The Bailout

Serious people are all in a tither about the failure of the bailout bill yesterday. Even though as of now the market has rebounded by about half of what it lost.

Don't forget that people were saying that the market is really over priced anyway. In addition, they, the serious ones, all seriously believed Bush in 2002 and 2003. Now they realize that maybe that guy lied to them then. They also now think that maybe those people were not the most competent people either, you know. I mean we all know they screwed up Katrina, didn't they, but nothing like that would happen again, would it?

Finally, like FISA we can be sure that the Dems will return crawling and roll over on their back to have their tummys scratched by Bush when they pass an almost identical bill in a couple of days. Even though by then it will be clear that this bill isn't what is needed. More is needed to help the poor and middle class. None of that will be given because well we really can't push now can we?

It kind of reminds me of the part in Animal House where they trashed Flounder's brother's car. Remember? "You screwed up. You trusted us."

I'm Sorry We're Fucked Part 532

After I did the last post I realized I'd forgotten Sarah Palin. How could a comedian or wanta be comedian forget about her? I am so ashamed.


Trailer trash as the next vice president. Yes. Proof that we have finally destroyed the last vestiges of the elitist class that used to rule our country. We have now only those who have managed to inherit or steal wealth.

Well, also those who have been able to hook into a truly loony church. Bug buga boola hoo.


We are all red neck mothers now.

In the meantime the congress works hard to first hide what they are doing and to then sell out our grandchildren as slaves to our over lords. The congress critters run around like chicken little while we the people tell them to stop and take a deep breath. Na Ca Do. Got ta do whatever it is that the pres wants and ga ta do it ra naw.

Doing nothing is better than doing what this guy in the White House wants ever. Can't be worse. Oh it might appear worse, but in the end it really isn't. As they say about a wet dream.

Life is Hard

You know it requires a certain kind of short term memory loss to continue to write about the politics and election in this country. They steal an election, they steal an election. The Democrats cave, the Democrats cave, the Democrats cave, the Democrats ........ Well you get the idea.

Great athletes can do the same things over and over and it has a certain kind of new elegance every time. A home run, beating out a base on a short hit, broken field running, chasing down the quarter back, a pass on a bull. Bad athletes seem to be bad in their own interesting way each time. I would guess that great sports writers like Red Smith could make depressing teams interesting. There is after all little of a real stake (short of your relationship with the bookie) ridding on the outcome. So the writer can concentrate on the grace, uniqueness and elegance of the winners. And let's face it most of the political writers are in the bag for the Republicans, so it would be as if all the sports writers wrote as if they were writing publicity for one of the teams, all the same team.

In politics there really is a lot riding on who wins unlike sports (absent that bookie).

The other problem is that the winners win in the same boring way and the losers lose in the same boring way. The truly spectacular individual horrors of the results are only seen in the homes' of the hoi poli, us little people. And really who wants to read about us.

So here I am trying to write these little pieces about the world and it turns out the politics in my wonder country and none of the major participants are helping me. No one has any compassion.

Saved Again

Thank god!!!!!!!!!!! Saved again. Now one of the most reliably progressive congressman manages to provide a beard for the banking industry. Ironic, huh? If you can call it an industry, perhaps we should just call it a craps shoot. Then we would at least have the truth out there.

I feel like I'm watching a little rich kid play marbles. Once all his marbles are gone he runs home to daddy to get more. The rest of us of course were just fucked when we lost. As we still are.

Ok, I now understand the propaganda of the deed, in a way I couldn't before. My god we piss most of our money into a mostly unregulated industry that gets to play with it until they lose it and then gets to come back and ask for more.

The Treasury says they need at least $150 billion so they ask for $700 billion and we give them $350 billion without oversight (or any real oversight). They'll be enough oversight so they can say "we're watchin'", but when push comes to shove there will be nothing -- watch.

Damn I wish I won something when I was right and they were wrong. If I did then I'd have enough money that I would need to be bailed out too. As it is I just don't have enough money to be important enough. Just like most of the rest of us.

Look the vast majority of people do not want this bail out to happen. So we apparently do not have a democracy, nor do we have a republic. Gee, what does that leave us.

I'm moving from oligarchy, to kelptarchy to kakistocracy (thanks Keith and Sue). Sure the rulers who are able to limit the input of the average person and so limit participation steal from the people and give the money to their buddies. Then the buddies give the rulers back 2% or 3% of what they the wealthiest take. So essentially we have these incompetent thieves/rulers stealing our money and then giving it away.

Wow.

Aw Hell

Saved Again -- Maybe

I'm beginning to feel like Nell Fenwick. Although I'm apparently being saved by Snidely Whiplash.

Once again (like the Bankruptcy Bill) the real reactionaries come to the rescue and prevent the bill from being enacted. Of course once the "liberal" Democrats got enough votes they were able to over ride the conservatives who were keeping the bankruptcy bill from becoming law.

I assume that the same thing will happen here, but I just hope that they wait until after the election. Of course as soon as I say that I start to wonder why. It looks like Obama is in the tank to the special interests as deeply as anyone and Biden definitely is. I guess I'm just scared of McCain/Palin. I think that they might be able to screw this country up beyond the limits of my imagination. On the other hand, I could see the same thing happening with Obama, it would just take longer.

Gee whiz.

Groundhog Day

I'm starting to feel like Murray in Groundhog Day. Or maybe Travis Bickle, but without Jodi Foster to encourage me. Nah, I'm more like Murray too stuck to blow up. Plus I don't have any guns. I keep watching the politics and seeing the same old things again and again. SOMETHING BAD happens on Bush's watch and in large part because of his policies. So he gets on the news and says "We're all gonna die if you don't absolutely trust me and give me more power (and more money to my good friends."

What happens? Well in the last few years even though people (that is normal people: the electorate) don't believe him the Democrats give him essentially what he wants. Oh, there are minor changes (deck chairs, Titanic you know) then the Dems cave. It's happening again. A lot of noise then the bucks and power go to the pres.

It might make me feel better if I was the only one who noticed this. Then I might think I was crazy. But I'm not I'm merely a small voice from nowhere. Many people who have really a fairly wide readership see it, call it, and it doesn't matter it just keeps happening.

I don't have it in me to be or even try to be funny some times about this shit any more. Maybe it's time to retire to my palatial estate under that bridge and start my novel. Perhaps I could take my cell phone and begin filming that epic movie which will blow the lid off the whole thing.

Or perhaps those crazy and fun loving Fins have it right. Total and complete senseless violence aimed at the weakest in our society. Actually, I think that our ruling class has a lock on that total and senseless violence thing on the weakest here in America. At any rate this whole thing makes be crazy. These people (congress and the president and the press and the money people) are either the stupidest on the face of the earth or.............. Or what? If this is a clever plan what could their goal possibly be? They can't think that this will work.

Perhaps just put off the inevitable end until they are dead or so senile they won't know what is going on. Perhaps they all simply see the hypocrisy and pointlessness of our society and feel that they must do their utmost to destroy it from within. Or maybe they are just end timers.

Well as I say perhaps Travis had the right idea.

Can you say Kleptocracy? I knew you could.

Train Wreck

I'm reading a book: Touchstone by Laurie King. It involves a mystery taking place in the few days leading up to the General Strike in England in the 20s. The workers were crushed in that one too.

It is kind of interesting to be reading a book that details the atmosphere leading up to a financial crisis while I'm sitting here watching a financial crisis unfold in real time. The atmosphere seems more subdued in real time however.

I feel like I am watching a train wreck (as I've said before). I know what is going to happen and there is nothing I can do about it. The outcome may be a little different than I expect, but in the end the middle and working classes will take another hit and like that frog in the warm water will slowly be boiled alive as the rulers turn up the heat.

How it works

Ok this is how it will work: Both the "left" and right agree that this is just toooo much this time. Therefore, we will bail these people out just like we bailed out the S & Ls, but it will be a little slower and with less authority for President Obama down the road.

Unless it looks like McCain is a shew in. In which case the right will push this through and the "left" will disappear.

Either way the people will pay through the nose to the wealthy while the rest of us get screwed again.

Money

Well, now I've got little more to say except what Greenwald says. I had wondered what made Obama come out against it at the beginning. I do like this explanation of the way the bill will work though. The willingness of the incredibly right wing to use whatever is necessary to drive our society further and further into the crypto fascist (ok maybe not so crypto) hole is always amazing to me.

I guess I really should have paid more attention to Ayn Rand as a theorist instead of a rough drafter for a good Gary Cooper movie, which essentially ignores most of her economic points.

I simply stand in amazement at what the plutocrats (a good word, one which should be re-introduced and used often) are willing to do. I expect that most people think that they are doing the right thing. Even sociopaths think they are doing the right thing, it's just that their right thing is only right for them. Still, I am a bit surprised that we have an entire ruling class of sociopaths. These people can't believe that what they are doing is good for the country or even good for their own families in the long run. Can they? You know I think -- they don't think.

Or perhaps don't care. I remember reading about the latifundia of ancient Rome and I wondered how the rulers could approve the consolidation of more and more land in the hands of fewer and fewer. They would then force the peasants off their land and into the cities where they were provided bread and circuses. Their children sold as slaves and the strength of Rome, which was the landed peasant classes destroyed. I wonder how it was possible not to see this and to see the results. Well now I'm seeing it in real time (check the changes to the laws which directly affect family farms from FDR to the present), I still do not understand it.

Where we are is a constant accumulation of wealth in the hands of a smaller and smaller number of people. Can you say oligarchy? I knew you could. I feel like I keep watching this train wreck over and over and over. It is kind of like a very bad dream or maybe a film loop run over and over.

Sexism/racism (with sexist image)

I haven't really noticed a lot of sexist attacks on Palin, as opposed to attacks on her competence and her radical views. On the other hand, I am a 60+ white male, so I might have missed them (and some of the racist attacks on Obama). On the whole I think not though.



Of course I was just reading that an obvious example of the sexism is that I know about Palin's pregnant daughter and the daughter's boy friend, but I know nothing about Biden's children. But then Biden's child (ren) is/are adults and none are dropping out of high school to marry another drop out because of a pregnancy. Further, this isn't happening in real time as we watch. Finally, I don't recall Biden running on a values plank.





The arguments about the way Palin's last child was born seem to be a little closer to sexism. Although, if the stories are true: 1) that she stayed home and nursed a daughter with mono for the last 6 months of her pregnancy, and 2) that she ignored the beginning of the birth itself to give a speech and fly home, certainly call into question her ability to weigh risks and benefits. It looks like in both cases she made decision that were not well thought out and could and maybe did actually harm the youngest child.





So if I'm right about that, how is that sexism? If I'm wrong -- how am I wrong in my analysis of the last child's birth?

Our Emporers

It appears as though I'll survive.

Reading about the bail out (a good place to start). I have been thinking about the end of the Roman Republic and the start of the empire. How quickly they went from Julius and Augustus to Tiberius and Caligula.

That is, how quickly things crashed. There were regularly "good" emperors, but in the end they were too controlled by the situation and unable to see past their rule. Of course, currently we elect our emperors, but that has already started to be changed. (Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004).

Gnats like me and mosquitoes like Greenwald are allowed to fly around the edges and bite at not much, but if things get tentative for the rulers you can bet that we won't be permitted. Watch that old net neutrality get plowed under. Obama has already shown that he wants complete control -- look what he did to the liberal/progressive 527s.

I am continuously amazed at how much support there is for a clearly incompetent petulant child as president. Yet within a short time in Rome there was Caligula. I had kind of had the idea that we had sort of evolved and were better at governing ourselves than the Romans. I suspect not -- now.

So anyway we pour mass amounts of money into Fannie and Freddie May and now nearly a trillion into AIG. All of that money goes into the pockets of the wealthy. The people who cry the loudest that the hand of the market must be allowed to act and to sweep the dead wood away are those who are now crying hardest for the government to rescue them. You know they were than more willing to allow the market hand sweep away the dead wood of Korea, South Africa, and Indonesia.

Also, the opposition party doesn't seem to be much in opposition. It does seem that a reasonable alternative (if you don't want to let the market hand act) is to put that much money into the pockets of the people who are defaulting on their houses. Then they can pay off their mortgages and put money directly into the pockets of people who sell things. Naw that would be socialism. Giving huge amounts of money to a few incredibly wealthy people isn't socialism it's government by theft a true kleptocracy. Which would be beloved by the Roman emperors and the worst banana republic dictator.

Don't you see the difference? I can see why so many of the later Roman writers were satirists and cynics.

Ouch

Well I went out to walk the dogs this morning and steped in a hole. Damn my ankle is swolen up about three times it's normal size. I'm completelt wrapped up.

The dogs were totally unhelpful and uninterested. Although, I think they were waiting to see if I would pass out from pain so they could start chowing down on me. Well I guess I can forget about running this week. They shoot horses don't they.

Not much again today

Well I was in a training all day. But I want to write a little about a mayor who wanted to and managed to, for awhile, force rape victims to pay for their own investigations. At a somewhat latter time she likes the idea of giving billions to fat cat capitalists who screw up. Nothing of course to the real people who need the money. Those who defaulted on their mortgages.

More on yesterday

I had forgotten about this when I posted yesterday. And it is a perfect example of where we are with the media in America. Bush commutes Libby's sentence so he has to serve no prison time. Susan MacDougal ended up serving time and is pardoned after she actually serves her time with a massive drum beat from the media.

Where do you think is the outrage about what Bush did with Libby. It has completely disappeared. There are no follow up articles about it. Remember the beating of the Whitewater drum?

Anyone who runs on the Democratic ticket nationally and soon locally has to remember that. Obama's problem is that he thinks that if he makes nice he will get their support. He needs to remember what happened to Clinton: the most successful Republican president since Eisenhower.

We are screwed if the American people are as stupid as I think they are.

The News?

At any rate what I was trying to get to at the end of yesterday was that the American media have a very interesting way of burying stories that allow them to go back and claim the stories were not buried.

The first one I thought of was East Timor. We knew about and approved the invasion by Indonesia and did nothing to stop any of the horrors that were occurring there. It wasn't just some little country around the world, but it was a part of our foreign policy. We were buds with Suharto so we said ok. There were a few articles, but no real follow up.

Or for that matter the way Bush left Texas and the way he governed from the far right, yet he was not called on it at all.

Alternatively, Whitewater. There was nothing there, but there was a constant reportage of a non-story for months (years?) until there was an investigation. That showed nothing as far as the Clintons were concerned.

So our media can point to a few stories to show that they are not completely in the bag, but the real issue isn't that they may report a couple of times on something and then drop it into the memory hole. Nor is the issue that certain reporters may write books "exposing" corruption. All of these things sink below the horizon of the average low information citizen fairly quickly, if they ever see them.

However, the media (and I purposely refer to them in the singular) will find a story that it can use to prop up it's preconceived (generally reactionary not even conservative) beliefs. Then it beats that dead horse until it jerks so much from the beating that it appears that there is some fake life in it. Do this over and over. Finally, understand that I am saying that they do this almost only to Democrats. Not necessarily progressive Democrats, just Democrats.

I would guess that most people who read the newspaper or watch TV tend to accept what they read or see. Possibly they do not even consider whether or not the stories are true, but just accept them.

There you have where we are today.

Electricity

Electric back on at home for the first time in a little over sixty hours. Thank god for gas water heaters.

Gee now I know how those poor people in Dafur feel.

WTF

Grabbed a sandwich next door. The guy who delivers was complaining about Obama and talking up what a great guy McCain is. The delivery guy probably makes minimum wage and is a young guy who doesn't appear retarded. What do you think is his problem? This on the day after one of Wall Street's major meltdowns.

There are a lot of McCain signs around here. Many right next door to houses that have been for sale for a long time. On the other hand, let's face it we appear to have a choice between an incompetent reactionary (with a crazy fundy thrown in) and a merely competent new imperialist (with a competent old imperialist thrown in) who will continue the progressive policies of Richard Nixon.

Now isn't that interesting. Nixon was to the left of all of the Republican party and a good number of the Democrats now a days.

Meant to write about newspapers and reporters and how they are able to CYA and to claim that they are covering important stories simply because somewhere someone will write one or two stories about it. East Timur anyone? At the same time beating a non story to death. Whitewater anyone?

What is with Greenwald? This man writes faster than I can read. And intelligently. I would like a little of what he is on.

Ok I Give Up

More on the horse race and the rabid right and just too too nice demos.

The more I watch Obama and McCain and how the election is being played out the more I think that even if Obama wins (not a for sure thing) he will have a great deal of baggage that will prevent him from governing effectively.

He will face the same kind of rabid continuing attacks from right wingers that Clinton had to endure. Further, if (when) the Republicans regain power in one of the houses then watch for impeachment.

The deal with the rabid attacks from the right are that he is doing everything possible to assure that those of us who would support him in the same fashion are being discouraged. Therefore, when he gets out there and puts out his hand to his corporate masters they will simply bite it off and demand more. The Republicans will continue to attack and insist on pushing back and driving us back to "those glorious days of yesteryear when bigots lighted faggots to illuminate the night sky with the burning bodies of the unbelievers." Just ask Sarah and Todd.

The apparent melt down of Wall Street and the lending industry does kind of throw a wrench into the above theory. It is possible that Clinton and Bush have left enough of the Roosevelt New Deal in place to prevent a complete melt down. Or it is possible that the wealthy have enough pull with their welfare case workers to get enough bucks to save themselves yet.

But we will see. Obama could be force far enough to the left to still make a difference, but I do doubt it.

Stuff and stuff and Poor Sarah

Well I started to post last night and the power went out. It looks like blogger didn't save what was already there. Oh well, no big loss.

I picked up the Columbus Dispatch today (still no power at home, so ate breakfast out). This is the second time I've seen the paper in a week. There is yet another letter (last time there were two) complaining how teh nasty liberals are attacking poor Sarah for running. Why are the nasty liberals attacking Sarah, you may ask? Way only because she has small children at home.

Brother, talk about a successful astroturf campaign, at least as run in central Ohio.

9/11

Happy 9/11.

You know that after Pearl Harbor we did not (to any real extent) commemorate December 7. What we did was kick the ass of those who did it. Some time after the war was over we started to really commemorate the day.

Well I guess if we can't kick the ass of those who did it we might as well commemorate the date as opposed to doing anything real.

Wonderland Election

I can't get over talking about and thinking about the election. It is kind of like worrying a loose tooth.

The amazing and depressing thing about this election is that the candidate is making exactly the same mistakes that Gore and Kerry made against exactly the same kind of attack. And there were similar successful attacks from the Republicans going back to Nixon's run against Humphrey at least. Why can't the guys who are making millions of dollars to figure this out get a consistent and reasonable response to these attacks? (Or is it why won't they?) Why is it that they can't (or won't) go on the attack? Why is it that they can't (or won't) take into account the simple fact that the MSM will be stacked against them?

It is amazing and maddening. There is simply no explanation that even remotely makes any sense in an even remotely rational universe. I am tired of thinking in terms of Alice in Wonderland to explain the political process in this country. But I can come up with nothing else.

These people do not live in the real world. These people do not have emotions and thoughts that resumble those of real people. I would have to guess that their goals resumble nothing that ordinary people can understand.

Not Much

Exhausted coming off a couple of real difficult trials. The trials themselves weren't so difficult, it was my concern over doing them right. Got the best that could be expected.



Following a couple of threads over a Digby. Mostly people just amazed that the Democratic presidential candidate seems to be running the same campaign that the last two guys ran. That he seems to be unable to figure out what to do next. A couple of nice trolls were in the threads. One explaining why Clinton would have handled it so much better and another one appealing to out better natures (of course the last time a guy appealed to our better natures we were in the middle of a civil war).



The Antioch experience just stays in my mind. I watch the rulers of a small college destroy it and it took a long time to complete the process. I wonder how it is that people can't really see what is happening and respond to it. I'm not sure that they don't see what is coming and don't care as long as they can keep from losing their power (such as it is) for as long as possible.

Perhaps it isn't the rulers of the Democratic party who are the ones with their heads in the sand perhaps it is those of us who work and support one or the other of them. I think of the Romans at the end of the Republic.

Maybe I should just put that Obama disappoints again tag on all my posts.

Antioch

MASSIVELY REWRITTEN


For a few years after I graduated from college and before I went to law school I worked at Antioch College. I was in the Dean of Students Office (no more like a clerk). I was also active in organizing the secretarial staff. The secretarial staff was the last of the non-faculty groups at Antioch to be organized. We ended up as a local of the U.E. (very proud of that).




At any rate I learned a lot about the college/university and how it was organized and what was going on while I was there and had gone on in the recent past as far as the way the place was and I would have to guess is (until July of this year) run. One thing you should understand is that Antioch has had a well deserved reputation as a very progressive school.

When I was in college down the road at Wright State Antioch had had a student body of about 2,000 for a time. A student strike ensued because of the way the college was handling student loans. They would get students in from the poorest areas and get massive government grants (so I understand) for their first year. Then when the fed money dried up in the second year cut the kids loose.


The students went on strike and eventually about 3/4 of them withdrew. At no point did the administration listen to them nor did the administration try to cooperate with them to really work out their differences. They just stone walled and eventually got rid of the trouble makes, because the "trouble makers" left of their own accord.

There were other issues concerning the nationwide university system (which bled money from the Yellow Springs campus). But the fights seemed to be around those of us on the ground who could see the negative effect the policies of the administration were having on the school, in getting students and having enough money to keep running and the administration who would not listen to the employees and students and alumnae. This went on for many years. The administration made bad choices. Those bad choices were opposed by the Antioch community. The results of those bad choices were consistently reflected in the school's bottom line. Neither the real world results of the bad choices nor the criticism of the community had any effect on the people who ran the school.

Essentially, what ended up happening is that the administration forced through their policies regardless of what the folks who were doing the real work wanted and could see were the best for the school. There was no real negotiation with the community, and in the end I guess they ended up destroying the school.

I attempted to understand what they were doling and while they continued to do it at the time. It was obvious that what they were doing was in the end simply destroying the school. I was never able to understand. Quite frankly I'm still not able to understand.



I guess my point here is that I am not really all that dumb. I knew most of the people involved in running Antioch personally for a few years. I was never able to understand their complete and total refusal to face (what to me) was the simple fact that they were running the school into the ground and change.

So given that I've had that experience, I truly wish I could say that I am optimistic about our current rulers.

The Campaign

Ok, I guess I am simply not capable of avoiding the campaign for the next six weeks.

The amazing bumbling around that is going on in the Obama camp concerning how to campaign is just amazing. Where is the candidate of June? Is he only the candidate because people hate Clinton with a passion that passith all understanding? Because sexism and Clinton hatred is so ingrained in the body politic that almost anybody would get the support of the MSM?

Once again I am forced to conclude that the the Democratic response is not a bug, but a feature. They seem unable to fight back and unable to attack. They are terrified that they will make a mistake, so they do nothing.

I again say that when Hilliary said there was a vast right wing conspiracy concerning Bill, that statement forced the MSM to discuss the possibility that it really existed. Of Course the Blue Dress and Bill's lies torpedoed that. Even though there was and is a vast right wing conspiracy. Unlike most conspiracies it is right out in the open where anyone can easily see it. It is merely wilful blindness that allows it to continue to exist.

I was a history major in college and I wondered how the Romans could allow the republic and then the empire to be slowly done in by the greed of the ruling class. They took so much when talking only a little less would have preserved the structure and foundation of the state. Well now I guess I get to live through it.

Computers

It is distressing regular computer no work. It turns out that there is a recall concerning the wireless of a lot of HP Computers. So even though mine is almost two years old the time bomb just went off so trying to get the thing working has prevented me from ranting (on line at least) about the MSM and Palin.

On the other hand one of the major problems concerning this campaign is that none of the real party leaders have really come out on attack. I remember when the Clenis stuff started and Hilliary said it was part of a vast right wing conspiracy. That forced the MSM to talk about it. Of course, the Blue Dress ended that. But of course that doesn't mean there wasn't a right wing conspiracy. Just because your paranoid, etc.

UPDATE: Well for those with a certain kind of HP computers.............. It turns out that even though my computer was out of warranty, there was in essence a secret "recall" of those particular kind of computers. They would just stop working as far as at least the wireless feature was concerned. Of course, I just found out about it because I had a secondary warranty that ran for a second year. Those people didn't want to fix the puter and told me about the HP extended warranty, thingy.

Of course this isn't quite as bad as when I got my brand new Plymouth Tourisimo several years ago. After several weeks my wife at the time kept saying that she heard something weird when we were moving. She insisted on taking it into the dealer and he told us: "Oh, yeah. About one in ten tires come apart from normal wear." Sweet.

God, I'm glad I live in a country where the corporations are totally crushed and controlled by the government and forced to reveal their inner-most secrets to the hoi poli.

MSM

So the word is now out. The courtiers have spoken. Palin is brilliant and electrifying. A genius choice by McCain (who didn't have a running mate for 5-1/2 years you know). Her speechifying will take her to the winners circle.

The bar is, as many have said, set so low that the MSM gives her massive amounts of praise for meeting and even exceeding their incredibly low expectations. The bar was set low enough so that Trig could have sailed over it.

The same thing happened with Bush. As long as he wasn't convulsing during the debates he was a winner. Even though he was getting messages from a wire attached to his back. Remember?

Actually, it's worse than that. For some reason there are talking points and those talking points are always the Republican talking points and they are always the ones that are pushed by the MSM. Or at least have been for the last 30 years. The mass of the media hue to one set of talking points and push it relentlessly. (Of course there are always the odd stories that are outliers, but they are never followed up and die within a half media cycle.)

As usual we are hosed. My only real hope anymore concerning the fops who provide us the "news" is that they get some sort of really nasty plague brought on by global warming and die a horrible and lingering death. Perhaps something brought on by oh say, tainted barbecue.

AN ADDED THOUGHT: Palin will be as screened and as protected as Bush was and McCain is now. Not only that, but the MSM will be more than happy to ignore that and to repeat the scripted statements and moments as though they were extempo pearls of wisdom dropped from on high. At the same time the Obama and Biden will be hounded relentlessly concerning any little error, as will any who support them. The MSM will find any sexist remarks by any Democrat and try to make it into a major news story. In the meantime the underling racism and brutal class warfare of the Republicans will simply be ignored, or at the most mentioned only in passing. Of course, those few will be pointed to later as proof that they are indeed objective or even leaning toward liberals. The constant water carrying for the right has become so totally ingrained that it is simply seen as a normal way for the MSM to report.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the current courtiers will end like the fops in Louie XVI's court did. To bad. I guess that would be a reason to believe in an after life that punishes.

Book Burning

Well the right and their minions in the MSM (which means the entire MSM) has come to the defense of poor little Sarah Palin.

I do think that it is important that we get a book burner in the Vice Presidentcy. I mean there really haven't been enough of those here yet. Have there.

Disturbing Realizations

First, I looks like I might finally have a reason to join the Ohio Bar Association. I mean they are the ones who invented Lexis/Nexis and then sold it. Now they've invented something just as impressive (for lawyers) and it's free to members.

So nothing seems to be happening at the Republican convention, eh? Sarah Palin's little ones seem to be more interesting than Mom. Although her religious moments seem to be really out there. I wish I could add something to this. But I really can't.

Ok, ok, ok. I admit it I have little or nothing today.

Although, I must admit that I am proud of the visual. I would have to guess from reading around that there are really no pregnant teenage sluts who have republican parents. There are only proud pre-married teens who have made the "choice" to have that kid, no matter what their republican parents want. Democrats of course are a different matter.

Better get a bucket

Computer down again. Thank god I didn't get rid of the old ones. Of course one was at the office and the other had it's screen down.

The Saint threw up three times in the back seat of the car. Yeah I know.

The pups went nuts when we took them out.

Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. So much for Christian abstinence. Think this is her first?

Finally, the cops go nuts in St. Paul and right wingers make to say its ok. I simply do not understand people. Actually, I do understand them quite well, I just don't like it. It appears to me that there are a lot of people who are just more than happy to be in thrall to whoever happens to be in power. But god knows what causes them. I think that they are just afraid to think for themselves.

Is it possible that the photo is just a metaphor for life?