Jim Hightower's Common-Sense Commentaries

Newt's revealing dance around the L-word

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Let's take a trip down the political rabbit hole to a mystical universe known as NewtLand!

This is where Newt Gingrich goes to get high on the fumes of his feverish ego and invent his own reality. For example, the current contender for the GOP presidential nomination has conjured up the fanciful claim that he is not – repeat, NOT – a Washington lobbyist.

Since lobbyists are right down there with loan sharks in public approval ratings, Gingrich thought it best to fuzz the reality of his decade-long lobbying career. He now insists that his favor-seeking corporate clients did not hire him for his insider connections in the Capitol City, but because he's a "historian" and "transformative thinker."

So please believe him when he says that the financial giant, Freddie Mac, paid him $1.6 million over six years to give them history lessons. Also, just accept his word that he was paid $55 million by several health care corporations between 2001 and 2010 because they merely wanted to bask in the glow of his transformative thoughts. Indeed, when asked by the Washington Post what those clients got for their millions, Gingrich said that he set them up with "a really important guy who really knows a lot and who really has lots of information." That guy was, of course, himself.

And, yes admits the former House Speaker, he has chatted up his old congressional cronies about issues of concern to his clients, but he did so as just another concerned citizen. It was not – repeat, NOT – lobbying.

Who does the Newtster think he's fooling? You can claim that chicken manure is chicken salad – but one whiff reveals the truth. Gingrich's silly semantical dance around the L-word is a devastating revelation of his true character – this guy is so full of himself that he believes his own lies.

Tech execs say U.S. is failing them

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Last year, during an intimate chat & chew dinner with some Silicon Valley high-tech barons, President Barack Obama posed a question to Steve Jobs, baron of the Apple empire. "What would it take to make iPhones in the United States?"

Good question! We need to put more people to work building more stuff in America, rather than shipping all that manufacturing off to China. Instead of answering, however, Jobs just said, "Those jobs aren't coming back."

Well, why not? Why shouldn't American corporations go all out to help meet the obvious economic needs of the nation that nurtures them? The high-techers don't mention the obvious reasons for their jobs dodge: raw corporate selfishness. Rather than looking inward, however, they blame America.

First, they wail that American schools are failing to produce the high-skilled workers they need, so they must go abroad. Yet, these very executives constantly demand that governments exempt them from paying the taxes necessary to improve schools.

Second, they say that the U.S. lacks an integrated supply chain, which would locate makers of assorted computer parts right next door to assembly plants. But, wait – that's their fault. Apple, Dell, and the like have the market clout to entice suppliers to relocate anywhere in America. Indeed, U.S. suppliers say they've had to move to China because that's where Apple et al went.

Finally, industry leaders blame us, their customers! They assert that we insist on getting a new, cheap iGadget every year, no matter where it's made or how workers are treated, so we've forced them to abandon America.

Hogwash. These self-serving, over-pampered high-tech elites can make iPhones and anything else here – but they care more about their bottom lines than their country or their workers, and its time to call them on it.

By axing parks, politicos are stealing the people’s property

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

“Sorry, we’re closed.” In one of the saddest signs of the times, this message is popping up all across the country as governors and legislators are cutting off funds (and shutting off access) to one of the finest, most popular assets owned by the people of our country: State parks.

More than 6,600 of these jewels draw some 700 million visitors a year to their grand vistas, historic sites, wildlife, campgrounds, educational centers, and lodges. Parks are literally a tangible expression of America's democratic ideals, common ground for every man, woman, and child to enjoy and experience. For the middle class and the poor – who can’t jet off to luxury resorts for a getaway or vacation – these spaces offer a form of real wealth, something that each of us literally “owns,” knitting us together as a community and nation.

Yet, too many spiritually-shriveled, small-minded, and short-sighted state officials are snuffing out this uniting social force, stupidly treating parks as nothing but a budget number or – worse – a piece of the “nanny state” to be axed in the name of ideological purity. Top politicos in most states are closing many of their parks, slashing hours and services at others, or simply handing over the public’s asset to profiteering corporations: Idaho’s governor has proposed eliminating the entire parks department; California shut the gates of a fourth of the state’s parks last year; officials in Arizona and Florida intend to privatize their parks; Washington state has cut off most of its park funding; and Ohio has okayed oil drilling in its parks to replace state financing.

As Woody Guthrie said of outlaws, “Some’ll rob you with a six gun/Some with a fountain pen.” Shutting parks is theft by the in-laws, the political insiders who’re stealing The People’s property – stealing from America itself.

Essence of Newt

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

What a sight to watch Newt Gingrich campaign for president. If ego was gas, he’d be the Hindenburg blimp.

Most politicians try to puff themselves up a bit, but Gingrich is wildly bloviating about his worthiness and levitating his character to incredulous heights. For example, he insists that he’s not merely a right-wing political writer, strategist, and operative – no, no, Newt says he is a “transformative” thinker, even anointing himself as the “Leader (possibly) of the civilizing forces.”

In fairness, he has been quite transformative recently, brazenly transforming himself from a three-decade Washington insider and corporate hired gun into a born again champion of outsiders who hate moneyed elites. That's some trick, since he's a moneyed elite, albeit a particularly grubby one.

Having been unceremoniously scooted out of the House Speakership in 1998 because of both corruption and ineptness, he turned to influence peddling, making himself rich by trading on his Washington connections to get favors for numerous corporate clients. His 2010 income topped $3 million, and he enjoys a net worth of some $6.5 million, including a luxurious home in one of suburban Washington’s swellest zip codes. And last year he ran up a $500,000 tab on jewelry purchases at Tiffany, the ultimate gilder of moneyed elites.

But to really get Gingrich’s goat, call him a lobbyist. “I was never a lobbyist,” he snaps. Yeah and Bill Clinton never had “sex” with that woman. What Newt means is he never registered as a lobbyist – but there he’s been for more than a decade, openly selling himself as a doorman for corporations wanting access to the Capitol City’s power centers.

Newt’s not transformative, not an outsider, and damn sure not presidential – he’s just another old fraud.

Watchdogs with cameras

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Anyone who has participated in a public demonstration is used to seeing police with video cameras recording us commoners as we dare to exercise our Constitutional right to protest. Authorities insist that being videoed should not worry demonstrators… as long as they're doing nothing wrong.

But what happens when the cameras point the other way? Cell phones and video cameras are now ubiquitous, so police agents frequently find themselves being recorded doing everything from traffic stops to arresting protesters. This has exposed police abuse and even led to some convictions of agents caught roughing up the citizenry, but it has also produced a police backlash against camera-wielding citizens. Across the country, irate cops have been arresting people for the "crime" of filming police actions. Such states as Illinois have outlawed the recording of police without their consent, while Maryland and Massachusetts have even tried to stretch their anti-wiretapping laws to prosecute citizen videographers.

Some judges are going along with this, saying that "meddling citizens" should not be bothering authorities. As one barked from the bench last October: "I'm always suspicious when the civil liberties people start telling the police how to do their business." Well, excuse me, Your Powder-headed Honor, but us meddling citizens fought a revolution 236 years ago against King George III's red-coated authoritarians so we could, indeed, tell the police "how to do their business." It's the American way.

The good news is that a federal court of appeals ruled last year that We The People have a Constitutional right to record police actions in a public place. After all, if they're doing nothing wrong, the authorities should not worry about anyone videoing them. The camera is simply a democratic tool– it empowers citizens to be their own watchdogs.

Watchdogs with cameras

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Chief Twinkie at Hostess goes Ding Dong

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Here's a case of good news oozing out of bad news, and vice versa.

The bad news is that Hostess Brands has sunk into bankruptcy. It couldn't stay afloat with the $860 million debt piled onto it when a group of Wall Street speculators took over the 82 year old company.

The good news, though, is that devoted customers can still get their daily fix of five kinds of sugar, partially-hydrogenated oil, polysorbate 60, artificial flavors, and yellow dye number 5. Those are a few of the ingredients in Hostess Twinkies. When top executives filed for Chapter 11 in January, they assured an anxious nation that the corporation would keep chugging out Twinkies, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, and its other caloric delights while they deal with a few legal details to restructure Hostess.

Oh, goodie! But wait – those "details" constitute the bad news flowing out of the good news. The CEO says that to become "a highly competitive company that provides secure employment for our employees," Hostess must make those employees less secure by busting their pensions, cutting their medical benefits, and abrogating their labor contracts. Does this Twinkie-in-Chief even understand how twisted his logic is? Apparently not, for he also asserts that one of the "tremendous inherent strengths" that Hostess can build on to become a viable company is "a talented and experienced workforce."

Thanks for the complement, chief, but I'm guessing the workforce would prefer a decent pension. Without that, your words are as empty as the calories in a Ding Dong. Meanwhile, the union workers who literally deliver the goods for the company point out that they've already made concessions – and it's time for the richly-paid corporate executives and profiteering speculators who loaded Hostess with all that debt to stop sucking all the cream out of the Twinkies.

Newt Gingrich: the spawn of Citizens United

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In its Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court upended our democratic elections by decreeing that corporations and über-wealthy individuals can dump unlimited sums of cash into campaigns to elect their favored candidates. Astonishingly, Justice Anthony Kennedy declared in his majority opinion that such a gusher of special-interest money would not “give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Who knew so much political naiveté could be cloaked in a single judicial robe?

Justice Kennedy, meet Sheldon Adelson – a product of your cluelessness about how real politics work. For years, this casino baron has spent lavishly on right-wing front groups to advance his personal agenda, including pouring money into Newt Gingrich.

The billionaire and The Newt became symbiotic buddies in the mid-nineties, bonding over their shared fondness for crushing labor unions. Adelson was bitterly fighting Nevada unions, pushing a state law to crimp worker rights. Gingrich, then the House Speaker, endorsed Adelson’s Nevada legislation and also backed a tax break in Congress for casinos. In turn, Gingrich got campaign cash, funding to support him after being drummed out of office in disgrace in 1998, free rides on Adelson’s corporate jet, and backing for his present run for the presidency. In the past, the biggest personal check he could’ve taken from his casino sugar daddy was $5,000. After the Supreme’s Citizens United edict, however, Adelson can go all in to push his willing servant into the White House.

So Newt got $5 million from Adelson to buy his recent South Carolina victory and another $5 million from Sheldon's wife, Miriam, to advance Gingrich in Florida. And next… well, there’s no telling, is there Justice Kennedy, since you've legalized unlimited funds for the blatant corruption of America’s elections?

The Supreme Court, What a joke!

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Supreme Court justices don't strike me as a fun-loving bunch. I mean, would you really want to waste your down-time with the perpetually petulant Clarence Thomas, or kick back with the supercilious Antonin Scalia?

Yet, they and three other up-tight and far-right Supremes snuck a whoopee cushion into our elections when they rendered their Citizens United decision two years ago. With a straight face, the five jokesters decreed that corporations and the super-rich can dump unlimited money into political action committees, as long as – get this – these so-called SuperPACs do not explicitly coordinate with the candidates they're backing.

What a hoot! I'll bet these smart lawyers laughed themselves slap-happy over this non-coordination rule, knowing that it had a built-in loophole bigger than Newt Gingrich's ego. Sure enough, every presidential candidate this year has one of the Court's supposedly independent SuperPACs backing them with unprecedented levels of corporate cash. And every candidate solemnly declares that in no way are they coordinating or even talking to those running these money funnels. The punch line, of course, is that the SuperPACs are – whoopee! – brother-in-law deals, set up and run by the candidates' cronies and business partners.

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert is exposing the Court's crude joke on our democracy by having his own SuperPAC (called Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow) support his satirical run for president. Noting that it "would be coordinating with yourself" for him to both be the candidate and run the PAC, Colbert turned ABTT over to his Comedy Central colleague, Jon Stewart. Both pledged not to coordinate, with Stewart saying he wouldn't even watch Colbert's TV show.

It's easy to laugh at the absurdity of the Supreme Court – but the joke's on us.

Rick Perry goes from "wow" to "oops" to "ouch"

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

To the relief of most Texans, our prodigal governor hath returned.

Most presidential pretenders envision a come-from-behind campaign ending in glory, but Rick Perry ran a vainglorious campaign that went in the other direction, ending in: "Oops." What happened to poor Perry was… well, Perry. His brain bone simply does not connect to his tongue muscle. So he fumbled, bumbled, and stumbled through the Republican debates, showing the entire nation that he was not presidential sapling, much less timber.

Rick was richly financed by corporate interests, burning through more than $21 million on his political joy ride. But he finished a sputtering fifth in Iowa and New Hampshire and was about to be lapped by "other" in South Carolina, before mercifully ending his sad run. Worse, polls showed he had fallen to third place in his home state!

So, he's back – but not to any cheers. The general feeling here is that he embarrassed himself and made Texans look like a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. In a new poll, 45 percent of Texans say he soiled the State's national image, and 56 percent don't even want him to run for governor again.

Also, Texans are a bit chapped about Perry's prodigality with our money. While he was running around denouncing government spending and berating people who live on government payrolls, Rick kept drawing his $150,000-a-year state paycheck, even though he wasn't doing state work. He was also doubling-dipping, using a special loophole to take $92,000 a year in state "retirement" pay, while also collecting his gubernatorial salary. Then there's some $2.6 million billed to us to cover the cost of the state security detail that traipsed along with him on the campaign trail.

Perry will always be branded nationally as the "oops" guy. But in Texas, he's called Rick "Ouch" Perry.