Arggggggggggggg, Again

So I've been writing this post (not not this post, but another which I am not yet done with) for three days and I am still not done with it. The real problem with it is that it is not particularly insightful, but it is long. And I'm still not done, and I might decide not to post it once I am done because I do not like it much right now.

I think I need to go into erotic science fiction.

Obama Brighter Than the Sun, More Liberal Than Gene Debs

I have finally found my way. It now comes clearly to me that indeed Obama does know eleventy dozen chess and is so much brighter than I could ever hope to be. Obama does just know what he is doing and through his sparkling intelligence and brilliant wit has convinced me that he has managed to turn this country's corner (whatever that means).

He is just so awesome, ooooohhh.

By forcing us all to pay all our money to large corporations, for non usable insurance He will assure that soon we all will be on the welfare rolls and therefore, we will be living in a truly communist society, since no one but the wealthiest will have money. And since no one but the wealthiest will have money therefore money will have no meaning. Ergo it will be a truly communistic society.

Sisboombah!

Just Another Shipment of Depression

The news just gets better and better. So now we are being told that the big O is going to (or perhaps has by the time I've posted this) announce that off shore drilling rights will be auctioned off for "some" areas off our coasts. Drill Baby Drill.

I fully expect that most of the major progressive conservation organizations will find it reasonable to be rather muted in their criticism of Obama because. I suspect that as Hampsher says they are part of the veal pen and they need that money from institutional donors that Obama will be able to cut off or severely limit if they don't toe the proper line. Of course, there will be an understanding that they will have to do a sort of kind of opposition, which will not prevent them from supporting Obama in 2012 and other democrats in 2010.

I have a harder time understanding the unions, although with the recess appointments Obama finally announced I can see that the unions got a little bit of what they wanted (the two union members on the NLRB). Although it is a pathetically small gift to get for selling out their membership with the eventual taxation of their own members benefits and the bail out on some sort of either public option single payer or Medicare for all. Let's not forget the union's position in democratic primary for the Senate race in Pennsylvania where they are now supporting the guy who managed to destroy their hopes of card check for the rest of my life at least.

So what is the point of the unions at this time in our history? I wish I knew. I would think that they would not be as easy to buffalo as the interest groups that depend on individual large contributors. Yet they seem to go into the same kind of acceptance mode as the other groups. I've seen it called a battered wife syndrome, and perhaps that explains it as well as anything else. Although, the other explanation,that is that of simple corruption and a need for personal access so they can look important is also seems to explain a lot. I find it important to remind myself that it is not necessary to find a single answer, sometimes there are multiple answers to one question, multiple reasons for a single action.

Of course, when we look at Greenwald's piece today about the financial motivations of the journalists (no I controlled myself and did not put scare quotes around the word journalists) who cover the White House. Five million for a book deal telling the inside dope about the infighting inside the OWH. As Greenwald points out this is not journalism and has nothing to do with politics, unless one defines both as what the courtiers wrote about Versailles or perhaps one should think Casanova's Memoirs without the interesting bits. There is obviously the single answer of complete and total corruption.

The blogs like Balloon-Juice and No More Mister Nice Blog which apparently have no financial interest seem to point to the battered wife syndrome combined with a need to just believe in The Leader (think Orwell). They put so much emotion into Obama that they do not have, yet the ability to recognize him for what he is (not what he has become, he always was). I had a very hard dealing with my own personal disenchantment and coming to the realization that I had been (willingly) mislead by Obama and I really wasn't looked to for advice by much of anyone. Add to this is the realization that the republicans are bat shit crazy and we are left with what in the end?

I firmly believe that things will have to get much worse before they get better, but I also have no conviction that things will get better even if they do get much worse. I think that a lot of people think that by backing the democrats and Obama there are really helping these people make small little steps toward a better society and country. I rather suspect that what the democrats and Obama are doing is making it much harder for things to be changed for the better. That we are watching the oligarchs fooling the masses and cementing their control.

These Are Action Shots

As you can see the cats are terrified of the dogs.

Isn't this a sign of the end times.

The Crazy Runs Deep In You Republican

So the crazy runs deep with the republicans, tea baggers, and conservatives (or am I being redundant?). The craziness combined with the simple petulance of the elected republicans completely over powers any reasoned criticism of HCR and (possibly with the assistance of the main stream media) totally prevents reasoned criticism from being heard and evaluated by the majority of Americans.

My complaints that the bill requires me to pay money directly to private corporations or face a financial penalty are simply out shouted by the screamer demanding secession. The criticism of the process which points out that Obama made secret (or rather attempted to keep them secret, but failed) deals with the pharmaceutical and for profit hospital industries, along with the fact that the final bill was mostly written by an insurance industry lobbyist, are drowned out by the republicans in Congress pulling petty and childish procedural games to prevent the bill from going forward and complaining that they didn't get 60 votes for a second vote, although there had been the 60 votes for the first vote. So the argument they are apparently making is that the majority should not rule any more, although they should with a mere 50 votes plus the VP when Bush was president, but not in the presidential elections apparently either, so it is hard to know just which argument we are going by at any given time. Perhaps it is the "When I got the votes I win, when I don't got the votes we wait until I do got the votes" theory of governance.

The same thing happened with Clinton. The crazies went so crazy that most people stopped listening to any criticisms of his policies and supported him as a person. (No not the high mucky mucks in the republican party nor the belt way pundits, but the average person who votes.)Suddenly criticizing Clinton became something that marked you as a person who, if you were not a crazy right winger, then you were giving aid and support to a crazy right winger. You were weakening all liberals and progressives, not with standing that Clinton was neither liberal nor progressive.

Same here, this is not an historic bill, it does not give the people what every democratic president for the last century wanted to give them. It is a conduit for money to the insurance, the pharmaceutical, and the for profit hospital industries, which provides some benefits as sort of collateral benefits to individuals. Try raising those issues and the screaming from the right about creeping socialism and from some of the left about how you want to kill people by keeping them from getting insurance completely drowns one out.

Isn't it pretty to think so, again.

I've kind of fallen for the quote, it will probably take several days to stop quoting it. Probably as long as the veal pens and other so called liberals celebrate the passing of this health care[?] bill.

I did not expect that Obama would shove progressives faces in one part of this feted bill so soon. But having anti-abortion groups come to the signing of his anti-abortion executive order, something he could have done in private if he hadn't wanted to prove to the progressives that they are less than nothing to him, is ...............well even cynical me am surprised.

I mentioned the penumbra of the health care bill being the one thing that will last (along with the requirement that individuals pay money to private corporations), meaning that it would prevent any meaningful reform for at least a generation. I'd read some stuff that this could be something to "build on" (I don't remember where and to be frank I don't care), but building on would require a desire of the prez. and others to do something along those lines and that is not his style. He is not a liberal. He is not a progressive. He is a centrist only in the corrupted language of our current political era. He is really a conservative corporatist (I deleted this section because after thinking about it I think that I was unfair, I do not think that he is a fascist, if you factor out things like indefinited detention, no habieus and little things like that in the war on terror, that is).

At any rate Jane Hamsher is again doing a very through essay about this bill and pointing out that the democrat leadership is bragging about how this bill is actually a republican concept. She posted before the private ceremony for the anti-abortionists was announced, but it still covers most of the issues there are with the bill (although, I have to think that perhaps she isn't winning many friends by calling most of the "progressive" groups and legislators veal caves who live in the veal pen). Taibbi once again has a short and insightful piece wondering just who we are left to vote for since there seem to be only conservatives/(democrats) and nazi's [my language]/(republicans).

The amount of self delusion evidenced by the so called left in this matter is nearly beyond belief. Although when one sees how NARAL acted in the past (supporting Lieberman and having a president who claims to be a good believing catholic) and HRC being just HRC and not bucking much of anything, certainly not pushing for immediate repeal of DADT. Then we've got the unions which apparently are more than willing to kick card check down the road to a better more appropriate time. So all these groups are congratulating themselves in the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance:

In the meantime, hell I'm not sure what in the meantime. I wonder if this is how people thought in the Wiemar Republic just before Hitler got a plurality of the vote and proceeded on with his Thousand Year Reich. I mean I am not able to vote for the assholes currently running things. I am not sure just what I would do if Palin or someone like her got the republican nomination. We are going down that long twilight hill that is the end of empire and none of the currently elected or might be elected people are going to stop it. I guess maybe I should look at it like if I can just help to keep the American Empire from going off that cliff while I'm alive I should be happy. Huh is that the way I should feel?

Ok, anarchists of the world unite. I'm not an nihilist for nothing you know.

UPDATE: It now appears as though the unions and all the dems are arguing that no amendments be added to the bill because it must pass now, just as it is, NOW I TELL YOU, NOW, NOW, NOW!!!!!!!!!!! Therefore, even though it would take only 51 votes to pass single payer or the public option now, and it would take 60 votes later with a stand alone bill, still we must not mess with or change anything.

I do not understand. Well ok, I think that I understand, but it involves large amounts of acid in the water supply and and the hope for that pony in all the horse shit, but once again I am not happy with that answer.

Isn't it pretty to think so.

I am really pissed about the HCR Law (now). First, Obama and Emanuel completely screwed up the entire passage, which indicates to me that they are incompetant nitwits.

I've mentioned that I thought the presidential campaign was not particularly well run. Given the incompetent disaster who was leaving the office and the crazy woman who was going to be a "heartbeat away" if McCain won, it was nearly impossible for Obama to lose, yet McCain continued to gain on him in the last days. Now I do realize that there would be a couple of per cent age points lost because of our all American prejudice, but still it was not a well run campaign.

Then once in office he simply stopped and did nothing for a long time. Well, that isn't exactly true. He forced through various policies which would have been opposed had they been Bush policies, but weren't because they were Obama's. Then when liberals did oppose them they were pressured by Obama to fall in to line and for the most part they did.

Atrios pointed out that there was a moment which if taken by Obama could have lead on to some real reforms: card check, bank re-regulation, health care, a real stimulus. But he chose not to take a major lead in anything and just kind of let things drag out without any real leadership. You know that is what he was elected to provide among other things.

Don't forget then that Obama started out promising the pharmaceutical industry that there would be nothing to hinder their profits and apparently also the same for the for profit hospital industry, and don't forget they worked from a bill essentially written by the insurance industry lobbyists. Now to top this all off Obama put major pressure on liberal groups not to demonstrate in favor of the bill and so left the way open for the Teabaggers to do what they wanted and completely grab the headlines and you have us stumbling into the first weeks of March.

Are there some good things in the bill? Maybe. Are they out weighed by the bad things? I think so. However I think the worst thing isn't something that is actually in the bill, but what might be called the penumbra of the bill. That is I think that it has been incredibly successful in one thing and that is preventing any real reform for at least a generation.

So I am left with the clear and certain knowledge that Obama has accomplished just the amount of reform he wanted to accomplish. He has chosen to stifle the real surge toward reform that was building and now we will have to live with that. Unfortunately, I am afraid that where we were when he took over was at the same kind of point we were at when FDR took over. God knows what would have happened to us if FDR had been like Obama. What was happening then was that there were two different streams of thought urging change: the reactionary/fascist one and the socialist/liberal one. Roosevelt supported the socialist/liberal stream of reform. When Obama was elected I think those same streams were again urging change. Obama has dammed up the liberal/socialist stream and allowed the reactionary/fascist stream to flow unabated.

Anarchists of the World Unite

Well did the democrats come through with HCR or did they just come through with some smoke and mirrors? Personally, I suspect that there is a lot less there than meets the eye. I also suspect that CBO's review of the bill is not correct, if what I'm reading at various places is accurate. That is once the tax on adequate health care is in place I doubt very much if employers will give their employees a dollar raise for every dollar they save by cutting their insurance coverage, to begin. I'm not sure what the expectations are for the insurance industry. If someone expects them to not continue to deny coverage and to stop jacking up the prices, wellllllllll, we will just have to wait and see, I guess. So Hamsher has written a fairly decent post on the result of this abortion. I would guess that this is the attitude one would have to take if one wanted to continue to participate in the "process." Although, I'm not sure just what this process is. It is not sausage making because at least one has something edible that comes out of that.

The issues here are no longer issues that need to be argued about in just the way they were yesterday morning. But my anger is even greater. I had t obe passed now no matter how bad it is. Now things are simply not going to be changed absent an overwhelming republican election victory in the midterms and probably a republican president in the next presidential election. So it looks like we will get to see just how this plays out. Well I hope that I am completely wrong about this, certainly not as right as I was about the WMDs or NAFTA.

It never ends and those who are jumping around celebrating are more confused then I would have thought possible. We passed something that we will call Health Care Reform. It will kind of insure millions, of course if it costs them too much to use, well they will still have insurance. We will tax health care benefits so that people won't get adequate benefits as part of their employment and we will therefore save money on health care because people won't be able to use it because they won't be able to afford it.

We will provide bullshit to most of the people in this country and call it steak. Once, the shouting and glad handing is over we will be left with a system that simply builds on really nothing, but sand. I do really think that we are screwed here.

So to kind of get back to my original point Hamsher can work within the system. I myself am more into the nihilist/anarchist bomb throwing mode. I understand it doesn't really solve anything, but still it does make one feel better for a brief moment.

Socks and Sonny

Sonny

I was watching Sonny the huge orange and white male cat laying in the sun by the front door and I remembered Socks. I posted about him very shortly after starting blogging in August 2007.

What a little guy he was and he was with us for so short a time. It is strange how strongly I remember him and how much I miss him.

Sonny started out at only a couple of ounces and we had to bottle feed him, but he made it.

Too Scatological?

Is HCR causing me to be too scatological?

More Health Care Shit

Been in Columbus most of the day. Went in for another visit to my nearly socialized medicine clinic (V.A.) to get my hearing aid looked at. Had an appointment for 1:30 got in a couple of minutes early and got out by 1:32. No really. They have to send the aid out to get it fixed and then it will be mailed to me within two weeks.

Then we spent the rest of the day hanging out at a book store and having coffee with a friend. Pleasant, but I am exhausted. So I'll just link to these two things about [not real HCR, but real shit sandwiches]. First, a point by point by Jane Hamsher. Then a little essay from Slobber and Spittle [a good blog even if he really doesn't have a St.].

More Corrupt or Just Seems More Corrupt and Is The Same Old Thing?

Ok, so I'm thinking. Perhaps this HCR thing is more like Medicare Part D than anything else (and no that is not original with me). A Frankenstein's Monster of a bill the major purpose of which was to syphon money into the pockets of the Pharmaceutical Industry. In passing it also kind of helped people on Medicare. Although it wasn't designed to really help people, but that was the way it was sold. Essentially Medicare recipients were the conduit to funnel the money into the industry. Now it did help people to an extent, but it also has up to this point been a disaster for Medicare funding. It does give people on Medicare about 80% of what they need to cover the costs of their medications in the most convoluted and expensive way possible.

Is it better than nothing? Maybe. But on the other hand it has been nothing to build on and it hasn't been changed although everyone recognizes it as a give a way to drug companies. It was also designed to prevent any competition for the drug companies and to permit them to rape the tax payer. Sound familiar.

The excessive costs permit conservatives to argue that we cannot help people because we just can't afford it, don't you see. So perhaps in the long run maybe it is worse to have that program. The argument on the other side is if we do not have this kind of program then we will prevent any program and people will die. Or it will be so long before you get any program that people will die. The fault of the deaths of these people are always on the shoulders of the people who are pushing for social programs, never on the shoulders of those who are preventing reasonable programs from being implemented, for some strange reason.

So here is the way it is presented: Is it better to have a program to help people with their medications rather than give them nothing? It is better to provide people with private insurance rather than provide them with no coverage for their medical needs? Are those the only choices? Is an elephant shit sandwich better than a cat shit sandwich for dinner? Well elephants only digest about 40% or the food they eat and cats all most all of it. So if you have to pick through shit to get to some kind of sustenance then I guess elephant shit is better than cat shit. Although, I'm not sure that's how I want my bread buttered.

We Hate You We Hate You We Hate You

So I'm thinking of writing a post about what is going on with the HCR debate (some surprise). There are a couple of issues that intrigue me (in the sense that I am just barley able to prevent myself from screaming hysterically and pulling an Oedipus).

Greenwald tackles one aspect in detail and touches on another. His main point is the fact that everybody knew that liberals/progressives in congress wouldn't hold out for anything and so could be completely ignored. Even Dennis caved and got nothing for it other than a ride on Air Force One. The second half of is that those in the liberal blogging community have turned on those of us who continue to oppose a bill that has nothing in it that almost all liberals insisted had to be in it a few months ago in order to support it. As Greenwald says now people like me and those at Firedoglake "are being treated as though they are Pol Pot."

This bill must be passed because because because. As I said before, one points out the real problems with the bill and the serious issues, including questioning whether or not the bill will cover those it's supporters claim it will cover and there is not a refutation of that criticism or even a discussion of the issues, but rather just attacks, including being challenged as being a mere troll out to destroy the community.

Certainly those who are backing the bill have been rewarded by the near insanity of the right wing attacks on the bill. They do look good in comparison, but of course nearly every crazy complaint by the right wing gets the bill changed to accommodate that complaint: Death Panels: we will get rid of counseling concerning living wills. Illegal Aliens: we will also certainly make sure that no illegal immigrants get any health care even though that can harm the health of all the rest of us, if someone who has an infectious disease doesn't go to the E.R.

Not a single one of the issues raised by the liberals have been addressed not a single one of the concerns has been fixed, but still we are told that we must support that bill. Not only that but we have got to keep our peace and not complain else Obama may be harmed. Kucinich said specifically "We have to be very careful that the potential of President Obama's presidency not be destroyed by this debate." Wow just wow, we have got to vote for this bill which literally yesterday I said I couldn't vote for because it had nothing in it that I said it had to have. We have to vote for the bill because the president needs it, not because we need it. Or it will do what it is supposed to do.

We are being told that the bill is the most important piece of social legislation in a generation. Well in a way it may just be, it will have socially engineered our society so that individually we are required to pay a minimum of 20% or so of our GDP for health insurance (I almost wrote health care, but that is a misnomer, it is money paid to insurance companies) and it is at least double what the rest of the world pays.

Remember the Sir Robin in The Holy Grail who always shouts "Run Away, Run Away" at the battle scenes. You know:




I suspect that is closer to what all the liberals in congress are than anything. So once you have invested in these cowards, or are yourself one of them then you are going to be pretty mad at anyone who points that out. Also, in a couple of years you are going to be pretty pissed off at people who tell you "I told you so, you should have listened to me back when there was the possibility of getting something good."

I suspect that will really irritate people. I know I know it is not a very satisfying explanation, but it is all I've got.

Still, I am unable to understand why no liberal has a back bone. Perhaps if I were given incredible power and wealth I might be able to understand why I was unable and unwilling to put it on the line for any principle at all.

Oh yes, I forgot I am apparently one of the 3% of liberals who believe that this bill sucks. Hmmmm. I am awaiting being shown that I am wrong, just like with the WMDs.

More Nihilism for Nothing

So should I change the blogs color for St. Paddy's day? Nah, fuck it.

Kucinich weaseled out and now he realizes how difficult Obama has it and is going to support the bill. I have a question: Where the fuck has he been? Obama made this fucking bill more difficult from the git by promising the moon to the various industries involved with "secret" deals that didn't remain secret. So there is no savings, but the cost is theoretically passed on the the government, which of course is everybody and that money is siphoned directly to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Tbogg has a particularly silly post up which has brought out a large number of Obama people to parrot the ............... actually I was wondering what to call them, but they are merely slogans. "This is the last best chance." "We will be able to build on this." "Thirty-one million more will be covered."

No one explains why this is the last best chance, why Medicare wasn't able to be built on, or how well in reality those 31,000,000 will be covered. But it has got to happen now and it has to happen with this bill and apparently we've got to pull Obama's bacon out of the fire.

There is nothing secret here, no matter how much Obama and Emanuel wanted to keep it secret. Pouring money into the health care industries (other than the nurses of course, but then they aren't an industry, now are they?).

It is now a kind of proof that you are indeed a good democrat. You've got to back this or you are dissing the president and the party leaders. Obama needs your support because he has put his reputation on the line. I seem to remember something very similar with NAFTA. Support the president or ............... he won't win and then it will be his Waterloo, and that will be bad for the rest of us. There is no explanation as to why a defeat of this kind of bill will be bad for anything but Obama's ego. Like NAFTA the end result will be disaster for the democrats and anything even remotely resembling a liberal program. Next up lets regulate the banking industry by giving more power to the bankers. And happy St. Patrick's Day.

BSHCRSANDWICH

So now the Veal Pen is down to demanding that liberal/progressives in congress pass this abortion of a HCR, which does not have single payer or any public option at all. It does however require us all to buy health insurance from private companies or be fined through the IRS. It essentially fines people who have been able to negotiate good benefits through their employers by taxing those benefits, and in this way punishes unions for getting these benefits for their members. It also promises (in addition to promising the insurance companies 31 million new customers) the pharmaceutical industry uncontrolled profits unlike they see in any other country in the world.

Now if you are found to be poor enough (although I'm not sure what "enough" means here) the government will pay your insurance or at maybe just a portion of your insurance. Want to bet me that portion will be under 100%? In the end of course the middle class will pay through taxes, or perhaps those subsidizes will be "borrowed" from Social Security to help the undeserving poor. There is no control over the insurance (or pharmaceutical) costs. There is no real regulatory agency and there is no ability for the individual states to try their own version of single payer.

What do we get? We get the promise that sometime later on because we have gotten HCR right now, which isn't anything but a pay off to the various industries who control health care in this country, that later we will be able to come back and to fight again. Now this fight will be easier because we have gotten this bill which provides us with literally nothing, you see.

There is no explanation as to why or how this bill which the entire democratic power structure and their veal pens say is reform, but isn't, will make the next round easier. There is only the old "camel's nose in the tent" argument. There is no explanation as to why Medicare isn't the camel's nose in the tent so that this should be so much easier this time. Just that we've got to do this because now is the best chance we will have. Well if this is the best chance we will have then it will not get better and it will not be improved upon.

Krugman argues that we should not support Dodd's bill to re-regulate the financial industry because that bill is nothing but smoke and mirrors and once it is passed then no real reform will happen. Do you believe his explanation of the difference between that and HCR.

I am also sick and tired of the argument that this bill is "the good," as in the phrase: "The best is the enemy of good enough." If this bill is "good enough" (and I think that I accurately described it up above) then I'd be interested in seeing what would be bad enough to make the veal pen and fake liberals oppose it. Or maybe not.

Finally, all these people in congress signed a pledge not to vote for HCR that didn't include a public option. Now all but a few (thanks Dennis) are backing out on their pledge. But would you like to guess who is getting the flack (that would be you again Dennis) for opposing it. Full court press being put on against Kucinich by the lefty blogs and the WH. Now when Leiberman opposed all sorts of things the lefty blogs threw a fit, but the WH was noticeable for it's reticence as was the leadership of the senate. Lieberman apparently opposed just what the WH and leadership wanted, but he still has his chairmanships and power.

The really crazy thing is that it appears that there are enough votes to pass some kind of public option, but the WH and all the leadership made sure that wouldn't happen. So where does that leave us right now? Looks like we (and by we I mean the people who are the workers and middle class in this country) are going to get to eat another shit sandwich, much like NAFTA. We are going to end up more marginalized and more powerless and the wealthy are going to get to control more and more (not that they don't control most of every thing now).

Spelling for Dummies

Ok, so the last post was published without spell checking. That was not my desire, but because I couldn't get the damn spell checker to spell check. when I realized that I had forgotten something and added it as an Update, I was able to spell check. Oh boy, am I a bad speller.

I blame my third grade teacher Mrs. Westenhimer (which is spelled correctly because we had to spell her name right before we moved on to fourth grade). (Incidentally, we did not graduate until we got to high school and then only part of us. We were tougher then, not because we wanted to be, but because we were not given any choice. On the other hand we were not thrown into jail for carving on our desks either. The gym teacher would just snap us in two.) At any rate she (Mrs. Westenhimer, not the gym teacher who I am not sure knew how to read) was the one who introduced us to the concept of see and spell. Just memorize the damned word, do not try to sound it out you little twerps. She was also the chubby one, I had her daughter in the fifth grade and she was really cute, just having graduate from college, which might be another reason I don't really remember much from the fifth grade.

The second teacher and the one who finally broke my spelling spirit and caused me to say what the fuck, was a sixth grade teacher who gave me a failing grade on the first spelling test I had actually studied for and I knew all the words. Her feeling was that I was never any good in spelling and would never be any good therefore if I got a perfect score I must have been cheating. She should have been a cop. At any rate I understand that she died a horrible death later, not I'm sure, related to her abuse of me.

Now where was I, oh yes. I was attempting to explain why the last post had so many miss-spelled words in it when it was first posted and why it has so few now. It is all the fault of my childhood.

A Couple of Bits and Pieces

This isn't meant as a completely coherent argument, but rather some thoughts in response to ideas in favor of HCR that I've seen argued at other places and quite frankly I wasn't quick enough to get the response in the thread.

First, get it passed and then they will fix it. I remember when NAFTA was being argued and exactly the same argument was made, by many of the same people (Emanuel for instance). How did that work? I really do not recall any fixes being put in place after it was passed. No do not argue that it was different because it was a treaty, they SAID they would fix it, they didn't an they didn't try to.

Second, look at those right wing nut cases who oppose it, their reasons are just crazy, they can't be right. Well, I'm reminded of the massive change in the bankruptcy law that was pushed by, once again, many who are pushing HCR. It was the most progressive and the far right that prevented it from becoming a law for a year. The specific criticism's from the right were not accurate, but they were right the law itself is a disaster for the average American and it was our most centrist democratic leaders who pushed it (Hoyer for instance) and finally got it through. They were more than happy to screw the people they supposedly represent.

Third, you don't trust them to fix it, but you do trust them to run a [public option/single payer] whatever. This just shows an sad inconsistency in your thought. Actually, it doesn't and it is a cheap high school debaters game. I trust them to administer a program be it Social Security or Legal Aid. Sometimes better and sometimes worse, but to still run a program under the law that happens to be in existence. As for trusting them to fix it, see First above.

UPDATE: Fourth, you are just a purist and you really are insisting or the "perfect which we all know is the enemy of good enough. That is complete B.S. no one in congress and most out of congress are not insisting on real socialized medicine. Not even single payer. No simply some form of an insurance that the government has that one can buy to compete with the insurance companies, the public option. The alternative seems to be a requirement to buy insurance from insurance companies at whatever they want to charge with a subsidy of 80% to 90%.

Originally run without spell check.

We're Fucked

Back at relentlessly avoiding work again. I plan on being here until later tonight, about 6 or 7 or thereabouts.

I've commented on Balloon-Juice where I go to just get my fair share of abuse when I come out opposed to the current in any possible form that could be passed by the current (or any possibly imagined) federal legislature within (unfortunately and apparently) my life time (even given the fact that my grandmother lived to be 101) Health Care Reform (which is incidentally really Pharmaceutical, Insurance, and Private Hospital bonuses).

Then I go by Hullabaloo and Sadly No to read about the push for the new bankster (not really) controls being proposed by the administration and democrats.

After that, a swing by Greenwald for a depressing discussion of our very own Hope and Change Guys complete kind of defense of what he is doing with the underpants bomber 'cause it really isn't any worse than what the last Torturer in Chief did with the shoe bomber anyway, but no principal involved (on the other hand it does have some nice videos).

It think that I have to get over this kind of feeling I am having concerning the fact that I am unable to quite get my mind around the complete 180 this guy has done since taking office.
The other part of that is that it is really difficult to figure out how he isn't about to figure out just how people are responding to him. Yes, I know that the people at Balloon-Juice are desperately fighting to get the votes to pass this abortion (which has no abortion rights for the poor or even lower middle class in it, incidentally). It is an amazing flip concerning that he is completely going out there giving the various industries just what they want without any protection for the working or middle classes or women and the other people who really went all out for him.

On the other hand, it does appear that there are enough people who supported him who will simply back him because they believe him (I suspect that there are a number of them who are a little too embarrassed to publicly come out against him at this point, but I would guess that most of him believe him).

Well how about a little Dennis to take us out?

Just Whining I Guess

I've been trying to get into the writing thingy again and have been having the same problems. That is now that my (2nd or perhaps 3rd choice) guy is in and I see how incompetent and/or corrupt he is and the rest of the party is I am kind of overwhelmed and just sit and do nothing.

I guess I should really try more. I am at this point convinced that "Not as bad as the other guy" is not a viable campaign promise. The "I guess I'll vote for him anyway" no longer works either. The concept of "I didn't expect him to be a flaming liberal" also doesn't get it for me. I did expect him to kind of live up to some of his campaign promises. I really do think that the closest anyone in American history has come, is Wilson and it took him until his second term to accomplish that.

I am trying to think of one promise that he has followed through on, with the exception of increasing our war in Afghanistan. The things that he has done, stimulus, etc. have been too little too late and not much more than McCain would have been forced to do. Then today I read that he has thought it a good idea to fire all the teachers at a school that didn't make the test scores necessary, this after defending banskters who are getting millions after tanking the economy (it does turn out that it is kind of delicious in a sick sort of way that he demands accountability for the teachers, but not so much for the banksters). Tonight I will read the WH proposal on Health Care, finally put up and see what horrors he is trying to foist on us right now.

On top of this is the truly bizarre attacks from the opposition (not just the fringe) calling him a socialist for proposing something more than we have right now in terms of health care, but less than any other country in the industrialized world. Less, I think than Bismark provided the Germans in the 19th Century, if I am right (and I am). There are clear problems with the HCR as proposed mass amounts of money promised to the pharmacy and insurance industries and punishments for the middle class if we don't pony up the transfers of wealth to the wealthiest, but that isn't what the opposition is shouting about. Nor for that matter is that what the TV and "News" Media are screaming about, no they are talking about shit that doesn't matter or in a reality based world would be simply laughed away. Very difficult to get a handle on just what is going on and to continuously comment on it on a daily basis.

Not so difficult to stand out there screaming WTF, WTF, but to try to figure out what is going on beyond this, it is hard. Tacitus could see the problems he couldn't much figure out what to do about them. On the other hand Tacitus was a better writer than I am. Although when faced with massive stupidity or insanity from the ologarchs who rule us, I'm not sure what there is to do.

Another Nixon or Johnson, I think not.

So I was listening to Daniel Ellsberg on Gritt TV from Firedoglake. He was talking about how it was possible to drive first Johnson and then Nixon from power and I started to think that those who really pushed the whole thing, the Post and the NYT were and are all members of the power elite and were the pretty people the people who swung with the power and the other pretty people in D.C. The people the Daily Howler calls the Heathers. The school click except translated from ruling high school class to ruling in Washington. In just the same way.

Look at Johnson and Nixon. What were their real crimes? They were not as pretty or photogenic as the Kennedys or later the Reagans, now were they. I am wondering if our country hasn't been ruled since the middle 60s at least by a petty puerile little group of people whose favorite song would be I'm In With the In Crowd. So perhaps we have a new National Anthem?

UPDATE: I'd forgotten this.

We're Doomed

I was going to post about this book I just finished: The Black Death by John Hatcher and how some aspects of the period immediately after the first incidence of the Death in England seems uncomfortably like today. Mainly the inability of the ruling class to see past their preconceived ideas. The idea that the cause of the Death was the sinfulness of the people. Or the desires of the poor for more (which amounted to sinfulness in the minds of the clergy and wealthy), but more at a later time.

At any rate perhaps classic comedy is where we are at right now or at least that is the way it seems, except you know, for all the deaths and bankruptcies.

I've been sick for the last week and when I'm not feeling really bad I'm just feeling really tired. I've been to the doctor and gotten some meds and if they don't start working better soon, I'm going to go back. The last time I felt like this for an extended time I had pneumonia.

However, I just wanted to mention Obama and Emanual's HCRm which from what I see at Firedoglake among other places seems to increase the penalty for not buying insurance, keep the massive institutional supports for Big PhHRMA and the insurance companies and attempt to completely do away with a public option.

I know what they are accomplishing, but what I wonder is what they think they are accomplishing. With that thought I am out of here for the day or night, nite nite.

Trial Decision

OK, so the judge did make a decision and it is resoundingly guilty on all four counts. As an aside he said that he would probably not have found my guy guilty if it weren't for his confession. What a pisser.

Actually, without the confession they don't have much or anything. The 3 year old was caught masturbating by grandma and mom. However, no one else saw him doing anything like that including a baby sitter who watched him several times during the month of August.

The defendant and a different friend of the parents have the same name. The boy calls the friend [name] and the defendant uncle [name]. The kid told the nurse in the E.R. that [name] messed around with him. Very specifically not uncle [name]. The nurse then testified that the kid was very talkative and not shy at all when talking with her. The mother testified that the kid always calls the defendant uncle [name] and this other guy [name].

All great stuff then we get to my client's confession (or statement as I prefer). He goes into detail and admits everything. He says he was tired after 30 hours and just thought they'd let him go home.

Sentencing is in about three weeks.

Criminal Trial

Exhausted. Sinus infection, and the second half of that trial tomorrow concerning the client who is accused of fondling his 3 year old nephew. Finally got the subpoena served (the deputy sheriff was really helpful).

I will probably have 5 questions to ask the witness, none of which will be dispositive, but a witness my client desperately desires. The witness doesn't want to come, this should be fun. She hates him (they used to go out) and by this point she probably hates me. She wouldn't come without a subpoena, even when I told her he might go to prison for 10 years if she didn't testify.

Interesting family dynamics in this case. His entire family and all his [former] friends seem to hate him. I haven't figured out why since he does deny the crime, so you would think that at least some of the people would give him the benefit of the doubt. None of them will. His mother drives down from Canton just to watch the various hearings. She won't talk to the kid while she's here. He lies she tells me. About what, I ask? He told me he'd quit smoking, but he hadn't and he said he had insurance when he didn't she says. ?????????????????

He confessed, but he claims that was because he was up for 30 hours and held by the cops for 8 of those hours and just confessed to get it over with. The cops the children's services worker and his own father say that he wasn't up that long, but rather about 20 to 24 hours. Further he says the cops told him he could go home if he just confessed. A couple of things bother me. He'd been in some trouble before and been removed from the home as a 15 year old for 3 years. How he thought he could go home if he confessed is beyond me. That is irrespective of whether or not he did it.

I do think that he is the family scape goat, in the clinical sense of the word, someting along the lines of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery . Or at least that is all I'm able to come up with and it isn't a very satisfying answer. But I got nothing else.

Did he do it. I have no idea. He is old to have just started molesting children, but...............

We will let the judge figure it out tomorrow.

Aw Nuts

Thinking about the beginning of Yeats The Second Coming:

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

This and then the beginning of Auden's September 1, 1939

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:

and wonder just how we got here. Those of us in the good ole USofA, seem unable to pull ourselves out of this tail spinl. Hell as a group we seem totally unable to even recognized what is happening and what reasonable steps should be taken.

New Post

I'd been thinking of writing another post about a writer, but this caught my attention. If 80% of self identified democrats think that Obama is doing a good job, then I now understand why we have such bad politicians. Particularly alleged liberal/progressive politicians.

UPDATE: Then of course there is this. The concept of liberal congress members giving large amounts of money to Blue Dogs, when real progressives are running against them is disgusting. They even have money raising events for them for god sakes. I could see if they didn't help outsiders who were trying to take incumbents' seats, but going out of their way to help the very people who are against everything they supposedly stand for, boggles the imagination. And not in the good sense.

I have been wondering for some time how we got here and how we get out and I really do not think that at this point any of the national progressive organizations are capable of doing much if anything.

NARAL has a believing Catholic as it's president. How is that possible? A woman who thinks that abortion is a sin is the head of the largest pro-choice organization in this country. And let us not forget that they (the national) backed Lieberman who is not really pro-choice against Lamont who was definitely pro-choice. Their goal is apparently to keep abortion safe and legal for wealthy women.

Now it appears as though HRC has to be prodded to take a position on DADT. How sad.

The unions keep their criticism of the guy muted because, why? They think that they will get good people on the NLRB? It seems that Obama is more than willing to trade those people away to whom? His bankster friends, I suspect. So the unions hold their collective breaths, well whats left of them at any rate. Hoping against hope that they will get card check through the congress along with a couple of pro-labor people on the NLRB. How's that working out for them after a year?

Unemployment at 10% at least, foreclosures proceed at a record pace with no bankruptcy protection for the home "owners," lots of money for the banksters and kind words from our president for the massive bonuses. And 80% of democrats are happy with his performance. I had always thought that advertising was more or less wasted money, but I'm beginning to think that perhaps I was wrong.

Obama puts the hammer down early in his presidency and ensures that the money dries up to the liberals groups who oppose his corporatist buddies and conservative democrats. And 80% of democrats think he is doing a good job.

I have never felt quite so hopeless. Of course that may just be the fact that I am coming down with a sinus infection, so I am a bit loopie, but I think that when I get better Obama will still be the incompetent (or incompetent and corrupt) butt head I think he is right now.

More LIterary Stuff

So I've been reading about Byah deciding not to run and hearing him described as a "moderate" or a "centrist." Which of course led me to think about George Orwell's essay on the misuse of the English language, Politics and the English Language.

The constant screams from the right calling Obama who is a conservative or at the most slightly moderate president a socialist are a perfect example of this. Of course, that language is being used by his political enemies. However, the idea that a person (Byah) who is by any objective definition conservative is called a moderate or centrist, (Google the news stories, I'm not in the mood), by the mainstream media, is a real corruption of the language by those who are employed by the so call objective media.

This has always been a problem, but in the past there have been media (newspapers mostly) that were owned by the unions, and which had truly progressive and others, like it should be remembered the New York Times which were not progressive at all, but rather quite conservative.

I suspect that these large northern dailys got their liberal rep when they were busy backing the civil rights movement against the cracker red necks who were just not nice enough to invite into your home don't you know. This continued, of course, with Nixon the president nobody liked and who certainly wasn't of their class.

The oligarchs have always understood that they should be the rulers, no matter how much they've screwed up int the past. They will go to what ever lengths necessary to continue to rule. Right now they are more than willing enough to bend the language to this need. I'm sure they would stop at that.

Strong and Tough vs. Brutal and Violent

One of my favorite American novelists from the second half of the twentieth century is James Jones. A great writer about men in combat and in situations of danger. Not so good when it comes to women and more mundane times. Although, I guess the latter criticism isn't completely fair since a lot of From Here to Eternity is about the day to day life of the pre-war Army and there is nothing but mundane in a peace time garrison army. The point for this thought game is that Jones was a man who knew what strong was and what brutal was and knew that they were not the same thing.

I've been thinking about one of his lesser works, which is I think called Go To The Widowmaker. Not, (as I remember it and it has been a long time since I read it) one of his better books, but one part, I remember from the book involves a character, a writer. This character has gone back to this writer's colony where he had spent time crafting his first novel, to try to get some help with his new novel. He is trying to make his main character strong and tough, but all that he is able to do is make him more brutal and violent. He knows this is not what he is trying for and he can't get the character to show this strength, just the brutality. The other people at the writer's colony didn't see or understand the problem and can't help with it. Well that is a minor sub-plot, if I remember correctly. But Jones is interested in this issue and recognizes the difference. Oh well, I guess it is only a plot in a novel after all.

On the other hand our current conservative leaders and commentators and tough men like Chaney, Emanual, Bush, Obama and a host of others. They think they are being strong and tough, and all they are, are brutal and violent. And there doesn't seem to be anyone in a position importance to point out the problem or to show a way to correct it.

This is an interesting post. Followed up by this one, if you have the time and stomach for it. Well not actually this post, but the links to it.

One of the things I've been trying to do is to really understand economics, a little late perhaps, but better late than never to coin a phrase? So anyway these are a couple of things that are shall we say-------------------verrrrry interesting.

Incidentally, I wrote most of this yesterday, but I am posting this today, I have no idea how to make the date today.

WTF Obama

Well I guess that will be where we will all end up.

I've been trying to get beyond posts that are simply repetitious or a variation on WTF Obama? Or WTF democrats in general? Alternative titles: Obama Corrupt or Incompetent or both Incompetent and Corrupt?

How Obama and the democrats have acted since the election has simply amazed me. Of course, Obama started from before the election with his vote for renewing the Patriot Act and pushing TARP, with no controls over the banksters. The we're doomed cries from Bush and Berneckie, but we will fight any new controls over our excesses, kind of rang hollow and still does. I did actually withdrew and argued with some of his people who tried to get me out there working. I did end up working for him simply because of two words: Sarah Palin.

Obama has been incredibly lucky in his opponents. Anybody remember who ran against him for Senator? Clinton was a little more of a challenge, but let's face it when you have your major campaign advisor thinking that the democratic primaries distribute delegates the same way the Electoral College does, you ain't got the brightest bulbs in the world running your campaign.

Then you finish up with the republican following the most incompetent (and one of the most dis-liked) presidents in history. And he runs by doubling down on the failed policies of his predecessor, and Obama still wins by single digits.

I've read that in order to have a victory like Cannae, it is not only necessary to have a Hannibal on the winning side, it is also necessary to have a Terentious Verro on the other side. Of course this election was no Cannae, it was a narrow win. There were a lot of explanations (I suspect racism had something to do with it, but that isn't the only explanation, I watched the campaign).

From the beginning Obama has shown that he is more than willing to use the language of progressives/liberals, but then he will not follow through. I thought originally that it was an inability to confront people, but now I think that he is simply a liar. And not a very good one at that. He does have an inability to confront people who are powerful conservatives, but not liberals, certainly.

What I have a problem understanding is I thought that politicans liked to win elections, but apparently not. Of course, Obama still seems to be popular, much like Clinton, on the other hand that didn't seem to help the other democrats. It won't this time either.

A Brain Transplant

Well the H.P laptop required a brain transplant and so now we are starting over. I'm trying to figure out how to make things work and to down load some stuff. Right now Open Office is coming in so, and then I guess I'll do CCleaner. I'm also trying to figure out how to put the bookmarks back in the order I want.

Well I guess it will keep me busy ignoring my trial for tomorrow. Down in flames we go.