Too Dumb or Too Crooked

It's not yet certain whether Timothy Geithner's tax mistake was due to stupidity or a deliberate attempt to avoid taxes. The facts so far cause me to lean towards the later. I once made a mistake on my taxes, so I know it is certainly possible for well intentioned people. But this does not appear to be a similar case.

What confuses me more however is that our nation's leadership thinks this is the best person we can find for the job. The lack of concern among both parties is stunning. I don't know what to make of it except that perhaps they are terrified of doing anything that might possibly hold them accountable for the worsening of the current financial crises. A sad statement about our "leadership" indeed.

The media in action

The American Film Institute in Silver Spring decided to offer the public a chance to watch the Inaguration in its beautiful theatre instead of braving the elements in downtown DC. It seemed like a great compromise to me, as well as too many others. There were literally hundreds of people in line. Even though my friend and I got there an hour early, the free tickets were quickly gone. Neighbors who had been suffering in the cold for 2 and a half hours missed out as well. Some folks were irked at the situation, but most left without complaint.

When it became clear the tickts were all gone, I saw a bleach blond reporter from a local cable news station ask the crowd "is anybody here angry and want to be interviewed?". Eventaully she found an older woman angry enough to want to rant on camera.

Some of us stuck around a bit to find out about the waiting list. The general feeling seemed to be that while there might have been some things AFI could have done differently, it was just a difficult situation that was handled pretty well. Somebody even said "thank you" to the AFI employee who came out to apologize and explain the situation.

Yet my impression of the situation will be far different from the person watching the angry women on News Channel 8. Will they think she is representative of the crowd, or realize she didn't represent most people's feelings there? It's hardly a new insight that news reporting gravitates towards conflict and drama. But this little incident reminds me of how slanted news coverage can be - not necessarily to the right or left, but to the old maxim "if it bleeds it leads".

INAURGURATION NIGHTMARE?

Like many folks in this area we are debating whether to go downtown for the Inaguration. Some say that it would a lifetme of "should of" to miss out on such a historic occasion. We should at least go and leave early to get a sense of the crowd. Others, who are much more pragmatic cite the numerous logistical challenges and mammoth effort it will undoubtedly take to actually get in site of even a Jumbotron. And most of us carry all of these thoughts in our head at once, going back and forth depending on the latest report about Metro capacity, expected number of tourists etc.

It occurs to me that this is a dilmena similar to many others - one where you vaciliate between hope and fear. Sometimes there's no obvious middle ground to settle upon. I suspected it may turn out symbolic of many such decisions this country will be facing in the future.