Pointless Blathering

Here I am reading how people are attacking Obama because of the "sins" of his father.  And pointing out that his father apparently fornicated with white wimmens.  AND WAS A DRUNK.  Pretty shocking and exciting.  Which of course helps prove that the attacks on Obama are all racially motivated.

I've been thinking about that and I have to come down on the side that some of  the attacks are racially motivated, some of the attacks simply use race as a vehicle to attack him for other issues, and some are combinations.   I really do not see these attacks as any worse than those on Clinton.  I really don't.  Now when one says that then one has to acknowledge that the attacks on Clinton were about as vile and full of lies as any could be.  Obama is accused of being a (kind of) foreigner, since no one can deny that his mother was a good white American girl and a communist anti-American.   While Clinton was accused of being a murderer, thief, drug runner, and communist anti-American.  Incidently, does anyone really believe that Michelle Obama has been treated worse than Hilary Clinton?

Why the right wing engages in these insane attacks on two presidents who were and are nice conservative republicans is beyond me.  It does remind one of the attacks the right waged on Roosevelt while he fought to save capitalism.  So while I can see a historical precedent, I still cannot for the life of me understand the minds behind it.  Unless these minds simply want to live in a world that has all the same rules that applied to the French aristocrates under Louis XIV.

A follow up thought is that at least Roosevelt was liberal or progressive, where as Clinton and Obama are simply corporate bag men, so it made even less sense in the 90s or now.

Banned In China

I have a friend who is in China teaching.  She is also a friend of Larry who I posted about.  She asked me about the funeral and I gave her a link to this blog.  She tried to pull it up and found that it was blocked.  So I am now banned internationally.

On the other hand perhaps I shouldn't be that excited since I'm also banned in the Coshocton library.

Fuck

Blogger insists on putting at least 3 and perhaps 4 lines between paragraphs and no matter what I do to remove them those lines stay in place. Any body know what the deal is. I go to the html section and deliete the div stuff there, but there it is when it is published.

Good Bye Larry

So, Larry's funeral was today.

He died on Easter Sunday, the viewing was on Tuesday, his youngest daughter's birthday was Wednesday so they decided to wait until today for the actual funeral. He will be cremated so there was no procession to the cemetery. After the lunch at his wife's church we came home and slept for two hours. We were exhausted.

I think that the reason we were so exhausted was the sheer amount of raw grief that was expressed by so many at the funeral. The intensity was frankly surprising. I did not realize how strongly I would feel, myself.

Larry was sixty-five and he had been sick for several years. However, he rally started to go down hill rapidly just about three months ago. There were the trips to Cleveland for more radiation and chemo and then the very rapid decline which started about three or four weeks ago.

Larry's was the only bicycle shop in town for several decades so anybody who rode seriously, or who had kids who had bikes that needed fixed knew Larry. Also, since Larry was the world's premier procrastinator they would get to see him much more than they had at first expected or for that matter wanted. As one of his friends said today she started to work for him about thirty-five years ago on the restoration of the bike shop and that restoration is still going on today. Three hour lunches were not unusual and if you drove by the shop and saw the sign that said back at 2 you knew that meant 3 and if he wasn't back by 4, that meant that you should come back the next day sometime after 10 when he might be there.

Larry looked like your traditional red neck, but once you started to talk to him you realized that he was a guy who was not easily pigeon holed. He loved blue grass and they played it at the funeral with his brother in law playing a lap dulcimer and another friend playing a banjo, with blue grass recordings playing in the back ground other times. The banjo player told us he wasn't sure he could make it through, but he did.

Larry was a Quaker, but his wife is a more main stream Christian and the service was a combination of the two with people being encouraged to share their memories of Larry. One of the first people was a woman he had hired to work on the restoration at his shop and on the bikes. She was sixteen at the time and had been told that girls were not permitted to take shop in school because. He gave her the keys to his shop and his pick up and tools that were not those one would think of as being, well safe and told her to go to it. One of the last people to share was another girl who has been working at his shop recently, she is African American and does not look at all traditionally feminine in any way, but rather androgynous. When she started working for Larry she had been about to drop out of high school, now in larger part because of Larry's encouragement she is in collage.

I was unable to speak. I have been going to his shop more or less frequently, as I said for almost twenty-five years. When he said he was thinking of closing down last year I told him he couldn't because I would have no where else to hang out. When we first got our St. Bernard we had Larry watch him and the St. loved to go and hang out at the bike shop: "What happens in the bike shop, stays in the bike shop."

I think that people were surprised that he died, he was one of those you just expected to be there. So there was that terrible shock, even though we should have all known what was coming.

I don't know where I'll hang out this summer.

Any News?

So anything interesting politically happen today? According to a secret source here is the real skivvy on Obama's birth, not that anyone would care. My theory is that this all has to be good news for McCain. Or at least I find it difficult to believe that Obama has done some political thing since his election that isn't stupid or ham handed. On another comments section someone suggested that Obama was neither naive nor stupid, hmmm. No it didn't seem like a multiple choice question. Still in terms of his political competence I vote for not, but I could be completely wrong.

I do not think that this is a completely racist thing. I think that there is a serious racist component to the entire thing, but look at what was done to Clinton. Body count, personally putting cocaine on the planes in Arkansas (or was it taking it off), killing Vince Foster, stealing millions in an real estate scheme. So far what has been done to Obama doesn't seem a whole lot worse, or am I confused? We live in stupid times.

Bits And Pieces

I'm sitting at home waiting for more "weather" to come in. Sun shine, blue sky's right at this point, but the weather man says that severe thunderstorms will come in later today. It caused me to think about my first St. We had her from 1962 or 3, until about 1974 or so. If truth be told she was really more my Mom's dog than any ones since she was home with her the entire time we had her.

At any rate Pammy (the dog, not my Mom) was absolutely terrified of thunderstorms. So terrified that we ended up getting her what I now think were Quaaludes from the vet to knock her out when a storm approached. She would try to crawl under anything she could find. No matter how low to the ground it was. Combine that with her constant panting and you can well understand how much we wanted to knock her out.

To get back to where I started, back then of course, there were no weather satellites, no 24 hour weather channel, no Internet to get news from and quite frankly the weather was not as reliable as it is now. So when people would visit and Pammy would start freaking out they would invariably ask us what was her problem. We would tell them there there was a serious storm coming in an they would just as invariably laugh and tell us we were crazy. She was never wrong though.

My second though is something I put up in the comments to the last post and it is this: Who could have thought that Richard Nixon's presidency would have been considered a golden age of presidential decency? The thought was brought on by Obama's telling us that Manning is guilty of breaking the law and then having his people explain that isn't really what this Constitutional Scholar really meant. Nixon when he said something similar about Manson at least had the decency to say that he had "miss-spoke," which at the time people derided as a kind of untruthful response. My goodness how we have declined. Of course until the worst president of modern times until the one who succeeded him, who would have thought that a happy admission of approving torture would be heartily approved by the general populous and all of our rulers?

Last night I went to the viewing for my friend. Once again I was shocked at how emotionally drained I was after the whole thing. Of course, I wasn't nearly as drained as his family I think. The funeral will be tomorrow because his youngest daughter's birthday is today. How sad.

Obama Fucks Us Again, No Just the Constitution.

Oh hell why not, damn I am sorry I voted for him.

Three Briefs and A Funeral

Three briefs and a funeral. Or to be more accurate three briefs and a slow death.

A good friend of mine was diagnosed with prostate cancer about three years ago. By the time he was diagnosed it had already metastasized into the bone. He had had P.S.A. tests every year for several years and each year the numbers had come back high. His doctor told him not to worry and I do remember him talking about it at one point. Well, it looks like he should have worried. (My wife knows of another guy that the same thing happened to.) I wonder what the purpose is of either the tests or the doctor in question? I do recall that he asked me why, when he first found out. He said that he had done everything he was supposed to do, and it still happened. I still feel guilty, since I've done nothing that I am supposed to do (except not smoke tobacco, but that was because I needed the money for alcohol and more serious drugs).

At any rate by the time he was diagnosed it was already terminal. He took a very aggressive stance and some experimental treatment and I think it bought him about two good years. Then this January or February things started to go south. He got to where he couldn't walk and they found spots on his spine. Those spots were treated with radiation and then chemotherapy. About mid-way through the chemotherapy treatment he became so sick that he had to be taken to the local hospital (he was being treated at the Cleveland Clinic for this last round). That was about three or four weeks ago. He had an infection and they stopped the chemo because he was too weak for it. From there it was down hill the entire time with little or no up swings. by last weekend he was clearly beyond making any decisions about his own life or even understanding what was going on. On Sunday afternoon he died.

We've been up to his room almost every day since he was admitted. We didn't make it Sunday because when we went up there the nurses were doing something and we told his son that we would be back later. Before we were able to go back his wife called and told us that he had died. I doubt if it would have mattered he did not recognize anyone on Saturday although he did recognize me on Friday when I walked in.

Tonight I drove by his bike shop a place I've hung out more or less off and on for twenty-five years. He was a terrible businessman, but a great guy. If you took your bike in to have it fixed there was really a fairly decent chance that you might get it back before the end of the season, if you were lucky. I was shocked at how strongly I felt the loss.

One of his old friends had simply not shown up at the hospital, saying it was too difficult for him. I've heard other people say things like that in similar situations. I wonder just how that works? I do not perceive that one has any choice in these things. There are things that one does because that is what one, in fact has to do. One does not have a choice, I would think.

During this I was also working on three different briefs, not something I particularly like to do. I was finally able to complete the last one Sunday (also) and that will be filed today. So I am kind of tired and I think that maybe I can start looking at what I normally look askance at. Like Obama convicting Manning before trial. Some fun.

More LIberal Whining

I kind of got side tracked by reading a Greenwald piece and the president's speech (where the president didn't say that he wanted to destroy Social Security and The Great Society, but did say that we gotta fight them deficits and by golly cut spending on what are miss named entitlements, and we gotta figure out how to do something about Social Security so go for it congress).

What I wanted to write about was the frog in the water thing and how right now republicans are fairing very poorly in the polls, mostly because they are seen as obvious assholes who clearly want to destroy the working class as opposed to democrats who are as far as I can figure out viewed as either incompetents or girly boys (or boyey girls) and while they don't really want to destroy the American middle class just can't help themselves.

Which brings me back to the point I have made before which is that perhaps I should change this over to a fiction blog, at least I wouldn't be raising the same points over and over, or perhaps I would. No wait that isn't the point, the point (which isn't original with me) is that there is no real point in voting for either of the political parties at this time. (Was George Wallace merely a head of his time?) (Dimes worth of difference anyone?)

So I figure that given what the republicans are doing and how they are pissing people off the democrats will be back in, in 2012, whooeeee. If I may, the frog after getting a sneaking feeling that something was going on leaped from that slowly warming pot into the boiling one, now he wants out and the only place he can think of going is that simmering pot, which will feel mighty cool, for awhile.

Unfortunately I do believe that eventually in a democracy (or republic for that matter) we do get the government we deserve.

Fuck Him

So I've been thinking that when one (or at least this one) reads or hears something that this one thinks is brilliant, it means one of two things:

First, it is an concept put forth in a way that makes me look at an idea of subject in a different way. Sort of" "Wow, I never thought of that before, kind of thing." I was reading an essay about sex by Gore Vidal back in the 60s or early 70s when he said something to the effect that apparently the only two men who could live together in Washington D.C. without being accused of being homosexual were J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson. Suddenly, the entire concept of America's treatment of homosexuals and the way the ruling class treats their own was brought into a focus that it had never been for me before.

Second, is the one where I see something that agrees with what I've been thinking or saying and I say "Boy is he right on the money." Like Greenwald today.

I've been saying in various ways, that Obama is getting just what he wants to get. I am a little confused about why he is doing it in such a ham handed way, but if the poll numbers Greenwald sites to are correct, with the vast majority of voters of all stripes in favor of the budget cuts, then perhaps it isn't so ham handed after all.

The arguments are all the same: this is all he can do, this is a conservative country, republicans are going to be so much worse. The best response to the last point was that as a country we are going to hit bottom and end up laying in our own vomit in the gutter sooner or later so it might as well be sooner so we can start on that 12 step program. The best response to the first point is that he made deals to gut health care reform with the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry and hospital industry before the negotiations ever really started and he tried to keep those deals secret. No response really matters to Those Who Must Believe.

I still go to my Fake Progressive sites to see what they are saying and they are good at attacking the right wing and the real nuts, but then. Recently Angry Black Lady (who I refuse to link to anymore) has become more fun since she seems to be insisting that all (and perhaps I am just miss-reading her) who criticize Obama are racist and secret Hilliary supporters.

So apparently the president promised to do not really bad stuff, or at lest not as bad as he could have promised, but then when does a promise mean anything to him.

I should Not Be Permitted to Care for Any Living Thing

An interesting weekend to say the least.

I decided that it was finally time to trim the chow. I got the table out, the arm on the table. the clippers and the scissors and got ready to groom her.

Things went rapidly down hill from there. The arm slipped while I was using the scissors (I was never able to use the clippers, couldn't get them to go through the under hair) and hit me on the head, which started me bleeding. I cut the same ear of the chow that Van Gogh took off which started her bleeding. I then at some point managed to cut her in the chest. The chow has been surprisingly forgiving, but will not allow anyone within ten feet of her if they have anything at all in their hand.

Washed the St. the next day which wasn't so bad because even though he acts like he doesn't like it he seems to enjoy the feeling when it is done.

Geez this on top of putting dog flea stuff on a cat so that I had to wash her with Dawn to make sure I go it all off her so she wouldn't go into convulsions. I have not had a lot of success with the animals in the last couple of weeks. Of course I would guess that they are not particularly happy with me either.

How Did This Happen and Why Is No One Responsible

(I am sorry that most of the images of Obama as incompetent are from right wing sites)

In thinking about how people think and operate, I was thinking about folks I work with who simply seem unable to accept when they do something wrong. That is you can point out that this is not right and that this needs to be re-done, but they simply never seem to acknowledge that they may have been the cause of the problem. Not only that, but they seem to continue to keep on doing whatever it was that they did wrong in the first place. You've got to get in their face and confront them in what in the end is for me at least an unpleasant way to get them, not to acknowledge that they made a mistake, but to at least not do it that way again.

Having been brought up to believe that everything was my fault (I'm still not sure that if I would have sent just one more email to the president, perhaps he would have dealt with Health Care Reform in a different way). I've heard people who are this way blame it on a Catholic upbringing, but since mine was Presbyterian, perhaps I can blame it on the Scots.

Which brings me around to Obama and the democratic party generally. The obvious result of their policies and tactics was to more than decimate the party's representatives in Congress (double that at least if you accept the Roman definition) and nearly destroy the state and local parties. Now we know that Obama and the rest have decided that they did nothing wrong, not because of what they said, but because they keep on doing the same things in the same way.

How does that work do you suppose? My first thought when I lose anything no matter how weak the case, is to wonder what I've done wrong. So how does this other mind set work? I have no idea. I don't think that this contradicts what I've been saying for the last couple of days. I would think that a politician would want to maintain power not matter who they thought their bosses really were. I would think that they would want to make sure that they looked like they were doing something right, if only to confuse the rubes.

OH Fuck Again

Trying to work and not as successful as I'd hoped. Well that is ok, it has to be done by 4:00 p.m. Monday, and since my secretary or administrative assistant is less than stellar it will be done sooner, but not much sooner.

Which gets me around to Greewald's piece today comparing Kevin Drum's touching trust of Obama with Britney Spears' touching trust of Bush the Stupid. Interestingly enough they are completely the same. "He is oh so wonderful and oh so right and I am just a little toad." I had quit reading Drum years ago when he decided that Iraq II was a good idea. I also haven't read Mother Jones for some time, not so much because of political reason, but just because I got bored with them (and because they hired Kevin Drum to write for them which to be fair to me did call their political acumen into question).

Greenwald still insists that his vote for Obama was reasonable even now given the alternative, I think. I think that is crap. My vote for Obama was wrong and I should have known it at the time. I think I did in my heart of hearts, but I was afraid. Now it is clear beyond belief that McCain might have been temporarily worse, but there would be the possibility of an end of that shit in sight and a possible end of the current hegemony of our corporate rulers simply because things would be so obviously bad, and a real alternative might be offered. But such was not to be.

I did go over and read the article by Drum where he explains that it would not be politically possible to intervene in the Ivory Coast or Nigeria, but doesn't bother to explain why. I did skim the first thirty or so comments and they were very depressing. They were either conservatives, so called liberals telling us that Obama really is one of us and he can only do so much, or just kind of sad.

Greenwald's position that he still thinks that he was right to vote to for Obama and the comments in Mother Jones make me think that perhaps I was right yesterday after all. Oh incidentally, Mother Jones has called and wants her name back.

Elected (Kind Of) Dictators

Don't want to sound too EMO, after all. My personal motto is: "I'm not a nihilist for nothing." [Thanks Sue].

So why did Clinton say what she said to the congress critters? Why did she tell them that no matter what they did Obama and his minions would not consider it binding on The President?

I mean there was no real possibility that the congress would have voted to do anything other than SUPPORT OUR BOYS (and GIRLS) OVER THERE. Is there? So what is the deal, after all?

I suspect that the deal is that there is a constant movement towards a totalitarian (or at the very least a seriously authoritarian) form of governance which will place all power in the hands of one person. Well it will seem to be all power, whether or not that will turn out to be the case, or if the real power will be in the hands of the oligarchs who really run things is another question. (Well not really a real question, I mean we all know the answer, but I do like the way that sounds.) The owners of the banks, the Wall Street folks and some few others. Although, given the howls we heard when Obama bailed out GM and Chrysler there is still going to be some sort of battle for position amongst those who own the businesses that own America. I would suspect that in the end the assholes battling among themselves will assure that any large corporation that actually has real workers who really make things as opposed as workers who play with monopoly money, and who get paid decent money (i.e. unionized workers) well either be destroyed by the others or be forced to destroy any workers organizations.

There will of course be squabbles amoung them, the oligarchs, and if history is any guide there could be violent struggles amoung them. But in the end it will be a battle amoung our rulers and we the hoi poli will be allowed to do the fighting and bleeding (although, to be honest, in this country for the foreseeable future there will probably be no real fighting as in blood being shed, we are too comfortable).

So at any rate as is made clear in the Greenwald essay there have been groups pushing for "The President is Really King" theory of government for decades at least. It is easiest to do it in matters of foreign policy and war. It will only be a matter of time before it starts happening in matters of domestic policy. That will be because the grid lock will start to be seen as a problem, even by the Villigers. Now there are many ways to fix the gridlock we have in the congress right now (simplist is of course get rid of the filibuster), but that isn't going to happen. We saw that at the beginning of this session. No individual senator wants to lose any of his power. Eventually it will all be taken away and some president's horse will end up voting with the rest of the senators although at least in that case it will be the entire horse.

What I see going on with our more or less elected officials is that those in "power" in the House and Senate (mostly the Senate) have managed, in protecting their personal power to the extent that they have, made themselves look largly ineffectual in their ability to accomplish anything (although obviously not in their ability to prevent anything from being accomplished). Peop;e are already sick and tired of it, it is only a matter of time before the rulers get tired and do something about it.

No Voting For Me In 2012

Well fuck, I just got a response from my "liberal" senator Sherrod Brown, as I say it doesn't look like I'll be voting in 2012.

After I send him an email asking essentially WTF (without the swear words) is up with his signing on to this letter to Obama talking about using the Cat Food Commission's recommendations to reduce the deficit I get a reply telling me that just like a family the federal government must cut back in hard times, that he has co sponsored legislation that will prevent congress from getting automatic raises which will save $80 million dollars over TEN (yes 10) years and finally that he had voted for something called a sense of support for a balanced budget amendment (something I guess I should have known) for the Constitution. (I tried to copy the entire letter into blogger, but it would work and I'm not up to typing the whole thing over).

Now this is a guy who is considered one of the more liberal members of the senate.

It is as if the 1930s and 40s never happened. The truth of the matter is that we did indeed spend ourselves out of a depression with massive deficit spending and federal tax rates that were at 94% for the top marginal tax brackets. Although it does seem as though we have a larger deficit in standard dollars that we did after World War II. None of that matters, you can yell until you are blue in the face and they will look at you as if you are speaking Urdu in Dallas.

I suppose the other thing that should piss me off is that my original letter was clear enough on my position, he clearly had something come up in one of his assistants word checks that said deficit/budget or something like that and then sent the standard "Hey I am also a tea bagger" letter.

So I guess happy times are here again.

Another Kind of A Book Report

Sometimes I write something so many times in my head, that I think I've really written it down where it is possible for other people to see it.

In looking back over my previously posts for the period that I could have done it I don't think I've mentioned the book I read about the great influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. I had read a few things about the epidemic before, but the book The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John Barry was the most in depth of anything I've ever read about it. It is kind of a strange history since he spends at least half the book giving the history of medicine in the world and then in the United States up to that point. It is a description of the development of medicine and its change into a truly scientific profession. Which hadn't occurred, at least in the United States until shortly before World War One. It is interesting in one way because the climax of the story, the epidemic, was not in the end really defeated so much by the heroic doctors or their new scientific discipline. Instead it just burned itself out like most plagues in the past.

One guy Barry really doesn't like was Woodrow Wilson and the system of crushing dissent that he put in place for running America during World War I. As he describes it and if truth be told as I've read about it in other places, it was a nearly totalitarian system of enforcing compliance and ensuring that there would be no dissension and no overt opposition to the war. The system that booked no bad news about the war helped ensure that the epidemic would spread more easily and quickly, since newspapers were forbidden to write about it for the most part and people who talked about it and its danger were often reported to the authorities as unAmerican defeatists.

Kind of interesting at several levels. First, is that Wilson was from Virginia originally and did believe in the Lost Cause I suspect. What makes that interesting to me, since I've just read them, is that Grant in his Memoirs mentioned several times how much more difficult it was for the North with a free press to prevent anti war sentiment from being spread, while the South, which Grant insisted, had a censored press was more able to limit such dissent (something Grant seemed to envy). I wonder if Wilson learned this at his father's knee?

Second, is how most people were willing to agree to this kind of suppression. When one grows up reading the books I have read, it is hard to remember that these books were written by the people who were being suppressed by the vast majority of this country and who were more than willing to go along with the government's crushing of dissent. One always, I suspect, imagines himself as standing up against the kind of oppression, In the situation as it is coming down how would one act, I wonder? Or to be honest, the question I am most concerned about is how I would act.

Third, I suspect that Obama is licking his lips in the hope that he will be able to use the Espionage Act that was passed at the behest of Wilson to crush dissent during the First World War to smash Wikileaks and imprison Assange and Manning for life. I am sure he would like to get around to screwing with us lesser types too.

I went over to one of my fake progressive blogs just to see how the comments were going there or perhaps to get my fair share of abuse. Although this time I did manage to avoid commenting, for which I am vary proud. However, they were ecstatic about the arrests involving the people protesting Manning's condition. And of course once again Manning's imprisonment really isn't that bad and the people protesting weren't really hassled that much. Oh yeah, Daniel Ellsberg isn't that great a guy and what he did wasn't all that brave. There was also a massive justification post for Libya, but I'll leave that for another time.

Wow, these are people who claim to be liberal or progressive. I would guess that they would be the ones who if they lived in Germany in the 1930s would insist that National Socialist did have socialist in its name. Or in the alternative, those who lived during the First World War and would report their neighbors for not being enthusiastic enough. Worker bees I guess.

Bits And Pieces

Oooooh! New toys, gotta use em.

A couple of things. I got in my inbox a couple of new comments on the Angry Black Lady post of March 14. Since that is about a week ago, or an eon in blog time, I'm wondering why they posted. It appears as though one wants to take umbrage at my terming what is happening to Manning as torture. The other one is insisting that it isn't happening.

In retrospect perhaps I shouldn't have used the word torture, but merely said that what is being done to Manning is an attempt to destroy his personality and force him to say anything his interrogators want him to say so that they can get him to confess to any thing they want and implicate Assange.

Secondly, I went to an essay in Salon that claimed that we have a coalition of the not so real. Then for fun I went to the comments many or whom insisted that just because the vast majority of the air strikes have been flown by the U.S. is because . . . . . . . well since we have more stuff than anybody else we should of course be the people who are using it and now that we have spent a decade of funding for NPR (not that I think they deserve it any more), or heating oil purchases for the poor, we will certainly quit and let the rest of to coalition do it. So there mister smarty pants.

I wonder why everybody hates Muammar so much?

You Say Libya I Say Lybia

Actually Iraq, but remember good times, good times.

I'm starting this tonight and then perhaps it'll go up tonight and perhaps tomorrow.

At war again. And all over blogastan people who claim to be liberals are blathering on about how bad a person that Qaddafi is and how wonderful the people opposing him are. As opposed to the people in the Sudan, or the Ivory Coast, or Bahrain. Hell Libya isn't even where we should be if we want to protect the most people.

People in serious blogs who want to be taken seriously will go on and on about how well you know maybe this time things will be different and after all Qaddafi really is a bad guy so you know. You Know? This way if this works out, not like the others then they might still be listened to down the road, and if it doesn't work out well then they voiced their concerns right at the beginning dontchano.

I don't have to worry about that since I am not taken seriously by the two and a half people who actually read me to begin with.

However, there are some upsides to this (see even I am not immune):

First, perhaps this time we have finally found a third world Muslim country that we can beat and get out living only a minimal number of (our people) dead. Hell it could happen.

Second, there seems to be the advantage that it is impossible to spell Gaddafi's name incorrectly. I've seen it spelled at least four ways with both a G and a Q as the first letter . Blogger spell check gives you Qaddafi, Qaddafi's and Gaddafi's, but no Gaddafi.

Third, I tend to misspell Libya and when ever I do it gives me the giggles like a 13 year old in sex ed class.

If you stack these things up against the for sure facts that we are now responsible for the dead that come out of this and that we cannot afford to keep our social systems working, but we can afford to spend millions (at least) bombing other people to shit, in order to replace an unstable dictator (who dresses badly and rules an oil producing country with someone who will not be so unstable) I'm sure you see where on balance we could not not go to war.

Oh by the way, who else remembers that just two days ago we were arguing about whether or not we should be supporting a no fly zone. Before anything starts we ramp it up.

Tell Me Why People Are Such Assholes, Again?

As I think I've mentioned before I am a member of a (euphemism alert) 12 Step Program (I think that should be capitalized, but I'm not sure). We have what are called Steps (totally unnecessary to know what they are for this piece) and Traditions (only the fourth one is necessary for this piece).

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups

or (euphemism) as a whole.

There are two groups which meet in this church. I found myself part of the "leadership" (for want of a better word) of one of the groups. We have decided to put on workshops to help people complete the steps, which most people who come to these meeting do not manage to complete, ever.

The other group (or at least a couple of the members, both groups probably have a total of seven or nine active members together; of which five are in our group) has decided that we have broken traditions and they must do something about it. Although, it appears as though their main activists do not hold any positions at all. There have been threats to disrupt our meetings which requires more or less constant vigilance and the ability to go and confront people who might come and try to disrupt our meetings. Mentally exhausting.

They have managed to splinter their group within a fairly short time of deciding that they had to do something. They have driven one officer completely out of the 12 Step Program and another one out of their group. They had a three and a half hour meeting which alienated even more people who are relatively new to the program. Still those who are left can be, or at least seem to be, I'm not sure which, physically threatening. Actually, there is really little or nothing they can do officially, since the workshop has been adapted from one that has been given for more than a year all over the country. In addition since groups are autonomous when letters are sent to the World Office the response is: We understand your concerns, but you must understand that since each group is autonomous we take not position on this matter. Or words to that effect.

All groups seem to function in a spirit of comity until you get to know them and become involved in the way they are run. Politics is the name of the game where ever you are. It further seems to me that what ever you are involved in there is some one who is sure that they know what the rules are and that they are the one to enforce those rules, and for some reason they are always able to get followers. And then they are always able to get those followers to follow them into some sort of battle, even if it is only metaphorically a battle.

I Don't Know What Is The Matter With Me, Oh Wait. Yes I Do.

I've been hesitating to write and been thinking about things in my head, but I keep coming back to the same ole same ole. I would like to accomplish something before this toil of tears, etc. Another attorney in town just died suddenly "only" 78, which it turns out is a lot younger than it was ten years ago.

On the other hand I live in a WTF!!! world.

I keep looking around and seeing things going down hill. It might be the reason I choose to write about Grant's Memoirs last time. Would that I had a facility for end of the world humor. I could at least parlay that into some real money.

News that it looks like the polling in the various districts in Wisconsin show most of the republicans running ahead of the democrats is simply more of the: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Or: "I can hire half the working class to kill the other half."

Yesterday deciding to kill some time between clients without doing any real work I went cruising my "Fake Progressive" folder. I was looking to see if any of them had chosen to comment on Obama's firing of Crowley and his: "Oh well, if the people who are doing the torture tell me it isn't torture, then I guess it isn't. Is it Prof. Yoo?" statement.

I really didn't look that hard, but I didn't see anything except on Angry Black Lady who attacked Greenwald for as far as I can see bringing that point up and not others. Therefore directly leading to the loss of massive numbers of democratic office holders and the destruction of unions. Plus there are other people he just doesn't care about.

I commented, something I really shouldn't have done, and the response was interesting to say the least. However, the last one that I saw before posting here was a person who commented that they really couldn't bring themselves to believe that Obama approved Manning's treatment. That is incredibly sad.

Well, I made a second mistake and made some more comments. It makes, I expect no difference, but I sometimes cannot help myself. I find myself accused of defending Greenwald, something if he chooses I'm sure he can do all by himself. What interests me more is the way that the people there defend Obama or I as suspect they think it: Dear and Glorius Leader, and deny that anything is happening to Manning that isn't just okey dokey. And that apparently any criticisms of Dear and Glorious Leader are the cause of all evil that happens to his True Followers.

UPDATE: This will also probably prove that I am only trying to ape or defend Greenwald. I suspose I shouldn't have gone in on a post that was attacking Greenwald, but what caught my eye was the absolute refusal to hold Obama to any kind of standard at all, other than He must know what is right. Or perhaps, He does it therefore it is good and right. Therefore, STFU.

The other interesting line of "thought" if one can call it that, is that Obama doesn't have the time to think about this, even though he had already answered a question at a press conference which showed that he clearly know and had spoken to people about it.

Book Report

So much has been going on personally dealing with my Mother, taxes, various incompetents around me, two briefs that are due (actually past due, but I got continuances), and the second part of an eviction action, the damages part. The eviction thing was set for a hearing on money damages tomorrow, but my clients filed for bankruptcy which stays every case everywhere which involves them. The thing wasn't so much the stay, but the fact that neither my clients nor their bankruptcy attorney bothered to mention this to either me or to the court until yesterday even though the bankruptcy had been filed about a month and a half ago.

Through all this I've been reading Grant's Memoirs. Down loaded it for free from Gutenberg.org, for my ereader. I've read abridged versions of them before, but this is the first time I've read the unabridged version. It is even a little more interesting because I also got Twain's Autobiography for Xmas and it begins with a description of the publication of the Memoirs.

The abridged versions I've read cut out the parts that are the most fun, and concentrate on his versions of the battles. I'm not saying that those are not fascinating, but the discussion of the abilities of the various generals and the politics involved in the war and the early chapters about the Mexican War in particular are both fun and fascinating.

The first thing that comes out is the very dry humor of the guy. He mostly makes fun of himself. At one point stating that he joined a charge against the Mexican Army which just happened to be ordered while he was visiting the front (not a place where his orders took him) because he did not have the moral courage not to. At another point, at the beginning of the Civil War, he continued an advance because he again did not have the moral courage to stop and try to figure out what other thing he might do. This second incident was the one where he got to the location he thought the enemy was to find the enemy had fled and realized that the enemy commander was as afraid as he was. Something he said that he never forgot. There are several other points, particularly in the early parts of the book that are quite funny.

At other points he makes very clear that he completely understands that fighting a war as a democracy is much different than fighting a war as a kingdom or dictatorship. His explanation of the Vicksburg campaign and the reasons he fought it the way he did is as insightful as any I've ever seen as to what needed to be done and how this kind of war had be fought. He understood that for the Union to win the Union had to completely defeat the Confederates. The Confederates only had to keep from losing for long enough to tire out the Union and they would win. Something that Lincoln also understood, but not I think Stanton or Halleck, nor for that matter most of the other earlier commanders of the Union Armies. Grant was quite clear on this. He thought both Stanton and Halleck "timid" while he, Sherman, and Lincoln he clearly thought were not "timid."

His explanation for why he crossed the Mississippi and cut loose from his base of supplies is straight and simple. There had been a number of Union reverses, the republicans had lost the mid-terms to mostly anti war people and conscription had, of necessity, just recently been instituted in the North. His choice was to retreat to set up a secure base and then advance on Vicksburg or do as he did (against it might be stated every one's advice, even Sherman the only general, I think he didn't criticize at some point). In other words, he had to advance and win and he had to do it then.

His admiration of the American soldier was clear and I think sincere. He said that the differences between the American soldiers in the Armies he commanded and the European soldiers of his day was that the American soldiers and the Europeans could both fight like machines, but that the Americans thought and cared about and understood the cause they were fighting for.

The one sentence description of his respect for the valor of the Southern troops which also puts their cause in perspective is possibly the best I've ever seen for doing that kind of thing. The single sentence saying that never had men fought more bravely for a more unjust cause is as powerful as any I've seen in giving the common soldier all the respect he deserves for his bravery, but still pointing out how unjust was the cause for which he fought. He gives no respect to the southern cause, but a great deal to the average southern soldier.

Finally, the prose is as clear, clean, crisp and direct as any I have read anywhere. There are a fair amount of copies of his orders included in the Memoirs and they are clear and to the point. I find myself writing better after reading him (and Gore Vidal).

Now on to Keith Richards' Memoirs.

Work

Client: You can see from this grade card that my husband shouldn't have our daughter she is getting "F's."

Me: F's? It looks like she's got A's and B's.

Client: Look here an F in grammer.

Me: Grammer, where?

Client: There you see the box.

Me: Oh there?

Client: Yes right there:

GENDER

F

Odds and Ends

Down in Florida and every time I come down here and make the turn to go down the street that leads to my parent's (my Mom's now) condo I remember the first time I turned down that road, in the early 70s, and there running beside the car was a wild boar. Now at that same corner there are some doctor's offices, a gas station, a city building, and more offices. I have to continually remind myself how much time has passed.

One of the first times I was down here I went to the local liquor store (locally owned, now there is a large ABC Liquor store in the mall) to buy some champagne for some holiday or the other. We were getting some Moet and the guy told us his story. During World War II he and a platoon that he was part of had liberated the baron (?) Moet and had spent the next week or so drinking and partying at the chateau. Since then (up to that time) he and he figured all the other guys in his platoon had gotten a case of champagne from the baron (?) each year for VE day. The guy had a nose that looked like he drank at least a case much more frequently than once a year.

I finished Screening History by Vidal. Although he is a wonderful writer, in the end his vision is incredibly dark and depressing. Essentially, his argument is simply that the United States is owned by a ruling class. If you are lucky enough to be born or to be adopted in one way or another into that class you can, if you choose, decide to run the country no matter what the rest of us want.

He has argued for years that we live in neither a real democracy nor a real republic. Rather it is a true oligarchy of power and wealth. Of course, like any oligarchy that expects to last more than a generation it does find it necessary to let in the odd sycophant (hi Misters Obama and Clinton) in and their families, after all there is enough money to go around, if you count around as the top 5% or so. He would I think agree with my frequently made point that the democrats will fight to the last to keep abortion safe and legal for the wealthy woman.

Political Arteriosclerosis

Arteriosclerosis of the political mind.

I do need to watch what I'm doing and what I'm writing. I've been reading two books skipping back and forth between them. Lost and Found by Alan Dean Foster and Screening History by Gore Vidal. I've also just finished reading Williwaw also by Vidal.

Lost and Found treated me to some very interesting nightmares last night, but reading Vidal is much more dangerous. I end up attempting to write like him and since I possess neither his wit nor his facility with language the results can sometimes be a little less than inspiring.

I continue my attempt to differentiate between my own deterioration and hardening of my very own arteries and those of my country and its people no matter how young.

Today the local paper's headline (as it will be every day this week) told us about speed week, but never fear the secondary headline assured us that the president is "Chipping Away at the Deficit." On the other hand the republican's do not think that he has screwed the middle class enough and demand more cuts to what we laughingly call social services in this country.

I remember as a conservative teenager who was very interested in politics reading the rants which appeared in my local rural paper (a real paper at the time) about how the deficit was destroying our country and how it needed to be cut back and the country needed to be run as a business. Else we would be doomed. It came to me at the time that we were (then) the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world and had gotten that way while running a massive deficit. So began my economic education. I have been provided no facts that might cause me to change my mind since then.

In the meantime the right whose mindless twaddle merely clogged some minor blood vessels in my childhood seems to have managed to completely block the major arteries to the brain in my senior years so that we now all live in a kind country controlled by senile dementia.

On the Road Again

Scary Brown Guys Doing Scary Stuff

Out and about. Down in Florida and using an unsecured Internet from some condo around here. It claims to only have about a fifth of the connectivity possible, but it is faster than then mine at home. Hmmm.

Following Egypt and the strange goings on, not in Egypt, but in America's reaction to it. Today apparently we are happy with the democratic revolt as evidenced by the military over throwing Mubarak to replace him with, who? I'm a little behind, are we still backing the 25 year secret police and torturer as the last best hope for democracy in Egypt? I've been following the whole thing by reading headlines in the various newspapers that are on sale next to the Interstate in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Interesting points (or in reality should I say point) of view. In Daytona the secondary headline of the local Sunday paper was that Israel felt safe with the Egyptian Army taking control. That says it.

Egypt and the revolts in Egypt and the other countries in the region are pretty much the most important things going on in the world right now. I keep thinking of the revolts of 1848 and 1968 and wonder if this will be another round of very brief liberal flowerings followed by generations of repression and reaction, or I guess not. At least I don't get paid a lot of money to say things like that. I'm just a hick from the middle of the good old U.S. of A. who has never been there so I have to rely on the news media to tell me what is happening and we know that the news media mostly make up what is happening. Hell, they mostly make up everything about Egypt.

I mean isn't Egypt a county that is moving toward the middle class life style we are all aspiring to be a part of with a mostly free, although slightly (ever so slightly) authoritarian government which the people when given the opportunity are happy to vote back in? Or is it all hooey?

I kind of feel the way I feel when people try to get me into a discussion of a film or book that is very controversial and I haven't seen or read. Like say The Passion of the Christ. Of course in that case I guess I could have seen the movie, but I really didn't feel like it.

So as far as I know it is entirely possible that the entire thing only is a fiction designed to raise my gas prices.

The one thing I can say for sure is that the reaction of Americans is something to behold. Listening to NPR last week on the way to work I listened to a woman who claimed to be a student who had been in Egypt for only a couple of weeks when the revolt broke out. He area of study was middle eastern studies. She was desperate to leave and was waiting at the air port for a plane out to anywhere. How sad. Had I been in her shoes at her age there is no question that no matter how stupid it might be I would have stayed there and watched history unfold. What could she teach if and when she gets her degree?

There was another NPR commentator who seemed to be surprised that the demonstrators would stay in the streets even though it was possible that their pay checks for that week might not be available.

Mostly of course, it was how this might affect the American Empire, although no one called it by that name. Empire is not a word that is used in polite society. We are merely worried that the people in Egypt might not be mature enough to elect a government that would adequately protect the interests of the average person and hold those in power to the same standards as the average citizen.

Not Quite There Yet

I Am Just Tired Some Times

I honestly do not know why I engage in these comment wars at various neo-liberal blogs. Just now I have been enraged concerning the treatment of Jane Hamsher and David House. Not so much their treatment per se, but rather the simple out of control use of power by the military and by the government in denying a visitor to David Manning and thereby continuing and intensifying his torture by his jailers.

Interestingly, the guy who "runs" or at least started Balloon Juice is, himself enraged. Angry Black Lady, a poster and the majority of the commentators on his site, want to blame Hamsher and House. (There are also a not insignificant minority of commentators who have already convicted Manning, but that is for another post[or not].)

The problem seems to be that Jane came out opposing Obama Care and called out Obama on his lies concerning his promises. Now she can do no right.

Another problem is that these people have so invested themselves in Obama and the democratic party that they cannot even begin to seriously criticize them.

For the record she and House were stopped because, according to the marines, her license plates were out of date and she did not have proof of insurance. Given the fact that apparently she drives House to visit Manning regularly, and they have accepted her proof of insurance before that is a bogus claim by the marines. If her plates were indeed out of date, they would only have been by a couple of days and it should not have entailed holding House past the visiting time. Further, there is no one arguing that the cops didn't tell them that their orders were coming from on high.

Yet, even raising these points multiple times simply doesn't matter it is just that Jane Hamsher is so......you know. Kind of icky and not in the in crowd. There were a few who did start eventually insist that they just attack Jane because she is so not cool, and that she isn't you know, you know? Well one thing I do know is that she is braver than any of the commentators, myself included. It is clear at this point that the government is determined to destroy anyone who is connected with Manning and WikiLeaks and will violate all sorts of treaties, laws, and rights to do so. Yet, for so many of the people writing about it, the important thing seems to be that Jane Hamsher is a bitch and is self aggrandizing (interestingly enough the second complaint was made and probably still is made about Jesse Jackson).

Oh yeah, mandatory Greenwald link, who the commentators and posters at Balloon Juice make fun of because he uses too many words.

Drugs

Heard in the Court House today:

Client: I should get a better deal. I wouldn't do things if it wasn't for this drug problem. Nobody knows that I've got this drug problem, if they did they'd be more sympathetic to my problems.

Me: Every god damn body in this Court House knows you have a drug problem. Derelicts using the public restrooms know you have a drug problem. It is just that nobody cares.

Client: Your fired.

Inside Baseball

So like I got into a big argument with a couple of bloggers about the Assange rape charges. In fact it (the argument and response not the case itself) is a kind off strange example of incest (I think, at least that is the best metaphor I can think of) I was in an argument in the comments on one blog and then find that the next day the blogger has another essay on Assange. He links to another blog and I turn out to be linked on the second blog to an argument I made on the first blog (which linked to the second blog which then linked back to the first blog, or actually my comment on the first one). Interesting, to say the least.

Well, I was accused of being a "fanboi" and a fanatic, not I think the same thing although I'm not sure (that's on the second blog, on the first one I was accused of being a not very bright 14 year old). My crime, (which I may be mistaken about, although I don't think so) is to doubt the story of the women accusers and to raise the spector of assumption of innocence as far as the accused is concerned.

The second blog makes the point that if I am arguing for a presumption of innocence for Assange, then I should also grant the accusers the same presumption. That is therefore, I have to completely forgo an opinion in the matter. Perhaps, but I don't think so. Although perhaps I shouldn't phrase my argument in terms of "presumption of innocence."

I do think that I can make certain assumptions about things, by viewing how the world works and just what is going on here. Like Officer Leaphorn I don't believe in coincidences. Assange and WikiLeaks have been the recipients of incredible attacks by the powers that run this world, I do not have to go into them, but they are extraordinary and beyond anything I have ever seen.

I suppose I should admit that I hope he isn't guilty, although I would think that would be obvious, but perhaps not. At any rate up to this point we have the allegations and the blanket denials and that is about all. No I really think it is. We have police reports, but those are usually simply raw data which can't be relied on. It is possible that I may find my mind changed as the evidence comes out, but for the time being I'll go with my experiences in this world and the knowledge that my government is capable of anything, and that there are people who for whatever reason will be willing to do this government's dirty work. And I will not treat them as equals in terms of whose story I should believe at this point, and it isn't the story of the accusers.

UPDATE: I think that an argument being made is that "rape is different." And therefore a person who files a complaint of being raped should not be held to the same standard as others who claim to be victims of a crime. Internal inconsistencies in a person's statements and actions are some of the things we use to help us determine whether or not to believe what people say. Therefore, if one throws a party for a guy she said raped her several days prior to the party, or if she scrubs her twitter and blog accounts of favorable comments made about the rapist after the alleged rape then this should not, apparently be taken as an indication that she may not be telling the whole truth about the crime itself. At least not as far as these alleged victims are concerned.

The point I'm making is that the defenders of these women are not requiring the same kind of consistency they would require of any other alleged victim is concerned. It is a kind of infantilization of these women and a variation of the "children don't lie" meme that was around on child abuse cases some time ago. It works quite well for the reactionaries who run our government here, as they can use the natural sympathies of liberals to do their work for them.

Barack Obama's New Year's Resolutions

This came from a super secret unnamed White House source because he (or she) just wants to look like they are really important to themselves and to the person they leaked the stuff to without getting blamed for it, if he (or she) gets caught and it back fires:

1. Try to really act like I give a shit about anybody who makes less than a million a year.

2. This year really look like I know how the fuck to negotiate at the same time I give everything I claimed to want away before negotiations really start.

3. Keep all secret deals with various industries and corporations secret for at least six months after I make them so I can screw the general populace before any of those fucking bloggers find out.

4. Start another war that I can really call my own.

5. Convince the rubes that I'm trying to save Social Security, while I cut it some more.

6. Shoot a man in Yemen just to watch him die.

7. Squish those Assange and Manning fuckers like bugs.

8. Give even more tax cuts to the most wealthy while I continue to convince the rest of America that it really is for their own good.

9. Get Wall Street and the rest of big business to yell really loud about how they are being destroyed by my socialist policies so the average democrat will really think I'm doing something.

11. Get down on my knees and thank god that "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."