Saturday, November 22, 2008

Well, here is another letter the Bee could not find room to squeeze in...


Dear Editor:
I almost fell out of my chair at breakfast laughing so hard over your article about Republicans moving to Canada out of fear of what our new president will do the country. I seriously doubt that this is anything other than more whining by sore losers....like a five year old threatening to run away from home. While your article was able to cite several people who had actually left the country during the Cheney/Bush administration because of fear, disgust or embarrassment, I doubt a similar article four years from now will be able to find even one person who actually packed up and moved north because of President Obama.
Are we to seriously believe that Republicans supposedly so afraid of socialism would actually move to an even more socialistic environment where they can sign up for the universal health care they allegedly are so in dread of? Or, that they are ready to embrace a tax system much more redistributive than our own? Such a scenario is actually better suited to a Saturday Night Live skit. Again, thanks for the laugh!

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Days of Miracles Are Not Over


Well, after a string of unsuccessful tries, the Bee finally printed another one of my letters......


See past skin color

Perhaps one thing that the Barack Obama presidency will do is help us confront our attitudes about what "being black" means in a post-slavery America. The Bee and other papers have described President-elect Obama as the "nation's first black president." We know though that Obama is the son of a white woman and a black man.
How do we make the decision to call Obama black, rather than white? If he had one black grandparent and three white ones would he still be black? What if only one out of eight great-grandparents was black? Where do we draw the line on blackness?
Tiger Woods is one-fourth African-American, and yet he is consistently referred to as "Tiger Woods, that great black golfer."
Regardless of what else the Obama presidency will accomplish, if it can help us to start seeing past skin color as a way of categorizing each other, it will be transformative beyond belief.


Jeffrey W. Eisinger
Fresno

Monday, November 17, 2008

Socialism For Who?


Another great letter by Alan, reinforcing my point that we are socializing the risk while continuing to privatize the gain.....


'Socialism for the rich'
11/16/08 20:10:40
The Associated Press story [Nov. 13], "Bailout course shifts abruptly," represents the third incarnation of how we bail out "free market capitalism" with "socialist underpinnings." This must be a free marketeer's nightmare.
Nevertheless, Reagan free marketers brazenly demand that ineffective government should just give them the money and then get out of the way, so the same free market concepts that got us into this mess can solve the problem. Someone said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome."
Here are some of the terms of the bailout plan's third incarnation.
"The guidelines urge institutions to continue lending to credit-worthy borrowers and to work with mortgage borrowers to avoid defaults."
"The guidelines encourage the banks to set dividend payments for shareholders and compensation for executives with the current crisis in mind."
"The government hopes they will use (the money) to resume more normal lending operations."
When banks give you money, do they "urge," "encourage" and "hope" you use the money for its intended purpose? So far the money has been used to pay for dividends, bonuses and bank mergers. Aren't "free markets" really "socialism for the rich" in disguise?
Alan Cheah