Unquote” Sinclair

“The great corporations which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country — from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie.”

A quote from Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle.” Sinclair’s muckraking showed the trials of immigrants and how big business ceaselessly took advantage of them.

The book is famous for the action President Roosevelt took to correct the corruption in the food industry, and after 100 pages, I see why it had such grand impact. 

 

The Tank wants to become vegetarian.

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Misdirected criticism

Anyone that jumps on Barack Obama’s win of the Nobel Peace Prize as an opportunity to criticize the president is nothing but a partisan hack.

First and foremost, he does not deserve the award. That is clear. 

The nomination process ended two weeks into his term. He was inaccurately credited with nuclear nonproliferation and outreach to the Muslim world. 

The Nobel committee should wait until he actually accomplishes something — i.e., cutting nuclear arms in half, pullout of Iraq, negotiations with Iran. They have three years to see if he is successful. No need to rush.

The criticism lies with the Nobel committee. Plain and simple.

Instead, you can be sure to hear from hacks such as your neighborhood staunch conservative to commentator Michael Savage. They will no doubt lambaste this as the another example of anointing him as king.

They gang tackle because it’s easy — not because it’s right.

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When good enough just ain’t good enough

As a fan of the pesky Minnesota Twins, I should be grateful. The Twinstripers are hanging on in the playoff hunt while there are more than 20 teams playing irrelevant games right now.

But I’m thinking big picture.

I want them to lose out and extend their drought without a division title to a decade-long three years.

If they eek it out and win the Central Division with a patchwork lineup against the Detroit Tigers, the front office will be vindicated that their piecemeal approach works.

If they somehow get to the postseason, they will be painfully exposed by the Yankees in yet another one-and-done October trip.  If that happens, they enter the offseason, looking back and saying, “We did it with Carl Pavano, Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto and Delmon Young. We will get some pitchers healthy … and we don’t have to change a thing. We were only a few breaks away.” 

The front office has said that in the past. “If only we had some luck with Tony Batista. If we only had a rabbit’s foot with Mike Lamb.”

I’m hoping for wins coming from losses.

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Noxious numbers: Palin’s handouts and racial overtures

1

Alaska’s rank as the state with the most welfare recipients. At 6 percent, Gov. Sarah Palin’s state had nearly triple the U.S. average, according to the new U.S. Census.

Hey conservatives, whadda think of your golden girl now!?

$2,000,000

The total that blowhard South Carolina Sen. Joe Wilson raised in the six days after he shouted “You lie!” to President Obama during his speech on health care.

Hey conservatives, what would  you have contributed if he would have added “boy!”? (Which was asserted by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.)

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Like that is the answer

Politicians can be so painfully predictable — and cowardly.

Congressmen, such as Sen. Chris Dodd on new financial regulation, seek more government to make themselves look good, like they did something to help their constituents.

In this case, Dodd wants a “super-regulator.” Like that is the answer. (See: Homeland Security.)

Obama, in his emerging style, is trying to rush, rush, rush legislation through to his signature, like he is changing things. (As Jon Stewart so aptly pointed out, why is this debate in the present tense? It should have been hashed out at least six months ago when the economy was in ruin.)

The cowardly part is that neither plan — not Dodd’s consolidation of regulators such as the Fed and FDIC,  or Obama’s, which in another emerging style, doesn’t have a focus – take the lobbyists and big business out of the equation and support me and you.

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