Palin

Welllllllllllllll now. Who'd a thunk it?

I suspect that that was the best he could do. And don't fool yourself it is going to be seen as brilliant. I myself am one of those who buys into Mencken's theory that no one ever went broke underestimating the American public.

She's a relatively young good looking woman with a disabled child. What more does McCain need? I'm sure that she can talk and that she can debate with a reasonable amount of skill. Any politician can. At that point the MSM will simply run with how really special she is and isn't she so brave to be out there with that little one not well. Her looks ain't gonna hurt either.

Like Chaney and Bush the MSM will simply ignore the really reactionary aspects of her politics. Any mistakes or gaffs she makes will last half a news cycle, unlike anything the Democrats do. Of course, she will be greatly helped by the Democrats and Obama who have had an awful summer. They seem to be taking their instructions from "Losers B Us" advising Democrats ever since Humphrey.

One Big Party

The concept that the two political parties are just the moderate and reactionary wings of the conservative/property/ruling party isn't new (Gore Vidal, 1972). And given what Obama has done to, it appears to me, purposely dampen enthusiasm by his progressive followers, I think that we are seeing again this year.

The class divides become more and more pronounced. The nuclear and biological weapons become more and more prevalent. Our position in the world pisses off more and more people. We burn up, literally and metaphorically, more and more of the earth. I think that that will happen under "both" parties. But I think it will happen quicker under the Republicans. So I guess the reason to vote Democratic is to put off the inevitable collapse as long as possible. That way when it happens I will either be insensible or dead.

Well I guess I'm just a cock-eyed optimist.

Is It Time For Another Kerrry?

Read Glennzilla today (well ok I skimmed him, to depressing to read in detail). Sometimes you read things that are just new, something you haven't thought of before and it is so well presented that you say: "Of course." This wasn't one of those for me. This was the other kind. That is sometimes you read something that says what you've been thinking for some time, but says it so clearly and so (unfortunately) much better then one could say ii oneself. That is what Greenwald did today.

Obama has had a terrible August as far as his campaign is concerned. Now the Democrats seem to be at least partially throwing away their opportunity to directly and brutally attack McCain and Bush and Chaney. I simply do not understand. It is as if Obama is taking advice from Kerry. It is all Kerry all the time again. It is as though 2006 never happened and 2004 was not their fault.

Johnson attacked Goldwater in 1964. Hell FDR attacked everybody (or at least his people did). It seems that the people who run the party at this point are so limited by what Clinton did in 92 that they cannot go beyond that and see that there is a different world out there today. And you know what that didn't work out so well for them now did it? Clinton won, but he really couldn't govern, except to enact domestic legislation that the Republicans and very conservative Democrats wanted too. Of course, I guess that might have been the deal.

I mean let's face it they may not agree with me politically, but I would have thought they wanted their guy in the White House and more power and patronage for themselves. What am I missing here?

Hell, they won't kick Holy Joe (R. - Israel) out of their senate caucus even though he is going to speak at the Republican convention and is on the short list for the Republican V-P nod. Of course he did give them 250k.

There is something I have been wondering for some time now. Do they really want to lose? they certainly act like it. They, like the French aristocrats at the time of Louis XVI, according to Talleyrand: "Forgot nothing, and learned nothing." And that didn't work so well for them either did it?

Every Time I Try To Get Out They Pull Me Back In

The attacks on Obama are really the only thing that makes me think that I might actually do more than just vote for the guy. The scum that is the Republican party at this point (Lieberman included) exeudes a stench that is so repellant that I feel like I've got to really do something.

The attacks are of course also coming from the media the whole thing is getting to me.

Boring Thoughts

Here are my thoughts, for what they are worth, on the current Obama/Biden ticket.

I ended up supporting Bill Clinton the first time not because I thought he was incredibly progressive, but because I thought that progressives could build on that kind of, what I thought, was centrist not right wing crazy president. With all his triangulation.

In the end what he did though was stifle the progressive movement inside the Democratic party. He reached out to the corporate types and discouraged progressives and liberals in the party. He essentially destroyed that part of the party for decades.

I think he consciously discourage progressives from working from the grass roots up and tried to work from the top down. I think relatively successfully.

Given Obama's apparent controlling nature, I think that there is a good chance that he will do the same thing. The obvious counter example is FDR. However much he might have wanted to control things he encouraged the ordinary people to innovate and come up with solutions. If Obama does this then good oh. If not, we're fucked again.

Can get fooled again

Ok, I admit it. Over 60 and my hopes are already smashed. I did vote for the guy, but now I am embarrassed. At the point where he had the nomination sewed up or nearly sewed up he simply forgot or ignored everything that got it for him.

An old white hawk for Christ sakes. All ready a loser once or twice before.

The amazing thing about Obama's whole campaign is that he didn't wait to get elected before he started to renege on his promises. Nope not at all. On the other hand he is placating the all important old wealthy inside the beltway white man vote. The interesting thing about that is that no matter what he does he isn't going to get their vote. He is just going to alienate those what brung him. I thought you were supposed to dance with them what brung you? I guess not if you're ad Democrat.

How completely and totally uninspiring. How cautious and short sighted. How sad that this is where we are at this point in our history. We are an incredibly unhealthy "democracy." And I do think that democracy should be put in scare quotes.

Very Little Today

After watching the news, oh boy. So McCain has no idea how many homes he or his wife own. And finally Obama decides that maybe he needs to go on the attack.

As usual Greenwald has a very nice coverage about the rank hypocrisy of the Republican attack machine, comparing what they are saying now to defend McCain against what they said four years ago attacking Kerry for a similar situation.

The complete instance of many of the letter writers who seem to insist on missing the whole point of his post is kind of sad. The point is, the Democrats must hit back at the Republicans the same way the Republicans are hitting at the Democrats if they want to win and if they win if they want to effectively govern.

Bill Clinton anyone?

The point is that the house thing only got air play because Obama pushed it. No it isn't the most important thing around, but it is important to shove Republican hypocrisy right into people's faces. Here is a guy (like Bush) who is part of the ruling/imperial class and whose family has been part of the ruling/imperial class for at least three generations claiming to be just folks. He isn't just folks and he never was just folks. He is pretending to be someone he is not.

Nail him. Play the game the way the rules exist now or step aside and give the spot to someone who will (although to be honest I'm not sure which national Democrat will do it).

Ok, I admit it it's all my fault

You know I've been thinking that I was born in the early edge of the baby boomer generation. The first election I voted in was 1968. As I look at it the who screwed up government thing since then has been my fault (ok, not MY fault personally, since I didn't vote for most of them, except as a lesser evil) by our fault then: Nixon, Nixon, Carter (Ford was appointed), Reagan, Reagan, Bush the major, Clinton, Clinton, Bush the very minor, Bush the very minor.

I mean lets face it have we had a long run of very bad presidents? Well, with the possible exception of the group that was in the run up to the Civil War and with the exception of the last one I'm not even sure about that. The congress is worse if that is possible.

Let's face it what we are remembered for is rock and roll, drugs, free love (since it was all we could afford) and tie-dye. We accomplished damned little.

How fucking depressing.

Biden? Biden???

Well the new polls are in and it looks like McCain has pulled ahead. At the same time Obama appears to be taking his advice from the losers who ran the campaigns of 2000, 2002, and 2004.

Now it is reported that Biden will be the one. The VP.

Christ can anybody run a worse campaign. Obama seems to have studied Kerry and decided that Kerry just wasn't Kerry enough in 2004 and he just needs to do more of what Kerry did. Not that he should do anything different.

So lets see you come out of now where with a campaign on the ground that is different and exciting and as soon as you lock up the nomination (not the final win) you start to act just like the people you beat and the people who lost last time.

I am clearly missing something. Because he has to have some idea there, no matter how bad it might be, but I can't figure out what it is. I mean anybody who gets this far must have some sort of idea. Right? Or was it shear dumb luck?

Dogs and Cops

I commented three times on the thread on this post at Hullabaloo.

There were several truly frustrating thing about many of the posters over there. At least the ones who seemed to approve of the way the cop handled the stop.

They seemed unable to separate the stop (which was probably ok) from the actions of the cop after the stop (which were not in any way ok). There was also the complete acceptance of the cops version of the speed the couple were supposedly traveling (100 mph according to the cop).

Cops always exaggerate in their reports. Always. They want to make themselves look good and the defendants look bad. Not really that unusual for people as a whole.

But the real issue seems to be a quite a few people who frequent a very liberal blog seem to think that if people break the law in any way to any extent then they deserve what ever the cop wants to do.

I'm a dog (and cat) person. But the bigger issue seems to be a kind of admiration of power simply because it is power. Not because it is right.

Did the couple act in a way that they shouldn't have (speeding)? Maybe. A lot depends on where they were speeding and who else was on the road. Must the letter of the law always be obeyed? DFHs don't think so. I don't think so.

But even assuming that they were wrong. The justifications for the cop's actions after the stop simply amaze me. "He should not have escorted them to a vet clinic because that wasn't his job/didn't have the time/they should have known better/they could have hurt someone."

None of these justifications are real. The one that comes closest is "he didn't have time." That one is bullshit. He had the time they always have the time. That is their job to serve and protect. Serve us.

The authoritarian mind set always freaks me out. "Those in power do what they do and it is ok because they are in power."

RepublicanFamily Values Again

Perhaps I should just start with an "again" post. Eh?

Ok, a little extreme, but still don't any of these dicks ever get punished for their, at least, hypocrisy? No, I guess not.

I suppose that would be a reason to believe in an after life.

The point isn't, I guess, that Mrs. McCain is this kind of person. She didn't after all disinherit her sister. But apparently she never bothered to ameliorate the injustice of her father and (to be completely fair) of her mother. By even acknowledging her sister.

So, people should not be held to an unreasonable standard. They should not be required to continuously justify what their parents have done.

On the other hand if she isn't required to help her sister financially she should at least acknowledge that she has one.

I'm from a middle class farming family. We all know our relatives and the family members of first wives and husbands.

I guess that is just for the little people.

Lies, Lies, Lies

Well so McCain has said that he had the same experience that Solzhenitsyn had when someone drew a cross in the dirt (sand, snow, whatever) while they were both prisoners. Of course McCain doesn't want you to think that he would ever mention his POW status for mere political purposes. It could have happened. On the other hand he didn't mention it for 25 years after he was released.

You know I think that the real thing here is that McCain (an any Republican) can lie as much as they want while Democrats can't mildly exaggerate the truth.

A final thought. I've seen stories about Solzhenitsyn having that experience, but I haven't seen any which either links or purports to send one to the actually page and book that the story came from, if it is really from Solzhenitsyn and not some glurge made up after the guy died.

Also

69 years ago The Wizard of Oz premiered. Good day for weird. Thought I'd provide a picture of the poppies and snow (nudge nudge wink wink).

Woodstock

Well I was in the library yesterday and saw the DVD of Woodstock. So I picked it up and we started to watch it tonight.

Where were you 39 years ago today? That is of course assuming that you were at all that long ago.

I myself was not doing much. Having shortly before gotten back from Thailand where I was introduced to the pleasures the colonial experience (without actually having to shoot or be shot at). One of the pleasures was Thai Stick, the local home grown. Well the one I could and did bring back with me. I served in medical supply. We were our own customs inspectors.

I was just starting to get the feeling that maybe I had not been doing what for want of a better word we might call the "right thing" as a good colonial soldier. That is to say a colonial soldier never does the right thing, can't do the right thing. A colonial soldier is by definition the wrong thing. I was just starting to realize that.

Well I attended many concerts over the next few years, did a lot more and more interesting drugs along the way.

But to get back to Woodstock, I didn't go and at the time I probably would not have gone had I known about it before it happened. By the next year I had completely changed and was going and going to concerts and doing and doing drugs.

Part of that course was turning "left" for want of a better term, then straightening out and bulling on in that direction for the rest of my life.

Oh well, becoming kind maudlin in my old age.

Freedoms We Don't Need No Stinkin Freedoms

Well well. What do you suppose the ethnic make up of the curfewed area is?

As far as I'm concerned, at 3 o'clock in the morning, nobody has any business
being on the street, except the law," Councilman Eugene "Red" Johnson said.
"Anyone out at 3 o'clock shouldn't be out on the street, unless you're going
to the hospital."

I kind of like that attitude. I mean if you are going to violate my theories of what is correct and proper then damn it the cops should at least roust you.

The Dogs of Summer

All right, this is a test. Our twelve week old 25 pound Chow is busy beating up on our year old 150 pound Saint.

Have I Got Gas

Well prices in this neck of the woods are down again between a nickle to a dime. Well I guess I'll take it.

But then I am always passed by these guys:

Georgia On My Mind

The real world has had the temerity to force itself onto me and has forced me to actually work and think today. Yet another pervert, and a client who managed to delay his case so long before he hired me that we may not be able to put on any witnesses.

At any rate I've been thinking about the Russian invasion of Georgia and our part in the whole thing and what if anything we should do. I would guess that we should express our shock and outrage, but what else is there to do.

I mean let's face it Bush/Chaney and the neocons have our army stuck in Iraq and to a lesser extent in Afghanistan. We have no army to make Russia do anything. So we can't. But even supposing we were not in these two countries what would we do? Nothing I would expect since we would have to push mighty hard to get the Russians out of Georgia. I do not expect that we would go to World War III (or IV or whatever) over it. So what could we do short of going to war except stamp our feet and refuse to ----- what trade with them? Sell them weapons? Vacation on the Black Sea?

The other interesting part of this is that it appears as though Georgia (in addition to underestimating Russia's resolve) over estimated our support. I wonder what we have been telling these people? "Back us and we'll back you when push comes to shove?"

Which brings me to our current crop of politicians. McCain rattles his saber (as always). I'm really not sure what Obama is doing. Flip flopping again? Well at least he is being portrayed as flip flopping. But what does the guy who has the power to do something do? He watches some beech volley ball. I would have to argue if the people who run the Republican party do think it's important enough to leave the Olympics why should the ones who just want the office, but don'[t yet have it do anything.

Georgia

What power! Yesterday I make a lame joke. Today Google. Tomorrow.........Microsoft?

Thank you thank you. We'll be here all week, try the meat loaf.

Georgia

So, Russia is now invading Georgia. I would think that Sonny Perdue would have something to say about that.

Thank you thank you we'll be here all week. Try the southern fried chicken.

Jokes

According to Dave TV in England the 10 oldest jokes include one from 1100 B.C.E.

A woman who was blind in one eye has been married to a man for 20 years. When he found another woman he said to her, "I shall divorce you because you are said to be blind in one eye." And she answered him: "Have you just discovered that after 20 years of marriage!?" (Egyptian circa 1100 BCE)

Ok to tell the truth I could not understand it until my wife explained it to me. I'm still not sure I get it, but it is apparently a "woman's" joke. And I apparently can't figure how to get rid of block quotes.

Thank you folks. We'll be here all millennium. Try the goat.

Last post on this

Ok two almost similar things.

Say who, if anybody policies the polceman?

Marijuana

Funkcuntshitpissassholesdicks, as far as the last post was concerned, I didn't originally catch that the cops had delivered the package. Then broke in with no warrant, no warning. Marijuana, Christ.

How big a deal do you think this would have been if it had been just a lower middle class working family?

How long do you think it will be on the news cycle anyway? As long as a missing blond?

Feel safer now?

War on Terra, No War on Drugs

Well let's see we first piggy back the war on terror on the war on drugs and then the war on drugs on the war on terror.

On the other hand our Supreme Court decides that police are so much more professional now. So basically cops can kick in your door and shoot your dog and they haven't violated the Fourth Amendment. I mean let's face it if you haven't broken a law what do you have to worry about? Right Mr. Madison?

On the other hand other parts of the original Constitution [3/5ths any one?] Appear to be in full force and effect in Ohio at least. So the question: "Who do you have to lynch to be called a racist?" Is apparently a fair one as it applies to cops when they raid a house where the residents are black. Although, to be fair to the jury poor white trash would probably have gotten the same kind of justice.

Its just us good middle class white old line Americans that get the special deal. Slide along the edge of respectability just a little and you deserve to be punished. On the other hand you are more likely to be considered to have slid if you are poor or of a darker hue. And a a lot more if you are both poor and of a darker hue.

I did not see if the drug raid in Lima was one where a warrant was obtained before the raid or if it was a knock and kick in the door kind, like the one on the Mayor. The shootings would be, I suspect, much more likely if it was a raid without a warrant. I also suspect that there wasn't a lot of dope in the house, since the last story merely states that the cops found crack and marijuana, but doesn't mention the amounts. If there was r a lot you can bet your ass they would have told you to the cent the value.

Really dumb, no I mean really

So sometimes I think that perhaps we really do get the government we deserve. If the powers that be are able to convince a majority of the voters that it is in their best interests to vote republican yet again. Then perhaps we do deserve what we get.

"If you can keep you head while all about you are losing theirs, perhaps you simply do not understand the situation." (?)

Oh Christ

I am listening to an asshole in jail right now who wants out even though he checked into the ER on an overdose while out on bond. Then he notifies the court and me that he was suffering from severe electrical shocks, unfortunately no medical records confirm this yet.

On the other hand presidential candidates can look you straight in the eye (or camera as the case may be) and tell you one tihng while the video of them saying just the opposite is playing right behind them. So I guess I can see where my guys think that they should be able to look at you and lie and get away with it. I am constantly forced to point out to them that they are not wealthy politicians who control courts and police departments.

Slow post (not real) day

Had to go 100 miles for a hearing that got continued as soon as I walked into the hearing room. Then got a nasty notice from the court on another hearing that we are not going to be allowed to call our witnesses because of a mix up. Got to try to fix that.

Not much time for anything else.

The white guy wins

So it looks like its too close to call. When that happens the black guy loses.

Politics

I'm feeling queasier and queasier about where this campaign is going. A few months ago Obama had to bat away Clinton's attacks. But her attacks were like gnats compared to what the Republicans are doing right now.

Although, given what happened to Kerry and Gore, Obama should have seen this coming a mile away. Lets face it, if they can attack the war record of a real hero while their own guy is a sit at home coward. Imagine what they will do when their guy is the hero (although as I've said before, I do not think that dropping bombs on civilians really qualifies one as a hero) and our guy doesn't have any military experience.

The amazing thing about this entire campaign is how little prepared Obama and his people seem to be for these kind of attacks. So different in violence and tone to Clinton's as to be different in kind. I think I go back to his dumping the DFHs as soon as he sealed up the nomination. Just sitting here in central Ohio I can see some of what needs to be done. Going to progressive/liberal/left wing blogs you get a large amount of very good advice.

I guess it is good that this is coming down right now. There seemed to be some belief by the Democratic powers that be that this campaign would be different than every other campaign since 1964.

I suppose the real question is: Is they educable?

My thoughts are that they are not and that he has to go elsewhere to get his support and advice. Well we will see.

Exxon & Obama

Ok I have a question. Why hasn't there been massive talk from the Obama people about the obscene profits Exxon just announced?

Obama's Racism

You know I'm beginning to think that the MSM is working really hard to make sure that Obama can't be elected or if elected is elected with such a small margin that they will think he cannot effectively govern (of course that never counts if you're a Republican [see 2000, 2004]). Ok, that was just snark. Of course they are working hard to make sure that McCain gets elected.

The one thing that gives me a little hope is that this is all happening so early that maybe Obama will be able to figure out a way to combat the whole thing. On the other hand his handling of Wes Clark's comments doesn't really give me a lot of hope.

You know I wonder where all the energy and competence he used in pushing back against Clinton is right now. It is as if he had some sort of pod experience immediately after securing the nomination.

He careened into the beltway in a major and obvious way and seemed to change his campaign style.

Wow Just Wow

Well I guess this is the next step in privatazation. I would think that the guy is really a Blackwater employee since when they raid they usually proudly wear the letters of their organization: DEA, FBI, CIA (just kiddding about the last one).

It's Not a Bug It's a Feature

I'm beginning to think that all the professional Democrats since 1972 are living in some kind of strange sort of bubble. Kind of like "The Boy in the Bubble." It allows them complete freedom of movement while at the same time isolating them from the real world.

They are more than willing to shaft their supporters and climb on the backs of the fat cats so that they can ----- what? They certainly can't govern much. Carter couldn't and Clinton could just barely.

They seem to think that if they give the Republicans a break, they will get a break in return, when they lose power. Never gonna happen.

Or perhaps it is time to ask does the rule of ...... law no longer govern? Has it been replaced by absolutism? What's next then?

I try to be careful and not confuse my decline with the countries, but I really do not think I am so wrong about this. I do not see good things ahead when the entire leadership of both parties is willing to approve the gutting of the Fourth Amendment and approve massive law breaking.

On other thing, I need to remember not to, too closely follow a Brandeis quote, with my own thoughts on the same matter.

The Law?

"In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that, in the administration of the criminal law, the end justifies the means -- to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal -- would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this Court should resolutely set its face."

Mr. Justice Brandeis in Olmstead vs. United States of course it's a dissent. But then Marshall did quote him in a majority opinion. But they were talking about defending the rights of bootleggers and murderers because its only when you protect the rights of the most despised that the rights of the rest of us are protected.

Lovely language, but I do not think that our current rulers think that way. Do you?