My Personal Connection to the Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Scandal

A few days ago, my wife and I discovered that we actually have a personal connection to the Herman Cain sexual harassment scandal. One of Cain's four accusers is a good friend of one of my wife's best friends. My wife informs me that I met this woman at a party once a few years ago, but I'd be lying if I said I remember very much about her. Apparently, she received a $45,000 settlement to resolve her allegations against Cain. My wife also said that from what she knows about this woman she is, or at least was, a staunch conservative. But regardless of her political views, she must be going through hell right now with all of the publicity.

The really sad part about this whole mess is that it should never have come to this point with Herman Cain. The man clearly wasn't a serious candidate for the presidency from the very beginning. Not only has he never held elective office, he had no campaign apparatus to speak of, and never should have been allowed into the Republican presidential debates in the first place. Like former perennial black Republican candidate Alan Keyes, he was invited to the big show by a party desperate not to appear so...um...white.

Like Keyes, Cain probably thought he was making a smart business decision. The publicity he would garner from his sham presidential campaign and dropping a few incendiary liberal-baiting verbal bombshells would no doubt help him sell books, or give him an advantage in whatever other business scam he would get into next. For that's what matters in Attention Whore America, getting the media to put your name before the general public. That's as good as gold these days.

Cain almost certainly never expected his campaign to end up being anything more than an Alan Keyes-like sideshow. He'd hang on until after the first few primaries and caucuses, and then bow out gracefully while endorsing the front runner. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why he got blindsided by all of these sexual harassment accusations. If he were still running neck-and-neck at the bottom of the polls with Rick Santorum, I seriously doubt the press would have cared, and this stuff would never have come out.

But a funny thing happened along the way. The ongoing breakdown of our political system and a Tea Party movement desperate to demonstrate that it is not racist catapulted Cain into momentary front runner status. From that point, it was merely a matter of time before the long knives came out. The thing is, had Cain done even a minimal self-assessment beforehand, he would have easily known that having FOUR women make credible harassment allegations and receiving monetary settlements would be the death-knell of his candidacy once it became known.

The Cain fiasco clearly demonstrates that American politics has descended to the level of a reality television show. And since neither party is serious about fixing what ails the country, that is entirely fitting. The Republican front runner carousel of Sarah Palin to Donald Trump to Michelle Bachmann to Rick Perry to Herman Cain really ought to frighten any sensible citizen. The fact that this is the best that party can do in opposition to an incumbent that sorely deserves to be defeated next year shows that the empire is clearly entering the early stages of its death throes.

Idiocracy in Action: Pentagon Using Fake Weapons Parts Made in China

It's a sad feature of the American Empire that when all of our insane direct and indirect military spending is added up, it roughly equals the total amount spent by the rest of the world combined. And yet, as I reported July 30th in my post, "Top Military Brass Cry Like Spoiled Children Over Proposed Cuts," the Pentagon has laughably been warning that ANY cuts in defense spending in an effort to reduce the federal budget deficit will leave America vulnerable to attack.

Even if you buy their absurd argument, the next question which should logically be asked is: attacked by whom, exactly? There are only two nations in the word not currently aligned with the United States whose conventional forces could conceivably pose even a mild military threat--Russia and China. Of the two, China is the sexy pick to displace America as the most powerful nation in the world when we do finally get knocked off of our perch. Personally, I don't happen to subscribe to the theory that China, given all of its significant handicaps, is destined to become a globe-dominating superpower, but that is the conventional logic and for purposes of this blog post I will entertain the notion momentarily.

Okay, so China represents the biggest geopolitical threat--one that supposedly will only grow as time passes. If that's the case, then logic would dictate that we should be VERY CAREFUL in our dealings with them, right? Am I right?

Well, then perhaps the Pentagon and its apologists would care to explain this:

"Sprinkling" sounds like a fairly harmless practice, but in the hands of sophisticated counterfeiters it could deceive a major weapons manufacturer and possibly endanger the lives of U.S. troops.

It's a process of mixing authentic electronic parts with fake ones in hopes that the counterfeits will not be detected when companies test the components for multimillion-dollar missile systems, helicopters and aircraft. It was just one of the brazen steps described Tuesday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing examining the national security and economic implications of suspect counterfeit electronics -- mostly from China -- inundating the Pentagon's supply chain.

You...have...got...to...be...fucking...kidding...me. America wastes spends countless billions of taxpayer dollars on high tech weapons systems ever year, and yet those very same weapons systems are potentially being compromised because electronic parts are being manufactured in the very country that the Pentagon claims is the biggest military threat we face in the world?

It's official folks, the movie Idiocracy is no longer a fictional comedy but a documentary.

Actually, that's not really true. We all know, or should know, why this is happening. Because the profits of the corporations who produce the weapons systems for the Pentagon are more important than ANYTHING else, including the lives of the soldiers who use those weapons and even the very security of the United States itself.

Think I'm overstating the case? Here's another blurb from the same article:

Officials from Raytheon, L-3 Communications and Boeing said they took the problem of counterfeits seriously and were working to address the problem.

If these assholes really took this problem seriously, they wouldn't be using parts made anywhere but here in the United States. But of course, that's more expensive and would cut into their profit margins. So, do you supposed any of our so-called "leaders" in Congress asked any of these companies to explain themselves? Don't be so silly:

(Democratic Senator Carl) Levin made it clear that the companies and agencies cooperated with the committee's inquiry.

"We're all on the same side of the battle," he said.

You are right about that, Senator Levin. You, the Pentagon and the defense contractors ARE all on the same side...and that would be the side that is utterly fucking over the American people.

Wall Street Journal to Older Americans: GTFO So We Can Lower the Unemployment Rate

Pension plans are broke, Social Security is broke, the cost of Medicare is skyrocketing. Clearly, the LAST thing the country needs is a huge wave of people taking early retirement. Right? Am I right? Please tell me I'm right.

Well, not according to the Wall Street Journal:

The nation's unemployment rate may fall faster in the future than many economists assume for one simple reason: The rapid aging of the American work force is helping reduce the share of the population hunting for jobs.

For more than a decade, the labor participation rate—the share of the population over 16 that is either working or looking for work—has been falling. It stood at 64.2% in October, down from its peak of 67.3% in 2000, and economists project it to continue heading lower. Part of this decline reflects aging. As workers move into their late 50s and beyond, they are much more likely to drop out of the work force.

In today's job market, that could mean that many people now counted as unemployed may simply drop off the rolls and never return—making it easier to pull down the jobless rate once economic growth accelerates, since fewer new jobs will be needed to get the jobless back to work and keep up with population growth. Fifteen percent of the nearly 14 million jobless are 55 or older.

Because that's what's REALLY important, don't you know...getting that manipulated and utterly meaningless official unemployment number to go down. It doesn't matter that the federal government is teetering on the brink of insolvency, in part because so many additional people, particularly older Americans, are becoming dependent upon it.

To be fair, this particular example of business reporter stenography did at least mention the long term fiscal problem:

While that suggests the economy won't need to create as many jobs to bring down the unemployment rate, said Barclays Capital economist Dean Maki, the downside is that it won't have as large a work force to power it along and pay for the needs of an aging population.

"If you have a greater fraction of the population not working, that will make it harder to pay for costs that will be ballooning," he said.

We can't pay for the costs we have now without borrowing a trillion and a half dollars every year, fucknuts. So how the hell do you think we're going to be able to afford it going forward? This is yet another sad example of what passes for legitimate economic analysis in the mainstream media these days. No wonder we're in such deep shit.

No Country for Old Men

"You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity." - No Country for Old Men

I’ve written here numerous times about the daunting challenges that await Americans who have been conditioned by media lies to think that a comfortable retirement awaits them during their golden years. The data regarding the true financial condition of private and public pension plans around the country, to say nothing of the Social Security system, are sobering to say the least. My estimate is that America’s retirement paradigm as we currently know it will collapse within the next decade, well before dwindling energy supplies completely snuff out the overall economy.

The only question is whether this collapse takes the form of the federal government explicitly defaulting on its debt obligations or it starts printing so much money that the monthly payments to retirees become virtually worthless. Either way, the end result is the same—utter destitution for anyone whose sole source of financial support is their pension and/or Social Security. Even having money socked away in a 401k plan won’t help as either a stock market collapse or hyperinflation (or both) tear asunder the ability of such paper assets to purchase physical needs such as food and energy.

Almost as daunting for those either just retiring or soon to retire is the impending collapse of Medicare and the overall health care system. As the federal government’s biggest budget line item and the one that has been growing the fastest in real dollar terms, the program is rapidly reaching the point of being financial unsustainable. It remains uncertain exactly how the strain on the system will cause its financial demise, but America’s senior citizens should expect that within a decade or so the only medical treatments which will be available to them is that which they are able to purchase from their own resources. And this will happen at a time in their lives when their individual health issues begin pile up on top of one another.

Another factor to consider is just how quickly America’s transportation infrastructure is breaking down. As I reported last week, the average American bridge is now a mere SEVEN YEARS away from having reached the limits of its useful life. Additionally, the effects of continued rising gasoline prices as those remaining supplies of cheaply produced oil run out will fall most severely on those living on fixed incomes. This means that senior citizens are likely to become virtually immobile in a society where there are few viable public transportation options available for most people.

Another social factor negatively affecting senior citizens is the atomization of our society and the constant shuffling of our population. How many people these days live within a reasonable commute of any of their immediate relatives? For many seniors, the “empty nest” not only means that their children have grown up and left the household, but that they now live many hundreds if not thousands of miles away. As transportation becomes more difficult and the loss of jobs as the economy gets worse makes travel unaffordable for even for the most well-intentioned offspring, many seniors are likely to face the daunting challenges of economic collapse utterly alone.

Then you have the whole matter of America’s worship of the culture of youth. From even a casual observance of the images relentlessly glorified by our mass media it should be apparent that our culture does not value the wisdom and experience that comes with age. Rare is the popular entertainer or media personality on the wrong side of 40. Instead, we literally make millionaires and even billionaires out of the likes of Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber and the Kardashian sisters. Plenty of younger adults think nothing of shuffling their aging grandparents and even parents off to decrepit assisted living facilities that are really nothing more than warehouses for the dying. What’s to become of these lonely souls when the government checks that pay for their pitiful upkeep start to bounce?

As bad as the coming years are going to be for those young adults of the Occupy movement who are just now beginning to realize that all of the promises made to them about their economic future have been nothing more than cruel lies, at least they have a chance to adapt to the changing conditions. Adaptation becomes harder as you get older, however, and for most of those middle age and older it will be well nigh impossible. The only chance older Americans have of not succumbing quickly when collapse accelerates is to recognize that the economic growth paradigm in which they have lived their entire lives is dead and to make the necessary adjustments in their mental outlook and in their physical lives while there is still time left to do so. Most, however, will not come to this realization until it is far too late.


Bonus: After all, sometimes life is just a coin toss.

14 Car and Truck Models to be Discontinued Next Year

Though car sales in the U.S. have stabilized after their dramatic fall during the early stages of the Great Recession, it is obvious that automakers are still feeling the effects. What’s more, it is liable to get worse as the effects of the end of the cheap-oil era continue to grow. One indicator of this is how many car models have been disappearing in recent years. In some instances, whole lines like Pontiac have fallen by the wayside.

So here comes a story from Yahoo News spelling out the latest models which will no longer be produced. The only model I have recent experience driving as my office has a couple for business use is this one:

Chevrolet HHR - Once upon a time Chrysler took a boring small car (the Neon), grafted a body that recalled 1930s-era roadsters on top of it and created the PT Cruiser. Seeing Chrysler's initial success, GM copied Chrysler's play step by step — hiring the PT Cruiser's designer to draw a body meant to evoke the 1930s-era Suburbans and using the chassis of the compact Cobalt sedan. Imitation may be flattery at its most sincere, but GM didn't copy Chrysler's sales; the HHR was big and cheap but thirsty, and like the PT never received enough updates to stay current — although the supercharged SS version ranks as one of the best modern sleepers available.

Personally, the HHR is a hideous vehicle that never should have passed through the design stage. The windshield is tiny and the weird configuration of the front seat and my somewhat above-average height meant that the driver’s side sun visor is at eye-level. Trust me, I won’t miss them. For that matter I also don't miss PT Cruisers, which were discontinued a couple of years ago.

Here are the other 13 on the list;

Buick Lucerne

Ford Crown Victoria (oh noes—there goes the CLASSIC police car!)

Cadillac DTS & STS (seriously, who other than senior citizens and pimps still drive Cadillacs?)

Dodge Dakota

Ford Ranger

Honda Element (gets my vote for the UGLIEST car currently on the road)

Lotus Elise (I’m not sure if I’ve ever even SEEN one of these)

Mazda RX-8

Mitsubishi Eclipse & Endeavor (I didn’t realize Mitsubishi was still a going concern)

Volvo S40 & S50 (my wife had a Volvo. Very dependable, except that every accessory was prone to breaking at a HUGE cost to repair)


Bonus: I just couldn't resist!

Christmas in Cancelled on Long Island

I sense a theme developing here:

Santa Claus isn't coming to this Long Island town.

David McKell,83, has played Santa for nine consecutive years at the St. James General Store, but budget cuts in Suffolk County have him out of a job.

Suffolk County Executive Mark Smith told Newsday that 750 people are facing layoffs because of the dire budget situation.

"The alternative is always there for the General Store to find a volunteer willing to play Santa for the kids."

The county says it cannot afford the $660 to hire a Santa this year.

When it is beginning to come down to cutting a mere $660 out of a municipal budget rather than "saving" the supreme icon of American mindless consumerism, you know things are starting to get very bad out there.

It's Election Day in Virginia--and Once Again I'm Not Voting

image: the fall colors are in full bloom on the byways of Northern Virgina

One of the drawbacks of living in the Old Dominion is that for some reason we insist upon having our state and local elections in odd numbered years--which means that there is not an autumn that goes by when thousands of ugly campaign signs for various candidates for office don't spread like an invasive plant species upon every inch of grassy roadway median around here. Even this year in which the highest office up for grabs is merely in the state senate, this blight upon the landscape has spread far and wide throughout my neighborhood. I've sometimes wondered just who it is going to the polls that is such a dimwit that their vote is actually influenced by the presence of these signs. And then I quickly decide that I don't want to know.

Our unfortunate insistence on having elections every single year means that it will now be the third consecutive set of contests in which I will not be exercising this particular constitutional right. Which is a pretty big change in outlook for someone who received his Bachelor's degree in political science, worked on several campaigns, once served as an election judge and had been dutiful about participating in every election since becoming eligible to vote in 1984. Never would have I imagined when I was younger that I'd eventually become so disgusted that I would extend a middle digit at the local polling place as I drive past it on election day.

The last time I cast a vote was when I reluctantly pushed the button for then-Senator Hopey-Changey and his running mate, Senator Credit Card Company Puppet. I'll admit that I had a brief flirtation with the odious Obama in the spring of 2008 when he was running for the Democratic nomination and I gleefully voted for him in his quest to dethrone Queen Hillary and put an end to America's eight-year run of hereditary monarchy in the White House. But then the Great Pretender turned around and put the dimwitted Biden on the ticket and enthusiastically supported the hideous TARP law, so that by the time November rolled around I was once again holding my nose and voting for the lesser of two evils evil of two lessers.

Since then, I've decided I'm not going to play that fucking game anymore. Obama has managed to greatly exceed even my worse expectations of the man. In fact, I've reached the point where I really think it would have been better had Senator Get Off My Lawn and Governor Vacuous Attention Whore won the last presidential contest. At least then we wouldn't have millions of delusional liberals out there still supporting what is essentially President Chimpy Bush's third term while actually "thinking" they managed to accomplish something three years ago because the charlatan in the White House now spreading the three American evils of of globalism, consumerism and militarism throughout the world is in fact NOT a pudgy, pasty old white guy.

Being a partisan in modern day America is a severe form of brain damage that prevents one from making a serious assessment of what ails the nation and then being able to act on it. I have no doubt that some of the people running for the local offices today here in Virginia might actually have at least some good intentions. Our current state senator, who was swept into office in 2007 in the leading edge of the political tsunami of revulsion against Bush that turned Virginia at least temporarily blue, actually seems like a decent guy. But maybe that's just because on the one occasion in which I met him in the flesh he didn't make my skin crawl.

Nevertheless, I won't be voting for him for reelection today because he carries that little capital "D" next to his name on the ballot. Anyone who wins the nomination of either major party is at this point automatically compromised to a greater or lesser degree. Even Dennis Kucinich caved in to the Mighty O on the latter's corporate giveaway health care plan after previously asserting that he could never support a plan that didn't take the profit motive out of the system. They may TALK and good game like they are on your side, but when push comes to shove they will ALWAYS dance to the tune played by their campaign contributors. That's just the way the game works.

Despite my extreme cynicism, however, I'll once again state my hope that the Occupy movement will be able to develop into a legitimate political force. So far, it has avoided being co-opted by partisan politics and is drawing strength from disaffected Americans from across the political spectrum. If that keeps up, it might just be enough to draw me into the voting booth again.

Nevertheless, the rubber will not meet the road, as they say, until it comes time for the Occupy movement to face up to the fact that what is needed is a genuine change in America's mindless consumer culture. Anyone out there rallying against the 1% whose real motivation is that they want to live the same materialistic lifestyle that their parents did and thinks the movement is going to bring that about is in for a rude disappointment.

So, I wish the best of luck to my fellow Virginians who are traipsing off to the polls today in another futile and masturbatory exercise in so-called "democracy" thinking that this time their votes will really count and that their guy or gal will bring about the change they so desperately seek. As for me, the few extra minutes of sleep I got this morning by not joining them will no doubt prove to be far more valuable.


Bonus: George Carlin - "If you vote you have no right to complain"

Managers Stay, Workerbees Go

I really need to stop checking my Google news alerts, as this story from suburban New York City was particularly depressing:

Nurses, office cleaners, typists, psychiatrists, clerks and hospital laundry positions are among the jobs that would be eliminated under County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef's proposed 2012 county budget.

Among other cuts, Vanderhoef's plan axes 544 filled jobs and defunds the Summit Park Hospital and Nursing Care Center. It also imposes a $160 surcharge on top of next year's county property tax bill, which would increase by 2 percent, or about $12 to about $612.

He submitted his budget Monday to the Rockland County Legislature, which has scheduled a public hearing on the plan for Nov. 15. The board must adopt a budget by Dec. 7. If it doesn't, the proposal submitted by Vanderhoef would become the de facto budget.

The list of potential job cuts in 2012 is long, taking up 22 single-spaced pages in the proposed budget and involving departments ranging from the county Veterans' Services Agency and Youth Bureau to the Human Rights Commission and the Division of Environmental Resources, which oversees county parks.

The vast majority of cuts appear to exclude management positions.

The irony is so thick, you couldn't cut it with a chainsaw:

Hardest hit in the first round would be the county Department of Mental Health, which would lose 16 positions

Because anyone who still retains even a tiny little strand of their sanity ought to be able to see that any plan that cuts workers and keeps managers, especially at taxpayer expense, is bat shit crazy.

Today’s Lesson in Corporate FlackSpeak 101: Putting Positive Spin on Layoff Notices

Good morning class, this is Professor Bill. Hope you’ve all had your coffee already on this fine morning, because we’re going to dive right into today’s lesson plan. You’ll notice on your syllabus for Introduction to Corporate FlackSpeak, that today we will learn how to make a mass layoff notice sound like a positive business development in the media.

As you well know as aspiring young Corporate Flacks, your CEO and Board of Directors masters will be counting on your ability when being interviewed by a business stenographer…I’m sorry, Freudian slip…a business reporter, to point at a big bowl of shit and call it chocolate ice cream. It is very important that you learn to do this properly, because if mishandled it could lead to a loss of investor confidence, which would quickly be followed by the loss of your own job.

Got that? I see you nodding eagerly. You are SUCH a great class. Attentive and docile and not overly bright.

Anyway, up here on the blackboard I have written down some terrific real world examples from just the past month or so of how your brothers and sisters already out there in the corporate world have successfully placed a positive spin on mass layoff notices. Please make sure you memorize these for the exam:


"The company is doing what it needs to rightsize and be more competitive."

- CoreLogic

"Through a more efficient organizational structure, we can optimize our use of resources and great potential for further growth increase. This will strengthen our long term position in the dynamic market for online games. We take responsibility for our employees very seriously and strive to find a socially responsible solution for the affected team members."

- Gameforge

"We have an obligation to make tough decisions when necessary to improve profitability and strengthen our financial position.”

- Lowes

“…we announced a global restructuring to our Western publishing team.”

- NCsoft

"Motorola Mobility continues to focus on improving its financial performance by taking actions to manage the company's costs.”

- Motorola

“We've determined that we're really going to fundamentally transform the way The Hartford operates, by really creating a simpler, more efficient and flexible organization,"

- The Hartford Insurance

"We believe our cost and capacity reduction initiatives, recently announced cost-based price increases and innovative product launches will enable us to expand operating margins and deliver long-term value to shareholders."

- Whirlpool

“We went too far down the creative path and lost our way in terms of being a profitable organization. While today is a tough day, I am incredibly bullish on the business going forward.”

- Rock You (social game developer, whatever the hell that is)

“The layoffs are part of a plan to win stronger deals from merchant partners and ensure growth.”

- Groupon

“This is a difficult but necessary decision that will better position Itron to succeed in today’s increasingly competitive market and create value for stockholders,”

- Itron

“Through this program, Philips is investing in growth, addressing structural change, focusing on execution, reducing overhead costs and adopting a new company culture.”

- Royal Phllips Electronics

“…given the uncertain global economic outlook, we felt it was prudent to realign our operating expenses and trim our cost base."

- Erickson-Air Crane

“We must take painful, yet necessary, steps to align our workforce and operations with our path forward.”

- Nokia

"We strongly believe that the court-supervised restructuring we began today is the most effective means of strengthening our financial position and enhancing our standing as the leading producer of printing and specialty paper in North America."

- New Page Corporation

Did you little bastards get all of that? Good…very good. Always remember, EVERYTHING that happens to your company MUST be made to sound like a positive no matter how awful the truth is or how much devastation it causes to the lives of real people.

The exam will be next Tuesday. I expect that everyone here will pass with flying colors.

Homeless in High School

There's not really a whole lot I can add to this sad story out of LaCrosse, Wisconsin:

When you think of the homelessness, you probably think of it happening in big cities like Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine. Its a growing problem in every Wisconsin city, big and small, especially among families with children.

The Department of Education requires each Wisconsin school district to assign one staff member to be a homeless liaison. WXOW called our local liaisons and here's what we found: There are 22 homeless students enrolled in the Sparta School District, 30 in the Viroqua School District, and 70 in the La Crosse School District. But the district with the largest homeless population by far is Tomah, where as of last week, 93 homeless students were enrolled.

The homeless students in Tomah don't stick out from among their peers with homes. Many are suffering in silence. One of them is Jake. The high school senior, like so many of his classmates, has no where to go.

16 hours and 49 minutes: the amount of time that passes between the end of one school day and the beginning of the next. Time many of the kids in this Tomah classroom have no where to go. Jake is one of them.

"Not too many people know about it," Jake said.

Social status is everything in high school so Jake asked us not to show his face or use his real name. The high school senior is one close to 100 homeless students enrolled in the district. There are more homeless students than there are kids on the football team.

"We have never seen numbers like this." Director of Pupil Services Paul Skofronick blames the economy. "It's hurting all of us without a doubt, but the kids are being affected because they don't know why."

The homeless in Tomah are hidden. They don't live on the street; instead they sleep in their cars, at camp ground, or on a friend's couch.

I remember high school being one of the worst times in my life because my parents were divorcing and I was a socially awkward teenager. But all of that pales in comparison to this. Note that this is not a story from a big city ghetto neighborhood but from small town America.

It sucks to consider this, but given where the economy is headed most of these kids likely have no future.

What Do the Working Poor Need? More Cars!

Stop the presses! I have officially found the winning entry for the year's foremost example of sheer mainstream media idiocy, personal finance category.

First let me set the table on this one. It is an obvious fact that public transportation in America is woefully inadequate. Unless you live in one of the larger cities, you may well not have any access to such transportation, and even most of the larger cities lack anything as basic as a subway system. Moreover, owning and operating a personal vehicle is a huge drain on the finances of anyone who earns less than the median per capita income of just over $26,000 per year.

No doubt this is a persistent problem for the working poor, who must somehow get to their jobs, go shopping for food and necessities and get their kids off to school every day. A common sense solution would be to do a major overhaul and expansion of our public transportation system, expensive as that would be. But common sense be damned, the Los Angeles Times has a better idea, give those poor people cars:

For more than a century, efforts to help the disadvantaged have focused on education, healthcare, nutrition and housing. Almost nothing has been done to help the working poor afford cars, despite research that indicates it would help alleviate poverty.

About 1 in 4 needy U.S. families do not have a car, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. That's a serious handicap for the millions of Americans who don't have access to robust mass transit.

A nationwide survey of 353 people who bought cars with help from a nonprofit group called Ways to Work found that 72% reported an increase in income. Of those who were on public assistance when they acquired a car, 87% were no longer receiving it a few years later.

Other studies have found that low-income people were more involved in community activities and had better access to healthcare after getting cars, while their children participated more frequently in after-school programs.

"You're more likely to have a job and less likely to be fired," said Evelyn Blumenberg, a professor of urban planning at UCLA who studies transportation and poverty. "It's just a no-brainer that low-income families need cars."

Not to be churlish or anything, but UCLA professor Evelyn Blumenburg is a shining example of why America's educational system is deteriorating so rapidly. No, professor, it is NOT a "no-brainer" that these families need cars. It IS, however, a no-brainer that they need access to an adequate public transportation system.

I would sure like to know exactly when the alleged "studies" that show low-income people being better off after getting cars were conducted. In the summer of 2008 or this past year when gas prices shot far above $3.00 a gallon? Or perhaps, as I suspect, back when gasoline was still cheap? Because maybe you haven't noticed this, professor, being stuck up their in your ivory tower and all, but conditions on the ground in the real world have changed dramatically these past few years.

Even more asinine is this little nugget:

Yet there are almost no state or federal programs to meet the need.

The U.S. Transportation Department plans to spend $71 billion this fiscal year on roads and bridges, $22 billion on public transit and more than $8 billion on rail projects, but has allocated no money to help put the poor behind the wheel.

Under the Community Reinvestment Act, the Federal Reserve encourages banks to provide loans to struggling farmers, disadvantaged people hoping to buy homes and small businesses that want to expand — but not to people who need cars to work.

Wow--that is the first time I have ever seen it advocated that it is the federal government's responsibility to make sure people have cars. That is really taking fuzzy-headed, business-as-usual thinking to a whole new level.

But wait, it gets even more absurd. Here is a surreal quote from once of our so-called "leaders" as to why it is better to enable poor people to buy cars than to spend the money on public transportation:

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) has tried for years to get the government to help the poor buy cars. In 2005 and again in 2007, she sponsored legislation to provide $50 million a year for low-income car ownership programs. Both bills died in committee.

She said she has faced resistance from, among others, environmental organizations that insist mass transit is a better solution.

"Public transit is not practical in Milwaukee where the wind chill can be 45 below and you have to drop three kids off at day care," Moore said. "We really have a crisis with respect to getting people to their jobs."

See why we can't have public transportation? Because it's COLD outside sometimes. Geez, why didn't I think of that? I'm such a heartless bastard.

Maybe it's because I grew up in a town not that far away from Milwaukee, and as a child actually had to WALK over a mile to school (what a concept!). And guess what? On those blustery, below-zero winter mornings, well goddam if my mom, instead of coddling me by driving me to school, simply made sure I had on a heavy winter jacket, boots, a scarf and a stocking hat. And I survived! And I didn't even ONCE get frostbite!

I swear I read this article this morning and my head almost exploded. It would have been one thing had this breathtakingly idiotic drivel been published a decade ago when gasoline was still $1.20 a gallon. But now it is nearly three times that price and is only going to go higher over the long term. And that doesn't even include the soaring cost of vehicle maintenance these days, or the rapid deterioration of America's bridges and highways. If the working poor are having trouble being able to afford to keep a car running now, they are going to find it well nigh impossible when gasoline rises to $4.00, $5.00 and even more in the coming years.

I hate to say this, folks, but this kind of thinking, which has not abated one little bit despite the recent major oil price shocks, is exactly why I am convinced that the collapse of the American economy is a foregone conclusion.

Saturday Night Music Video - "The Last Night of the World" by Bruce Cockburn

I've always been a big fan of Canadian folk rocker Bruce Cockburn. Cockburn's tuneful melodies often slyly combine with angry lyrics, most particularly on his 1980s hit single, "If I Had a Rocket Launcher."

This song, one of Cockburn's best, is more resigned than angry. At one point he laments, "I've seen the flame of hope among the hopeless...and that was truly the biggest heartbreak of all."

Indeed.