Imagine

Imagine Obama as Frau Helm in drag of course:

Stuff

Wow my favorite word even, and this is really good and even I understand it.

Hari Kari Anyone?

I've been thinking since the last post. Perhaps Obama and Rahm believe that the democratic party has simply become too corrupt and been humiliated one too many times by the republicans and even by themselves, so they have decided that the democrats must commit sepaku.

Hey it makes as much sense as anything else.

Stuff

I haven't been writing a lot because it does seem so pointless. As a nation where we should right now have a new health care system in place with at a minimum a robust public option, or at least be in the middle of a vicious filibuster in the senate with the last right wing hold outs fighting to keep any change from occurring and becoming more marginalized by the day.

Day after day information comes out from the MSM that shows that we are indeed a third world nation as far as care is concerned, 45,000 die each year because of no insurance. Then a major democratic [?] senator either lies or is willfully ignorant concerning the amount of government regulation of health care in France, Germany, and Japan.

A while back I said that what was happening in Washington was like watching a slow motion train wreck. I take that back, it isn't that interesting. It is more like watching bread not rise.

In the mean time the guys (Obama and his Rasputin Rham continue on their merry way to destroying the democratic party. Do you think that they are both deep moles placed there by anarchists, or do they simply keep their heads in the sand ignoring the warning signs.

Mamas and the Papas

And now for something more or less tasteless. I seem to want to be tabloidizationed to death some days.

More Torture

My god do we just have the same arguments over and over. It is like somethings never have happened. More and more studies show that torture is not an accurate way to get good information, never mind the moral aspects of it. They show that it didn't work between 2002 and s008 and still those people who are important and should be listened to crap their pants and want to torture the most recent brown guy who gets busted because he bought too much peroxide and acetone and he is another Osoma? Geeze. Perhaps he just wanted to advance to hair stylus from car driver.

ACORN

Wow, if this is really accurate, then the whole thing about ACORN is even less than I thought it was. The guy plays along and turns it into the police. And then gets fired.

Bullshit gets you a long way if you are a reactionary pig.

Sunday

After

Before

No comment.

Cat in a box.

Avast

Ok I know this is a little late in the day, but still I think that we should continue to honor the day.

Damn

Well just god damn.

More Colonial War Stuff

So it now appears as though Obama is simply planning on closing the prison in Cuba and shipping the prisoners off to other prisons outside the USofA, while continuing to kidnap and imprison individuals who will become the new prisoners whom someone, either our military, or various spy masters, or our clients, decides is or may in the future be a danger to us (or to our clients I would guess).

In the meantime we have doctors who work in that prison system who would make the doctors who worked in the German concentration camp system feel like they have finally been exonerated and have in fact found their true brothers under those clean white (or green) medical scrubs.

I know that politicians lie, but I really don't expect them to lie about everything. I wonder if the wonderful constitutional law scholar we now have as our president is much of a historian and remembers what happened to the democratic party after Wilson completely reversed himself in 1916? (Hint, the democrats did not regain control of much of anything until the depression of 1929 booted the republicans out of office. Then the democrats promised a lot and lived up to most of it.)

But hey, today we are all bi-partisan friends and the guy in the White House is setting up a situation that looks more like Wiemar Germany than America of the late 20s and we all know who followed Wiemar to power in Germany.

Another Day Another Atrocity

Here we are with another law enforcement atrocity designed to make us all safer. I do remember discussing the original SC case in law school that allowed the police to take a draw of blood without the consent of the person whose blood was being taken. My doesn't that sound clean though. No discussion about strapping down the victim and forcing him/her to lie there against their wishes while the cops stick a needle into their arm to get the blood.

How many times do you think that they are permitted to stick a needle into your arm until they hit a vein? I suspect as many as they want. Thank god we don't live in a police state.

How About Some Classics (Movies That Is)

So, I've been thinking about why various legislators seem willing to buck the wishes of their constituencies, particularly those constituencies who are liberal.

I think that I have an explanation. The legislatures, be they state or federal (both the House of Representatives and Senate) are kind of like hte middle level management of private businesses. They hope to move up to the big money sooner or later.

If one gets fired from his or her legislative position, that is if they lose an election, they immediately go on to take a position in the very industries they were supposedly trying to pass bills to regulate. It is not a very interesting conclusion, nor is it a very edifying one, but there you have it. I do not think that there is any other explanation.

Now this is not the way it is suppose to work, and it is an incredibly corrupt system. The analogy maybe somewhat strained since middle level management types are expected to work for the benefit of the company (the country for the legislators). But then you see CEOs and other management (witness the bonuses for the bail out babies) getting huge amounts for (apparently) running their company into the ground. Further, I am sure that the legislators manage (most of the time) to convince themselves that while they may, to invoke a complete hypothetical, be preventing the vast majority of Americans from buying affordable health insurance by preventing a public option, or single payer, they are saving the insurance companies which are part of the bed rock of this country, those silly 47,000,000 who don't have insurance or the rest who don't have "good" insurance are not (part of the bed rock). What makes America great are the corporations and the wealthy, not the poor or middle class. So really they are patriots of a higher order. The fact that they get rewarded for it with obscene amounts of money is just kind of a second icing if I would be permitted to coin a phrase.

I keep going back to a scene from Spartacus the Kirk Douglas movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, Crassus and Julius Caesar are talking about Rome and Caesar points to the mob/group of people in the forum and says that they are Rome. Crassus contradicts him, no the wealthy patricians are Rome he says, these people are just a mob. (Of course, one must remember that both the book and the movie were written by dirty commies.)

There have always been this kind of tensions, but at least in this country, in the past, they were tensions now I really see no real tension. The power is where the money is and it is not going to move back to the middle class.

At any rate this post appears to bring me back to my theme this month of Cheap (or perhaps Adolescent) Nihilism.

Sunday

Dad was good.

That was only the lamp next the computer

This show is incredibly boring, change channels.

Teabaggers

For some reason just thinking of the tesbaggers brought this to mind:

Rednecks

Looks like there were a bunch of our friends in D.C. today. After losing a nationwide election in every way possible, they are on their way to show us that elections just don't count unless they come out the way the right wing wants them to.

Never underestimate the power of a large group of stupid, ignorant and frightened people.

Greenwald, as usual has a good take on what is happening. On the other hand it is kind of like a chronic progressive illness. Unless cured or some how checked it continues to get worse. On the other hand the god father of modern conservatism Buckley argued that segregation was necessary in the parts of the south with majority African American populations back in the 50s. DuPont tried to get General Butler to lead a coup in the 30s. When were the conservatives, those with real power I mean, when were they really not nuts? Or at least when did they ever believe in democracy?

But I would suggest that there has been a kind of slow motion chain reaction that seems to be leading to the kind of explosion that ended the Wiemar Republic. Particularly since those who are not conservatives, and sometimes hold themselves out as progressives seem to have no clear goals or standards or beliefs.

Damned Illegal Aliens

We are coming to kill your grandma, death panels we don need no stinkin death panels.

So it looks like Mexico is ahead of us in universal health care. After all the strom and drang and shouts of "you lie" from the loonie right in and out of congress it appears that illegal aliens in the USofA to pick our food and sew our clothes may end up with better health care then the greatest citizens of the bestest country in everything in the history of the whole world [cheap sarcasm].

So essentially it looks like we are on track to be not only the last first world country in terms of health care, but we are well on the way to providing worse health care than many third world countries.

I Translate Obama For The Masses

First, we won't kill your grandma, but as a compromise we will allow illegal aliens to die in front of the hospital doors and we will put strong men in front of the doors to prevent them from getting in. Unlike every other country in the enlightened world.

Second, we will force everybody to get really shitty insurance, and we will give lots of money to the very wealthy, while taking it from those who can't afford it.

Third and most important, if we absolutely have to and can't figure out any way at all of getting out of it we will offer a public option that will be so crappy that no one in their right mind will want it.

The President's Speech

Damn I hate it when I'm right.

Also, I am reminded of Ken Burn's Civil War, quoting someone who said "South Carolina: to small for a nation, to large for an insane asylum."

The Good

I am sick and tired of hearing people who claim to be progressives saying that we have to end up with some health care bill even if there is no public option. The argument that: "The best is the enemy of good enough" is simply not applicable in this case. The assumption underling that argument is that there is a good enough option out there, for instance a public option, instead of the best say single payer, but Obama got rid of single payer before it could even rear it's head in committee. So all we are left with is good enough and that's going down the tubes.

Let's be very clear, what is proposed is a massive transfer of wealth from the average American to the insurance industry. To sweeten it a little they include a massive transfer of wealth from the average American, through the government to the insurance industry.

But look back, he took time off from his campaign to come back and vote for this kind of bill in the bail out, he pushed this kind of bill after he was elected and before he took office in bailouts for the bankers with no controls or oversights. Since he's been on the national stage he has been in favor of various massive transfers of wealth to the wealthiest from the middle classes (what's left of them) after another. And it continues.

Let me make one thing clear this criticism is a criticism from the left. The teabaggers and republicans in congress are beyond weird and they, if given the power, and I expect that they will get it sooner now rather than later will continue this kind of wealth transfer with a vengeance. This has been something that has been going on since Nixon at least, under both "parties." In reality there is really only one party in this country, it is a conservative party with a reactionary wing called republicans and a strongly conservative wing called democrats.

I always wondered why the rulers of Rome couldn't figure out that destroying their independent peasant class essentially destroyed Rome. OK, I still can't figure it out and I'm watching it happen right here before my eyes. The destruction of our middle class and farming class goes on apace and no one seems to want to stop it or can figure out how to stop it.

So I guess the answer to my earlier question really is: Cheap Nihilism.

Who Would Ever Have Expected

I really thought this would be kind of sort of humorous when I got it. I did not expect it to be as point on as it is. Is there much this guy has done that doesn't disappoint? Has he really gotten out there and pushed for anything that is really progressive? Not hardly.

Is cheap nihilism the answer?

Sigh

I am simply unable to comprehend the mental process of the democratic "leadership"[scare"][also there should be a ? both before and after leadership, but I digress].

Once again I am reminded of the Russian folktale about the old woman in the sleigh being chased by a pack of wolves. She throws one after another of her family members out hoping to slow the wolves. It doesn't work. The entire family is eaten and eventually the wolves catch the sleigh and eat the old woman. So the whole thing just doesn't work. Obama throws his pastor out, but we didn't learn from that; now he throws Van Jones out and the right is looking at more of his people. Do you think they'll go after the blue dogs? Do you think that he will stand up for anything except maybe his wealthy buddies?

On the other hand it seemed to work for Clinton. Just not the rest of us. Or do I repeat myself?

This Pretty Much Explains It

I Want To Be On Record

Just so I'm here on record, Obama is going to come out with some piss poor speechtomorrow that begs republicans and conservative democrats in congress to please be nice. But there will be no demand for a public option, it will be a "Public option or best offer." And believe me the best offer isn't going to include a public option.

Although, it may be a puppy.

We Are Just So Needed and So Wanted

I said that I would support our invasion of Iraq if it kept the price of gas below $2.50 a gallon. Well yesterday it was at $2.39, so I feel that I must go on line to vouch safe my approval of our continued occupation of Iraq.

I am however, beginning to think that our continued occupation of Afghanistan is also necessary simply to prove that we are indeed in favor of democracy as practiced in various rural areas of the southern portion of this country (and Chicago).

Veal Pen

This says a lot, now doesn't it?

Accidental President?

I'd say Obama is as accidental a president as any VP who was promoted because the Prez died in office.

The deal being that McCain was a kind of sacrificial goat. He deserved the nomination, it was his turn finally and he was loved by the press and was after all a hero (although what getting shot down has to do with being a hero, I've never understood). The republicans were coming off four years of obvious complete incompetence. They were due for a major loss, almost no matter who got the democratic nomination. Then of course, McCain couldn't completely reject the guy who was president from 2001, since he'd supported him in almost everything he'd done. McCain then ran a campaign that was nearly perfect in its ineptitude. Palin was amazingly perfect in her incompetence.

Against all this Obama lost a not insignificant part of a massive lead in the run up to the actual election date. Because, I would argue he couldn't bring himself to fight. None the less we believed that he would do something to help us. (I admit it and I am ashamed.)

It looks like Obama is continuing the policies that he thought put him where he is. I would say what a loser, except I am afraid people might think that I was referring to Obama rather than the rest of us (excepting always of course the ones with the money).

Which Side Are You On?

(h/t mudflats)

You Know It's Just That Kind of Day

It's About Time

I read Tbogg all the time and I'd been wondering when he would get tired of Obama and the games he plays. Well it finally happened.

I would say this that what Obama has been doing is just what he wants to do. He is helping those he wants to help. I'm sure he is shocked and disappointed by the crazy attacks of the crazy right wingers, and just can't understand why we just can't all get along.

Watching this all happen from outside, I have to wonder how he could have thought that anything else would happen.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: How can Obama and the other democrats be so continuously naive (or is that just stupid)? I've always thought that the bottom line for politicians was the desire for power and to win elections, but it does not appear as though the dems feel that way. Rather it is as thought their bottom line is to beat up hippies and to get treats from the wealthy and powerful for themselves and their immediate families only.

It is strange that he can't see what is going to happen in 2010. Although, I now think that this guy has been blessed and the rest of us cursed by his opponents. Truly the gang[s] who couldn't shoot straight think about it. Clinton with her campaign leader who didn't how the delegates were chosen for the democratic convention. McCain with his pick of Palin who can't make up a simple answer to the question of what she reads.

Should have seen it for what it was with the really inept way the campaign was run.

But Things Are Different Now

Fuck it all

How about a little nihilism?

Work

I've had a couple of good weeks at work. I've won two DUI (we all know what they are officially called in Ohio, but we'll use the more widely recognized term cause I'm lazy). You have to understand that in Ohio at least although there is a lot of blather about the need to prove people are guilty rather than the defense prove they are innocent, it normally works the other way.

Both of my clients were women, both did not give drug/alcohol tests and were accused of refusal (refusal will result in the loss of your license for a year, it is administrative, not judicial so it is automatic with some little judicial review).

So the first one was pulled over because her license was suspended and the trooper was just bored and running plates at random. It was her second DUI in two years. The trooper, several times in his report indicated that he smelled alcohol on her breath, but he insisted on trying to give her a urine test rather than a breathalyzer. He testified that he did that because he discovered some pot in the car, although he said that he didn't smell any pot in the car or on the defendant.

You need to understand that in Ohio the arresting officer can choose to use any means of getting a drug/alcohol test and can insist on administering as many different kinds of tests as he wants. This guy held her for two hours and insisted on giving her (or rather trying to) give her urine tests only (there was a female officer there to administer the test). The defendant insisted that she was too embarrassed to do it in front of another person. So no test and therefore an automatic license suspension.

Or not. It turned out that the trooper forgot to mark the proper box on the ticket and her license was not suspended. She came across as believable.

I choose to try it to the judge because I felt that a jury would have held the dope against her and if we had lost the trial on that point then she "would have been charged for the use of the court room" as we say and as I've experienced. Also, since she was guilty of the possession and of the driving without the license she would have had to pay the cost of the jury even if we won the DUI aspect of the case. So anyway the judge believed her, that she couldn't go and we won.

The other was a little more interesting, not so much in the facts (maybe) as to how they played out. This lady knocked down a neighbor's mail box and pulled into her drive way. The neighbor came running down and demanded to know why she didn't stop. She told him that she was coming back. At the same time the wife of the guy called the sheriff. The sheriff called the highway patrol. About two hours later the HP came to her house. She got mad and told them that she wasn't going to take any damn test. She admitted to drinking after the incident, but denied drinking before. We had a neighbor as a witness and her mother as a witness.

The court just couldn't find that there was enough evidence to find that she had been drinking before the accident. The interesting thing about the case is that we had a motion to suppress or actually a hearing on what we all thought was the administrative license suspension, which once again turned out not to have happened. Neither attorney nor the magistrate new that before the end of the hearing.

Now what makes this interesting is the different levels for burden of proof, the burden of going forward, and who must prove their facts at the different trials and hearings in any case. In a hearing other than a trial the prosecution has a much easier time of it (in theory) than it does at the final trial on the merits.

After the testimony at the hearing, it was clear to me that the prosecution had met it's burden and I'd lost. However, because the burdens are harder on the prosecution, it looked to me that I stood a very good chance of winning at the trial.

The attorneys and the magistrate talked about it after the hearing. The magistrate said: "I suppose I will have to listen to this all again?" I vouched safe, "Yeah, except my cross of the trooper will be even longer, and I'll have the defendant's husband if he doesn't die before then. So, it will probably last another half hour to hour."

A couple of days later the decision came down and the magistrate found that the prosecution hadn't proved that there was probable cause and therefore, dismissed the whole case before the final hearing. I am sure that is just so the magistrate didn't have to hear the whole thing again.

I'll take them any way I can get them.

More Torture

Well isn't this special though.