Memorial Day, 2011

Dear Madame L,

This Memorial Day, I've been thinking of several near relatives, young men at the time, who fought in World War II. Some survived, some didn't. I remember them and honor them this day.

I'm also reminded of how during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, before WWII, these young men were able to support their families through job programs that turned around the unemployment of the time and built some of the infrastructure we now enjoy and rely on in the U.S.

Couldn't something like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) or Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) be started again these days? Maybe that would be a way to help our young soldiers as they return from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sincerely,

Unemployed, Too

Dear Unemployed,

Madame L thinks your idea is a brilliant one. And it does seem to Madame L like politicians on both extremes of the spectrum are forgetting about jobs.

Madame L seems to remember Candidate Obama talking about creating jobs --- and current Republicans in Congress being voted in on their promises to create jobs.

Madame L praises President Obama for his steps to improve the economy, which have been blocked and slowed in every way possible by the Republicans in Congress, who have been claiming that they're only doing the will of "The People," by which they mean the Tea Party. 

Madame L has some news for them: The Tea Party does not represent any but the most extreme, and generally ignorant, of the political right. Recent polls have shown that about 20% of Republicans actually agree with the ideas being propounded by the wealthy hypocrites who are funding Tea Party ideas, taking advantage of the political naivete and ignorance of so many well-intentioned people.

Madame L also wonders how any of those Tea Party supporters can complain about taxes and the federal government when so many of them are accepting Social Security and Medicare money they receive from the feds, through all our taxes.

Dear Patient Reader, while it may seem that Madame L has digressed, her points about Republican and Tea Party opposition to every progressive program proposed by the Obama administration applies equally to job-creating programs.

Dear Patient and Unemployed Reader, Could you become active in politics in your area? Or at least write, email, and/or call your Senator, Member of Congress, and state representatives? They are the ones who need to be reminded of the stresses being suffered by so many of us now. They are the ones who can propose, and support, progressive policies and programs to create jobs.

Certainly they need to fight against "Learned Helplessness," as economist Paul Krugman calls it. Krugman says it's a problem in the international policy/political community, not just in the U.S. He writes:

"Bear in mind that the unemployed aren’t jobless because they don’t want to work, or because they lack the necessary skills. There’s nothing wrong with our workers — remember, just four years ago the unemployment rate was below 5 percent.

 

"The core of our economic problem is, instead, the debt — mainly mortgage debt — that households ran up during the bubble years of the last decade. Now that the bubble has burst, that debt is acting as a persistent drag on the economy, preventing any real recovery in employment. And once you realize that the overhang of private debt is the problem, you realize that there are a number of things that could be done about it."

Yes, as he points out and you already know, people WANT to work. It's not their fault that they're unemployed. And, if "the overhang of private debt is the problem," some things could be done about it. 

But, he adds, "...any effort to tackle unemployment will run into a stone wall of Republican opposition."

And that is why Madame L urges you to write/call/e-mail your representatives. Because if you don't keep the issue before them, they will pretend like it doesn't exist or isn't solvable.

Maybe we all need to be like the widow in Luke 18 who finally got the unjust judge to do his duty:

In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 

In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 

yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming. 

Let us persist to "bother" our politicians for justice, jobs, relief for the downtrodden, and peace,

Madame L

Navy SEALS vs. Mickey

Dearest Readers,

Madame L reported earlier this month that the Walt Disney Company had applied, two days after the U.S. Navy's Seals 6 team had destroyed the evil man hiding in Abbottabad, to patent the name of this elite group.

Madame L is happy to be able to inform you that the Disney folks have decided not to attempt to patent that name, after all.

The Navy had objected to the company's plan to trademark and market toy figures and other products relating to the team; and even filed its own trademark applications.

Disney dropped its applications "out of deference to the Navy," according to a spokesperson.

The company is apparently still planning to make a movie or show about the team.

The Sunday Book Review, May 29, 2011: Bossypants

"Bossypants," by Tina Fey
 

Dear Readers,

Madame L has been reading the funniest book, and hopes you'll enjoy it as much as she does. The usually admittedly long-winded Madame L doesn't think her usually long-winded prose style will do the book justice or make anyone want to read it, so she is listing, instead...

Some of Madame L's favorite bits:

---Things Tina learned from Lorne Michaels (SNL producer), including: "Producing is about discouraging creativity" and "The show doesn't go on because it's ready; it goes on because it's 11:30."

---What Tina tells young women who ask for career advice: "People are going to try to trick you. To make you feel that you are in competition with one another. 'You're up for a promotion. If they go with a woman, it'll be between you and Barbara.' Don't be fooled. You're not in competition with other women. You're in competition with everyone."

---"The Mother's Prayer for Its Daughter," which includes the line "Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance...."

---Why she didn't get the job waiting tables, and likewise the job as night box office manager of a small theater company

---The power pyramid at the YMCA, where she did get a job after she didn't get those other ones...and which is so reminiscent of the power pyramid everywhere I've ever worked and I suspect where everyone I've ever known has ever worked

---The actual difference between male and female comedy writers (not for the faint of heart)

---Her honeymoon ("or A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again Either")

---Her Bossypants Managerial Techniques (because she doesn't want to get punched in the face over a joke---or even screamed at)

---How we can find out if Tracy Morgan is as wild and crazy as his character

Too many to recount. Buy the book. Check it out from the library. Or borrow it from Madame L. And proceed to laugh  your bossypants off!

She's Ba-a-a-a-ack!

Dear Madame L,

I read your opinion that some candidates who have been considering running for the Republican presidential nomination for the 2012 election aren't really serious. You wrote that FOX News president Roger Ailes had told all his employees to choose between their jobs at Fox and their 2012 political plans. You wrote that the ones who stayed on at Fox weren't going to be running.

But now Sarah Palin, who did not tell Ailes she would be quitting her Fox job, appears to be running. What is your explanation for that?

Sincerely, 

Sincerely

Dear Sincerely,

Madame L holds to her earlier opinion. Madame L notes that the news outlets which have been writing about Ms. Palin's supposed plan to declare her candidacy are basing their suppositions on very flimsy evidence.

Ms. Palin has bought a $1.7 million home in Scottsdale, Arizona. So what? A lot of rich white people live in homes like that one in Scottsdale, Arizona, and they're not running for president, any more than Ms. Palin is.

Ms. Palin's tour bus will be starting this weekend with "Rolling Thunder" in Washington, D.C. So what? If Ms. Palin really wanted to run for president, the place to start would not be D.C. She's there because that's where the political press are assembled, and she wants more than anything to get their attention.

Ms. Palin says she has "that fire in the belly." So what? Did you notice she said "fire in the belly" FOUR times in the interview you're referring to? That's to grab the attention of the political press, and she wants more than anything to get their attention.

Ms. Palin has a movie, called "Undefeated," coming out soon in Iowa. Huh? Madame L means, So what? Undefeated? In what way does Ms. Palin consider herself undefeated? She gave up her governorship of Alaska after being defeated in her vice-presidential candidacy in 2008. Undefeated? Not. Iowa? That's to grab the attention of the political press, and she wants more than anything to get their attention. That's all.

Madame L's theory about Ms. Palin's latest antics is that they're designed to keep her in the spotlight, giving her both the attention she seems to crave and the speaking fees that will keep her safely ensconced in the $1.7 million home in Scottsdale, Arizona, to which she wishes to become (and remain) accustomed. 

If Ms. Palin really does run for president in 2012, Madame L will eat her opinions about it. 

Promise,

Madame L

Answer to Anti-Medicare Plan?

Dear Madame L,

I gather that you and your pal Aunt Louise object to the Republican Party's proposed 2012 budget essentially because, as you and your ilk say, it would "destroy Medicare as we know it."

So, then, what is your alternative plan?

Sincerely,

A Faithful Reader

Dear Reader,

The Democratic Party's answer to the Paul Ryan proposed budget is: ... Wait for it ...

                                          Medicare.

Americans, whether they consider themselves to be on the right, left, middle, independent, fence, or wherever, agree that they want Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to continue as they have in the past. They recognize that more can be done to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and of course they want that. But the basic social nets we have all worked for are essential.

Americans of all political bents are asking themselves now why the Republicans, who were voted into office on promises of cutting government spending and creating jobs and who complained in 2008 and are still complaining about the "bailout" of American automakers and state governments to help them through the recent economic problems have not created any jobs and are proposing to take money from the poor, the elderly, and the young.

Americans, even those who oppose abortion, are wondering why legislators who claim to be protecting us all from government intrusion, are so concerned about women's bodies that they are legislating rules that require women to go through government bureaucratic procedures before they can receive health care.

Americans are wondering how current Republican officials can continue to justify accepting so much money from the big businesses whom they are supposed to be regulating.

Americans are wondering what happened to the society they thought their fathers and mothers had worked hard to create for them, a society that takes care of its weakest members, that expects wealthy corporations and individuals to pay their fair share, that doesn't throw Grandma and Grandpa and Little Nell over the cliff.

Americans are starting to wake up, pull the wool off their eyes, see through the lies and hypocrisy that fooled them in 2010, and realize that the answer to the Republican Kill-Medicare budget is:

                                          Medicare.

Sincerely,

Madame L

Truth, Schmuth!

Madame L is on a mission: When politicians make claims of any and every kind, Madame L wants to know if they're telling the truth. 

Particularly when their main claim to fame (for their 15-minute moment) is that they're telling the truth, Madame L wants to know if they really are telling the truth. 

Madame L didn't want to wait for an alert reader to ask her about this, so she found out for herself, and is relaying this information here, for her readers:

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) says in his campaign for the presidency that he's going to be telling the truth.

Sorry, Tim, you're off to a really bad start. According to the Associated Press, which fact-checked your claims, you are wrong on most counts. To summarize, for readers who don't want to read the entire AP article:

---TP says: Government workers are getting paid so much that their salaries need to be frozen. Truth: Federal employees' salaries have already been frozen for the next two years---except for the armed forces, Congress, and the federal courts.

---TP says: "Obamacare" is unconstitutional. Truth: We won't know for sure the constitutionality of Obama's restructuring of health care until the Supreme Court rules on it. Lower courts have gone both ways.

---TP says: Obama has consistently stood for higher taxes. Truth: President Obama has more often CUT taxes than raised them.

---TP says: Minnesota used to be in the top 10 states for high taxes, but I got it out of there. Truth: He didn't do it. Minnesota is still among the top 10.

---TP says: He's one of four governors in the country who got the Cato Institute's highest libertarian rating. Truth: He actually tied for third...But who wants the approval of the Cato Institute?

---TP says: He will be willing to suggest hard choices, not empty promises. Truth: Pawlenty does name several hard choices, like phasing out ethanol subsidies, which he mentioned to Iowa farmers, which does take some chutzpah. Other hard choices he suggests include raising the Social Security retirement age (already being done)...and supporting Rep. Ryan's budget plan which would destroy Medicare. (More about that, later, Madame L promises!)

Madame L presents the truth, and trusts her readers to decide whom to believe.

Men on Prowl, Women on Guard

Dear Readers,

Madame L has been appalled at the way the media in France are defending former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and casting aspersions on the hotel housekeeper who alleges he assaulted her sexually. What's funny is that they are appalled at the way DSK has been treated by the media (and the cops) in the U.S. 

It would be easy to point the finger of shame at those decadent French for their sexual mores, but now there's the case of Arnold Schwarzenegger's housekeeper, who gave birth to his son the same week his wife gave birth to another son.

The culture at the IMF, which caused women to fear to wear skirts or dresses to work because of unwanted attention of male co-workers and which officially tolerated sexual liaisons between co-workers even when such liaisons could be the result of pressure by higher-up men exerted on women subordinate to them, is clearly not the only reason for this scandal.

What will it take for women to be treated better by men --- ordinary co-workers in ordinary jobs, and men with some kind of power over women --- in the IMF, in the Governator's home, and everywhere?

Though Madame L claims to be able to answer "all," she hasn't thought of a simple answer to this question yet. For a start, she hopes mothers and fathers will do a better job of teaching their sons to respect women and their daughters to expect to be treated right.

What suggestions do you, Dear Readers, offer?

Hoping for a better future for women,

Madame L