Them Brown People Down South

Oops.

OK lets try that again. Chavez in Venezuela and the recent elections there.

Around and around in this country people seem happy that the guy lost and that it appears that he will not be able to run for re-election. Also that his other reforms lost.

It seems to me that whatever happens in any country south of our border is generally negatively affected by the heavy hand of America and our corporations. I mean lets face it the New York Times cheered when Chavez was overthrown (temporarily) a few years ago. At the time they claimed that the plotters were re-installing democracy by over throwing an elected president. How can we believe what they tell us now. We they say it was a victory for democracy that his reforms were defeated.

I wonder how much money was pumped into that election by us (U.S.?) to distort the process. Just askin.

Them Brown People Down South

Social Security or How the Democrats Will Screw Us Again

Once again, almost like clockwork, the Democrats have managed to drag defeat from the jaws of victory.

Obama says that he needs a bi-partisan study group to "fix" social security. It does not need to be fixed, but those inside the beltway seem to think it does. Why do you suppose that is and why do you suppose that the "leaders" (scare quotes) of the Democratic party buy into that idea?

Glad you asked. Damned if I can completely figure it out. Well I do have an answer, but I really don't like it. It is that our rulers (note no ironic quotes) are in the same mental place as the patricians in the ancient Roman Republic at the end of that republic were.

They are on the whole not too bright, not too creative and in love with their own privileges. Their government is a combination of a plutocracy and a kelptacracy with a fair amount of incompetence thrown in. So in the end they will continue to steal from the poor. But what is more important to our country they will steal from the middle class and make them either poor or make them into people who are reasonably paranoid about losing what they have. Turning them (us?) into 21st century fascists. Kicking those who are worse off than we are to try to keep what little we have left after the super wealthy take theirs. Of course, the final result for the patricians was some pretty nasty personal endings once the various Caesars took power. In the end, for those folks the Caesars didn't even come from their own class.

I don't quite understand it, but I can see it. Why can't they?

Global Warming or Climate Change Attitudes if you will

I've been thinking about the arguments about climate change and whether or not human beings are responsible.

Here is my take on the whole thing:

Assume that those who believe that we are responsible for global warming are completely wrong and we are not responsible, but we do what they suggest anyway. What is the end result?

The air is cleaner, people with allergies and asthma and such are not as sickened by the pollution, we cut back on our use of non-renewable natural resources like gas and oil, we create hundreds of thousands of new jobs to produce non-polluting fuels. The air is cleaner, the water is cleaner, and the earth is just a more pleasant place to live.

Now assume that those who believe that we are not responsible for global warming are completely wrong and we are responsible, but we do what they suggest anyway. What is the end result in this case?

The air remains as dirty and polluted as it is now and perhaps becomes worse. People with allergies and asthma and such simply continue to get sick from the polluted air. We continue to to extract non-renewable resources until they are all gone. There are no new jobs in new industries because there are nearly no new industries to supply renewable energy. The air is not cleaner, the water is not cleaner and the world is not a more pleasant place to live. In short we poison ourselves, and maybe destroy humanity and most of the rest of the world.

Just too frustrated

Just too frustrated to post. An attorney general who doesn't know if water boarding is or is not torture. He's voted in by all the Republicans and a not insignificant number of Democrats. None of the senators who are running for president can take the time from their busy schedules to come to the Senate to vote against him (even though they all spoke out against him).

I feel like I am shouting into a very loud wind. What I can see so clearly from my little town in Southeastern Ohio, those incredibly wealthy senators seem to have no clue about. What I am trying to say is that the Democratic congress seems to have lower poll numbers then the President. Still they will not take a stand and try to fight it out. Why in god's name is that?

I would think that they would at least want to follow the votes to more power. They don't even seem to want to do that. Let alone fight for what might be right.

If this is indeed the second time it certainly doesn't seem like a farce.

Further thoughts on cowardly congressmen

I've had a further thought concerning my (Democratic) congressman's response concering giving telecommunication giants retroactive immunity.

That defense comes mighty close to the old German defense: "I was just following orders." I mean lets face it they were just following the president's orders right?

Cowards in Power

I wrote the following to my congressman based on his response to my plea that he not vote for retroactive immunity to the telecommunications industry.

Dear Congressman Space:

I received your response to my request that you vote against retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.

Quite frankly I am chilled by your response. When you write: "I understand your concerns regarding rewarding companies who may have acted unlawfully, but I also understand the need to protect companies who acted out of compliance with what they believed to be the best interests of our national security" you seem to ignore the great truth upon which our country is based. That truth would be that the rule of law, not of men control.

The president and the companies could have come to the congress and asked that the law be changed. They could have gone to the FISA court and ask for warrants (not a single request for warrants has ever been denied by those courts, if the reports I read are accurate). Instead they chose to break the law because they thought that they knew better. But it goes even farther then that. They thought they could do what they wanted and they did not have to ask permission.

What retroactive immunity would do is not even permit these matters to be investigated and litigated by individuals. We (you and I) are not permitted to know specifically all they did. By granting retroactive immunity you and the rest of congress would effectively close the door on any real investigation of what currently appears to be years of law breaking by this administration and these massive companies. I know that congress could, if it chose investigate, but right now that doesn't appear likely.

I am incredibly disappointed in you and your attitude towards the laws of this County. Those laws are what made our Country great and I see the Bush administration and its allies and enablers in congress breaking them down. I used to wonder how the Roman republic degenerated into the empire of the Caesars. I no longer wonder.

Wars of Peace

I've been thinking about all the wars that the USA has been involved in since I was born in 1946: Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Sudan, Lebanon, Croatia, Iraq (I'm thinking that there may be more that I haven't remembered).

OK technically they weren't all wars. OK none of them were technically wars. All most all of them were to maintain American hegemony in various parts of the world.

Why is it that we keep thinking that we are defending anything other than our hegemony? Because we are just too exceptional, of course. We would not do that, therefore, we don't. Ergo.

SCHIP

I am simply amazed at the right's attacks on government sponsored health care. The incredible fear of "socialism" is just amazing.

All western industrial nations in the world have government health care of one type or another. All that is except the USA. We are told that those health care systems are not as good at delivering medical goods and services as that in the United States, but it doesn't matter what kind of government, conservative, liberal, middle of the road, is in power that is one thing that is never tampered with: universal health care.

We may not be able to get more children covered. God God what is the matter with us? Are we that stupid? Do we not live in a representative democracy? Well OK we don't live in a representative democracy, at least not for some time.

Iraq

Got a phone call from my brother today. He's heading to Iraq, leaving this afternoon. He's working for a "contractor." How sad. He's been wanting to get into the action for some time. He's 55. Well at least he should be relatively safe. He claims that he won't be leaving the airport area in Baghdad (for a year?).

I'm not sure what he does (I think that he would have to kill me if he told me).

I have been opposed to this war from the beginning. He has never met a war he didn't like. Still he is my brother and I am concerned about his well being. I do hope he isn't harmed. Hopefully, he won't do much harm.

I should say that I have been opposed to all our colonial wars, since I was discharged in 1968. Like General Butler, I had no original thought while I was in uniform. Well that isn't exactly true. In Thailand we had a lot of time to read and the base library had several of Bernard Fall's books. Reading those I got a real education about Vietnam. Seeing the kind of living conditions the people of Thailand had, I began to wonder just why we were trying to protect those conditions and keep them from changing.

Let's face it I was a little naive and I really didn't understand the vast capitalist/colonial and neo-colonial conspiracy. Of course, I'm not sure it is really a conspiracy if it's out in the open. But like most Americans I was never given the kind of information from our news media that would allow me to analyze what we were doing. That's pretty sad, given that the media were much better then.

Still running day late and a dollar short

Just got back from a trip to Cleveland Clinic 6 hours round trip. Up and back and a 20 minute visit with the doctor. My fiance' is to have carpal tunnel surgery on November 20 and December 11. Finally. As I say a 6 hour trip and a 20 minute visit with the doctor. The surgeries should take 20 minutes each.

Got back and two little kittens we had thought we had rescued were dead. Our friend found them and buried them. Thank god, I am so grateful, I've buried 10 kittens in the last two months and I am just tired of it.

My God is arbitrary and capricious, how about yours?

Just Not Enough Time

It seems as if I just don't have enough time to do what I want to do and to sleep to.

Taking care of the quadrupeds and thinking about riding the bike again today. Perhaps not today its already after 3:00 p.m.

Once again my congressman, Zack Space, voted for the Republicans even though he has a (D) after his name. He voted to condemn moveon.org for its Peterus ad. I sent him an email today asking him if he would also condemn Fox for running its piece today by Hunt attacking various unnamed generals as betraying the troops. (Look it up, I don't feel like linking to the scum.)

I am fully confident that he will either not respond, or whine that it is different IOKIFYAAR. It is amazing that the Democrats seem more than willing to cut their most impassioned supporters off at the knees while getting nothing in return. I guess I could sort of grudgingly understand a politician who attacked their supporters in order to gain a larger base of support. Also, I might have a certain admiration for a politician who attacked his base because he thought that his base was simply wrong on the facts. But in the latter case I would hope that politician would step out and be honest.

But in the case of the House and Senate votes to condemn moveon.org that is simply not the case. These votes simply attack a group because they strongly call into question a general's statements. Moveon.org points out that the guy has been consistently wrong and has consistently been wrong in the same way. That is he has always been wrong in a way that benefits Chaney/Bush. Also, that his timing is more than a little suspect.

The votes, while they do not violate the First Amendment certainly show that this democratic congress has little respect for the ideal of a healthy debate on political issues. They keep throwing up (I think that would be the correct phrase) WWII, but of course that analogy simply falls away. There we were in a truly existential conflict (I've desperately wanted to use that phrase for a long time), here we are in a neo-colonial conflict and we are the neo-colonialists. We are in no danger of being over whelmed by radical Muslims. Anyone who really thinks so is simply nuts.

I simply cannot understand where we are in our country at this point. Since the end of WWII we don't seem to be able to argue the real merits of any foreign conflict, those who oppose these foreign entanglements have always been attacked as being unpatriotic and as being actively in league with those are government chooses to fight. As a poster at another web site said wishing for the destruction of our country.

Defination

Terrorist: One who has not yet obtained control of a government we approve of, but blows people up anyway.

Oops

Got to thinking after the last post and realized that once again I did just what people complained about. Here is the web page I was talking about. http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2007/09/rudy-giuliani-ad-in-new-york-times.html

There all better now.

Interesting (to me) stuff

Well I've not been posting, sometimes because I didn't have anything to say [one hand clapping]. Other times because I've just felt too busy.

In the last couple of days I had an interesting experience. I went to a site that had the Giuliani ad opposing the moveon ad attacking Petraus.

I pointed out that their ad was fact free and that Petraus has in fact been saying the same thing about Iraq for several years and been wrong. I was slammed because I provided no links to my claim that Petraus has been wrong. Fair enough. Although no one responded to the fact free part of my email.

I went back and found Petraus' op ed from 2004 in the Washington Post and posted a link to that. Unfortunately, the link wasn't working. That is you couldn't just click on it and it would take you there. I didn't realize that when I posted. However, you could copy it and post it in the browser and it would take you there.

I came back to the thread and they were all high fiving themselves that I had merely directed them to a newspaper article, and the link didn't work. So I tried copying it and pasting it and what do you know, there we were at the (unfortunately for him) enduring words of Petraus from 2004.

Are they just that stupid do you suppose, that they can't copy and post? I don't know. I might have made fun of my not posting a live link, but I would certainly have tried to go back to that location to make sure that factually the article was or wasn't there. Also, before I made fun of someone for citing to an article I would have been damn sure that I knew for sure what I was making fun of. And that I was right.

It was a true "fact free zone." They were so sure they were right (Right?) that they didn't need to check. Of course, their demand for a link was simply BS because they knew or should have known what Petraus had said in the past before they wrote about it. How scary.

Of course the other part of that is that no one has ever responded to my allegation that the Giuliani ad was fact free. In fact, as a sort of aside, the Giuliani ad was kind of creepy. It was saying (as I translate it) that this here guy is our "man on horseback." Essentially, it is saying that we must not criticise a general because he is a general and for no other reason.

That used to be called fascism.

The last

One of the things I do is represent both criminals and just people who are accused of committing a crime.

A recent client is making me crazy. I do not have a problem with people committing crimes, nor do I have a problem with people who commit stupid crimes (after all if there weren't stupid criminals, who would stupid cops arrest, but I digress).

At any rate my client entered a plea to a reduced charge. She was then sentenced to a lock down rehab facility. The reason for the rehab, was that the "crime" (I put crime in quotes because I'm not sure that she was really guilty. However, the deal was so good, what could have happened to her if she went to trial and lost, so bad. That by comparison the deal was quite sweet.)

At any rate she is in a rehab facility for about a month. This is a place where she can wear her own clothes and after a short time have weekend home visits. You need to know that when she was charged, she had no home of her own, her four children were all living with other people, and she had no job. Further, although 30 she had never finished high school. Finally, she reported to me that she was doing a case of beer a day and smoking a lot of dope.

She gets to the rehab and immediately phones me and tells me that she must get out. Both her counselor and I tell her that there is only one other place she can go, that is prison. After a long discussion she seems to get the idea.

A month later I pick up the paper and read that she had climbed the fence and run away. She turned herself in probably less than 24 hours later. We appeared in court on a bond hearing yesterday and she requested that she get out on house arrest. Needless to say the judge was not amused and refused.

She will in all probability now go to prison, in addition there will probably be a new charge of felony escape filed against her and she will probably be convicted of that. I can kind of understand why she escaped, and almost understand why she turned herself in. What I cannot understand is why she seems to think that this entire episode will not nearly automatically result in her going to jail and why she thinks that she will get a different non lock down sentence.

The days news

I have made the mistake of listening again to CNN Headline News, which I am lucky enough to have followed by a Columbus, Ohio's TV news. It just irritates me.

Although Columbus, Ohio is the state capital and where most of the state government resides, there does not appear to be any governing in Columbus. There are murders, rapes, and robberies a plenty; sports and weather and that's it. Additionally, the local news readers cannot be expected to work five minutes every half hour. They replay the local "news" over and over.

At any rate I know that Michael Vick is very sorry and immature and that about five days ago a hot air balloon burned and crashed in Canada killing two people. Also, those poor guys are still stuck in that mine in Utah. I am not sure since it wasn't on the news, but I think that we might be involved in a war somewhere in the Middle East, but I could be wrong. Oh yes, the A. G. has resigned. The only real national news on the half-hour.

The A.G.'s resignation is very inconvenient for the Democrats in Congress since they will now have to show (once again) that they have no balls and are terrified of the most disliked president in a century. My bet is that they cave and give the Bushie just whoever he wants, since to do otherwise would be to descend to some sort of partisan wrangling was my terrified little congressman Zack Space explained to me when he tried to justify his vote on FISA.

Actually this is rather more practice, kind of going for a less funny version of Andy Rooney.

War Criminals

We are all war criminals. If we don't actively oppose the war and do so publicly then we are implicitly complicit in it.

A long good bye

Up most of the nights this past week with the kitten, Socks. He was so very sick and fought so very hard to live. In the end he couldn't make it and we decided to put an end to his struggle Thursday evening. He had thrown up early in the afternoon, and since he had gotten very sick throwing up seemed to make him more active. Not this time though.

He went into a coma and we sat with him for about five hours and decided at about 7:00 p.m. that it was time. We called the vet and took him right over. We decided to have him cremated so we didn't bring him back with us.

He had won everyones' heart including the adult cats in the home. One, a new mother with her own litter, who had lost two of her five, had adopted him and was especially close. She hid all day under the bed as though she couldn't bear to watch what was happening. After we came back she looked all over for him, because she knew we had taken him out to my house before and had always brought him back. Not this time.

I tried to pet her tonight, she shied away from me as if I was striking her. She had lost so many and I think that she had a special love for him.

He had been a stranger only a few weeks ago, but he captured everybody who met him.

My house seems empty now. Three pounds of yellow fur and now it seems as if there is a vast empty space that should be filled with a lion.

Profiles in Courage

I sent my congressman Zack Space a letter asking him why he had voted for the wire tap bills recently passed by congress. After nearly two weeks I got a response. He whined.

The Cat

A couple of weeks ago we ended up with a kitten. We foster for the humane society, and someone had found this little guy in a parking lot. He was really friendly, but he just wasn't eating. Then just by accident we found out that whoever had him before must have fed him spaghettos.

So far so good. Then he got sick and nearly died. As he was recouperating from that one, he got into an argument (we think) with another cat and essentially lost an eye. Finally, last week we took him in to have him fixed.

You know, I'm not so sure that he might not have wanted to just be left in the parking lot.

It appears that we were hoodwinked again

From reading what the Democrats who voted for FISA are saying it appears as though they are claiming they were hood winked again. "The brown middle eastern boogie man will get us again if we don't repeal the Fourth Amendment," they say they were told.



Digby has a good analysis. Democrates could not still be that stupid. The people who screwed it up in 2001 and let it happen, and were then lied to and passed the Patriot Act are simply authoritarions pure and simple.



It is simply not possible to believe that living as I do in a small city in the midwest, I know more about who to believe than those who run the country. So what's the answer: complete incompetance or are they just really fascist?

Welcome World

I'm just starting this although I've been surfing for quite a while. Well I'm getting sick and tired of just reading what others have to say and I guess I'll try this for awhile. Just getting set up so we'll see where we go from here. Just a kind of test post I guess