comment on today's Frank Rich column from Marie Burns of Ft. Meyers, Florida

President Obama will not tell the American people what's at stake in the budget. None of us knows what his true ideology is. None of us knows how he would govern if we had a parliamentary system in which the leader of the government can pretty much govern as he wishes.

But we do know this: Prime Minister Obama would not govern as a progressive. All that progressive talk during the campaign was a vote-currying deception. Mr. Obama campaigned the way Republicans always campaign: by pretending his goals were markedly different from what they really were.

Obama perfectly followed the Republican playbook in 2008: he pretended to be a progressive who would right the wrongs of eight years of Republican rule. But when he got in the White House, he suddenly turned into a conservative who engineered a "stimulus" package that was largely Republican-style tax cuts, a healthcare law that was nearly identical to one Republicans proposed in the 20th century (& which also included the individual mandate, BTW), & a financial reform package that lets the banksters do what they want.

If you think I'm exaggerating, let's look at something that's more simple and straightforward than a complex budget or those huge laws that Obama signed into law during his first two years in office: Here's President Obama in a campaign stump speech he made in the fall of 2007 in South Carolina:

"If American workers are being denied their right to organize & collectively bargain, when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a pair of comfortable shoes myself, I'll walk on that picket line with you...."

Today, Republican governors in several states are attacking collective bargaining rights. Obama made one statement -- and then only in response to a reporter's question -- in which he said of the Wisconsin bill, "it appears to be an assault on unions." President Obama's comfortable shoes are nowhere to be seen. Reporters have repeatedly questioned Obama's press secretary Jay Carney about Obama's campaign promise, and Carney has dutifully obfuscated with responses like (this is not an exact quote) "People know where the President stands." Yeah, we know this: he's not standing in Wisconsin or Ohio or Indiana.

Similarly, ever since budget season has been upon us, President Obama is playing a Republican president. He has repeatedly told the American people that the government must act the way families do during financial difficulties -- the government must live within its means. That's a line straight out of the Contract on America. Never mind that politicians since Alexander Hamilton -- you know, one of the fathers of the Constitution -- have said that federal deficits are a good thing. And where has President Obama been campaigning? At corporation after corporation where he has said we can "win the future" (you know the acronym for that) by giving tax breaks to small businesses so they can innovate. Not Word One about funding prenatal care or healthcare legislation or the EPA. Not Word One. Instead, he has given government workers an effective five-year pay cut by freezing their wages even as the rising price of essential commodities (like grain & cotton) have soared, guaranteeing that prices of food and clothing will rise. He has also presented a budget that will cut home-heating assistance to poor families & Pell grants to college students. Hope you're not too cold while you're staying home from college.

Scott Walker made a "fireside" address the other day in which he expressed his respect for unions. ("I really do," he emphasized.) Relying on President Obama to tell the American people the truth about what's in that noxious House budget is like relying on Scott Walker to tell you how much he loves unions:

Not. Going. to. Happen.

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com

Beaches! Ceviches! Coctels! Margaritas!

Here I am, departing from my usual slathering politicism, to praise beaches and ceviches and the like, which right now are all we know and all we need to know. The wonders of a week at the beach--pulpo, tuna, gorditas, steep steps down to the beautiful sand (no steep steps up because... there's Anado and Richard with the car! The market in Zihaut filled with beautiful fishes--the best is at Rosita's--tuna at $7 a kilo (mas o menos), shrimp shelled right there before your eyes, resulting in Richard's lovely fish stew with coconut milk, followed (in a day) by Hane's Korean pancakes and many other goodies. The food at Amuleto (where we ate twice) just like the food described by Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker--sweet and sour layered together in a most inventive way. Days on the beach in Troncones, drinks at Precious Moment, tacos at Doña Nica, secret topes, the lot.

My letter to The Times today

How Many Deaths Are Enough, Bob Herbert's column today, covers most aspects of the death-ridden US gun culture. But one aspect is left unsaid--your coverage of Mexico's drug wars. I think it's pretty clear, from the statistics Mr. Herbert cites, that the US death toll is much, much higher than Mexico's. And Mexico's death toll is more or less confined to a particular subculture, which does not usually include college students or innocent bystanders, and to particular areas of the country. Yet Mexico's body count is a frequent feature in your pages and in the rest of the press, while it takes a massacre (which can happen and has happened anywhere in the country) to secure coverage for gun deaths in the US. Maybe if the US passes a few laws, it can get its gun-death statistics down to where Mexico's are.

Arizona Shooter held in same conditions as Bradley Manning

"According to an official familiar with the prison, Mr. Loughner, who federal records say is registered as inmate No. 15213-196, is being held in “segregation” for his own protection. Prisoners in segregation are closely monitored, the official said, and generally spend 23 hours of the day alone in their cells and have an hour or so a day for exercise and showering."

Is it right that the accused Wikileaks leaker be held in the same conditions as this man who killed and seriously wounded all those people? He after all really does have blood on his hands. I'm not suggesting he be punished further before trial. I'm suggested that the conditions Manning is held in are outrageously draconian for the crime he's accused of.

This works as well as any other theory

I'm thinking that letting the Bush tax cuts die for the rich (not to mention taxing them at an even higher rate) might actually help get the economy moving. I mean these people can live on the interest on their money even when the interest is one percent, but maybe if they have to pay more taxes, they'll be inspired to make risky investments in order to earn more money on their money. I haven't read this anywhere but doesn't it make sense, despite its counter-intuitive (because raising their taxes is supposed to make them stop spending, as lowering their taxes is supposed to make them spend more--all utter nonsense) quality? I mean they're the people who have money to play around with, but no need to bother if they can just sit back and rake it in.

Scanners v. Full-Body Searches

Could this be the spark that re-ignites American outrage? Torture, ok; wiretapping, ho-hum; forced to pay for Insurance CEOs' giant salaries, it was the only way we could get any health insurance; but the government's hands on our bodies? Maybe that will work. I'm hoping if not hopeful.

But I can say this--I sure don't want to fly into or in the US while this is going on. And I fear for my son and his novia on their way to Mexico in February, so hope it's cleared up by then.

This time it's the Washington Post

David Broder, a Post columnist, in the course of suggesting that Obama start a war with Iran as a way of winning his second term (and rescuing us from Depression), mentions the following: "Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century." What are these people on? Does it ever occur to them that it's the US that has killed and/or just-old caused the death of maybe millions of people? I mean it's happened before their very eyes. Why don't they get it?