Politics |

on February 14, 2010

. 0 Comments

Saint Valentine

St. Valentine’s Day –the day originally established to commemorate a priest who defied Claudius II to perform marriage ceremonies against the explicit orders of the tyrannical Emperor’s ruling that young men remain unmarried in order to maintain a strong army –is political in origin.

Sex and Politics

The connections made between politics and Valentine’s Day in 2010 however, brings sex scandals to mind. The public needs to know whether or not their elected officials are having extra-marital affairs as it could reveal a greater history of corruption. A sex scandal will affect public trust and and sometimes, as in the case of John Edwards, even destroy a political career. Should politicians who are no longer even on the federal payroll continue to get this much media attention, though?

Former Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-TX)

Earlier this week, Amy Anderson, a high school friend, who I recently reconnected with through Facebook, posted Charlie Wilson’s obituary on her Facebook wall. The retired Congressman’s heart gave out just four days before Valentine’s Day.

Photo of the real Charlie Wilson taken a couple of years ago

Wilson, known as much for his womanizing as for his controversial politics, was played by Tom Hanks in the 2007 movie, “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

Mike Nichols’ and writer, Aaron Sorkin’s work on the film was nothing less than sublime in the way it rose above and beyond Hollywood’s pedantic tendency to enlighten the public with pre-packaged moral high ground conceits, wrapped in red tin foil and placed in heart shaped boxes with ribbons around the edge.

Amy, who had interned for Charlie Wilson a decade after events portrayed in the film took place, however, called my attention to other areas that had been, well, Hollywoodized. The buxom secretaries who were referred to as “Charlie’s Angels,” for example, were actually, “really smart” unlike the bubbleheaded bimbos Hollywood had taken the liberty to inflate.

Brad MacDonald Politiku

The Hollywood and the real Charlie Wilson story.

In honor of the late Saint Valentine as well as the late Charlie Wilson I am featuring Amy’s Politiku in this Valentine’s Day Politiku post.

Amy Anderson Politiku
known for his tales of
too much whiskey and women
but he did much more

Good Time Charlie drank
whiskey and fought soviets
Hanks played him too sweet

tall in suspenders
wearing a crooked toupee
a real deal Texan

Amy Anderson has had many jobs, but her first was an Intern for Charlie Wilson.

Love and politics
accommodate the extremes.
What is your safe word?

Rebecca Lieb Politiku
Strippers and whores aren’t
on the valentines day tab
this year, Blackwater.

Brandon Ruckdashel Politiku
Obama and John
Were two sides of the same coin
A Hope turned to naught

From Susannaspeier.co

Mistress with child and John Edwards
Melissa Parrish Politiku
roses a good choice
for wife of an official.
what to get mistress?

Ken Wheaton Politiku
VD also stands
for venereal disease
so back off Cupid.

Wei Shin Politiku
South Carolina?
Nay, Sanford’s Valentine’s in
South America.

Governor Mark Sanford

Much as I find the actions that brought about the sex scandals distasteful, I also fear the obsessive public fixation on them might be harming us more than we realize.

I wont pretend that sex scandals are less interesting than a 2,000 word health care overhaul bill. I will, however stipulate that if we recognize the collective tendency to turn sex scandals into media magnets and then make an active choice to only follow subsequent investigations if they serve the public interest, we could find a better use for our time and attention.

Susanna Speier Politiku
Okay, Congressman…
…bring back the Public Option
and I’ll sleep with you.

Pending approval by The Huffington Post’s editorial staff, the complete version of this article and several other fabulous Politiku on this topic will post on my Huffington Post Column as “Sex Scandal Politiku.”

Please follow @Politiku on Twitter, as well.

Why it is critical that you call the Capitol switchboard NOW

Published

on October 20, 2009

. 0 Comments

Please forgive me for the fact I’m about to sound like an infomercial but, October 20th is a NATIONAL call-in day. We need to flood the Capitol switchboard with calls in favor of reform. It is critical that your Members of Congress hear from you. If you want health care reform to happen this year, please help to flood the Congressional switchboard with calls to 1-866-210-3678. Make sure your Senators and Representatives know that you want change NOW.

If the line is busy…well, that’s the idea, actually. Please do not let busy signals deter you, please, please, please keep trying to reach these peops and let them know. 1-866-210-3678

Today is the day to utterly overwhelm Congress with the dire need for a Public Option NOW and so flood the lines if you have to. 1-866-210-3678

Tell your friends!!! Tell your enemies!!! Flood those phonelines!!! Flood, flood, flood!!! 1-866-210-3678!!! Public Option NOW!!! This can’t wait!!! Public Option NOW!!! 1-866-210-3678!!!

(OMG, that was like a totally legit infomercial script. Scary. You did call your Congressional Reps though, right?)

Wanna read a more zenlike contemplative take on Health Care Reform? Check out my Politiku on Huffpo, click here.

Nobel Peace Prize Politiku

Published

on October 11, 2009

. 7 Comments

On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee made an surprising announcement. Was it the fact that the news came only nine months into The President’s first term that made the news so shocking or was it the conceptual nature of the Nobel Committee’s kudos that caused so many waves to bristle?

Are Obama’s, “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” deserving of such a distinguished acknowledgment?

Submission deadline has already passed. Click here if you’d like to read it on The Huffington Post and/or add commentary.

Want to submit for the November politiku post? Click here to get the topic.

More context for how this decision was made -
Here’s the Nobel Committee’s announcement
Here’s the Reuters’ run down on what earned Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter their Nobels.
Saturday Night Live’s Obama acceptance speech sketch
Read what Maureen Dowd, channeling Bill Clinton and W, has to say -or-
Check out my friend, Thomas Huynh’s Sun Tzu based commentary on the topic.

Susanna Speier: Health Care Politiku

Published

on October 10, 2009

. 0 Comments

Health Care Politiku is now up on my Huffington Post column. Please click in:
Susanna Speier: Health Care Politiku

Posted using ShareThis
FYI: It rocks my world when you take the time to add commentary.

The ticker below was provided by Families USA. An organization that Jennifer Jaff, a patient advocacy expert and one of the Health Care Politiku contributors, recommends:

Health Care Reform Rock - “We’re Number 37″

Published

on September 11, 2009

. 0 Comments

Tricia Romano just tweeted this out Paul Hipp music video about the latest World Health Organization stats on how the US is doing, healthcarewise, on a world scale and maybe I outta try and espouse something insightful and sagelike so I’m not just blogging a re-tweet link to a You Tube vid but then it just so speaks for itself and besides…I gotta get to the gym so that I can stay healthy.

I don’t even know this Paul Hipp guy but his video is such a fantastic way of conveying this critical and often overlooked info that I’ve decided to nominate his video for a Mashable award. Hopefully this code’ll word (am new to code, obviously) Click here to nominate him (and let me know if this doesn’t work so I can figure out what I did wrong w/ the code and make it work, okay?)

Oh, and just in case you’re still not convinced we need a public option, I urge you to check out my Health Care Politiku on The Huffington Post and read what Wendell Potter, the featured Politiku writer, has to say.

Health Care Reform Politiku

Published

on September 8, 2009

. 3 Comments

The submission deadline for this archived Politiku Shout Out has already passed as the Health Care Politiku (formerly titled “Health Care Reform Politiku) has posted. The current Politiku Shout Out, however, is only a click away.

Health Care Reform is in the air which means time for a new Huffington Politiku. Please submit Politiku via the commentary section of this post or email me at susanna (at) susannaspeier (dot) com

Click here to read a deeply insightful op-ed on the topic by my fav NY Times columnist, Nick Kristof.

Still looking for inspiration? Check out this viral You Tube video on Health Care.

Isn’t displaying DNA 11 wall art kinda like wearing your social security number on your sleeve?

Published

on September 4, 2009

. 1 Comment

DNA portraits are available through a company called DNA 11 for prices starting as low as $199 USD. Granted, it’s a prohibitively expensive luxury that I would never consider in this kinda economy but at the same time, despite being a sucker for this kinda stuff and despite the fact its a prohibitively expensive luxury

in this kinda economy, the real reason I believe people outta think twice before endeavoring to embark on one of these –point of no return– DNA reads is because if someone is not too paranoid to wear his or her DNA on his or her sleeve, then perhaps he or she should be. And if confused by what it is I’m saying everyone outta be paranoid about, have you ever seen that movie, Gattaca?

Not that I’m not still deep-deep-down, secretly wishing I was one of those happy few. And if you happen to be, one of those happy few who saw the movie, Gattaca in 1997 and twelve years later are able to look back and reflect upon it as though it were something as dated as, say, retro-futurist-revisionist nostalgia is (when executed poorly, at any rate) then I envy you. I envy you for living your life unencumbered by Andrew Niccol’s doom and gloom prophetic dystopia that bodes will all one day find ourselves in a Prada clad, dystopia starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law but —okay— back to my original point. My original point here is that, I have neither the stupidity nor the faith in humanity to invest a three to fourdiget sum in customized wall art, screen savers, Facebook avatars and business cards that will publicize the my genetic info to anyone who bookmarks the permalink. Fact is, you couldn’t pay to publicize something so utterly, personal, fatalistic and inalterable! And lest you think I’m making a mountain outta a mole here, lemme re clarify the context, again: if the sickest team of glypheratti wanted to transform your social security digits into visually and conceptually fly wall art, would you comply?

Please read Nicholas Kristof’s health care reform op-ed

Published

on August 27, 2009

. 1 Comment

Nick Kristof’s op-ed in today’s NY Times, Health Care Fit for Animals is a short, effective, and refreshingly simple argument for health care reform in the United States. If you are feeling as overwhelmed by the healthcare debate as I am and are consequently avoiding articles on the topic, I encourage you read it anyway. IMHO, it serves as a vital Rosetta Stone for clarifying and contextualizing the various streams of discourse at the root cause of this collective frustration and anxiety. The response I posted on the NY Times website was an Editor Selection.

Discovering Da Ali G Show

Published