Radical Avenue

Being George Bush means never having to say you’re sorry. He has structured his presidency around a philosophy of protecting his fat cat cronies at all cost. But Americans have gotten tired of footing the bill for these careless screw ups.

Even in the waning moments of his disastrous tenure in Washington, Bush has the audacity to lecture us about sound financial practices while failing to take one ounce of responsibility for the cascading bank failures currently plaguing our economy. The next president needs to clean house at every federal agency in the country.

Crash Happens
Mr. Bush would have us believe that our economy arrived on the brink of collapse through some sort of cosmic misalignment. He’ll never admit that lax enforcement of SEC regulations by his administration contributed mightily to Wall Street’s reckless behavior. That would call into question his fundamental certitude that all regulations are inherently evil.

Our president continues to foolishly believe in his own abilities despite overwhelming evidence of his failures all around. His confidence before candor approach leads him to see the world as he wants it to be, rather than as it really is. If what he now says is true, that Wall Street needs a $700 billion bailout to avoid a financial meltdown, then his repeated assurances about the fundamental soundness of our economy were false. Does Mr. Bush believe that Americans can’t figure this out on our own?

Sycophants in Charge Under Bush
Strong leaders surround themselves with subordinates willing to challenge them intellectually, especially on critically important matters. Under President Bush, silent incompetence doesn’t matter, as long as you pledge absolute fealty to GW.

Not many of us get to walk into our boss’s office and say “Sorry about running your company into the ground, but I’ll need immediate access to billions of dollars in cash with no strings attached in order to clean up the mess.” Executives at the Wall Street firms now expecting a massive government bailout from the US Treasury have lobbied for deregulation of their industry for decades. American taxpayers have every reason to now expect these high rollers to live according to the dictates of the free market which they love so dearly.

Bush Says “Trust Me” Again
Congress should reject President Bush’s irresponsible crony protection plan disguised as a necessary financial intervention. Mr. Bush has no credibility when it comes to the investment of taxpayer money. His fiscal record has been a disaster. He doesn’t believe in accountability. And his administration is dishonest about everything from torture to global warming.

At least a few Americans still believed President Bush and Senator McCain’s assurances about how the American economy is fundamentally strong… up until about a week ago. Now suddenly we’re on the brink of the next Great Depression? Fundamentally strong economies don’t need $700 billion dollar bailouts.

Deregulation Fails Again
If large lending institutions had all voluntarily agreed to a set of legitimate banking standards, along with an enforcement mechanism to keep everyone in line, government regulations would not be necessary. Instead these organizations ask for our trust, then recklessly gamble away our life savings.

Apparently the fat cats on Wall Street figured Uncle Sam would surely come to their rescue at the last minute. The Federal bailout of the Savings & Loan industry in the 1980’s set a terrible precedent.

Monopolies in Trouble
When privately owned companies claim that they are too big to go bankrupt, it indicates that the Securities and Exchange Commission has failed to prevent corporations from monopolizing industries. We now see the consequences of allowing giant conglomerates to swallow each other one by one until there’s a only a few fish left in the sea.

AIG should have never been allowed to grow into such a behemoth in the first place. Now that taxpayers own the company, we should split it up again and sell off the unprofitable sectors.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for identifying innovative means of getting loans to people who need them the most. By profiting from small unsecured loans to entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, he proved that poor people make good credit risks. And microcredit lending was born.

Low income borrowers may not have much collateral, but they make up for it with an abundance of incentive. Empty pockets don’t necessarily suggest a lack of skills. Thanks to Dr. Yunus, growing companies in poor countries now have access to the type of resources they could once only dream of.

Kiva.org
Kiva.org is a website which allows individuals to make microcredit loans to worthy entrepreneurs using Paypal. Unlike charity, Kiva lenders can expect repayment of their loans. This allows people to invest once, and then use that capital to help improve a series of small businesses all around the world.

The Future
The World Wide Web gives merchants new tools to bypass institutional roadblocks that have stymied the free flow of commerce for generations. Corrupt governments present less of an obstacle because they no longer own all channels of communication within their country. Now sellers from economically disadvantaged regions market their products on Ebay, use Paypal to collect payments and obtain small loans through Kiva.org.

Facebook has plenty of devoted Kiva fans. Individual investors use their capital assets to develop long distance commercial relationships limited only by the quality of communications. These innovations make information technology infrastructure critically important to developing communities’ chances for prosperity.

With financially distressed Westerners abandoning dens all up and down the state, a whole new species of homeowner has taken up residence in the California suburbs. Dry chaparral and low lake levels are making the right house hard to find in Southern California. But one bobcat family hit the jackpot on a lovely Tuscany Hills abode near Lake Elsinore.

The property came with a well stocked koi pond, comfortably dormant lawns and a disengaged previous owner. Plus it’s a great place to raise the kittens.

Way of the Wild
Bobcats don’t recognize our real property laws, so complaints from the bank will never keep them out of a dream home. Besides, the whole neighborhood benefits when foreclosed homes stay occupied. Families with strong moral values and sharp teeth will keep the rats away.

While many exterminators use harsh chemicals to eradicate varmints, bobcats employ the same all natural techniques that their ancestors have relied on for generations. Even humans still living in the area appreciate what the right animals bring to the community.

Animal Homesteads on the Rise
Bobcats make excellent neighbors. They’re quiet, keep to themselves and mostly sleep during the day. But please don’t call them lazy. They prefer the word “nocturnal”.

Opossums on the other hand, will always disrupt a peaceful neighborhood. Those critters are obnoxious, messy and let their kids run around in the street at all hours of the night. Some animals have no common sense.

Humans in this region seem to be re-grouping into the larger urban environments and having smaller litters. That might work to the species advantage one day, given the scarcity of resources in California.

The It Cub’s publicist informed me that anyone looking for pictures of the real Li’l Smokey must visit his blog at the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care Center. In the meantime, Radical Avenue will have to settle for a picture of Li’l Smokey’s anonymous cousin, who’s still pretty adorable.

That’s how media savvy bear cubs roll. But even though he’s a bootie wearing fashionista today, Li’l Smokey has always remained true to his roots. This young fur ball spent his early days out in the wild before barely survived a devastating forest fire.

Now Li’l Smokey has stronger claws and a whole new perspective on life. Cuteness doesn’t last forever. Sure, everybody fawns over you when you’re young and cuddly, but look at what happened to Ice Bear Knut over at the Berlin Zoo. Poor little Knut put on a few pounds, grew some scruffy looking hair on his back and now he’s washed up at age 2. Comedians are joking about his fat backside and stinky breath.

Li’l Smokey knows better. He’s taken the long term approach in dealing with his personal care team. Once the booties come off, it’s back to the forests of the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain range. Life is simpler in the woods. A bear can enjoy quality time with friends and family. Leave the stage lights to some other ingénue.

Old Smokey (who was rescued from a New Mexico fire in 1950) has been overheard grumbling to himself as he makes his rounds this season. What’s all this fuss over the rookie? Has he ever put on a helmet or picked up a shovel? Guess not. Over fifty years of fighting forest fires and people barely know your name.

Nothing relaxes the mind like a barefoot stroll across the park. The world slows down on a well worn bench under an old Oak tree. The energy I feel is in the wind, in the bright sunshine and right here under my feet. Often overlooked, grass has proven its worth to us time and time again.

In the middle of the Dark Ages, someone began harvesting alfalfa grass and using it as livestock feed in the winter months. By keeping domesticated animals alive year round, alfalfa hay helped cold weather communities thrive in the modern era.

Farmers still feed alfalfa to their livestock in the winter. But now a new type of grass is poised to change life as we know it. A January, 2008, United States study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln showed that switchgrass (also known as prairie grass) produces five times more energy than it takes to grow. The infrastructure to burn switch grass as fuel is currently under construction.

Pelletizers
As the name suggests, pellitizers reduce switchgrass to pellets, which can then be used for home heating. Mobile pellitizers have only come out as prototypes so far, but the future looks promising. The day when farmers can bring their switchgrass crop in to the local cooperative and leave with enough fuel to heat their homes for a year may not be far off.

Better Ethanol
Most ethanol in the United States is produced from corn. Corn must be replanted every year and takes far more energy to produce than switchgrass. Switchgrass energy production is an environmentally friendly activity which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. And since switchgrass grows well in poor soil, it won’t impact food crops as directly as corn grown for ethanol.