Shut Up And Listen, Damn It

You know I've always thought that one of my most endearing traits is my ability to go from complete and utter silence into a full rant in about thirty seconds. Particularly when I think somebody doesn't seem to understand a certain political or economic fact that is clear as day to me. Or alternatively, when a jurist or opposing lawyer has just done something that is clearly beyond the pale.

I often wonder how those in Washington think in the way they do when little ole me here in East Jesus Rural by god Ohio can see things so clearly. Still gullibility or stupidity knows no geographic boundaries. I am still owed a bottle of the most expensive Scotch I can find in this god forsaken area by a judge (unnamed) who bet me that WMD would be found within six months after the end of the "war" in Iraq. Unfortunately, when one practices in front of a judge it is not a good idea to be right about these kind of things. Particularly when the judge in question does not want to "remember" the bet.

I am still surprised at the value stupidity has for those who govern and those who write about those who govern. If it had a dollar value then they would all be rich. Oh wait.

So then I guess intelligence would be the opposite and that would explain why I am poor. I'll go with that.

Social Security Again

Not quite dead yet.

WTF is it with Obama and Social Security. No place (other than right wing rags) is there any intimation and no place is there any real evidence that Social Security is in any trouble before 2042. And then all the information currently available is that a minor shift can fix it at that point. Yet Obama puts it on the table again and again.

I suspect that his butt and his coalition were saved by Pelosi and (of all people) Reid when they let him know that they would not allow an up or down vote for an extra legislative committee's recommendations. This is particularly true since the committee would be heavily larded with the economists who did not foresee the current crisis and those Wall Streeters who also lost trillions.

I mean really WTF?

Brief Post

More computer problems. HP has a wireless problem and a recall that they apparently told no one about. I found out about it through another source and so they fixed[?] my computer for about four weeks. When I called them back they told me: "You are out of the warranty period. You had a one time repair. You get no more repairs."

I pointed out that they hadn't really repaired it. The pleasant person in Bombay merely repeated what she told me earlier. Fuck 'em. So out it goes to another place.

At any rate I was thinking about the ability of people to live in Alice's world: "A word means what I want it to mean, neither more nor less." Even more so when I came upon this from Digby. I never knew that Alaskan citizens paid no individual taxes, but that the government lived off of taxes from the oil companies and paid the citizens almost $4,000.00 cash to each Alaskan every year. Yet at the same time they deny that is socialism.

WTF?

Then from Firedoglake comes this graph of how this country has been redistributing the wealth for the last thirty years.

Click on the graph to see it all I can't figure out how to make it small enough to see it all on the blog.

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.