, the President did meet with his Jobs Council in North Carolina yesterday - and the President did present a plan for more high-tech jobs, unexpectedly calling to extend the payroll tax break for workers. But those meager measures are far from the explosive and far-reaching efforts that the top economists have been calling for. Even former White House aide Lawrence Summers, an economist who has been both revered and reviled, said this past weekend, "There is no time for fatalism or for traditional political agendas."

We're more than willing to admit our skepticism a week ago Monday, when we doubted House Democrats who claimed they were going to push for more infrastructure spending. We were even more surprised last week when Senate Democrats presented an actual plan for infrastructure investment which would create more jobs in our economy.

What truly floored us, however, was when the White House said the jobs bill that Senate Democrats were proposing was too expensive.

As writer Richard Eskow pointed out last Friday, the Senate Democrats' plan was only an additional $600M in public works spending over the next three years. In the scope of the Federal budget, a $600 million dollar investment in something we need anyway is practically small change. And as Mr. Summers pointed out, deferring infrastructure maintenance and replacement - which creates jobs - at this point is insane. We have unemployment rates in the construction field of nearly 20%, and interest rates for 10-year bonds (standard in infrastructure financing) at an insane 3 percent rate.

In short, it will likely never get cheaper for America to invest in itself again.

We're not sure of how else to say it to President Obama - and anyone else who wants to succeed in politics between now and November of next year. So we'll simply do in words that which they should be carrying out in action, and go a bit overboard.

Push the damn investment policies, sir. All the way, one hundred and twenty thousand percent. Quit being afraid of making moderate voters mad. Y'know what REALLY makes voters mad? Being unemployed for years at time.

Mr. President, quit worrying about what the Republicans and Tea Partiers are going to say and do. Many of them will NEVER vote for you. Quit trying to make nice with them - they can go to hell. As a recent Pew poll points out, sane Americans have begun to tune out the liars on the extremist right on the topic of Obama and Israel. If you stand up and show America you are willing to go to the mat for working people, Mr. President, it's likely more Americans will ignore the other lies those on the extremist right have also been spewing.

Who cares if you - or Democrats - put forward one proposal or one million proposals to put Americans back to work, that House Republicans will never, ever pass? The action of throwing yourselves on that sword again and again would at least make VERY clear, Mr. President, that you are on the side of Americans who want to work and can't find jobs - and those who oppose those efforts are not.

In short, Mr. President, what do you have to lose? If America doesn't have significantly more jobs by November 2012, you'll likely be joining the ranks of the unemployed, anyway.

It's time to go all out, sir.

How Long Can You Tread Water?

While a stupidly large section of the media is still focused on the sexual proclivities of a Congressman, while another stupidly large section is focused on the e-mails of Sarah Palin from three years ago, a large chunk of the American people seem to be thankfully doing what they do best - ignoring the majority of the media hoopla, and focusing on what's important.

For those Americans living near near the Missouri River, that means being prepared for what appears to be a once in a millennium flood.

This isn't the only time in history that the Missouri has flooded, as our friend Jim McKee pointed out over the weekend. There have been more worrying concerns with this flood - as we mentioned last week, the nuclear power plant north of Omaha among them. Still, as natural disasters go, so far this has been a very tame one.

We don't mean to play this off as a minor event. Some of our friends have been affected, including our photographer/cartoonist friend Scott, down in Watson, Missouri. But because of the planning and infrastructure investment that was made during the 1960s, those who live along the "Mighty Mo" have had weeks, not hours, to plan and and enact their escapes, and flood preparations.

Unlike so many of the disasters Americans have faced in recent memory, because Americans worked TOGETHER, planned, prepared, and invested in the future success of their fellow citizens, a flood that might be a once-in-a-thousand year phenomenon, may end up being mostly an event that discomforts more than than it destroys.

The sad thing to note is that if the proposal to invest in the kinds of flood preparation the United States enacted during the 1960s was made today, it would never pass.

While those Midwesterners affected by the floods soldier through these next few weeks, and the cleanup continues into Husker football season and beyond (which it will), we hope that one key fact about the floods of 2011 continues to float to the top of your brains.

We were told during the 1960s we couldn't afford to spend so much government money on projects like those involved in Missouri River flood control. We had just gotten out of the Korean War when planning for these projects began. By the time these projects were primarily finished, we were involved in Vietnam, another costly venture. We also added the costs of Medicare and Medicaid to our expenses during the 1960s. Yet we Americans decided that we needed to invest in America anyway, through projects just like the flood control efforts along the Missouri.

Some state governments spent more than they had planned during those investments, and some government programs ran into cost overruns too. In short, we spent more than the immediate direct benefits we got from these projects.

Yet, as those Americans back then knew, the benefit wasn't for just them. It was for their children, their grandchildren, and people they didn't even know.

People like our friends and neighbors now.

If only Americans had that kind of vision today.

Friday Funday: Silver Lining? It's The Off Switch

Every Friday, we try to lighten the mood a bit from our weightier discussions earlier in the week. It's not always an easy task, given the myriad number of challenges facing our country, and facing some of our friends, for that matter.

There were more storms in the Midwest last night, and some damage did take place in the neighborhood of someone we know, down in Kansas. The floods are decimating the lives of many we know near the Missouri River. Parts of Interstates 29 and 680 along the Iowa-Nebraska border are closing due to the flooding, something none of us can ever remember having happened before. There are droughts in Florida, and DC has been uncomfortably hot far too early in the season.


Those are just the weather-related issues. Don't even get us started about the actions of our media colleagues, the economic forecasts stuck in neutral, or a jobless situation that makes us want to blow our tops.

With having to deal with all these frustrating issues and more, it's more important than ever to find things in life that recharge everyone's spirit.

The things that recharge you don't always have to be major events, like those we mentioned last Friday, to fill up our emotional and spiritual energy.

Sometimes, it's enough to spend time with our friends and family, or even talking to them on the phone. Gardening, walking through the neighborhood with our spouse or a friend, or just sitting and reading a good book (whether in paper or Kindle form).

Something else we've found that helps recharge us at times like this is tuning out the distractions. Turn off the computer, Facebook and Twitter - even the cell phone- for a while this weekend. Turn off the tv, unless you have it on to specifically watch something like a movie. Ignore the news for a day or two, and even click the radio off.

Whatever activities you engage in to gain some clarity in your life, we hope you take some time - or that you make some time - this weekend to do those things.

And don't worry about missing anything. The world will still be here on Monday - and we will too.

It's About What They Do At Work

For nearly two weeks, the media has been having an apoplectic fit over the sexting peccadillo of Congressman Anthony Weiner. We have already blasted our media colleagues on how they've acted on that topic - but like many stories these days, it seems a sub-section of Americans won't be truly satisfied and ready to move on until Weiner is broke, out of office, crouched in a fetal position in the gutter, alone, and waiting to die.

These paragons of compassion are often the same people who will be the first to tell you how ethical they are.

America is filled with people who are hypocrites in the worst way, in part, because Americans often display a desire for things to be as they can only be in the movies, in books, and on TV - fictional and unrealistic.

Politicians - all of them, from every party - are all, to a greater or lesser degree, liars. Frankly, so is everyone reading - or writing - this commentary. We all lie. We tell ourselves that a little white lie won't matter all that much, or that THEY lie but WE are virtuous. The fact is, we all lie.

We lie when we tell ourselves that one more slice of pizza isn't that big a deal or when we dump in a little bit more sugar in our coffee. When we say we'll make it to an optional religious ceremony, business meeting, or kid's school function and then don't show, we say, "Meh. It was OPTIONAL. No big deal."

To your business colleagues, your spiritual leader, your kid - or your waistline - all of those may have been a big deal after all. You knew that - and you lied to yourself anyway.

We're all human. We make mistakes. Some mistakes are easier to fix than others. Eating better and exercising more, for example, could fix that waistline lie you've been telling yourself.

Taking prurient pictures and sending them over the internet to anyone - and then explaining it to your spouse? Having an inappropriate sexual liaison with an intern? Impregnating your housekeeper and not telling your wife for thirteen years? Or how about leaving your cancer-stricken wife while she's on her deathbed to go marry your next wife? Those "little mistakes" are a bit harder to explain - and to fix.

What about getting your country involved in multiple questionable wars, with no single significant reason, while putting the cost of both wars on your country's credit card - and allowing millions to be killed or maimed because of your little "slip-up"?

As you can see, some mistakes were built to last - and not every mistake is the same.

We'll admit - Anthony Weiner screwed up. He shouldn't have been taking lewd photos of himself, and sending them to anyone, anywhere - including girlfriends when he was single, or even his wife after they were married.

But that's not our point today.

We don't elect our leaders in America to be anything other than what they are. They ARE liars - and if we think they're not, then we're liars, too. However, there are degrees of lying - and those degrees DO matter, especially when judging the performance of our elected officials.

If an elected official is lying about a war, or about whether they are being paid under the table by a corporation, or whether they're shifting laws to benefit their family...? Those are the kinds of lies that matter.

If an elected official likes sending pictures of themselves in their undies - or even in the buff - to a private friend or two...? We think it's stupid behavior - but we really don't care. In the case of Anthony Weiner, he didn't even end up in the sack with someone other than his wife, so we're truly unconcerned about him.

The people we worry about are the real clowns and twisted individuals in office who are attempting to abuse our system until it's dead and buried. Those individuals are the truly twisted ones - and they're the ones screwing us all.

Keeping Our Heads Above Water

The disgusting display put on by the media this week had us looking hard at our choice of topics today.

So much of the media is continually lost in the never-ending circus of stupid that surounds Sarah Palin. We could have focused on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher blowing off Palin, or equally laughable Michele Bachmann and her staff dissing Palin as "not serious." We could have even ridden the story about Sarah Palin's idiotic alternate version of Paul Revere's ride, and her deluded followers. Half the media rolled in that story over the last few days - and the other half thought about it.

We could have focused on the sad and twisted story in Florida, about a dead child, and the mother who is being tried for her daughter's murder. Of course, since CNN Headline News focuses on that story every five minutes, all day, every day, there's really no point in anyone else even mentioning it.

We also could have focused on Congressman Anthony Weiner again - why not? After all, so much of the media is still obsessed with Weiner's wiener, it would be easy to slap some digital ink into another cartoon and throw some cheap shots at a Congressman, like most of them are doing.

Of course, as we pointedly noted yesterday, we'd like to think we're better than that.

From Montana, through the Dakotas, through parts of Minnesota, all over Nebraska and Iowa, and into Missouri, the effects of global climate change, in the form of massive flooding, is making its presence known.

While the chance of an event like the tsunami and earthquake combo that hit Japan this year is nearly zero, at least one nuclear power plant, in Nebraska, is already being affected by the flooding. Drinking wells are endangered. Some river towns are already under inches - or even feet - of water.

These events won't be like the tornadoes that plowed through Joplin and Tuscaloosa, a short, sharp strike of massive damage, and then the clean up begins. Officials are saying the Missouri River flooding could last into mid-August. That will destroy the crops of countless farmers along the river, for this year, and maybe for next year too.

There are still a few idiots that continue to deny climate change exists, and is happening now. Stories that allow them to continue their denial - like the report issued recently that claimed rising forest density is offsetting some effects of climate change - are all they need to keep their rejection of reality going.

The fact is, as climate change has happened, scientists are seeing a faster release of carbon emissions - which only makes the problem worse.

Don't expect to see the governments of any nation doing anything to help the situation, especially at the UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany this week. While Mother Nature's warnings grow louder, that humankind must work - together - to help arrest severe, rapid global climate change, the only thing many humans seem to want to do is expect sacrifice from others, and ignore what they can do themselves.

Strangely, that disgusting display of selfishness may yet be the thing that saves us all. According to a new study, as nations are seeing and hearing more about massive climate change, and are noticing more disasters in their own backyards - like massive flooding, severe storms, huge wildfires and drought. As a result, many nations seem to be picking up speed, adding more legislation, and making moves to lessen their own effects of carbon pollution.

Sadly, America - once again, primarily thanks to our insane political right and our weak political left - seems to be lagging behind other nations in actually doing anything about climate change.

Yes, This Is What It's Come To

There are days when we look around at the business we are in - the business of media and communications - and we are sickened by nearly everything we see.

What happens when our media and communications structure is filled with bright, talented individuals who would rather slack off, do sloppy work, and simply ride the latest trash gossip all the way until the next tabloid non-story comes along? You get nearly two weeks worth of penis jokes aimed towards a guy named Weiner, all started by a media parasite who is finally partly right about something for probably the first time in his sad, pathetic little life.

In case you've been hiding out in the mythical cave Osama Bin Laden was alleged to have occupied, you'd be hard-pressed not to have heard about the troubles of New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.

The story began when the propaganda hack Andrew Breitbart - who seems to have a personal vendetta against Congressman Weiner - began pushing a new story. Breitbart claimed he'd discovered Weiner had sent a lewd picture to a young woman, using Twitter. Most ethical media types should have blown off Breitbart's story. After all, Breibart was wrong about Shirley Sherrod, wrong about ACORN, wrong when he teamed up with known right-wing smear artist James O'Keefe, and wrong in a whole host of other incidents.

Still, much of the media is lazy and bored. "Looking at the budget realties or the effects of climate change is hard work," they whine. So they took the weak, easy path, and followed Breitbart's half-truths.

Initially, the Congressman lied. He claimed his Twitter account had been hacked - which is so easy to do that even not-so tech-saavy people can do it. The bored media machine, spurred on by Breitbart, wouldn't let the story go, though.

So yesterday the Congressman came clean, admitting he'd sent a lewd picture of his crotch to a young woman on his Twitter account as part of a joke. The Congressman then went further, and admitted he'd taken other questionable pictures of himself over the years, and sent them to a few select women during that time.

In the media frenzy to focus on the fact that - SHOCK - a Congressperson LIED, the media also forgot to perform their due diligence.

To cover that professional oversight, we'll do it for them, in rapid fashion.

The Congressman admitted to sending explicit - but not pornographic - pictures to women over the last few years. Until July 11, 2010, the Congressman was technically single - so there wasn't even an ethical problem there, let alone a legal one. Wouldn't it be great if all the elected officials we have, who choose to be more sexually adventurous, would be single, trying to connect with other single people, using generally private methods? We'd much prefer that to Congressmen who have their parents pay their lover's husband to cover up their extramarital affair; or have a toe-tapping Congressman trying to find a quickie sexual liason in an airport bathroom; or even a Presidential candidate having donors bribe his videographer to cover up his affair.

We could even go further. For example, we could ask how Mr. Breitbart got the other photos he's now passing around, claiming they're also images of Congressman Weiner. The first photo was on a public Twitter feed, but the others appear to have been private. No one is asking yet how the piece of human trash that is Breitbart got his hands on those pictures.

The point of our trying to shame some of our fellows in the media, by pointing out their failures to do their jobs well, is simple.

When a press conference with a member of Congress, of either party, regardless of the tawdry topic, ends with some joker in the back yelling, "Were you fully erect" - and the media STILL doesn't understand why their consumers don't take them seriously any more, the problem isn't just the propaganda masters at Fox News. The whole so-called "News Media" now shares the blame for the sick, sad thing they've become.

Marie's Picnic

Things don't always turn out the way we plan. For example, when we began putting together Friday's 'Daily Felltoon', some of our normally reliable online tools weren't quite their usual, fully-functioning selves (If you missed Friday's cartoon Click Here, or Friday's commentary Click Here).

When it comes to the jobs numbers and the economic situation in the United States, the Obama administration is learning a hard lesson about those plans right now.

The lesson isn't what some currently are saying - that America just can't pull itself up by its bootstraps right now. As we pointed out last Thursday, the problem isn't that Americans aren't willing to do the hard work to pull our economy back from the brink.

Our political leaders, however, are a different story.

From the left, the excuse that's heard most often is one that resounds with a story of fatalism - a story we're frankly tired of hearing. As Paul Krugman pointed out over the weekend, we know exactly what the problems are, and we know how to solve them. It is true that we don't have access to some tools to help pump up demand - for example, we can't cut short-term interest rates because they're basically zero. So that tool for driving demand isn't available. But that's NOT the only tool in our toolbox.

As Krugman also states, "We should be using fiscal stimulus; we should be using unconventional monetary policy, including raising the inflation target; we should be pursuing aggressive measures to reduce mortgage debt. Not doing these things means accepting huge waste" - waste, something modern conservatives claim to hate almost as much as taxes.

No, the problem on the left simply lies in not having the political will to do what's needed. Yes, House Democrats are claiming they'll push for more infrastructure spending and other stimulus measures in the face of Friday's jobs report. Sadly, their claims are reminiscent of those many on the Left made during the poorly-handled health care reform debate - too little, too late.

On the right, the sad fact is that they simply don't care. The compassion-free attitude of modern so-called conservatives, as Charles Blow noted over the weekend, is the real problem. The richest of the rich have been able to con many poor into thinking that someday, they'll be rich too - so the rich should never have to pay any more taxes, if we're going to repair our economic standing.

As Mr. Blow also noted, that's a false choice. We've said it repeatedly, as has anyone else who understands the economic problems America faces: BOTH sensible tax increases - especially on those who can most afford it - as well as sensible spending cuts are THE ONLY way to get our economic house in order. BOTH - not either/or.

Yet those on the right - even when they grudgingly admit corporations are swimming in cash and don't need big tax breaks, as Bill Kristol pointed out over the weekend - still insist that tax cuts WITHOUT additional sources of revenue are the only way forward. As Nicholas Kristof pointedly noted, if Republicans and conservatives are so set on finding a country that meets their current ideology of how things should be, they should move to Pakistan.

Unfortunately, this lack of courage on the left and lack of concern for others (and acceptance of reality) on the right are putting most Americans in the position of ants at a picnic, scrambling for scraps, while our so called leaders still feast, seemingly without care.

It's highly recommended that both sides change their tune, and stop focusing on their own pieces of cake before the 2012 elections - or they could find themselves politically headless come November 2012.

Friday Funday: All About The Cartoons

While there are other topics we could talk about today - like the 2012 GOP candidates stepping all over each other, and themselves, in New Hampshire, we think the most valuable subject we could talk about today is one of our favorites: cartoons.

This weekend, there will be three different events for you, our readers, to get out and see in different places around the country - and all of them are related to cartoons and cartooning.

If you're in the Midwest, near Lincoln, we invite you to stop by this evening (Friday) at the Haydon Gallery in the Haymarket, to meet Paul face-to-face - along with four other troublemakers cartoonist friends of ours. The event is a fund-raiser called "A Toon For Meadowlark," to help raise funds for the Meadowlark Music Festival.

The cartoonists are legends, and include our own Paul Fell; Mike Edholm, our current President of the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society; John Hambrock, of The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee; Milt Prigee, whose work has been seen in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times, and Washington Post; and Tom Richmond of Mad Magazine.

You'll be able to meet the cartoonists, buy some of their works, and talk with them beginning at 5:30 tonight.

If you're going to be in the Southeast or Mid-Atlantic regions this weekend, you may want to take a road trip to a comic art convention called HeroesCon, happening in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our friend Eric Menge (who also happens to be the husband of our editor, Amy) writes an online graphic novel called Snow by Night. He and his cartooist/artist Brittany will be there to promote their graphic novel, sell copies of Chapter 1, and meet with fans. If you go, they'll be at table SP-45. Stop by and say h, and check out Snow by Night in hard-copy form!

If you're near our West Palm Beach offices, we recommend stopping by the Norton Museum of Art, to check out the "Out of This World" exhibit beginning this Saturday. The exhibit will feature costumes, pictures, comic artwork, and related items from such entertainment and comics legends as Star Trek and Batman (and now we all know who Tom Richmond loaned his Batman costume to).

As most people know, we love comics and cartooning - so we're glad we get to share these opportunities to meet some of our favorite cartoonists this weekend. Remember - without cartoon art, you'd likely have to sit around and watch news clips and pictures of pretend Presidential candidates steal the media spotlight from actual announced candidates.

We shudder to think of what a horrible world that would be.

No matter where you go this weekend, we hope you enjoy some cartooning - even if it's just the characters on a cereal box.

Time's Up

Since the Great Recession began in 2008 (under President Bush), we've been saying, ever more intensely, many of the same things the wisest minds in economics have been saying: that the U.S. government needs to do more, not less, to help the economy recover. That we should bring back a WPA-like program. That American corporations are NOT paying an effective tax rate that's too high; rather, they're paying an effective rate that's too low.

We have warned countless times that if the idiots in the great American masses didn't wise up and quit voting against their own best interests, America would hit another economic wall, sooner rather than later.

On Wednesday, we were sadly proven right once again.

As early jobs-related numbers rolled out on Wednesday and manufacturing orders and other economic data began rolling in, it was clear that the economic numbers were going to take another hit - and they did. Don't expect the news to get better the next few days, as the official numbers for job creation, unemployment, and other economic news are released.

While specific, accurate, long-term economic forecasting is FAR more complicated than most people on Earth can even imagine, the generalities of economics are not all that complicated. Yes, it IS about supply and demand, as many Americans often say. But the problem isn't the supply, or even the potential supply.

There are millions of Americans who would love to have a job - and even more who would love to have just one job. These are mostly educated, experienced, well-trained, skilled workers, who have been ignored and overlooked, as businesses and corporations of all sizes keep searching for something that doesn't exist - the perfect worker, who is willing and happy to become a slave.

We have far more supply than we can use in America right now - and not just of workers.

What we don't have right now is demand.

When millions of Americans are one illness, one car wreck or one natural disaster away from complete economic ruin, spending an extra ten or twenty dollars each month isn't even a possibility. That inability to spend drives demand down - which just reinforces the downward economic spiral.

The fact is, one percent of the world's households hold nearly forty percent of the world's wealth. Historically, that kind of imbalance only leads to one place - war, which tends to level the playing field in the short term, usually starting with the violent deaths of the wealthy and ending with the starvation deaths of the poor.

This shouldn't be news to you. We've told you this before.

In the face of this screaming economic siren, however, our politicians in Washington DC - from both parties - saw fit this week to waste more time, money, and energy holding a fake vote that could pull the final support out from under the entire world economic system.

Since they won't do anything - or even say what needs to be said - we will.

It is time to stop using false equivalences. It is time to stop finding excuses not to act. It is time to stop being afraid we might anger someone if we DO something to get ourselves out of this economic disaster. If corporations threaten to leave because we're going to make them pay a more fair effective tax rate? Let them follow through. If we need to raise taxes on the rich? Do it. Taxes were higher under Ronald Reagan than they are now, and America's upper class and corporations did just fine then.

It is time to do what needs to be done for our country and its people, to help them make progress on their lives, above all else.

If there is any one lesson from the piles of numbers coming out, that should be it.

Time's up. The time to debate is over. It's time to move on - and act. Now.

Burning Question

Since we're now past Memorial Day, the traditional start to summer has begun - and the city of Lincoln began heating things up by having most of the Lincoln Public Schools District Office burn to the ground Monday night.

That massive fire wasn't the only subject that crossed our minds today.

The harsh rebuke of the Republican Party from Bruce Barlett, former top advisor to both President Reagan and President Bush (the elder), was a burn of an entirely different kind, one that we did not expect. We've also got a burning desire to dig back into the debt ceiling battle - which turned an even scarier corner last night, after the GOP-led House of Representatives' bit of overheated political theatre.

Our focus today, though, is on the many people in our hometown, Lincoln,NE, who are focused on the aftereffects of that devastating fire at the LPS Administrative office.

As we've mentioned on occasion, one of our own, web guru Shawn, experienced a similar fire disaster three years ago this July - so he knows what many of those who worked in that building may be going through.

Right now, the people who worked there - and everyone who worked in any school in the area - are feeling a mix of emotions. Loss, regret, sadness, and worry are just a few of the emotions that many Lincoln teachers, secretaries, and administrative staff are likely dealing with today.

The burning question those victims are asking themselves - and probably others - is one that no one can answer with absolute clarity. Having been through a similar experience, however, we can give some advice, as a good friend gave to our staffer when disaster happened to him.

That burning question is just this: When will things get back to normal?

It takes time, hope, and the support and help of friends and neighbors, to get past any major disaster, including a fire like the one Lincoln experienced. Like it or not, it also takes money and a willingness to work together for the common good of everyone affected by the disaster.

We hope that Lincolnites take the attitude of combined sacrifice and community effort to work together to recover from this disaster, and not adopt the attitude displayed recently by GOP house Majority Leader Eric Cantor, that emergencies shouldn't be treated like emergencies.

That attitude, that we are each part of an "own"-ership society - where each of us are on our own - is the one ingredient that anyone attempting to recover from disaster doesn't need. It turns most hope to hate - and it makes recovery take much longer.

We don't know when things will get back to normal for Lincoln's school workers, any more than we know how long it will take for the people living in Joplin, Missouri, those recovering from the tornadoes in Alabama, or those affected by the floods along the Missouri and Missippi.

What we do know is that if you know any of those folks affected, we hope you reach out to them. Offer help - even if it's just a few moments of your time to let them vent about their frustrations.

Let them know they are not alone.

That's the first step to getting back to normal.