It Will Be A Bumpy Ride

The preliminary report by President Obama’s bipartisan debt-reduction commission recommended many painful changes in order to rein in the unsustainable national debt, including increasing social security collecting age with reduced benefits and the inevitable tax increases, which drew fire from both left and right, who vowed to defeat these measures.

Perhaps, only perhaps, there are alternative means to any specific solution, but there is absolutely no alternative to shared pains - both the rich, the poor and those saddle in the middle will have to give some, and the way of life most Americans have been enjoying for generations will have to change.

Otherwise, the abyss will grow deeper.

The problem is not only the federal issue.  In California, about only a month after current year's budget passed with 100 days' delay, emerged another $6 billion deficit and it is projected that there will be $25.4 billion deficit in next 20 months.  California's current fiscal year budget is $86.6 billion.  Petulant Californian voters just approved a spate of propositions which would tie governor and legislators hands further and will make it even more difficult to solve this problem.  The state is golden no more.  So are many other states.

People might choose to behave like ostriches but that won't stop our descending to the netherworld.  True, we are still in economic crisis therefore those austerity measures must be introduced in the (near) future instead of now.  However, act we must.

In order to act, we need a national leader who will educate the masses and persuade people to accept hard choices.

Next few months would be crucial for Obama to achieve this.  I surely hope he will change his hands-off style as displayed disastrously during Health Care Reform.  He hid behind the congress and Nacy Pelosi's skirt and allowed his opponents to convince people, including those who'd benefit the most from the reform, that the good bill was actually poisonous.  He cannot hide again, behind the deficit commission this round.  He must man up and lead. 

We don't need an Obamiccolo.

House of Hope

© Matthew Felix Sun

Beer Pong Nation

Recently, I learned in a gathering a new term - "Beer Pong". According to Wikipedia,

Beer Pong, also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping-pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer/water on the other end. The game typically consists of two two-to-four-player teams and multiple cups set up on each side set up in triangle formation. There are no official rules, so rules may vary widely, though usually there are six or ten plastic cups arranged in a triangle on each side.

The order of play varies—both players on one team shoot followed by both players on the other team, or players on opposite teams can alternate back and forth.

...

Beer pong tournaments are held in the United States at the local, regional, and national levels.

...

The Wall Street Journal, Time and other media outlets have reported on the increase in businesses selling beer pong paraphernalia, such as tables, mats, cups, or clothes

I am no moralist and enjoy a mug of beer or a glass of wine time to time.  But the cheers Beer Pong game is receiving is incomprehensible, because it is nothing but brain decimating, manner destroying activity.

When the US is heading to be a Beer Pong nation, it is high time to cede the claim to a great nation forever.

Victory They Paid So Much For

2010 mid-term election is largely over.

Meg Whitman, who spent $141.5 million her own money trying to win buy the governorship of California conceded her defeat.  She said that such:

... We did not achieve the victory we worked so hard for, but that is not a reason to give up on what’s most important. ...

Really?   I think she meant that they did not achieve the victory they'd paid so much for.

Barbara Boxer survived.  So did Harry Reid.  Otherwise, it was a dismal night and this country is further doomed.


Falling © Matthew Felix Sun

Rich But not Run-for-Office Rich

A cartoon on New Yorker's November 1, 2010 issue caught my attention.  In a luxurious party scene, two women commented about an apparently rich man: "He's rich, but not run-for-office rich."

I almost fell off my chair laughing then my mood got darker.  Indeed, haven't we seen things like this?  This year, the obscenity of someone's wealth reached to the dizzying height, embodied by Californian gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman who has so far spent more than $140 million of her own money in her campaign.

What's wrong with this picture?  In regardless of her candidacy and her policies, one has to wonder that in a society when a person could afford to spend such vast amount of money on an elected office, something was seriously wrong.

How could we allow a person accumulated billions of dollars while some people in this country don't have enough food, decent education and health care?

This country has been robbing from the poor and giving to the rich for way too long.  It's high time to change it.  But real change, alas, is nowhere to be found.


Schism © Matthew Felix Sun

The Tragedy of Our Own Doing

When President Obama wooed the enthusiastic crowd with his change mantra and the chant of "Yes we can", it seemed indeed a new era was to begin.

Alas.  It was not so.  Convinced by his own amazing ability to transform, Obama reached out to his opponent with open arms and weapons laid down.  Unfortunately, his ability to transform the bitter politics, which he obvious had no taste for, was only an illusion.  He could surely inspire but he could not transform.  The country is as divided as never before.

In his first two years as president, he stood aloofly behind Nancy Pelosi and her foot soldiers, who were pushed to make lonely and tough calls, and surrendered many points before his jousting with the Republican began.  Reluctant to criticize the people he wanted to embrace, he didn't use many crises as educational moments, refused to engage the people in the process of any change, kept mum about his plans and ideas and the motivations behind them.  Consequently, he allowed his irresponsible but smart opponents to outmaneuver him in every step and successfully framed the debate in their terms therefore won over many voters who have been conditioned not to have independent thinking of any kind. 

Many people from the left wrung their hands and bemoan the weakness or betrayal of Obama.  No, Obama is exactly what he said he would be during the campaign, the fault lies on the insistence of his enthusiastic supporters seeing through rose-colored lenses.  Now, they are reaping what they sowed.

If laying down one's weapon in front of enemies is the criteria for a hero, Obama won his medal.  If a fighter needed to be our president, the old Obama is not the right person to fit the bill.  He can be a fighter but it seemed all too late.

The failure of Obama to communicate and engage, was as tragic as the personal failure of Bill Clinton.  Both had such promises and both floundered.  This time, tragedy is not Obama's, or even Pelosi and her soldiers, of which many will fall next week.  The tragedy is of our nation's.


Domesticity © Matthew Felix Sun

For the Sake of a Pair of Socks

Last week, when I did my laundry in the laundromat, I witnessed something hard to believe.  After she unloaded her laundry from dryer, a woman found out that a pair of socks wasn't dry enough.  She put the pair of socks back to the dryer, put in more coins and let the huge commercial dryer run to make that pair of socks dry.

Do we really have that amount of energy to waste?


At Home © Matthew Felix Sun

What Would the Rich and Powerful Sacrifice?

Ex-CEO of eBay Meg Whitman in her debate with her opponent for Californian governor stated that all Californians must share sacrifices to make California viable again. Yet, again and again, in her campaign commercials, her vision is the sacrifice from middle- and lower-class residents and none from the rich and the powerful.

This country and California have underwent a most despicable wealth-redistribution from middle-class to the rich and the powerful, and her solution is to continue the same voodoo economic policy and she is having a fair chance of winning?

What's wrong with our state and our country?


Swamp © Matthew Felix Sun