Strawman Much

So TPM has a lecture about the nasty liberals who want a conservative in because Obama isn't pure enough, at least according to them, following Digby with a post coming from the same position. Or maybe just skerry republicans can't let them get power post. I'm not sure what to say about this, no really I'm not.

I had decided that Obama's votes on the Wall Street bail out and the PATRIOT Act renewal made him unfit to be president and worthless to vote for, but to be honest I got scared and so ended up working and voting for him in the last week or so of the campaign.

At this point I do think that McCain....................? Well he would not have been better and in some ways probably (maybe?) worse, but the democrats would most likely have opposed his worst policies and prevented them from becoming law. There would still have been some sort of stimulus, and if not we would be in the middle of a world wide depression right now. As opposed to a mere massive recession, with more or less 25% of us under- and unemployed. As opposed to 25% to 45% actually totally unemployed with a total Hoover in office vs. a partial Hoover (which is what we have now).

There is no good answer to this situation. The people who are running for office are not, for the most part, worth voting for. The liberal/progressives in office right now seem more than willing to cave right at the point they are about to win something big. The phrase "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" comes to mind. Obama clearly does not want to do anything to mess with the people who run this country: the bankers, insurance industry types, and in general those who are the wealthiest 10%.

The attacks from republicans and the tea baggers are because he isn't being subservient enough. And those are the only people who are getting any traction in the MSM. Of course, if Obama was a third of the politician I thought he was he would be getting information from other sources than the oligarchs who now rule. He would know from his early life and his time as a community organizer, but he has chosen to completely throw himself behind the oligarchs/plutocracy, the big money men.

Question: Is there a big check room to go to when you run for office where you check your soul for the period of time you are in public life?

I've said it before: Things are going to have to get a lot worse before they get better, and I can't be sure that once they get a lot worse they will get better. But you know what after a year and a half of Obama and democratic control, I am positive that things are going to get a lot worse. And I am afraid that it is going to be quickly enough that I will live long enough to see it. Crap.

Vietnam

Damn that war still pisses me off. In an argument at Iconic Photos about the above picture. God I lost it once again. I am amazed at how pissed off I get when a discussion of that war happens and people try to argue about how, in the above argument, for instance, that that photo was staged or altered in some way.

My point being that who ever did it (apparently the S. Vietnamese AF) it was our fault, because we were the ones who prevented free and open elections in the South and decided to back the continuation of a colonial war for about 20 more years (although we personally weren't there in full military force for the entire 20 years). Therefore, in my opinion we are morally responsible for every death and every bit of destruction that happened there.

I'll go farther, we are at least partially responsible for the Cambodian holocaust, because we over threw the Sianouk government and put in its place an unpopular and unstable military dictatorship that fell once we withdrew. That then led directly to Pol Pot. Now are we the only ones who are responsible? Of course not. The Pol Pot and his minions themselves have a major or perhaps the major share of responsibility. Of course when Vietnam invaded and over threw the Pol Pot regime, we supported Pol Pot even though by that time the horrors that he perpetrated were widely known.

So yeah, I'd say that we as a nation are greatly responsible for what has happened in that peninsula since 1954. I am reminded of Grant's belief that the Civil War was god's punishment on the United States for the Mexican War, or for an unjust war waged by a greater power on a lesser.

More Depressing Thoughts

One of a Series Linked to below.

So I ran across this the other day, I'm not sure where, but it's now all over Facebook (I don't mean to imply that it was my doing there were over 5000 postings to FB when I saw it). I thought it would be worth while reposting here.

The information isn't something I haven't known about for a long time, but seeing it in graf form is certainly a help. The Class War has been going on a long time, but some how the right wing has been able to convince the majority of Americans at least that it is all being fought by the leftist radicals against the poor and oppressed middle class, when in reality it is the wealthy who have been waging that very war against the middle and lower classes all along.

Unions are for the most part a dirty word in this country, but why I cannot figure out. When I graduated from college in 1975 (about 5 years after I would have had I not accepted my uncle's invitation to spend time in various foreign countries like Thailand and Alabama) I distrusted unions. This was after graduating from Wright State a relatively liberal state school in Dayton/Fairborn a union area. I was not dumb (I don't think although it is true I was stoned), nor was I uneducated, I was after all a history major with a major in late 19th and early 20th century American history. So how did I come by this distrust? A constant hammering by the owners of the media and the various local government folks, like the teachers I guess.

Most of the people I knew were not wealthy, but they were strongly middle class and they didn't like unions telling them what to do. Also, this was the 50s and 60s periods of real growth in the middle class. The concept was that "I am doing this no one is helping me." It fed right into our ideals of who were thought we were. I suspect that this is added to America's ability to simply and quickly forget our very own history (with the exceptions of our very own heroic and always righteous wars).

So now we are in this situation (more frog in the water metaphors?) and yet we cannot see that it will take a great deal of collective action to start to recreate the middle class in the per centages that it existed in the 50s and 60s, if that is even possible at this point.

This is what we get instead:

Should I Be Surprised?

Greenwald has a post up today about the party Biden threw for the Washington "press" corps and their families. Now I hadn't seen this on vacation (hahaha, I am doing more or less than just following the news on vacation) so I'm just finding out about it today.

It does remind me of the party McCain threw for the "press" corps during the campaign (wow that was hard to find, wonder why?). All the right thinking kinds of people were aghast that the "press (let's face it, it is impossible to refer to these people as press without the quotation marks, isn't it?)" would accept that kind of thing from the candidate they were supposed to be covering objectively. Now a few, but not so many, at least on the left, but still some. Thank your higher power.

The complete obliviousness of the "press" to how this makes them look (although, I truly doubt that it is only looks) is amazing. Apparently they haven't ever heard of Caesar or his wife.

A couple of days ago I posted about Helen Thomas and what a crock it was to force her out for saying nasty things about Israel when others have been able to say essentially the same things about the Palestinians. But the more I think about it the more I realize that what these people do in Washington has nothing (or at least not much) to do with being reporters.

They yell (for the most part) questions at the President or more often the press secretary. Thomas tried to follow up those questions, and that is to her credit, but who among them is worth one tenth a Seymour Hersch, or Matt Taibbi? What have they discovered or revealed that would help the country or better inform the populace? Most twelve year olds know enough to ask questions the Washington "press" corps asks and would have fun at pool parties, so why not hire the twelve year olds, they would probably be cheaper. Certainly they wouldn't be any more corrupt.

MORE THOUGHTS: I've thought that these people are truly little people in the sense that not one of them has any real moral or intellectual backbone. They are not particularly intelligent either. Obama seemed to be the smartest one around, but he has been shown that once given authority that he is no more competent than the last guy. They think that they are being oh so smart and oh so clever, but in the long run, they are destroying the base of the country. The thing or people that make them, as rulers, strong. Without us they or their descendants will be nothing.

At any rate they dance around giving each other high fives and chortling like the nobles did at Versailles before the revolution. They are really truly clueless. The interesting thing here is that I don't think that there will be any revolution, not in any progressive sense, rather I expect that there will be a (more complete) take over of the government by the oligarchs which will end up being a fascist state more along the lines of Italy than Germany in the first half of the 20th century. Corporatist I guess.

We're Fucked

In Florida, I know I shouldn't enjoy the place so much, but I do. I don't do a lot except hang out, go to the beach, eat, and read.

Opened the paper today (that is something else I do, I read the local newspaper, in this case the Daytona Beach newspaper) to find that Helen Thomas said bad things about Israel and has to quit immediately. Ann Coulter still has a job, still after telling us that Jews had better become Xains or else you know.

So our foriegn policy is run by a brutally colonialist country that can do no wrong. Well OK, a different brutally colonialist country other than the USof A that can do no wrong.

Aw hell, I go on line and I read Krugman that we can expect a lost decade that is a recovery, except a recovery that really doesn't help most of us, then I read that our doctors have been experimenting on "detainees" to see how much we can torture them (oops I mean harshaly interrigate them).

Well I'm heading for the beach (the east coast, not the west coast where I would be able to watch the oil come ashore) so it will appear to be OK for awhile.

On The Road Again

Getting ready to hit the road. Got a great house sitter the dogs love her and she likes to stay at our place so it all works out well.

On the other hand my traveling computer, the ASUS solid state is sitting in the computer shop because one or more of the cats decided that the wire from the charger was tasty and of course that specific computer is rare and they have to ship the part from Indonesia or where ever to get the thing up and running.

For some reason all the cats are still alive.

Isreal I Guess

Well I was getting ready to write about this vile article in the New York Times about how individuals are just sticking it to the banks by not paying their mortgages and are still living the good life, so they must be near do wells, or just like trailer trash only they have more money, don't ya see, but then



The Israeli Navy decided to teach some protesters a lesson so the IDF in defense killed about 10 and wounded many other protesters, while suffering minor casualties themselves. But according to most of the main stream and certainly the right wing and this winger on my facebook, the IDF was merely defending themselves after forcing their way onto a boat bringing humanitarian supplies. Now I read that this might not be in violation of the law of the sea or the law of war or the law of those who have the money and power make the laws. That is if the blockade is legal then if you say that you are going to violate it means that you can be boarded anywhere at all and maybe sunk. I guess that just shows Wilson and those idiots on the Lusitania. So I gues that Chaiarman Mao was right all law does come from the end of a gun.

Now apparently the only country where the IDF is getting nothing but complete support from all the powers that be is the good old U.S. Even the Israelis seem to be disgusted with the IDF for being such incompetent fools. But not the good old USofA here we cannot bring ourselves to criticize or oppose anything the government (which ever government it is, although the more conservative and more Arab hating the better) of Israel does.

One way I think one can feel kind of sorry for the Israelis is that they are forced to live in the 20th and 21st centuries. Hell, when we took over North American and the Spanish and Portages took over South America in the 16th, 17th 18th and 19th centuries we just killed all those who were in our way. Now instead of having two continents populated by the red man we've got two continents populated with the white man (with a sprinkle of reddish color thrown in). Australia was dealt with in the same general fashion, although there weren't as many to exterminate.

So pity poor Israel, unable to kill all the rag heads because of some sort of evolving (mostly) world wide morality. I suppose it is a drag for them. Particularly, since they try to hold themselves up as practicing the highest ideals of democracy and freedom (much like the USofA, back in the day). And they just can't get away with doing anything they want to, oh they can get away wit hit, but it does make them look bad. On the other hand there is the concept that God is on the side of the heavy battions. So they do have that going for them.

UPDATE: On the other hand here is a different point of view as to whether or not the action of Israel was within the law.

Memorial Day or Why One Should Perhaps Not Enumerate Their Flightless Fowl Prematurely

So the "repeal" of DADT has passed and as soon as sixty days have passed after it is signed, as soon as the report is finished and filed as soon as the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs has decided as soon as the Secretary of Defense has agreed. Then by god the President will sign off and something will happen. Probably. Maybe. I'm sure.

I do find it interesting the way that various minority groups fight so hard to get their asses shot in war, or for that matter just to get into the military. Of course the other half of that is that straight white men fight so hard to be the only ones to get to have their asses shot at or off as the case may be.

I remember when I was in the Air Force and basic training and it was explained to me by one of the more knowledgeable airman that in California it was legal to be homosexual, but you did have to register. But then that was three years before Stonewall and ten or twelve years before I started working at Antioch. So my knowledge of the "alternative life styles" of homosexuals was shall we say a little less than complete.

Well at any rate I was more than a little naive at the time concerning all things sexual (although I did learn a great deal from the southern recruit, which each squadron was issued, who would explain his sexual conquests to us every night in the old World War II barracks as the rest of us would lay their trying to get to sleep and wishing we had been as lucky). Once again I guess I was just lucky because when I got out the sexual revolution had started and unlike our colonial war I was in the front lines at college along with the war on [for?] drugs, (I was more successful in the war on drugs as I was able to defoliate large herbal areas by myself if I remember correctly, and I doubt if I do).

Where was I? Oh yes, I think that on the whole young people are more knowledgeable and more able to deal with people who are different than I was when I enlisted back in the winter of '64-65. The Air Force was at the time I think more segregated than the Army, I do not think that there was an African American in my squadron in basic, and it was only after I had been stationed at Randolf for awhile that the first African American was assigned to my squadron. I had been in almost three years before I saw my first black officer.

None the less, I still fully expect Obama to screw this up and that we will end up with a system in place in the military that will continue to screw over the homosexual service people.

Dog Days

Muslims Are Everywhere

Who would have thought that the South Carolina BMV had been taken over by Muslims.

Phished?

So that is what it means. My wife is back on Yahoo (with much more security)(if we told you we would have to kill you), but never to be permitted on Facebook under her former handle.

Friends who made the mistake of responding to the original emails, are still getting follow ups that are more specific and more detailed.

Her "christian" "friend" is still angry and calling to complain about getting the emails. We must get a land line to speak to her she says. My wife says that is no problem she will not be speaking to her in the foreseeable future. She will not be going into the book store, but will be buying things on the Internet instead of at a local place owned by a person who used to be a friend.

It is very strange, all our mostly not very computer literate (and christian) friends chuckle and move on but this person is still angry at us for compromising her. How she was compromised we have no idea, nor I suspect does she. Although she is now positive that her bank account and her adult children's bank accounts have been breached, no amount of reasoning can convince her otherwise.

Oh yeah, she has told my wife that if we lived a righteous life this would not have happened and we wouldn't have caused her so much trouble. Of course my response is one word: Job.

It is kind of sad since the previous owners of the bookstore were real wackallones who were more than willing to sell the Clinton murder tape and she is not willing to participate in that kind of silliness.

An absolute fear of something she does not understand and does not want to understand. So she blames the "victim." Although really not much of a victim and since the email was simply a request for money and since no one sent the money ............................. more of an irritant I'd think.

I guess the attack by her long time friend is what is so disturbing. I now see how people in worse situations were more than willing to turn friends and neighbors in to the police state de jour. Well I guess I do not understand why or how, but I see it happening.

Perhaps it is just because we watched Trumbo the other day that it seems to resonate. Frightened people.

The Commune

So today the Paris Commune fell and the victors executed somewhere north of 20,000 French in a week, perhaps north of 30,000. That is French killing French.

Who hears about them now, where is there a Tale of Two Cities or Scarlet Pimpernel or Nicholas and Alexandria about the aftermath of the Commune? No Marx does not count. It is no where I think. Why do you suppose that we sigh about the noble and brave oligarchs who die at the hand of the "mob." A mob who for a short time only gets a chance to give back some of what they and their ancestors endured for centuries at least.

So the writers and other creators know which way the wind blows and are more then willing to create stories that romanticize the aristocrats. Part of the reason is money I'm sure, but a lot of it is just the general suck upidness of the hoi poli for their betters. The French aristocrats ground down the peasants for ever. The Romanov's managed to do about the same to the Russian peasants and added a disastrous war. They are not criticized for what they have done (or really only in passing) but romanticized for how they died. Now how about Lenin or the guys who ran the Terror? They killed fewer and for a shorter period. Still they are the ones who get the balk of the condemnation. How fascinated and in love we are with the doings of the wealthy even as the rest of us struggle to just make ends meet. How we are willing to forgive them, but not those who over threw them in our name.

What is wrong with us as a species that we are more than willing to help the oligarchs keep us down? Who the hell knows.

Hacked

So my wife's Yahoo and Facebook accounts have been hacked. Most of the people have either deleted the requests for money or called us and then deleted the requests.

However, one person, the owner of the christian book store in our town called the cops. Now the email said that we were in London and had been robbed and needed $1,500.00 to get home and gave a place to send the money. Most people either knew that we weren't out of the country or called or sent emails to see what was really going on.

However, one friend of my wife's, the owner of the christian book store freaked out. As I said she called the cops and then when my wife went in to the store to pick something up that she had ordered, she informed her that she (the bookstore owner) was now compromised and that we could no longer communicate with her either through email, facebook, or on the telephone (unless we obtained a land line). Further that she would contact the other law enforcement agency (the sheriffs department) if she got any other emails. My wife told her that she was concerned for the safety of our dogs (since cops were known to shot dogs) the woman said she didn't care.

I am kind of amazed. This is the only person who has responded this way, but I would expect that she represents a certain per cent age of people who are that scared of everything that they don't understand.

Explains a lot doesn't it?

Loki In Love With Traci's Birthday Present

Lazy Sunday

At rest

Really at rest.

Hey Anybody Still Here?

God I hate Windows 7. There that is off my chest.

I've been trying to write this week and pretty much failed totally. The BW and I have had flu since about last Sunday morning when I felt queasy at breakfast and then it was down hill from there. I'd started to read Manufacturing Depression by Gary Greenberg and by the end of Sunday I'd gotten about 2/3 of the way through.

Went to bed and at about 3 a.m. both the BW and I woke up with aching stomachs and really aching everything. Things stayed pretty painful for the next 24 hours and then just exhaustion through and through. I was able to go into work for about 2 hours on Wednesday and another 3 on Friday. Couple that with the rains, it was as thought we were living in a tropical hell hole for the entire week, nothing but rain rain rain. Until I think maybe today (I hope cause the grass doesn't cut itself). Well today the sun is out which means the grass should grow like gang busters today. I expect that it will have grown back to this morning's length by the end of the day if we are able to cut it, since the sun as I say is out again.

The depression book is pretty interesting (or at least I think so) since his position is kind of close to mine: If you really understand life then of course you are depressed or at least melancholic. As the author points out particularly given the current never ending wars and the economic slow down (shut down for the lower 20% of the population) and the control of the government by the oligarchs or plutocracy whichever you prefer. The book kind of follows a history of the disease of depression in psychiatric thought, so as a history major it certainly interested me. The guy is better at describing the disease and its development than at suggesting ways out of depression and I kind of get the idea that he really thinks that generally depression or melancholia (or I think dysthymia) is a rational response to life, as I say.

Given the exhaustion as I say, I didn't finish the book until last night.

Oh well, time to tend my garden in a manner of speaking (that's lit. talk for mow my lawn).

Welcome to Weimar

Every single time I think that Obama and his people have done their worst, they come back and go one better. Now our very own democratic AG is telling us that we will probably have to cut back on Miranda warnings given to those who are (they always ARE, they are never accused) terrorists, because well because we are in an existential war with them. Which as I understand it means that we are having some sort of French Indochina or Algerian experience again. No it means that we are in a fight to the death with a couple of hundred of people who for the most part live in tents and caves half a world away who can kill a couple of us an scare the rest of us to death I guess. So in a clever response to this we will destroy our own freedoms before they can do it to us. That will show them.

I read about outrage overload on another blog the other day (forgot which one), but it is where I am. I have decided that will become my catch phrase for awhile. Well perhaps I am actually in Weimar. No oversight for the Fed, no real control over Wall Street, but by god we will pull you in and interrogate you without the right to counsel. 5th Amendment? Oh don’t worry your little head about that, you don’t need it if you are innocent and you don’t deserve it if you are guilty and you are always only guilty if we have you in this room and are interrogating you.

Now we have a wonnerful, wonnerful nominee for the Supreme Court, except no one knows anything about her except maybe Obama. Of course, the usually suspects are more than ready to support anything Obama does. One of my (formerly?) favorite bloggers TBogg takes some time out to excoriate those of us who have doubts.

In particular you should read the comments defending the post and Obama. They have a number of points, the point of the blogger: He's Obama, therefore I Trust Him. Nothing we say will make any difference. I never expected him to be a radical liberal (although no one is arguing he is a radical and any more no one is arguing that he is a liberal, well no one with half a brain).

So anyway, the AG says we've got to cut back on basic rights, and Obama nominates someone who is really gung ho into the concept of expanded executive power. And the usual suspects are more than willing to climb on board and back her sight unseen. Had Obama a history of doing things that were kind of liberal or a history of appointing people who were kind of liberal then trusting him would make a certain about (although not total) sense. He has a history of appointing people and ensuring, continuing, enabling policies that are beloved of the plutocracy and those who serve them.

The incredibly frustrating part of public life discourse right now is the number of people and organizations that I thought were liberal or progressive (not radical, not ultra liberal, whatever that means) just kind of liberal that are unwilling to pressure the prez or his people. Hell I am watching people I thought were truly liberal maybe even ultra liberal (see Sanders, Bernie) cave at pressure from the WH and back most any corporate position Obama wants. No single payer, no Medicare for all, no complete audit of the Fed. In return for backing these positions they turn on those who refuse to be buffaloed and eviscerate them and attack them for being "unreasonable and for demanding purity" few of us really demand.

So to loop back again, I look at us like we are indeed Weimar, or perhaps a house of cards which is simply waiting for the one man (or woman now a days) on horse back to blow us over with a relatively light breath. I suspect it would have happened by now if Palin wasn't beyond belief corrupt and was simply bought off with money rather than power. Lucky Us?

Outrage Overload

I do believe that I would include Obama in my list of liar presidents, but I give Hersh points for wishing.



I hope to get back to regular posting tomorrow. I read that about outrage overload on another blog that was talking about Holder's discussion about how we need to limit Miranda to those accused of terrorism, I'm sorry TERRORISM, next it will be those who use drugs, then those who write blogs.

Read It and Weep

Happy Fifth of May

Kent State

Forty years ago today. My haven't we come a long way, now we pay people to do our killing for us so we do not upset the white kids at school.



How about Jackson

Karl and Harpo Marx My Heros

Damn missed May Day comrades. However, I hope this makes up for it.

We're Fucked

So, in every day and every way I see things getting worse and worse.

First, I read this that those of us who are bleeding heart liberals will have to consider having Social Security and Medicare cut in order to balance the budget. No mention of limiting the costs of our various wars and to be honest very little discussion of limiting our gifts to the banks.

Then we see that the democrats have decided to move a little closer to [insert you favorite dystopian work here] by requiring all workers to have a computer card which will I am sure not have a GPS signal, nor will you be required to carry it at all times. Now in all probability that won't happen right now, because the republicans will go bat shit crazy, but they will merely delay it, just like the liberals delayed the destruction of Social Security until a democrat got into the White House. Now.

These pieces of information are coming along so fast and furious that it is difficult to keep up with them. Where I am is that the guy we elected (and I've got to say that I am really sorry I voted for him since I can even say I told you so now) has decided to govern from the right and to enact most of the programs the last administration couldn't get in. And no I do not agree that HCR was much of a liberal win, when all we do is pour money into the hands of certain corporations involved in the health field. Now (see above) we appear to be prepared to screw the old and sick because we can.

The really interesting thing is how so many of the so called progressive blogs are simply going along or saying little or nothing even if they are not supporting the president's agenda.

There is essentially no strong movement from the left to push back against the crazy right wingers and certainly not to push back against whatever it is Obama is -- corporatist, oligarch who runs a plutocracy.

I often wonder how it is possible that these people cannot see the end result of what they are doing, it doesn't require a lot to do a little reading of history and to see where this stuff got the governments before us.

UPDATE: Are these things coming faster or am I just paying more attention? DADT: we need more study. Who wants to bet that will be repealed the same day Card Check is passed and who wants to bet that neither the gay rights groups nor the unions will squeek at all.

Something to Annoy

Charlie Brown Kabuki

It is Charlie Brown Kabuki time once again, this time on financial regulations and the bail out fund. But there will be more stuff coming down the pike I can assure you. I was wondering if I would be disappointed and the democrats would actually pull off a reform of some sort. When you are locked into the concept that nothing remotely progressive is going to be done to help the average person, it can throw you for a loop when it appears as though something might happen. Thank god the congressional democrats have not failed me.

It is also very comforting to hear the good old hope/change guy telling us that the Supreme Court went off the rails in the 60s and 70s with all that judicial activism. It is interesting that a guy who is half "black" (since his father wasn't an African American, but African) can suggest that. I mean that would be the same courts that Loving and Brown came out of, and those decisions were definitely judicial activism. But let's let that incredible hypocrisy pass.

As I say I find it quite comforting that I can know that no matter what Obama and democrats promise I can know that they will not deliver, unless it is a special wrapped up gift to the wealthiest and most conservative.

UPDATE: They just can't do this often enough for the rubes and those in the veal pen to lose faith in "Kind Leader" apparently.

THE I REALLY CAN'T BELIEVE THIS UPDATE, BUT REALLY I DO NOT EXPECT ANY BETTER FROM THEM SO I GUESS I AM NOT SURPRISED, BUT IF THEY WANTED TO GET JOBS THEY WOULD SO PROBABLY THE DON'T WANT JOBS ANYWAY SO THEY NEED TO BE KICKED OFF UNEMPLOYMENT BECAUSE THE JOBS ARE REALLY OUT THERE SO FUCK THEM WE'VE GOT OURS UPDATE.

THE I HOPE IT IS REALLY THE LAST UPDATE BECAUSE THIS IS REALLY GETTING TIRING AND EVEN I AM HAVING A HARD TIME DEALING WITH THE BULLSHIT AND WHY DID I QUIT DOING DRUGS AGAIN UPDATE?

Oh Hell More Of The Same

Stumbling into a post several weeks after doing the last real post. I really consider this a political blog, so writing about my personal feelings and thoughts are something I do not usually do, except as they are evidenced by my political views.

Well I guess that this is kind of a political point of view. I am kind of in the same place that the guy from Slobber and Spittle (a great blog even if he doesn't actually own a St. Bernard) is.

The Hope and Change that came down the pike in '08 is neither Hope nor Change, nor for that matter hope or change. It is more of the same with the patina of complete sentences and a false front of progressivism, or perhaps a false front of populism (not necessarily the same thing), but at any rate it is definitely neither.

I had tried to write something about Obama's political sense as opposed to his positions on the issues, but either I can't do it or one cannot really separate those things.

We are now seeing a president who was elected as a change from the past simply clothing the policies of the past in some shiny new clothes (with a disturbing number of supposedly liberals buying his lies). Drill off shore, another battle in Afghanistan, this is it, no really this is it, why are you laughing, this is really it. Money to the insurance industries with no controls (sorry that is old news), money to the bankers (no real controls) a couple of bucks to the the rest of us, hope you don't lose your house, but really nothing we can do about it. We will, however, make sure that wealthy women can keep getting abortions, the rest of you eh.........

This week it is banking regulations with the hype (not hope) that the biggest banks will be broken up (not gonna happen).

On top of that we have the democrats being surprised that republicans will not support a deomocrat bill on climate change. Not really much of a bill, but there you are they are not much of a political party.

One thing I can't understand about the democrats is that why do they keep letting this happen. I mean if this is where they may want to end up that is one thing, but in ending up he again and again being humiliated by the republicans, that is something else. One thing people want in their rulers is the appearance, at least, of being in charge and competent. Each time the republicans will find something that they will insist is an insult of the worst kind or is simply some sort of a deal breaker and therefore they will not (now) support it (this time -- no really it is different this time, this isn't like the perpetual anger machine last time, this is real and things would have been different if John Kerry hadn't farted at lunch, this time). Or something.

The democrats will look confused and the main stream media will explain that the republicans really had a good reason to be assholes this time, and something really good would have happened if the democrats hadn't fucked up, this time, even though the deal they broke would have screwed most of us, but really it is different this time. We get paid a lot of money to tell you this you have to believe it.

SUCKERS.

Now to get back to my original point, and I do have an original point, I am just tired of commenting and writing letters to my senator and congressman and telling them they have to stand up. It turns out that I no longer believe that they really do want to stand up for anything at all that helps the majority of people in this country. If they would just act this way or say that thing. Hell, it really is Clinton redux.

Or perhaps Blazing Saddles, I mean they do have to watch out and keep their phony baloney jobs after all.

Happy Earth Day

Utterly Tastless

In the long run we are all dead. Not my idea but rather that of Lord Keynes. I feel like I am running my head repeatedly into a brick wall as far as just about any political position I take is concerned. My brother who works for a secret (if I told you I'd have to kill you) organization much like Blackwater has a sporty Mercedes and now a Jag, in addition to the Mercedes. Clearly I did not think out the economic consequences of my beliefs (I don't mean to imply that he thought of the economic consequences before he decided on his beliefs, just that .................well he chose more wisely than I did).

I worked (a little) for the guy in office now and a little for the party now in power and what do I get for it. Another day older and deeper in debt as Tennessee Ernie would have suggested. On the other hand I cannot see anything being much better than they would have been if the other guy had gotten in. Of course, then I look at the (would be) vice-president and I do see a cute little mustaches if the old man hadn't been able to make it for at least four years. Why do I keep thinking it's 1929 and I'm in Germany?

So to get back to may original point, I would like to kind of like to see things on the up swing before a shuffle off this mortal coil, but I do not see it happening.

Sunday

Well I have been having a problem writing anything political recently. Not because I don't feel strongly, I do, but because everything I say seems so obvious that everyone should be able to see it without my pointing it out. If that is the case and they don't see it, then I'm not sure what I could say to make them see it. Well in the meantime how about some animals?

A Little Hell On Earth Presented By Us

From Wikileaks