Get Busy Livin' Or Get Busy Dyin'

As these words hit your e-mail box today, we don't know if there is a final debt and budget deal in place yet for the United States. Yes, a deal was announced last night - but it isn't over until all the votes are counted.

Frankly, we're not sure it matters all that much anymore. Even the head of the International Monetary Fund has acknowledged, America's financial reputation is already severely damaged, thanks to this unnecessary debt & budget debacle. One ratings agency says the deal won't prevent a credit downgrade for the U.S.

What few details about the latest "last ditch" bill that have come out are not promising. The deal will cost jobs, will lose the federal government revenue, and will squeeze the states even further - which will only make things worse at the local level.

As Paul Krugman, one of the smartest economists in the world right now, has said time and time again, we are doing exactly what we should NOT be doing at this point: cutting government spending in the near term. In fact, all the numbers and facts say there will likely be NO better time for America to borrow money - in the SHORT TERM - so that we can usefully and measurably fix our infrastructure, invest in our nation, and plan for long-term debt reduction.

Investing in ourselves would create jobs in the private sector right away, as it always has in the past, which would also help fuel the one sure cure for our long-term debt problem: economic growth.

Of course, doing so would mean both Republican and Democratic leadership, as well as our President, would have to do something they seem to have found impossible the last few years: Tell the political terrorists in the extremist, regressive right to take a hike.

We don't say that hyperbolically. The extremist right has taken a new approach, absolutely not intended by the founders or the Constitution: extortion politics. Why wait and do things slowly, through procedure, when holding a political gun to the head of anyone who disagrees with you is so much faster and easier? That idea sounds really good until it's the guys on the OTHER side trying to shove through legislation that will have long-term negative effects on everyone. Even well-known hyper-conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer says, "...trying to force the issue — trying to turn a blocking minority into a governing authority — is not just counter-constitutional in spirit but self-destructive in practice."

It hasn't helped that our President has acted so weak, stubbornly refusing to understand that his opposition views him as an enemy, not as a partner in governing. Mr. Obama has been "left at the alter" by the GOP so often, the defense that Mr. Obama is "playing 11-level chess" seems far less likely than the fact he's simply, willfully, politically naive.

A feckless media is also to blame, as any insane tea bagger fool can swing around like a monkey on a pole and have every so-called news agency within fifty miles covering them. Meanwhile, when a progressive rally with significant numbers occurs, most of the media doesn't even bother to cover it. There is definitely media bias in America - but anyone who tells you it's liberal is still living in the 1970s.

The final failure has been that of individuals on both ends of the political spectrum. On the left, Democrats grumble, but they still support their President blindly, by ridiculously high margins. Even more responsible for this failure are the Republicans, who conscripted the Tea Party folks into their own political organization - but then failed to control the extremist Tea Bagger movement within the Tea Party.

It's time – long, long, long past time, actually - for Americans to get their lazy asses off their couches, to talk with their neighbors, to educate themselves on the issues, to stop being TOLD what to think by professional bloviators, and to get involved again in governing their country. The extremists MUST be minimized to the proper representation of their numbers in the greater population. The rules must be followed by all parties and individuals - and heavy penalties need to be levied by the offenders' own party to keep political terrorism from becoming the defacto method of governing.

Americans must get busy repairing the economic and political damage that its citizens have allowed over the last thirty-plus years -- or we Americans may as well disband this union-in-name-only of states that we occupy, and sign the death certificate of this great experiment we've proudly called the United States of America.

Friday Funday: What Now? Or Why Not?

We know today is Friday, and we usually try to give you something a bit more light-hearted to think about, as you head into the weekend. We'll do our best today, but it's not going to be easy.

Then again, nothing worth doing ever is.

For many folks in the media, right now, covering this insane manufactured debt ceiling crisis, where the Tea Party has taken the rest of the country hostage, we feel like we're at the end of the world. We can't tell you how many times we've heard that the economy is "going off a cliff" - and this is from people we work in the same industry with.

The fact is, there's no way to know exactly what's going to happen over this weekend, between now and the time you touch base with us again on Monday. There's no certainty of what's going to happen next week either.

Then again, that's pretty much how every day really is, even if we don't realize it most of the time.

We say this as we found out this week about a couple of media acquaintances, friends of friends who had been living good lives, filled with work, family, and friends - and now have been diagnosed with deadly conditions. One has been diagnosed with ALS and the other with a vicious cancer. While we're certain both will put up valiant fights, we know the long-term, and even mid-term prognosis for either isn't great.

In what may seem counter-intuitive, neither man swore to keep going with their regular lives, like nothing had happened, as you see in so many sappy Hollywood movies.

Both men did call their loved ones though; gathered their editors, producers, and fellow media partners; and told them all the news. Then, they each went back to doctors, and both have began treatments, of one kind or another.

And then they each went to their favorite grocery store, and stocked up. One finally joined Netflix.

They are living their lives - and that's exactly what we think you should do.

None of us every know when the script of our lives will change direction rapidly. We often think we know what's around the corner - but we really don't. So ask yourself... If that bottle of wine you've been saving for a special occasion never gets opened, what's the bigger crime? That you never had an occasion worthy of opening it? Or that you didn't celebrate with relish the occasions that you did have?

Go have dinner with a friend this weekend. Call someone you haven't talked to in a while - just because. You never use up all your monthly cell phone minutes anyway - why NOT make that call now? Write a letter. Sure, you may have to walk farther to mail it - and it will probably not arrive before the world economic situation drives off that cliff, like "Thelma & Louise". What the hell? Write that letter it anyway.

Make plans for LATE next week. Or next month. Or next year.

There are no guarantees in life, one way or another.

We don't necessarily recommend living life that country song, that implores you to "Live Life Like You're Dying."

We do recommend, simply, that you live life to the fullest every day.

If This Is What You Want, Then This Is What You Get

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." - Histories, Herodotus, 440 BC

"Cash, Grass, or Ass - Nobody rides for free." - 1960's U.S. pop culture slogan

While the news that came out Tuesday wasn't entirely a surprise to any of us, it's one of those social and technological markers that we'll remember for a long time - along the lines of when we first heard that Polaroid film was going the way of the dodo bird.

In case you missed it, the U.S. Postal Service has decided that it can no longer afford to keep open every post office and postal retail location they currently own - so they've released a list of about 3700 post offices that will likely be eliminated across the country.

From coast to coast, every postal service outlet is being looked at, including the historical post office on the site where Ben Franklin invented the U.S. postal service, on July 26, 1775, 236 years ago this week.

For an organization that is fully self-supporting - and has been since 1970, when the Postal Reorganization Act was signed by President Nixon - the last 15 years have been a never-ending onslaught on their core business. The more e-mail we send, the less regular, first class mail goes through the U.S. postal service system.

We understand the logical progression of technology. Every member of our staff uses computers and cell phones, and even iPads and e-readers. We like that it doesn't take days or weeks to send messages across the country or the world. Without modern forms of communication, we couldn't do what we do for you every day.

That doesn't negate our love for the postal service, either.

The U.S. Postal Service is, to us, still one of the wonders of the modern world. Friends, family, and others we love can bake cookies or cakes, buy a book, or take a child's afternoon art project, box them up, and send that item anywhere in the country - really anywhere in the world - for an amazingly small amount, and have that item delivered in a matter of days.

In the U.S., there isn't anywhere the USPS really won't deliver - and in many rural and remote areas these days, it isn't FedEx, UPS, or DHL that carries those precious items the last mile. Often, those private delivery services contract with the U.S. Postal Service to do the part of the job that's too dirty, remote, or expensive for others to handle.

We're certain many of you are probably like us - concerned for the small towns and local neighborhoods that might lose a post office over the next year. You may have friends who will lose their jobs at the postal service, to say nothing of the fact that for many small towns, the post office is one of the few remaining vestiges of an America where we once cared more about our communities than the bottom line.

The next time the idea of privatizing more government services is thrown around by some far-right wing, corporatist-backed politician, we hope that people remember: this is what happens when a society chooses to privatize public services that should remain public.

If you're worked up about this issue, we'd suggest you to write a letter to your Congressperson about it. Sadly, you may have to go just a bit farther to mail it.