OWS is getting traction in the aftermath of Steve Jobs' death and I began to ponder a connection between the two events. Was the end of the Steve Jobs/Apple "story", meaning its mystique, also the lifting of a veil of complacency and gullibility about what's going on in plain sight around us? What if the Apple story needed to be debunked, stood on its head in the same way that much of our politics and economic struggles need to be?

The Democratic Party’s hesitance to fully embrace the president’s American Jobs Act isn’t just another example of the ever-powerful role big donors and the corporate lobby play in national politics; it’s a further demonstration that Democrats are scared, lazy and deaf to the American public’s call to end the “Affluent Only” political caste system we live in.

A recent article in The Hill reported that Democrats in the House have been reluctant to co-sponsor the American Jobs Act because it was drafted by the White House, “which should have stream-lined the proposal for floor consideration without official endorsements.”

Obviously, arguing what “should have” happened in the Teapublican-controlled House of Representatives is no more productive than teaching trigonometry to a turtle. But whatever excuses they want to make, the truth is that Democrats hoped to avoid attaching their name to a bill that Republicans have already lambasted as a another “stimulus bill” that “increases taxes on job creators.”

Last night I went down to Occupy New Hampshire to drop off some supplies - some food, a tent and some pallets - and then stayed for a long three hour General Assembly meeting.   I won't go into all of the various topics and discussion points that were raised in the meeting, or the way the meeting was conducted.   But I came home with a fairly negative feeling of revulsion, and had to have a difficult internal talk with myself about who I am and about my fundamental political values.

One of the organizers posted some thoughts and follow-ups on the GA on the online forum.   I first replied as follows:

"Thank you for the comments, Keith. Tonight was my first General Assembly. Some of what I saw was truly inspiring, especially one woman who spoke of her desire to speak in her own voice, and not have lawyers speak for her.

"But I also found a lot of what I heard just plain frightening and disturbing, and left the meeting feeling very alienated. I hope people won't mind if I contribute some ideas from time to time to the forum, but I don't think I'll be able to offer more active participation, because I just didn't come away with the feeling that the majority of people in attendance share my views about what political progress would consist in, or about the best means of achieving that progress."

There is a camp here that believes Occupy Wall Street is not leading and not defining a vision. But we don't live in a totalitarian state that requires a revolutionary vanguard. Our chains are of our own making. So the value of OWS is not to lead, but just to say, "Hey, the emperor is wearing our clothes, and we are all naked -- and he made us believe we weren't!"

When I purchased country property in Texas a few years back I didn't realize one of its assets was the burn pile. A neighbor helped me clear some dead tree limbs and I asked him to take it all to the dump. He had a good laugh and said, "I was going to haul it over to your burn pile" I asked him where that was. "Over behind the old barn, been there for years."

We rode four wheelers over to the other end of the pasture. And there it was--kind of a sacred site--a large mound of black rubble, with bits of twisted metal poking out to catch glints of sunlight. "That burn pile has been there for as long as I can remember". My neighbor said. "Even longer than that bodark wood post them surveyors found on the corner of your property. Dates back to the 1800's".

Well, not much really.

There were about 350 people there.  That was good.

But here's the bad news:

One of the apparent leaders and key organizers is a Ron Paul guy.   He's a Republican state rep.  He was there with his Ron Paul sign and a megaphone.  He is also, I think, the moderator of the discussion forum on the Occupy New Hampshire web site.

Rick Perry has just unveiled his "drill baby drill" plan, a plan to bring dirty oil to ourselves and perhaps have enough left over to sell to the the rest of the world. Perry wants to "Make what we make" , "Buy what we make" and "Sell what we make" to the rest of the world. Perhaps instead of "drill baby drill" Perry's plan could be described as the "Make, Make, Make" plan. or "Make, Buy and Sell" plan. In any event Perry's makeover has him positioned aside a simplistic plan well suited to his experience running an energy state and his inexperience in just about everything else. And Perry's plan is positioned just opposite Cain's 999 plan. Of course, neither of their plans is ever going to be implemented. The plans are a ruse for getting one or the other of these candidates through the primaries.

Dag just posted a great and very logical piece about how Mitt Romney's Mormon beliefs will make it tough for him to get the Republican nomination, given the fact that voters tend to distrust Mormons and dislike Mitt. Although I see the point, I'm pretty sure Romney's Mormonism isn't going to make much difference in either the nomination race or the race for the presidency--unless the Dems decide to make an issue of it, which seems unlikely. Here's why.

"[Steve's] dad, Paul -- a machinist who had never completed high school -- had set aside a section of his workbench for Steve, and taught him how to build things, disassemble them, and put them together. From neighbors who worked in the electronics firm in the Valley, he learned about that field -- and also understood that things like television sets were not magical things that just showed up in one's house, but designed objects that human beings had painstakingly created." (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/10/jobs/all/1)

The anecdote above is my favorite from the recent gush of biographical material regarding Steve Jobs. It gives us a picture of the young Jobs, encouraged by his adoptive dad to take gizmos apart and put them together again. (It even raises the question: If Jobs had grown up with his biological parents, would he have become a hacker?)

The spontaneous demonstrations that are taking place on Wall Street and across the country should be seen as both good news, and bad news for President Obama. On the one hand, they indicate that the people are waking up to reality, but on the other, it means that they’ve come to the conclusion that if they want to survive they can’t depend on the help of politicians - and that includes Obama.

So it’s time for Obama to wake up as well. The time has come for him to open his eyes to an ugly reality - we’re knee-deep in a class war. So if he intends to win the coming election it is incumbent upon him to make a clear distinction between himself and the GOP. If he fails to do so, the next election is going to be a toss up.

NOT IN THIS GOP, FELLAS

Herman Cain claims that the reason that black people won’t support him is that they’ve been brainwashed. And many conservatives are saying Cain is President Obama’s worst nightmare. I would have loved to have been in the White House when those statements came out. In spite of Obama’s laid-back demeanor, I’d be willing to bet that he was laughing so hard that he was rolling on the floor of the Oval Office in tears.

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One would think that this man would have sense enough to know that no one takes him seriously - and especially the GOP. And if the GOP had ever taken the time to truly get to know the Black community, they’d know that the only thing more toxic to Black people than a flat-out racist, is a Black conservative (with the notable exception of Colin Powell, because he’s not really a conservative - he was just smart enough to flimflam the overseer, instead of the reverse).