Balloon, Ballooned, Hot Air: This Week in Flight

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier, there was this past week. When Rush Limbaugh gets the bronze for hot air, it’s strange days indeed.

Hence my new cartoon, the week in flight – a mylar, a silicone cougar, and a martyr balloon:

Michael Moore’s Romance with Capitalism

Michael Moore is coming out with another film to let us know more about evil corporations (as if we didn’t already know), Capitalism: A Love Story.

This new movie is the subject of this week’s cartoon.

Moore has been know to use questionable,  deceptive, and misleading tactics starting all the way back with “Roger & Me.” Now that GM and the major investment banks, the target of much of Moore’s criticism, have been forced to reinvent themselves, a new release gives the filmmaker a chance to bask in his pyrrhic victory.

The screening of the film begins with an  “alms collection” for the “host of needy banks.” While greed did serve as a major driver of the financial downturn, it’s too simplistic to blame capitalism per se – instead, there’s a lesson to be learned about human nature here, independent of the regulatory system.

Further, it’s interesting that a film criticizing capitalism is released to earn profits from sensationalism.  I don’t plan to buy a ticket– there are plenty of other worthwhile things to spend my money on during this financial downturn.

The Future Won’t Be Televised

Digital TV is here and the government can’t give you another extension. It’s time to figure out how to convert your TV if you want your entertainment. I anticipate in the next week several hard luck cases will be marched out to show how not everyone can catch up, but if you are complaining that you didn’t have enough time–they announced this switch to DTV back in 2005! And if it’s just news you need the radio is still free… that is until the next government move.

The New Devil Wears Diplomacy

Obama is taking heat for politely conversing with Venezuela dictator Hugo Chavez and accepting a gift book. I’m not sure what people want Obama do? Throw the gift back at Chavez and start an argument?

So, what exactly did Chavez give to Obama? An influential leftist track from 1971 entitled “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,”  which is about mineral extraction and Spanish colonial legacies. The book rose to number two on the Amazon best-sellers list, giving the publisher better publicity than the best astroturf viral campaign ever could hope for.

The art of diplomacy has to do with taking on your enemies and getting them to do what you want. You can’t use the “Bush” doctrine as a guidepost forever. I don’t care for Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or Iran either, but diplomacy is needed because we can’t go to war with everyone.

Obama is going to make his mistakes, but at least he is sizing up America’s opponents without  idle threats. Time will tell, but a new approach to diplomacy may actually make progress.

Putting the ‘I’ in AIG Contractual Obligations

AIG is letting us know that our bailout cash is apparently going to be used to pay bonuses. Democrats are up in arms trying to shift the attention away from themselves. What did they think was going to happen when they gave money to a company that was mismanaging its money to the point of going bust?

AIG’s excuse is that the bonuses are contractual. That makes sense if it is business as usual. However, when you receive bailout money, legal obligations should be renegotiated.

I blame this squarely on the government for thinking they had to bail all these companies out without making sure that the money was going to be put to good use. Where are the taxpayers’ contractual obligations?

Foreign Policy Word Association

The ICC went after Sudan’s President Bashir for war crimes, and yet it seems everyone is afraid of using the word “Genocide” in reference to his actions. I’m not sure what the best political move is for solving the Darfur “slaughter” (is that a better word than genocide), but it seems that we all know China, the emerging superpower, has the sway needed to start turning the situation around. But much like the capitalist countries they despise or once despised, it all comes down to money. They are too heavily invested in Sudan and Sudan knows it, and most importantly–Bashir knows it:

Celebrity Pawn Shop

It seems like in the last week the media has turned to stories about how the recession is affecting the wealthy, from fashion to Hollywood to celebrities. While they’re amusing articles to read, let’s be honest: do we really care if the rich are taking a hit to their pocketbooks because the rest of us aren’t consuming like normal?

I say to hell with the rich. Save some of your hard earned cash and don’t buy their designer brands or their mindless products or even pay full price to see their movies. There are so many ways to have access to quality, generic goods and free entertainment that we shouldn’t be wasting our dollars so they can pay the mortgage on their third vacation home. This year learn to be cheap, and let rich, spoiled celebs watch a million or ten go out the door…hence, “Celebrity Pawn Shop”:

Mahmoud Make My Heart Beat

I watched a video on CNN.com about Valentine’s Day in Iran. It is becoming increasingly popular, despite being frowned upon by the government and the clerics.  I’m sure that it drives The Iranian Clerics -who are similar to Fundamentalists of the first order – crazy because they have no control over this celebration of “free love.” Young people are deciding for themselves which relationships they want to be in, and that doesn’t necessarily lead to marriage.

In addition, the people who are really benefiting from the holiday are the merchants selling the same sentimental crap, er, memorable “I love you” items that we sell in the US. I say good for them. The Clerics know they can’t compete with “fun” and secretly I’m betting they want in on it. After all, even tyrants need love:

The Layoff Bubble

Driving in my car every morning I turn on NPR to listen to the business news. And for the last 2 weeks it’s been nothing but layoffs. I’m a big believer in Americans bouncing back from job losses. Smaller businesses now have a talent pool from which to pick and choose, and many laid off workers will turn to freelancing and to starting their own businesses to make money.

However, these layoffs are still going to hurt in the short term. Most jobs that you can pick up within a month do not pay very well. In addition, when people aren’t in demand, salaries go down and bonuses are eliminated. I hope after this dismal year we can start to recover. I also wish the government would understand that continuing to prop up corporations with aid money does practically nothing to help the little guy. They may save jobs in the short term, but these actions often indirectly cause good pay to go out the window in the long term. Hence, “The Layoff Bubble”:

Checking out of Camp G

I was pleased with Obama’s move to shut down Guatanamo Prison. It’s not that I think everyone there is innocent, but the idea of holding prisoners indefinitely without charging them is everything America shouldn’t be. Communist Russia used to do that. A man/woman should always have their day in court. There’s risk that the guilty will go free, but what does it say about us when we don’t believe our own justice system is better than a dictatorship style management of “detainees.”

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