The Bernanke Code
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

His words move markets, so speaking with care is part of his creed.
He is 1 king of 100 bald men whose crystal balls we must read.
His vocabulary is influenced by the Ivy League, but it's his elementary phrases that we all must heed.
If you break the Bernanke Code, all that you will gain is more greed.

You can tell things aren’t going well for Condoleezza Rice just by the appearance of her staff.

Seated just behind her: the farting alcoholic, behind him, the suspicious stare of a man stoned out of his gourd, the woman whose turtle-neck can’t hide her wrinkly neck, the intern turned protester, and what’s with human head looking mole growing out of Rice’s left shoulder?

Woman on Crutches Accused of Groping Connecticut Mall Santa While Sitting on His Lap.

The kids get the news while waiting in line but soon they walk away as the spirit no longer beckons.

For who is willing to wait in line for Santa’s sloppy seconds.

When Bush signed the Do Not Call legislation last year (one of his few significant achievements) I signed up immediately.
I no longer received the annoying calls that for the longest time we all were getting.
Unfortunately the callers lately have gradually started to slip though the cracks.
I made a poem that reflects the anxiety of it all.

Phone call… my regret is here.
My survival skills take hold.
Bracing for the worst, I answer with a lie.
But the voice that calls is a cunning predator voice.
The voice exclaims that anyone with a subordinate’s
authority can qualify for the decision.
I should tell the voice that I am in charge and
announce the voice’s decommission…
But that will flush me out in the open and
vulnerable to more attacks!
Maybe I should cower before the phone and
retreat with another deceptive lie…
But the voice is trained to be wise and it knows
my pride is at stake.
So I compromise…I am neither in charge nor
at the bottom of the deck.
That way I don’t have to make a decision while
not losing face.
I tell the voice that I am my brother and that I am not here.
If I were here the buck stops with me because
I make all of the decisions.
(Inside I am chuckling at the voice because it
doesn’t know that I am patronizing myself.)
How will the voice respond to my superior intellect!
This voice is probably now realizing that it’s been
out maneuvered and outclassed and has no recourse
but to raise the white flag, say thank you
and simply hang up.
A silent pause on the line prompts me to show
some kind of victorious bravado by saying
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? “
Just then the voice indicates that I need to push number 1
if I am interested…Number 2 if I would like to
Hear the recording again.
Feeling stupid, embarrassed, and kinda relieved
I hung up the receiver.
My son standing through much of this looks up at me and
asks: “who was that?”
Wondering how I can lower my standards any more than
to lie to a recording,
I looked down at my son and said:
“Wrong number”.

Kerry  Golden Era

When people embrace the idea of a better future, they tend to model it after a kind of golden era from the past.  (The good old days).  For many it was the 1950s… a time when optimism was high.  For most it was when they were children… a time when all things are possible.    Being a kid during this time was like getting the best of both worlds…A kid growing up in a golden era.
The late 50s early 60s did seem like prosperous times.  Not everyone shared in the prosperity and it did slip a bit in the early 60s, but this time did reflect a road that could be traveled. 
It was a world defined by the echoes of victories in World War II.  These were times where families needed just 1 parent to go to work each day…doctors made house calls…being a teacher was considered an honorable profession.    
What was really attractive about that time was not the icons of success, but that these were exciting times.  Weather you were successful or struggling, People were excited because they were thinking about the future.  They saw the light just beyond the horizon.  It seemed the future was just within our grasp.  This energized people.  
Science was driving a vision for the future.  Space technology was starting to take hold.  This was especially exciting for a young boy like me.  For years there were science fiction movies and comic magazines about traveling to different planets and galaxies.  Now, it seemed that we were on the threshold of all these great things actually taking place: It was a time we saw the Mercury space programs…John Glen circled the earth in a space capsule …President John F. Kennedy had challenged the science community to successfully land a man on the moon…you know…Before it had been done.

But weather the vision was greater technology or improving human rights or cleaning the environment, the future seemed bright.
The only thing keeping us from achieving our goals was acquiring the ability to achieve those goals.
The anticipation that great things are just within our grasp is precisely what makes people believe. 
The days can be dark but that doesn’t matter when you know the future is bright.
People had hope…people could keep the faith… You always are energized when you know that the light is just around the corner or just over that hill.

It was the early sixties when I was in the 2nd grade.  One day at Clover elementary school in West L.A., I went outside to play during recess.  I ran over towards the fence (probably pretending to be flying in a space ship) and looked across the street at the houses that lined the block. I saw most of the houses had an American flag waving in front of their porches.   I saw one person placing an American flag on their flag holder. (In those days most houses had flag holders mounted on a post on the front porch…I think the houses were actually built with them.) 
I thought to myself that usually when people put their American flags up it is a patriotic holiday.   I said “Let’s see” “Is it Lincoln’s birthday…Washington’s Birthday…I’m in 2nd grade I should know this!”   So I ran toward a kid in the playground and asked “Is it a holiday today?”  He said “no… how come?”   I said “because people across the street are putting up American flags” The boy said “oh… that’s because President Kennedy was shot”.   When that boy said this, the first feeling I had was disbelief. 
So I told him that he was lying and quickly ran to ask other children in the school playground.  Some kids like me didn’t know, but more and more did say the same thing…President Kennedy got shot and was killed!
My mind was telling me yes this must be true, but my heart was saying how can this be!  How could the president, a person this powerful, talked about so glowingly by the teachers suddenly be removed forever?   Plus there seemed to be a personal connection.  There were many pictures of the young President with his young family sometimes they were playing just like a regular family.  And these pictures were everywhere…on television… newspapers… in the Time and Life magazines which people seemed to have always laying on their coffee tables.   And people really enjoyed looking at those pictures.   It was comforting and inspiring.   This President was inspiring.       
The bell rang and we went back to our 2nd grade class.   It was time for art.  We went outside where our easels were set up and began painting.   As I was painting I still needed some kind of conformation since this was something that for some reason I had difficulty accepting. 
I called to the teacher who was walking by.  I asked “Ms. (don’t remember her name)” “Did President Kennedy get shot today?” This is the type of thing teachers probably didn’t train for so she must have labored to respond in a very appropriate and professional manor.  She put her hand on my shoulder, looked down at me and said “yes son… the president was killed today”.   There was no act in disguising how sad she was as she turned and walked away.
The disbelief turned to shock.    This connection was now broken.

Days later my school had a television set up in the auditorium which showed the broadcast of the funeral precession.  Groups of students were encouraged to go to the auditorium to view part of the telecast.  As I walked down the aisle toward the television in the small auditorium, I could see emitting from the picture tube that it was a sunny day with a bit of a haze.
As I watched the black & white image of the light from the sun reflecting off of Constitution Avenue while the flag draped casket was being led toward the capitol, the light seemed to say:
There is still hope…You can still keep the faith…There is still a light just around the corner…This journey will continue.

Believing this to this very day, I look to a day in the not so distant future and I see the same light from the same sun shinning down on Pennsylvania Avenue… but it is a happy day.  Thousands line the street cheering and celebrating.
And the light seems to say: The torch of hope is being picked up and carried forward… forward into the future by John F. Kerry.

Andrew S.F.