IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0097

 19 May 2013

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WHITEWATER: What did Obama know and when did he know it? Republicans vow to reopen investigation. Scandalous, non-scandal list continues.
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Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

Wishful-Thinking Dept.

7 May 2013

As reported today by TPM Livewire, the Chicago Tribune reports that Illinois Republican Party Chairperson Pat Brady resigned today, following a campaign of opposition by fellow Illinois Republicans.

Reports TPM:

“Brady created a stir earlier this year when he came out in support for gay marriage legislation currently pending in the state legislature. The announcement divided the party and resulted in a tense meeting in April where about 50 members demanded Brady step down.

“‘I think there are people in the party who don’t necessarily agree with me, but the point is …. we’re a party that welcomes all ideas,’ Brady said in April. ‘You don’t have to be exactly a platform Republican to be welcome in the party, and that’s the direction we’re taking the party.’*

It takes exceptional Americans to keep America “exceptional.” Kudos to Mr. Brady for his positive, if wishful, thinking.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

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Emphasis, ours

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0079

07 May 2013

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How can we have it both ways: state sales-tax diversity, and interstate tax-collection simplicity?

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Regards, 
(($; -)}  
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

Fences and Good Neighbors:

25 April 2013

If contemporary American life suffers most from one particular lack, it is the evaporation of a sense of shared community. In this essay on Good, Annie Leonard speaks to a way of restoring some functioning level of community:

Why Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors

The evaporation seemed to begin during the rise of television in the 1950s. Computers and the Internet and social media have contributed to this loss, by increasing the shallow artifice of pretense: now we have “friends” instead of people whom we actually know, and on whom we can mutually depend.

In recent years, we have distorted such terms as “friend” and “like” with greater, casual facility. The words become as meaningless, in their original senses, as the transient relationships they now commonly portray. We now measure our friendships in terms of quantity—the number of “friends” we have on facebook; the number of “followers” we have on Twitter.
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We change jobs more-often than ever before in human history. Our children no longer follow along through their school careers with the same class they begin with. We move more-often: across town, across the country.

Meanwhile, the quality of our offline relationships grow more and more to reflect the transient and superficial nature of the online versions.

Small wonder at our willingness to disregard the opinions of others, and to dismiss partisan counterparts, rather than to find ways of benefitting from the differences that all sides bring to the communal “neighborhood.”
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It was “Good” to read Ms. Leonard’s brief essay on establishing community with one’s neighborhood.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!
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One person commenting on Ms. Leonard’s piece provides a link to the Fellowship for Intentional Communities, an organization that supports types of community involvement that Ms. Leonard shares with her neighbors.

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0074

24 April 2013

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Congress now provides a great civics lesson. Sequestration shows how the Federal Government doesn’t work when we don’t pay for it.

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Regards, 
(($; -)}  
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

The GOP Autopsy Challenge

22 March 2013

“What Should the Government Try to Be—something that helps them with their problems or something that gets out of the way and lets them lead their lives? The answer of course is both, but the Republican Party is having difficulty finding the balance.”

Thus writes John Dickerson, last Monday on Slate, in Habeas GOP.*

In the piece, Mr. Dickerson speaks to concerns of President Ronald Reagan, that the GOP, seeking to broaden its base by widening its appeal to voters, might water done the concentrated power of its Conservative message.

The great challenge of American politics, and of representative-democracy politics everywhere, is that politicians must master a fine line between the difference of ideological values that inspire and of pragmatic efforts that recognize the differences among us.

Those “differences” are the strength of representative democracy, which provides the best balance between the more-impulsive, forward-looking impetus, and the more-condensed, protecting-the-rear restraint, which balance keeps a society alive, while at the same time moves a civilization forward.

In other words, broadening a party’s appeal may be the price of successful politics in America, and for successfully moving America forward.
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The Conservative and Republican Message contains fatal flaws, as far as American exceptionalism is concerned:

We are not a nation that likes saying “No” to the future. We are a nation that dislikes government telling us what to do, but the reality of our government’s power–in building canals and transcontinental railroads, and Interstate highways and missions to space, and the Internet—far surpasses the small-government ideology of the small-minded among us.

How do we reach a balance between monumental, government projects and the need to keep government out of our hair? That is the American question. In current, American politics, it presents a specific challenge for the Grand Old Party of our republic.
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The Sooner That the Republicans find a way to contribute more-pragmatic reasoning to the solutions, the better off we will be, as an exceptional nation leading the world’s way forward once again.

Regards,

(($; -)}
Gozo!
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*Habeas Gop: the Republican Party’s Autopsy of its 2012 Loss Puts Political Expediency over Principles. Now it Just Needs to Find a Body to Lead It.
—John Dickerson, Slate (03/18/2013)

@GozoTweets
 

NEWS FLASH: ACME-AMERICAN HOSPITALS TO PUT HEALTHCARE “ON SALE” ACROSS THE NATION:

9 March 2013

DATELINE: BOISE, ID: “Buy one, get one free! Everything must go!”

Thus spoke Dr. William “Wiley” Coyote, M.D., and CEO of Acme-American Hospitals, LLC, during a press conference at corporate headquarters. Coyote was announcing a nationwide sale of healthcare slated to take place during April 2013.

“This will be a sale of stunning proportions,” observed Coyote, “For the first time ever, Americans will be able to buy the healthcare they want, at a price that will amaze them.”

“Everything will be on the surgical table, so to speak,” said Coyote. “Let’s say a person has always wanted a kidney transplant, but has not been able to afford one. During this unique event, anyone can go to one of our Acme-American facilities and buy as many kidney transplants as he or she could possibly want. At prices that can’t be beat.”

“And livers?” Coyote continued, “You want to talk livers? For this sale, and this sale only, liver transplants will sell so low, why, we can’t advertise ’em. Come one, come all! Buy one, get one free!”

Continuing his presentation, the long-time Acme-American CEO added, “MRIs? CT-scans? Same thing. Everything will be on sale. No reasonable offers will be rejected. Everything must go. As I always say, here at Acme-American Hospitals, ‘If I can’t sell you the cheapest course of chemotherapy in the country, why, I’m just gonna give it to ya’.’”

Several additional, lower-level Acme-American employees spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to offer medical opinions without a license. 

–30–

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets