I Want My Scroll Back

There are days that I think I am almost monk like in my attempt to comprehend our electronic world. Perhaps I would be in better mental shape if I just took a little time and surfed the web and read some simple books concerning the stuff that goes on inside these little thingies.

Incitatus

I've been thinking about the current state of our once and future government and realizing that it is just going to get worse and I hate to say it worse.

I remembered that Caligula had appointed his horse as a counsel if I recall correctly, and I do. It does not at this point seem to me to be a bad idea right now. I mean how bad could a senate or house or presidency of one or more horses be compared to what we have now? I mean at least we'd get a complete horse then, wouldn't we?

BEFORE:

AFTER:
REALLY AFTER:

Don't Touch My Junk

Reading a post on Greenwald's blog about the "Don't Touch My Junk" guy. The interesting thing is that it takes off from an article in The Nation which essentially smears the guy.

And strongly defends Obama. In reality The Nation has been nothing, but a well kept "leftist" piece of democratic infrastructure since at least 1996. Why do you ask do I say 1996?

Because I remember reading an article which was an attack piece on Dole at the time. The article attacked Dole for waiting to be drafted rather than leaving college and joining and then attacked him for not being appropriately wounded. He happened to get seriously wounded by being hit by an artillery shell (as did most) rather than heroically leading an assault on ........well something or the other.

They also were willing to cut and run on the single payer idea early on.

Oswald Garrison Villard would be very disappointed.

TSA

It is a depressing day here, for many personal reasons, but politically the new TSA stuff is just sad. I almost wrote disappointing, but in reality there is no disappointment, since to be disappointed one would have to be surprised at the new rules and at the general publics response to this sort of thing. I am reminded of the Simpsons episode where the city of Springfield buys a stealth bomber to protect the city from bears, of which there was one in the entire history of the city. It is truly hard for satire to keep ahead of reality these days.

NPR today ran what can only be described as an "Ask the Frisker Segment" where "concerned real[?] people got to ask questions about whether their nine year old might be frisked, or whether they could still carry on frozen meat and pies, but not puddings or cranberry sauce. Play dough however is approved because the cracker jack security checkers know the difference between play dough and plastic explosive.

I hope that this has answered all those questions of the concerned brain dead American citizens concerning travel this holiday.

The thing that really makes me sad, is that all the problems with this will eventually blow away. I plan on driving south the next time I go. Although, I suspect that it is only a matter of time before we have full body screens at all on ramps for the Interstate.

Ubuntu?

A crush of work, worry about my office mate, a general feeling of malaise and my normal sloth have prevented me from writing much recently. Many things have caught my eye including the report from that well known reporter, Anonymous concerning the apparent belief by the congressional democrats that the only reason they lost was that the people just didn't know how much they had indeed done and that they just couldn't get their message out there. And that because and therefore they got their asses handed them on a platter.

I have worked with people who were in an active stage of an incapacitating delusional mental illness, and they were not, I believe, as delusional as that. There are certain things believed or statements made by a person which I normally feel I cannot respond to because the statement made or belief held is so far from an even fleeting brush with reality that that person does not exist in the real world and that without entering that (kind of) parallel universe: A democratic senator thinking that they have performed admirably in the last two years and the only reason they lost was because they didn't explain it well enough to me; is just one of those things. (Some one arguing that the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or Yeman are necessary for our nation's safety is another. The continuing war on the use of marijuana is another, at least when some one insists that marijuana is a dangerous drug.) I suppose these later two things can be justified because they help the powerful get and maintain control over the hoi poli. Not, however for the reasons put out there.

But a democratic politician thinking that his party lost because they were unable to explain their governing brilliance to the electorate is a level of delusion that is simply breath taking. It evidences an ignorance that is just well, special.

Now one other reason I haven't been writing much and the cause of the title of this little piece is that I have been coming home at night and attempting to install Ubuntu on to one of my older computers to see how I would like it. It is I am told no problem at all, but I cannot get it done and now I am in a quest mode sort of like Arthur or Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vacation, if you will.

Curse you Bill Gates. (Incidentally this is being written on a version of Linux called Xandros if you are interested.

UPDATE: My wife points out that perhaps I should have used the Google and typed in say: "Installing Ubuntu on an older computer." But I think that that would have been cheating don't you?

Obama Can't Fail, He Can Only Be Failed

Obama can't fail, he can only be failed.

I wish I could say that I invented that saying, but I can't. On the other hand I can't remember if I heard it or read it somewhere, so I can't say I stole it either.

There is a Brecht line about the people losing the confidence of the state. Other than that I'm not sure where I picked it up. I use it regularly when I cruse True Believe sites. Used it today at Balloon Juice, where Cole was whining about no one getting Obama's back on the trial of the sheik that was scheduled for New York and is now in all probability cancelled. Got the expect number of nasty hits, but also (surprise, surprise) got a few people who agreed.

I find the justifications for Obama bailing on a position before he is actually beaten to be kind of interesting. Now, truth be told, I kind of believe that at this point Obama couldn't get laid by a crack whore if he had a $2,000.00 rock (I know where I stole that one). He has spent so much time blatantly screwing the other members of his party, that he has no political authority left. Whether or not he had any to begin with is another question, but I do think that he did. For at least a few months after the election. He chose not to use it to push what was needed to go through concentrating on helping his corporate masters, and continues to concentrate on it without helping peope who really need it. Still is.

Two And A Half

November 11. Honor me. Horse shit.

I remember being out side a whore house in Sattahip and walking through a massive crowd of relatively small children most if not all under the age of eight. Several of us throwing change, mostly pennys, and watching the kids run from one spot to the other chasing after them. It seemed quite funny at the time.

So what is two and a half? Easy the number of war that we fought that can be called just or good:

The Revolutionary War. Probably if only because of the fact that it inspired others to try to create democracies around. It still inspires I say. Of course, we did have to keep our slaves you see.

The Civil War. That would be the half. Let's face it the destruction of slavery was a great thing, but then we were fighting against ourselves, so there you are half a just war at best.

World War II. That seems to be the one shining example and one that everybody holds out as a really good war. Although, probably good isn't the correct word, perhaps just fits it better. Maybe nearly necessary. The problem is that we have decided that we were on the side of the angels that time and that therefore, we are always on the side of the angels. (I always have a time figuring out how to spell angels and often I misspell it with an le, but that would probably have been right to.)

If one argues that the Spanish American War helped our little brown friends get out from under the Spanish yoke. I'd suggest reading Mark Twain about that. The Mexican American War, I'd go with Grant on that (or read the entire Autobiography, it is very good). Perhaps the Korean Conflict (not war don't you know). I'm not sure that the eventual outcome forty years later justifies any war. The others pointless (1812) or variations of colonial adventures. Let's face it the Indian Wars were real colonial wars, instead of doing what the English and French did we did what the Israelis are trying to do now. Kill 'em all and then just move in. It was nearly impossible even in the nineteenth century.

So there you have it over 200 years and just two and a half just wars, in a nation that calls itself peaceful, but has been at war for almost all of its existence.

Oh yea, around the corner from where I live there is a sign up that says: "Welcome home Vietnam Vets." I am beginning to think that we will never stop fighting that war and trying to justify it to ourselves. "Me think the lady doth protest too much[?]"

Why I Am Completely Unhinged About Obama

There is still a lot of stuff going on at work and I'm still doing a couple of people's jobs, but it does keep me out of the pool halls and off the streets, I guess. I've been thinking about trying to put everything down about why I think that Obama and the democrats are probably at least as bad as and possibly worse than Bush and the republicans. Worse because they make you think they will do some good and then...........

At any rate why I hate Obama and the democrats:

1. His vote on TARP, while he was the party leader and insisting that it be passed with no banking controls at all;

2. His vote on FISA, which to be fair to me caused me to stop doing anything for him for a couple of weeks, until Palin skeered me so much that I got out and actually worked for the son of a bitch again (my mistake).

3. His appointment of Rham, that guy who helped steer NAFTA and GATT through and lost the democratic party control of the congress for two decades (you can't fail, you can only be failed in big time politics).

4. Rick Warren, or as I lovingly refer to him the fat homophobe.

5. Summers, Geither, Paulson. The very people who torpedoed the economy. Oh yeah, let's not forget Secretary of Defense Gates the good Bush soldier.

6. Inaction on DADT and DOMA, except to defend them in the courts (when he didn't have to and appeal them when he didn't have to).

7. Total inaction on card check, thus assuring that it would not be passed. Now why is it that unions are backing him again?

8. Dawn Johnston and other recess appointments that he might have made while the republicans blocked his candidates including two union members of the NLRB, whom he ended up appointing only when he desperately needed union support for HCR (or the great pharmacy and health insurance bazaar give away).

9.Van Jones firing and his treatment of his long time pastor.

10. Shirley Sherrod (although to be fair here, the NAACP deserves at least as much contempt).

11. Walking back on his statements about the cop being stupid concerning Skip Gates.

12. A complete willingness to turn tail and run when any conservative or republican yelled boo (although to be fair that seems to be the current attitude of any liberal/progressive group [see 10 above]).

13. "Health Care Reform." I would say that this was a sell out to the industry, but I think that the phrase "sell out" refers to someone having a position that they then caved on.

14. The Stimulus, being half what it needed to be and by so doing causing people to believe that government spending can't really help them after all, no matter what the New Deal and WWII prove.

15. Out never ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and his determination to continue them no matter what the cost.

16. His determination to control all funding for all advocacy groups on the left (and their willingness to go along with him).

17. His inability or refusal to lead.

18. His complete political incompetence, which is really surprising in the first African American president.

19. His complete ability to lie, to say that he is fighting for the repeal of DADT at the same time fighting to maintain it in court, or his promise to fight for single payer at the same time promising the insurance industry to prevent it from being seriously considered by congress, for instance. Now to be fair here, it might just be that the number of people on the so called left, who are willing to jump right in there and tell you that he couldn't have tried to do more because it just couldn't have happened no matter what might be what pisses me off the most.

20. His willingness to protect torturers at all levels (of our government only) and to completely deny any kind of due process to those arrested and held in our prisons on charges of terrorism. Well except of course to give these people trials if and only if he is sure that he can convict them and to announce that even if they are found not guilty he can still hold them for as long as he wants. Stalin would have been proud.

That is a brief list, in no particular order, of the things that cause me to feel nothing but hatred for Obama and the current crop of democrats. If I think of more things I will do updates as they come to mind.

UPDATE: Oh yes, I forgot.

21. Obama's complete and continuing lies (sense a pattern here?) concerning how he would encourage whistle blowers, and instead using every power at his disposal to crush them and anyone who helps them.

22. If I did not make this clear his embrace of the national security state in it most malignant form, which might just be a redundant redundancy come to think about it.

23. Cat Food Commission.

Word For The Day

Feck-less ('fek-les) adj.:

Nixon vs. Obama

I was in the comment sections of a couple of blogs today. Digby and Tbogg. Being my usual serious self, but there wasn't a lot of push back, so I suspect that perhaps I am not so out there after all, damn.

Tbogg's original post was an attack on people who vote third parties and who refuse to vote for the democrats because they are not good enough. Essentially beating up a straw man, in my opinion. It might have been a reasonable argument with Humphrey vs. Nixon, but I don't think it flies this year with these democrats. That was the point of a poster, that Humphrey was better than Nixon and those of us who are talking about not voting for the democrats are in the same position as those who refused to vote for Humphrey (who incidentally I did vote for, for the first time ever in a presidential election).

Then it occurred to me it is true that Humphrey was better than Nixon, but then really Nixon was better than Obama. Now, that is a real bitch.

VOTE?

So there are more and more slightly hysterical cries to get out the vote to liberals/progressives. That is to say you've got to vote for any democrat simply because the alternative is too awful to contemplate. Digby has a very nice video up called I Remember and it is all about the bad things the republicans did and how these people remember. Except, I also remember just how the democrats went along for the ride, or like TARP aggressively backed it while running for president and helped prevent any increased oversight so that it could be put in later at a more leisurely pace. Fucking liars.

I call bullshit. The time to start working is tomorrow to try to get better candidates to run in a couple of years and that won't happen if the democrats keep their majorities. God knows what will happen in the mean time if the republicans get real power. And I mean that sincerely, but I simply can't think of any other way to try to get something better for the average American than to throw the bums out. Elections are a blunt instrument, but they are the only instruments we have at this point.

With the exception of a very few democrats, who for the most part are not getting institutional party support there is no one to vote or work for this late in the game. Well, I've sent more money than I have ever sent to an old friend in Columbus, who is a liberal and will probably get slaughtered, but it is the least I can do. Since she voted for the final version of HCR, if I were a purist I would not support her, but I do understand the necessity of helping those who do not completely live up to our ideals. Even though I am an unreasonable, silly radical who demands too much. Way more than the average politician dare to deliver.

Aw fuck.

The Stupid It Burns

Welcome to election eve or rather the continuation of the rolling horror show that has become our government. We had a meeting tonight and were planning on having Halloween candy as treats, but completely forgot about it, so I was sent to get the candy, which I assumed would be pretty cheap since it is the day after Halloween, right? Wrong. It turns out that all that was available was Christmas candy, go figure.

So I made the mistake of having NPR on and a woman whose name I'd missed but who was identified as a senior political correspondent (no that is really how she was identified) was pontificating and I quote: "Independents are getting upset with the political parties which are becoming more homogeneous. The republicans becoming more conservative and the democrats more liberal. Independents are looking for something more in the middle."

This may be true in the sense that independents might think that democrats are becoming more liberal, but then one would think that a "senior political correspondent" might be cognisant of the fact that that is not in fact true and that both parties are much more conservative than they were 50 years ago, even 30 years ago and would say as much. Further, that the ruling party (not you'll notice parties) has been moving right almost without let up since 1968. But then if she could have that kind of a thought, she could not of course, be a "senior political correspondent." Not even for NPR.