I WANT My Tax Dollars to Support Social Programs

The New York Times this morning had two stories about people suffering from the winter cold with no way to escape it.  One was a child who froze to death in a refugee camp in Afghanistan.  The other was about desperate people who cannot afford heat in Maine.

People on fixed incomes cannot afford oil and cannot afford to retrofit their homes for alternatives to oil.  Our austerity measures, designed to help the economy recover from the recession, are cutting programs that used to help.  But as the funding is cut, the price of oil continues to rise.  So an elderly couple turned on all four burners on their electric stove, rerouted the dryer hose back into the basement, and, in desperation, offered the local oil company the title to their old car in return for oil.

The more I read, the more I pay attention, the more I conclude that capitalism has ruined this country.  A system with profit as its end motive, not surprisingly, leaves humanity by the side of the road in pursuit of more, more, more. We are not a democracy - that illusion was discarded long ago but we still like to use the word to describe ourselves.  We are not free - the only freedom we still have is the ability to leave.  But we stay, hoping to recover the illusion of what we thought America was. We work harder and harder to pay bills that rise faster than our two and three job incomes, education for our young children is de-funded and college is equivalent to buying a Mercedes Benz every year for four years.

Meanwhile, Washington makes the rules - and multi-national corporations (people, according to the Supreme Court) call the shots.  They fund the campaigns, they fund the PACs, they pay trillions for lobbyists and they have one agenda:  profit.  Please find me an administration that hasn't been in bed with Goldman Sachs.  Goldman Sachs and other predators influence policy to create new money making opportunities.  And somehow, an entire segment of the population has been convinced that a policy based on profit is GOOD for people.

It's bizarre logic and requires a particular brand of tunnel vision.

Government, they argue, shouldn't be providing basic services for its citizens' welfare.  That's socialism.  In capitalism, it's every man for himself.  Meanwhile, their elderly parents scrape by on Social Security and Medicare while living in subsidized housing. 

Capitalism's apologists argue for the tax breaks and loopholes that maximize corporate profits, for to deny those benefits would discourage business.  But big business squats in this country like Jabba the Hut while many of the jobs it creates are sent off shore (it's cheaper and there are fewer annoying safety regulations to worry about - right Apple?) and it demands even more tax incentives to create jobs within the US.  Local officials pant after them only to discover that they're paying dearly, and constantly, for the privilege of having industry in their communities.

New York's Comptroller this week warned that the state's economic situation is still tricky - it's health is tied to the health of its biggest industry - Wall Street.  The message:  "Don't mess with the goose that lays the golden eggs."  Regulations have been twisted to allow Wall Street and its big business cronies to maximize their profits.

Wall Street is the world's biggest casino and they're gambling with your money.  The media breathlessly reports every gasp and burp the Dow utters as though it's a meaningful indication of a trend.  It's just the outcome of the latest game of craps.  We don't see the profits when they win, but we pay when they lose.

I am sick of it.  All of it.

I pay taxes.  Like every American (except for those who can afford to hide in the loopholes), I pay far more taxes than I can comfortably afford.  But I have no say in how my money is spent.

I don't want to give Wall Street a break.  I do not consider them too big to fail.  I consider them too big.  Period.

I don't want my tax dollars to go to wars that are nothing more than efforts to open up new commodities for corporations.  I don't want my tax dollars to help give breaks to the exploitation of finite, unsustainable energy sources.  I don't want my tax dollars to give incentives to businesses that don't pay taxes and send most of their jobs overseas.  I do not consider a big box store an economic driver - it kills entrepreneurship and competition and creates minimum wage jobs.

I want my tax dollars to provide a good education for every American.  I want my tax dollars to provide every American with health care.  I want my tax dollars to make sure every American can meet their basic needs - and has access to programs that lead to self-sufficiency.  I don't want my government dictating my behavior or limiting my rights so long as I abide by a basic rule of law.

I pay for the privilege of living in this country, and I'm okay with that.  But it's not giving me value for my dollar.  And that's not the capitalist way.

I am not in need of a Big Daddy Government.  Nor am I willing to play serf to a corporate overload anymore.

I want my tax dollars to fund government programs that assure a basic, decent quality of life for its citizens.  And I want corporations to pay taxes.  And I want all tax breaks withdrawn for every single corporation that ships its work overseas.  I do not care if they threaten to leave.  Call their bluff.  Let's see if they can be competitive from the Third World.


I'm heading for my Howard Beal moment -  "Network" has proven to be far more than a movie.

Gas, Oil and Charges of Greed

My job keeps me abreast of things I might not pay attention to if I didn't have to...but I'm grateful. The issue of horizontal natural gas drilling is one that's important to my area now, and we didn't know a thing about it just a couple of months ago.

I spotted a small notice that there was going to be a public hearing on the subject out in the wilds of Sullivan County (better known as home of the Borscht Belt) and did some digging (pardon the pun). What I discovered was that a relatively new technology is making New York mecca for natural gas drillers...they can now get at shale a mile or more below the ground and still make money. So they're coming in droves, buying up drilling rights and promising riches that could put the state lottery out of business.

But that comes with a price - there's a chemical cocktail that's combined with millions of gallons of water when they drill. And the companies don't have to tell anyone what those chemicals are. Thank our president for that. His administration sliced and diced environmental laws seen as 'unfavorable' to gas and oil companies.

Today I also learned that there's a noise problem. Those drills run 24 hours a day. They have to, for efficiency and safety reasons. And they're loud. A watchdog group in Colorado says it's about 100 decibels...that's like a semi truck going by over and over again.

Noise experts say prolonged exposure to that level of noise can not only make you cranky and raise your blood pressure; it can damage your hearing. OSHA requires hearing protection and limited hours to workers who face that kind of racket. What if you're living near it?

Then I went to a press conference with an area congressman who's been saying for months that this president is the most impeachable in history. There was apparently a hearing on Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment just a couple of weeks ago, but no one talked about it. Some worry that if the impeachment effort built a head of steam, it would fizzle in the Senate, and that would give the administration an opening to say that it had no merit. But others argue that just publicly airing a laundry list of this president's actions, both unconstitutional and illegal, would limit the damage he could do in his remaining months. This congressman is from the former school...so although he took part in the hearing, he holds out no hope of it. In fact, his reaction to the whole thing was rueful laughter. It must be frustrating and, eventually, demoralizing to see so much that you believe is wrong but be convinced that there's nothing that can be done to stop it.

He charges the latest calls for off shore drilling are just another smokescreen. Oil companies already have millions of acres of potentially productive land they're not drilling. And they're not paying for it, either. It's a sweet deal if you can get it, especially when you've got friends in high places who want to give you more.

Meanwhile, we're expecting to be very cold or very hungry this winter - we can't be warm and fed at the same time when fuel prices have more than doubled. But I'm told any relief from Washington will be bogged down in partisan infighting.

I'd guess I'd better start putting away some lunch money for the "I Don't Want to Be a Popsicle" fund this winter.

My Name is Susan and I Have a Perfection Problem

It's interesting how situations can force you to confront your character, showing you things you never wanted to admit about yourself.

This show is a challenge - as I have mentioned, I am doing two jobs at the same time. At first, I was in a panic. I was frantically cranking out edited shows in a desperate attempt to stay a week or two ahead of the air schedule. It's not a good thing when the show date arrives and there's nothing to put there.

Then I had a couple of weeks of low production - I was doing interviews, stockpiling sound from the other sources and beginning to line up the dominoes of future shows in my mind.

As this was going on, I noticed something - I was relaxing my standards for my daily news job. Not that I wasn't getting the stories told, but I was less concerned about being wildly creative or breathtakingly sound-rich. And it bothers me. My fixation on doing a good job led to three awards for three different stories in 2008 and I'm prouder of that achievement than I admit to myself. I don't see any awards coming from the stories I've produced since taking over The Show With Issues.

Perhaps I'm a perfectionist?

It seems unlikely, really. I'm not a meticulous person - when I paint a room, I make a mess and clean up the slop later. I clean house but I miss the dustballs in the corner. When I write I tend to go with my first draft with very few revisions. That doesn't sound like a perfectionist to me.

Yet when I noticed that I was also making The Show less complex, easier to edit and basically cutting corners to make my life a little easier, it bothered me. A lot. The Show and my news stories have me all over them...it's my writing, my name and my voice. And I want who I am to be identified with something really, really good.

Yet this past week, I did the usual seven stories for the daily news, plus cranked out four (yes four!) half hour edited shows. As I filed the last one, I got an email back from my supervisor saying, "Okay, insane lady." And I had to agree. Why on earth am I pushing so hard to be the most stellar worker on the planet?

I don't think I am looking for public acclaim (although that's up for discussion and thought as well) but I most certainly want the people I work with to say "Good job!" when that's what I've done.

So am I going to drive myself into the ground trying to be so terrific that my colleagues will not be able to avoid giving me kudos? That's sick. Or am I so horrified by incompetence that I go overboard to make sure I never get stuck with that label?

I am finding that the one part of the job where I thought I was weak is becoming a strength- I interview well. The people I'm talking with are thoroughly enjoying themselves and the resulting interviews are fascinating - we go in depth in a hurry.

I spoke with two authors on books about the Iraq war and its connection with big oil. We covered the bases in twenty minutes and had a good time doing it. Then I spoke with actress Laila Robins for the arts segment of the show and we ended up having a really good discussion about violence in the movies and on stage and what that means about our society. It's nowhere either of us thought we'd be going, but we poked around and she had some really strong opinions that I think the listeners are going to find compelling.

So goody - Perfect Me has something to feel good about. But Perfect Me isn't so happy with the quality of her day to day work, and Perfect Me is noticing every compromise in The Show. Where I plugged in two or three songs between stories, I now do one. I'm getting it down to a formula, and that makes it far easier to do. But something's being lost because of a time crunch and I'm sorry to see it go.