What did you think Bill Clinton would say, Ms. Curry - "yes"?

Feb. 16 - TODAY’s Ann Curry talks with former President Bill Clinton, referencing a list that placed Clinton among the Top 25 people who share blame for the the current economic downturn. There should be a video box toward the bottom right of the article.

He said, "no". Seems to me she should've followed up with, "why do you think that?". No? Bad, Curry. Baaaaad, Ann Curry. To see the entire list TIME put together, read here.

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Reich advises President Obama that white men need not apply.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich advised President Obama and others that in order for Obama's stimulus funds package allocated to businesses in the construction industry to be effective, workers other than white men must take advantage of it.

Here's Reich's own headline: "The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers." You can read Reich's rationale here, on his blog. On January 8th, Reich blogged, "...if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most - women, minorities, and the poor and long-term unemployed - will be shut out." Dominated by white males, Mr. Reich? Must be an ivory tower from 1959 in which you reside because that couldn't be further from the truth. USA Today reported as far back as 2007, that "67% of construction workers are Hispanic."

As one Internet article pointed out, if Obama were advised to omit black workers or Hispanic workers, wouldn't that strike a cord with the American public? "Omit", "left behind", "only go to white males"...doesn't matter. I can follow Reich's logic, to a point, but he could've made his recommendations without blatantly attaching the caveat to omit "the white man".

(I didn't include illegal aliens in the mix because they're illegal and shouldn't be in our country in the first place.)

Read his blog post. If I were to propose that both the NFL and NBA, leagues dominated by black males athletes, need to institute a program to get more white athletes on teams, that would be deemed racist. No? Yes it would. What Reich is proposing is nothing more than the 2009 version of Jim Crow, which was repealed in 1965. In case you're not familiar with Jim Crow laws, they helped to segregate blacks and whites - white drinking fountain/black drinking fountain, whites enter here/blacks enter here...only blacks and Hispanics need apply for these construction jobs, that sort of thing. What Reich is proposing then is a methodology of somehow controlling what percentage of a stimulus money goes to white men versus minorities, women, unemployed, etc. That's Jim Crow. Let's not sugarcoat it.

Hey, whoever's qualified for the job should get it - white, brown, black, whatever. What about areas of the country where white contractors and white construction workers are predominant - like my hometown of Waterford, WI? Will they be denied access to the stimulus package because they're white? So it's a regional thing then? And will more illegal aliens be scooped up as job applicants because they're non-white?

Reich should've just proposed what he proposed and left out any mention of "white construction workers" and it would've been fine. I'm all for giving the unemployed opportunities, job-training for the unskilled...regardless of color. I'm all for equal opportunity for women and minorities. What I'm ALL FOR is the best MAN or WOMAN getting the job. Period. Dumb asshole. I never liked Reich when he was working in the Clinton Administration and now I hate him even more. This is part of the "CHANGE" the Obama camp has been proposing throughout the election?

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David Foster Wallace and "The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and The Shrub".

Author David Foster Wallace hung himself this past Friday. I had never heard of him nor read anything he had written. This excerpt is taken from his Rolling Stone article, "The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and The Shrub", dated sometime in 2000 when John McCain was making a bid for the White House.

"Probably the last real leader we had as U.S. President was JFK, forty years ago. It's not that Kennedy was a better human being than the seven presidents we've had since: we know he lied about his WWII record, and had spooky Mob ties, and screwed around more in the White House than poor Clinton could ever dream of. But JFK had that weird leader-type magic, and when he said things like, "Ask not what our country can do for you - ask what you can do for our country", nobody rolled their eyes or saw it as just political bullshit. Instead, a lot of them felt inspired. And the decade that followed, however fucked up it was in other ways, saw millions of Young Voters devote themselves to social and political causes that had nothing to do with getting a great job or owning nice stuff or finding the best parties; and the 60's were, by most accounts, a generally cleaner and happier time than now.

So it's worth thinking about why, when John McCain says he wants to be president in order to inspire a generation of young Americans to devote themselves to causes greater than their own self-interest, a great many of those young Americans will yawn or roll their eyes or make some ironic joke instead of feeling totally inspired the way they did with Kennedy."

The media and critics keep alluding to his genius. Maybe he was. But if people are so smart (genius) why do they take the easy way out? What do they know that most of don't know? And is that what makes them a "genius" - in part?

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