Jobs, Elections, Corporate Cluelessness, and Reading the Tea Leaves

Have I mentioned recently that I NEED a FREAKIN' JOB?

Whew. OK, now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's move on to the top stories of the day.

It seems there were some elections yesterday of the Primary type nature with the results being a confounding mess primarily to those Beltway Villagers who sit and talk amongst themselves about how wonderful all their fellow eaters of cocktail weenies are but have no clue about life out here in the rest of America.

So we get to read the "analyses" from the pundits who latch onto the easiest theme that reinforces what they already felt, regardless of reality (such an unreal concept reality is). Hint: the elections in KY, PA, and AR were NOT purges from the left or right.

Let me see if maybe a few headlines from today's news sites on the web can maybe explain a bit of the disconnect. From the NY Times we have this

Teaching Candidates Aplenty, but the Jobs Are Few

and this:

Clients Worried About Goldman’s Dueling Goals

From the Washington Post comes these gems:

Voters' anger at Washington may overpower any fixes

Dodd backs off alternative derivatives proposal in overhaul bill

And from MSNBC is this one

BP, Toyota flunk damage control

Contrary to popular Beltway wisdom, people are not always total idiots, mesmerized by the latest American Idol competition or the latest "scandal" involving a new Miss USA. As Jane Hamsher points out in discussing the Arkansas results,

Bill Halter’s no raging liberal. But he is a Democrat, whereas Lincoln is a corporatist. Those looking to interpret the race’s results on a strict right-left continuum are going to miss the relevant dynamics entirely.

David Dayen also makes a similar point in this discussion of the "FinReg" dance currently appearing in the US Senate:

It’s not that voters had any knowledge of this when they went to the polls yesterday. It’s that they’ve seen shenanigans like this consistently for the last five years. They’ve seen it on the Military Commissions Act and the Iraq funding bill in 2006, the FISA bills in 2007 and 2008, TARP in 2008, the health care bill in 2009, and now FinReg in 2010. They’ve seen defeat grabbed from the jaws of victory over and over and over again, and they simply have lost all trust in this crop of elites to do the job. And it’s hard to argue with the public on this one.

We are not stupid. We are not mushrooms. Many of us get our news from multiple sources specifically to avoid being sucked into the single source spinmeisters. We make informed decisions. We are angered by politicians who attempt to use wedge issues. We are angered when we see science ignored then see political and corporate talking heads saying "But no one could have anticipated..." while the next article quotes the scientists who did in fact anticipate something.

I don't particularly care to be angry all the time. It is decidedly counter-productive. Yet, it is almost unavoidable when folks in power are lying to me and I know that they are lying and they know that I know and do it anyway.

The politicians who won races yesterday are not perfect. Most of them are no where near as liberal or progressive as I am. But so far, most of those politicians have not lied to my face. They aren't p*ssing on my leg and telling me it's rain. And they haven't (yet) crawled into bed with the corporatists and lobbyists.

At one time, there were leaders at all levels of politics in the United States and it wasn't that long ago. Now, we see ads for folks running for office proclaiming that they are not professional politicians but just concerned citizens (who happen to be millionaires/billionaires able to self fund) What a world and nation we've become where the rich become viable candidates because they can self fund their campaigns and buy elective office.

Forgive me for ranting but right now there are far too many problems facing us as a nation and world where business as usual in the beltway does nothing for us but exacerbate the mess.

And because I can: