Some Simple Questions After Obama's Afghanistan War Speech

The "kids" in that audience at West Point are there to learn how to be an officer in the US Army. They are not there to learn candy making, needle-point or carpentry. And as we should know by now, paraphrasing Gen. George S. Patton, the "job" of a soldier is not to die for his country but to make sure the other poor s.o.b. dies for his.



Moreover I am certain the vast majority of those West Point cadets are willing to go themselves, so, David, your bleed heart concern is wasted upon the likes of them. From their vantage point it is their job to kill the bad guys over there so you and I can go about our merry way protesting their deployment over here. I know it is a rather simplistic and illogical view point but it is one drilled into their heads nonetheless. Anyway the media, politicians of every stripe and even dedicated anti-war activists universally hale these young stalwarts heroes so why should they lay down arms?



Thanks in large measure to the Vietnam anti-war movement's embrace of the Milton J. Friedman-invented All Volunteer Force in 1973 today's anti-war movement has very little to no stock in the uniformed services. Combat experience in little wars is the surest method for advancement up the ranks for a soldier or Marine. If the nation does not end the AVF experiment these little wars will never end.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama's Afghan War Plan: Nine Key Points

War may not be good for children or other living things but it is a godsend for anyone making a career of the military.



War is particularly good for officers. Rank and pay grade during war is on a constant upward arc for those who survive combat. And there is always a cushy managerial position in the civilian world, with full retirement, at the end of a successful career.



Sadly there is no disincentive for the current All Volunteer Force to stop waging little wars. Nor is there any incentive for our politicians, especially those who regularly get re-elected by grandstanding over flag-draped coffins, to end little wars in countries with no strategic importance to the security of the United States.



Those of us opposed to these little wars can protest all we want. It will do no good. Not enough Americans have invested loved ones in these little wars. And anyway the brainwashed professionals of the AVF like to say the reason they are killing people over there is so we have the "freedom" to protest over here. The anti-war activists' plea to "bring the boys, and girls, home safely," is only hear by its own choir, the members of the AVF are stone deaf to it.



The only thing that may end this national madness is a total economic collapse, and I can not foresee that happening any time soon.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

What After All Do Americans Mean When They Say They Love "Liberty"?

What After All Do Americans Mean When They Say They Love "Liberty"?

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The Distressing State of Our National Discourse

The Distressing State of Our National Discourse

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Jonathan Narcisse, Democrat. Since when?

Ready for a "WTF???" moment?

Des Moines Democrat says “someone” should run against Culver

Yeah, well, that's not too surprising in itself seeing how Chet has alienated the coalition that got him elected. The surprising thing is the "Democrat" doing the "saying."

On Monday, Jonathan Narcisse told The Des Moines Register that Culver has been a “reckless and irresponsible” governor and “any Democrat who loves the state must call on someone to run against Culver.”
RadioIowa.com

Imagine that, Jonathan Narcisse a Democrat. I think Narcisse is a Democrat in the mold of Joe Lieberman. However, Narcisse's open-letter to Doug Vander Plaats is insightful and correct, but a broken clock is right twice a day.

Actually, from the overall tenor of Narcisse's missive to Vander Plaats and he's past record I think it's safe to say he is working for Terry Bransted's election next year.

Why does Karl Rove hate the USA?

Well, George Dubya Bush's favorite turd blossom is still collecting a check. This time from the Wall Street Journal, the tabloid bible of the Investor class.

Today we find Rove cheer leading for the United States' economic collapse as he raises the specter of the "scary" federal budget deficit.

After engineering an unprecedented spending surge for nearly a year, President Barack Obama now wants to signal that he takes deficits seriously. So this week the White House announced that it is considering creating a commission to figure how to fix the budget mess.

Anger over deficits was picked up in a late October NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, which asked voters if they'd rather boost "the economy even though it may mean larger budget deficits" or keep the "budget deficit down, even though it may mean it will take longer for the economy to recover." Only 31% chose boosting the economy; 62% wanted to keep the deficit down.

Ominously for Democrats, concerns over spending have recently helped to flip the Gallup generic ballot to now favor Republicans by four points (48% to 44%). Last year, Democrats held a 12-point generic ballot advantage. The change has been driven by independents, who now favor Republicans by 22 points. By comparison, in the run-up to the 1994 congressional elections, Republicans first eclipsed Democrats in March of that year, when they gained a one-point advantage, before falling behind Democrats until the fall.

Mr. Obama's spending choices are dragging congressional Democrats into ugly electoral territory where many are likely to meet a brutal fate next fall.
WSJ.com

Now Rove may be right when he pens The change has been driven by independents, who now favor Republicans by 22 points. So-called political "independents" in the United States are a fickle lot who always put person comfort and income before the good of the country. The most extreme of these crybabies are the so-called "teabaggers," the Sarah Palin-skirt sniffers who have had more than their fair share of TV face time.

Now if Karl had been paying any attention at all to balancing federal budgets he might have typed in "balanced budget dangerous for economy" in his Google search bar, he might have stumbled on this Business Week op-ed by Robert Kuttner from 1996:

A balanced budget requirement, especially one locked into the Constitution, would deepen recessions. Federal spending now provides countercyclical elastic to buffer business cycles automatically. In recessions, state and local revenues fall, and the demand for public expenditure rises. Increased federal outlays operate as automatic stabilizers, rising as state income falls. A constitutional amendment mandating budget balance would throw that process into reverse.

In recessions, the federal government, like the states, would have to reduce its own spending to match reduced revenues. Federal fiscal policy would become pro-cyclical instead of countercyclical.

A balanced budget requirement, especially one locked into the Constitution, would deepen recessions. Federal spending now provides countercyclical elastic to buffer business cycles automatically. In recessions, state and local revenues fall, and the demand for public expenditure rises. Increased federal outlays operate as automatic stabilizers, rising as state income falls. A constitutional amendment mandating budget balance would throw that process into reverse.

In recessions, the federal government, like the states, would have to reduce its own spending to match reduced revenues. Federal fiscal policy would become pro-cyclical instead of countercyclical.

Public discourse about the deficit is now out of sync with fiscal reality. With Congress and the White House moving toward balancing the budget via the appropriations process, the great deficit crisis is ending. It was a product of the fiscal imbalance of the '80s and early '90s. That, in turn, was a monument to the failure of supply-side economics. But thanks to the deficit reduction of the Clinton years, the budget is now on a sustainable path. We are nearly back to where government can again use fiscal as well as monetary policy as tools of economic management.

So there you have it. As cogent reason for continuing deficit spending until the current financial and economic crisis has passed.

Yet for a short-term political advantage, Republican control of both houses of the federal Congress, Rove and the entire wing nut universe is willing to risk the total economic collapse of the nation and the economic ruin of the very class of Americans who subscribe to this simplistic economic point of view.

A Special Message to Joe Lieberman from His Roommate at Yale

A Special Message to Joe Lieberman from His Roommate at Yale

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Obama To Copenhagen For Climate Talks (BREAKING)

This wouldn't be news if the American people had re-elected Jimmy Carter in 1980.



By this time, if Carter had won a second term, at least 20 or more percent of our electricity would be wind generated. Yet today a paltry 1 .3 % of our electricity is wind generated.



So who do we blame for this development?



If you are a Boomer or a GenXer look in the mirror. It was us who wanted the SUVs and the "shining city on the hill" and to continue living on The Big Rock Candy Mountain we had grown up on.



Our Fifties and Sixties lifestyle was paid for by WWII-era tax rates on the rich and industry, but since we Boomers and GenXers were just kids we had no idea where all the money for our great public schools, public swimming pools, Interstate highways and rockets to the Moon came from. It was all there, always and seemingly free.



So we voted for Ronald Reagan and lower taxes, from which the middle class benefited little, and began the long, slow decline into the Third World.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Brainsdead 2

Health Care Payola - The Daily Beast

Health Care Payola - The Daily Beast

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US Debt A 'Phantom Menace,' Krugman Argues

The hyperventilating over the budget "deficit," is a calculated strategy by forces on Wall Street, certain wealthy right wing upper one percent families and individuals (Rupert Murdoch, Richard Mellon Scaife, Charles G. Koch among others) and their dupes to push the United States into the final stages of what I call "free market" feudalism; i.e. an economic state in which the only legitimate function left for government is the police, the courts and the military, all other services now provided by government will be in the hands of "private" industry or nonexistent.



Krugman is right, the only solution to pull the US out of the current economic doldrum is a large dose of deficit spending. But since the Nineteen Eighties Republicans for the most part and so-called "deficit hawk" Democrats have increasingly tied any administration's hands from providing that remedy with so-called "balanced budget" legislation. The states are in worse financial shape as GOP dominated legislatures have pushed through "balanced budget" amendments.



One of the surest-fire methods to restore health and prosperity to the economy, besides a complete overhaul of the federal tax code, current skewed for the benefit of the wealthiest upper one per cent of the trust fund baby crowd, is a federal jobs program modeled after FDR's Civilian conservation Corps and the Works Projects Administration. It is far better, as John Maynard Kayne's said, for "The government should pay people to dig holes in the ground and then fill them up."
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

How to Get Out of Afghanistan

How to Get Out of Afghanistan

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Brainsdead

Well here he is, folks, the Iowa Republican Party's great white hope for recapturing Terrace Hill, Terry Branstad.

Here's what the Web site Iowa Knows Better.com has on Terry's record as governor:

■Branstad raised the sales tax – twice! In his first year in office, Branstad raised the sales tax by 25%.[1] It would not be the last time. He went back to the tax well over and over, increasing the sales tax 67%[2] as Governor.

■Branstad raised the gas tax on Iowa drivers. Branstad wasn't afraid to add to the pain at the pump for Iowans. During his tenure, he raised the gasoline tax by a total of five cents per gallon.[3]

■Terry Branstad even proposed a state income tax on Social Security recipients.[4]

■Branstad kept two sets of books. Branstad was hammered in the press and public for keeping two sets of books for the state[5] and running up a deficit of more than $400 million.[6] These days, voters will not tolerate this type of "creative accounting."

■Branstad's employees had to sue him to get what they had earned. When, during his tenure, Iowa’s budget was in deficit, Branstad decided to balance the budget on the backs of hardworking state employees. They were denied pay they had earned, sued Governor Branstad - and won.[7] Getting Branstad to do right by employees was never an easy task.

■Branstad used to think bonding was fine. Branstad now criticizes the Culver/Judge Administration for stimulating Iowa's economy through the I-JOBS bonding package. Branstad fails to tell Iowans he used the bonding practice for state projects.[8] Throughout his tenure, Branstad embraced bonding, a practice he now conveniently condemns.

Of course Terry's the Iowa Republican establishment's boy. And like all Republicans he's an accomplished liar, see above, but this year Terry will definitely have primary challengers in the form of weaselly-little-asshole Chris Rants, Bible-thumping businessman Bob Vander Plaats, both of Sioux City, and three non-entities. The Sarah Palin-skirt sniffers' money is on two-time gubernatorial primary loser and Mike Huckabee-fluffer Vander Plaats.

Current Democratic Governor Chet Cluver ain't the most popular guy but compared with the pack of lunatics wanting his job...Well, from where I sit he just may win re-election.

Frank Rich: Sarah Palin, The Pit Bull In The China Shop

Congratulations to Frank Rich for being the one US journalist to have the temerity to wade though Sarah Palin's so-called "book."



While we may ridicule Ms Palin for her vacuous celebrity worship, petty family infighting, childish religiosity and willfull ignorance the fact of the matter is that she represents a segment of American society whose values she is but a mere reflection. In a sane society this deluded minority would be treated as a crank fringe dangerous only to themselves.



However, we do not live in a sane society. Here the mainstream media, at the behest of their corporate overlords, present this sliver of Americans who sniff the hem of Sarah Palin's skirt as being at the forefront of political thought. These whiny, petty cases of arrested development, who want all the benefits and comforts of a modern industrial society but without paying for it, are cast in the role "authentic" Americans, thereby making the rest of us somehow foreign, strange, out of touch with these "real" Americans.



As Rich observes, "It’s a politics of victimization and sloganeering with no policy solutions required beyond the conservative mantra of No Taxes." The sad irony is that the more taxes are cut for the benefit of Wall Street and Inside the DC Beltway elites, the more Sarah Palin's skirt sniffers suffer. And they just never get it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Why The U.S. Should Accept Defeat And Start Withdrawing From Afghanistan

Look, the other day after Abdullah Abdullah withdrew from the run-off election slated for this Saturday Secreatry of State Clinton and then the administration declared Hamid Karzi the legitimate winner of the Afghan presidential election. This struck me as analogous to a presidential election in the recent US past, 2000 Bush v. Gore. Karzi's legitimacy rests on a decision of US officials.



This being the case perhaps the Obama administration should declare victory, as Karzi was "officially" elected by the Afghan "people," and get the heck out of Kabul.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

On Political Independents

My longtime working definition of an American political "independent" is a Republican who is too lazy to volunteer to campaign for their favorite GOP candidate and too cheap to donate to their favorite GOP candidate.

Over the years I've added the addendum that, by and large, these same so-called "independents" are suburban, white and professional, or coordinator, middle class, i.e. mid-level corporate managers, doctors, lawyers, small business owners, insurance agents and so on. In short the base of the Glenn Beck "teabagger" movement.

They are motivated by greed. Even though the majority are comfortable economically and have incomes which puts them in the alternative minimum tax, AMT, bracket, they always want more. These are the folks who are always whining at the "tea parties," that "we know how to spend our money better than the government."

And they are motivated by envy. Curiously they envy and begrudge the poorest segments of society. Envious in that "independents" envision the poor living the life of Reilly on food stamps and welfare and begrudging ever one of their tax dollars they imagine going to support that imagined lifestyle.

What American "independents" secretly and really want is to live on The Big Rock Candy Mountain, paying no tax yet still receiving all the services and benefits only government can provide.

To that I add that the reason why establishment Democratic politicians and liberal commentators are blind to the economic class element of Glenn Beck-Ayn Rand acolytes is because they are of the same socio-economic class: white, suburban, professional or coordinator class with a commensurate income and social status. And while not as odious as their fellow Beck-Randites, having a social conscience, they do everything to preserve their social status and income, i.e. tax incentives, deductions, credits etc. Establishment Democrats/liberals too want to continue living on The Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Ahmed Wali Karzai Walks on Water While Marc Emery Goes to Prison: The Double Standards of the War on Drugs and the Historical Pattern of U.S. Complicity in the Global Narcotics Traffic

Ahmed Wali Karzai Walks on Water While Marc Emery Goes to Prison: The Double Standards of the War on Drugs and the Historical Pattern of U.S. Complicity in the Global Narcotics Traffic

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The Cost of Empire

The Cost of Empire

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Weimar America

"Our democracy is under attack. Men in high public office and with control over our national airwaves are deliberately stoking a potentially violent movement opposed to our democratic process. They challenge the legitimacy of the last election, they label our elected leaders with the worst political curse words they can think of, they encourage the purchase of weapons at local gun shops and talk of secession in the capitals.

"You don’t have to be a Holocaust-obsessed Jewish academic to see what is going on. Or to remember that German mainstream conservatives were so opposed to the liberal reforms pushed by the democratic system Weimar system that they thought they could harness a violent radical and hateful movement to win political advantage. They were stupid. But we would be stupider the second time around."
Steve Hochstadt
Weimar America

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Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

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Creigh Deeds Making Virginia Dems Wish They'd Picked Terry McAuliffe

Several things in this news story illustrate the sorry state of American politics and the electorate.



First: "[Terry] McAuliffe came into the race with a huge financial network that he built on the part of the Clintons; and in the unlikely event that his network had not come through for him, he had enough of a private fortune that he would have been able to help himself."



In other words, in the world of US politics the race does not go to the best and brightest, it goes to the one with the deepest pockets. One the the reasons for the growing cynicism on the part of the average voter is the perception that state and national political campaigns are merely the domain of competing members of the same socio-economic class, i.e. the suburban coordinator class, to the exclusion of everyone else.



Second: "Perhaps the single most politically devastating moment for Mr. Deeds was when he gave a halting and fumbling answer...about whether he would raise taxes to pay for repairing the state’s transportation system. Republicans have used clips from it to produce two of the most devastating advertisements of the campaign, raising questions at once about his views on taxes..."



The sorriest fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Americans want to live on The Big Rock Candy Mountain. We want everything government provides without paying for it. Therefore as voters we truly get what we pay for.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Consortiumnews.com

"Does anyone on the Left seriously believe that a President John McCain or a President Hillary Clinton would have promoted peace as much as Obama has?

"And when it comes to a country as powerful as the United States, gradations matter; they can be the difference between untold numbers of people living or dying, as Election 2000 should have made clear, when some on the Left said there was "not a dime's worth of difference" between Bush and Al Gore. "
Robert Parry

Consortiumnews.com

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Ayn Rand Redux

Ayn Rand Redux

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Middle class squeeze: The deep roots of an economic and social transformation -- DailyFinance

Middle class squeeze: The deep roots of an economic and social transformation -- DailyFinance

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Second Great Depression Still Possible: <I>The Financial Times</i>

Yes, it will get worse before it gets better. In fact the coming economic collapse, because the economy has not truly collapsed as yet, will make the "recession" of last year look like a child's tea party.



As for the public sector contraction, it is happening in my state. Our less-than-popular Democratic governor has instituted a ten per cent across the board cut to all state departments because of a short fall in tax revenue collection. Lay-offs will likely fall heaviest on unionized state workers, who do not lover our Democratic governor in the first place, putting added strain on the already overtaxed unemployment insurance fund.



Our governor's potential Republican opponents, however, offer the typical GOP response to economic crisis: cut public spending even more, especially to social services such as child care, job training, drug counseling and so on. The irony lost on the typical Republican politician is, many in the GOP base, rural whites, rely on Depart of Human Services programs.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The “Tea Party” Movement and Its Misuse of History

The “Tea Party” Movement and Its Misuse of History

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McCain must not know about the Internet

Either Arizona Senator John McCain hasn't learned about the existence of the Internet yet or he thinks, and perhaps rightly so, Americans have the memory span of a gnat. Or, to be generous, perhaps the good Senator is exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's' disease for there must be a reason for this:

McCain: big troop buildup needed in Afghanistan
By CHARLES BABINGTON (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain says President Barack Obama will make a huge error if he does not substantially increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan

McCain said he did not think the United States can win in Afghanistan unless Obama sends at least 40,000 more troops to augment the 68,000 now there. He agreed with those who see 40,000 new troops as the desire of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, although McChrystal gave Obama a range of options.
October 11, 2009

Here's why Senator McCain's position on sending more troops to Afghanistan is rather puzzling: back in the Nineties the Arizona senator as something akin to a pacifist.

You see back during Bill Clinton's presidency after the Blackhawk down incident in Mogadishu, Somalia, the ex-Naval aviator and POW said things like, "The longer we stay the more difficult it will be to leave. The loss of American lives is not only tragic, it is needless." and "Now is the time for us to get out of Somalia, as rapidly, and as promptly, and as safely as possible."

A few months later, when Clinton sent troops to Haiti peace-dove McCain was for getting them right back out.

Then when Clinton decided it was time that US forces intervene in Bosnia, hippie-boy Johnny said something like this , "I think you can draw a parallel to the military challenge in Bosnia with what the Russians faced in Afghanistan. Even with ground forces and with overwhelming air superiority, they were unable to defeat a motivated, very capable enemy."

So what could cause this most pacifistic of US Senators from the Nineties into a saber-rattling war monger he is today? Politics. The nature of today's Republican Party is to be contrarian on anything and everything which any Democratic politician proposes. It's just all a shadow-puppet show for the masses anyway. The real power is on Wall Street so who cares what an aging senator sliding into senility says or how many kids in the All Volunteer Force get ground up into so much hamburger.

The Newt Pornographer Strikes Back: Gingrich Named Porn Fan of the Year by Scorned Dinner Date

The Newt Pornographer Strikes Back: Gingrich Named Porn Fan of the Year by Scorned Dinner Date

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Where are the "moderate" Republicans?

Today the burning question on the lips of all the talking heads--he wrote as he listened to David Byrne--is, "Where are the moderate Republicans?"

Indeed where are the "moderate," I guess meaning those expressing a willingness to compromise, Republicans?

Simple answer, the Democratic Party.

It should come as no surprise to pundits, commentators and the other various and assorted wise guys and gals of the mainstream media that from about 1980 until now the Reagan-Norquist-Limbaugh wing of the Republican Party has, with the exception of say an Olympia Snow, driven any semblance of moderation from the party of Lincoln. And actually this migration began long before the ascendancy of the great deity, Ronald Reagan.

In a word the migration of the moderate wing of the Republican Party began, truly began, the night of December 1, 1969 when the first Nixonian draft lottery was drawn. I was 1-A at the time and living in the Hillcrest dorm on the campus of the University of Iowa. And oh, the moaning and groaning I heard in the TV room. Of course the college campuses blew up afterward when it was disclosed US forces had widened the war by invading Cambodian, then the shooting of four demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio. But I digress.

The effect of Vietnam was that many young men and women from Republican voting households switched allegiance to the Democratic Party, at least the peace wing. Our current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is a good example of that kind of individual.

So to answer the musical question, where are the moderate Republicans? There ain't any.

snopes.com: Mayo Clinic Warns of Swine Flu Pandemic

snopes.com: Mayo Clinic Warns of Swine Flu Pandemic

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Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!

Cornell West said as much on "New Rules with Bill Maher," last night.



It is incumbent upon us, the people who elected President Obama, to keep him on the course we want, not one set by the corporations or by the Pentagon or by political action committees.



We do not elect dictators. We elect chief executives who are to carry out the will of the people. And the best way under our Constitution the will of the people can be carried out is by electing Representatives and Senators who understand what the will of the people is, and 2010 represents an opportunity expand progressive representation.



And we must keep pressure on President Obama through our letters, phone calls and emails. We can not let up on this guy for a minute. When he screws up, tell him.



And we must set aside our American need for instant gratification. We mandate the president and Congress to undo thirty to forty years of pro-corporate corruption and that will take time because we do not elect dictators.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Peter Beinart: Bury the Vietnam Analogy

Peter Beinart: Bury the Vietnam Analogy

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Analogies for War: Vietnam and Afghanistan

Analogies for War: Vietnam and Afghanistan

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To rat fuck the Iowa GOP or not?

Look, incumbent Governor Chet Culver hasn't been all that good of Democrat. In fact I more or less predicted as much, a Culver governorship wouldn't be much different than that of his conservative '06 Republican rival Jim Nussel. Christ I hate being right.

But the thing is Iowans seem to like bland, go-along-to-get-along politicians in Terrace Hill and Chet kind of fits the amiable bumbler mold. But Chet stabbed one of his natural constituencies, organized labor, in the back with his veto of the "Fair Share" bill.

So with Chet's future looking cloudy goes this bit of sunshine for Iowa's Republicans.

Former Gov. Terry Branstad's formation Wednesday of a committee to explore running for governor exposed tension among Iowa Republicans over who would be the best candidate to take on Democrat incumbent Chet Culver as a steward of the budget.

By forming a campaign organization with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, Branstad took a step toward launching a comeback campaign, a move expected to whittle the field, although none of the six contenders already campaigning for the nomination quit the race Wednesday.

In 1992, Branstad admitted making mistakes in handling the state's budget, and later that year signed his administration's second sales tax increase to help close a $400 million gap.
The Des Moines Register.com, Thomas Beaumont, October 8, 2009

In today's political climate, however, to red meat Republicans, i.e. wing nuts, Branstad is little more than a Democrat under false pretenses.

So the question is: Should Democrats re-register as Republicans during the primary and vote for squirrel-bait bastard Chris Rants or let the Republicans bloody themselves?

I know, I know a lot of folks on the ideologically pure left don't buy the less-of-two-evils theory but, dope though he is, Chet is preferable to Terry and the GOP pirates.

Fuzzy Thinking: Obama, Capitalism, and Socialism

Fuzzy Thinking: Obama, Capitalism, and Socialism

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Michelle Bachmann Saturday Nite

Yep, Minnesota US Representative Michelle Bachmann like to keep it clean.

Too bad her politics are so dirty.

Glenn Beck Wet Dream No. 1

Here ya go, boys and girls, a peek at what could be the GOP's dream ticket for 2012!

Mary L. Dudziak: To Whom is a Drone Loyal?

Mary L. Dudziak: To Whom is a Drone Loyal?

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Consortiumnews.com

Consortiumnews.com

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David Greenberg: Everyone talks about the "paranoid style," but what did Hofstadter really mean by it?

David Greenberg: Everyone talks about the "paranoid style," but what did Hofstadter really mean by it?

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Are we really that stupid?

Are we Americans really that stupid?

Of course this is a rhetorical question and of course the answer is yes. And here is why this morning:

Iowa Poll: 47% oppose health care reform effort
By TONY LEYS • tleys@dmreg.com • September 25, 2009

When asked how they feel about the overall health reform plans, 47 percent of Iowans say they're opposed, and 43 percent say they're in favor.

However, most Iowans say they like specific reform ideas, such as health care co-ops, a national insurance exchange, a requirement that employers offer policies, and a requirement that U.S. residents have coverage. Even one of the most controversial proposals, to create government-run "public-option" insurance plans, draws support from a slight majority. Iowans oppose only one of the six specific options noted by the poll - the idea of cutting payments to doctors and hospitals.

A national expert said the Iowa Poll's findings are consistent with those of many national polls. "When you talk about specific options, people tend to think they're pretty good ideas," said Mollyann Brodie, who oversees polling for the Kaiser Family Foundation. However, she said, many Americans worry that bills being debated in Congress will wind up costing too much and harming their families' medical care and health insurance.

Poll participants who expressed negative attitudes about the debate in Washington, D.C., were asked to rank reasons for their feelings. Their top-ranked reason was the sense that "members of Congress are not being truthful about what is and is not being considered." Next came feelings that the proposals would be too expensive and that the plan "sounds like socialism."

Oh, jesus christ, "sounds like socialism." Do the morons who say things like that even know what socialism is? Again this is a rhetorical question this time, however, the answer is no.

As an example of how stupid those contacted by the Iowa Poll are, from the same news story:

Poll participant Carol Cox of Clinton agrees with all of those statements.

"I think the cost is going to be so much more than they say it's going to be, and it feels like we're getting closer and closer to socialism," Cox, a Republican, said in a follow-up interview.

Cox, 61, said she's always had good insurance through her husband's work as a school administrator, but her volunteer service brings her in contact with people who have no insurance. She wants private-market reforms that will help cover such people, but she doesn't think the government needs to expand public programs to achieve that goal.

Cox plans to sign up for Medicare when she's 65. She thinks Medicare generally is a good program, but she worries that it will be hurt by politicians' efforts to add other public insurance plans. "I'm afraid they'll rob Peter to pay Paul," she said.

And

[Barbara Larson, 66, of Knoxville] said she and her husband have been happy with their health insurance, which for years was through Blue Cross and now is through Medicare. She noted other polls showing most other Americans feel the same way. Some Americans are uninsured, and the country should help them, she said. "But when 80 percent are happy, why do we have to revamp the whole insurance system to cover a small percentage?"

Here we see the magnanimity, the humanity of the oldest of the aging Boomers. They got theirs so fuck everybody else.

And the stupidest "argument" against a public option and mandated insurance I have heard in this "debate" from Republicans and Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh is that young, healthy people think they don't need health care insurance. Anyway, society will take care of them if they have a traumatic accident or a serious illness, right?

Well, way don't we take this "libertarian" argument against a socialist medical system and extent it to its "logical" conclusion and tell these young, healthy anti-mandated health care insurance kids: "If you get your leg cut off and you don't have medical insurance, society has no obligation to treat you. Bleed to death. If you're 25-years-old, get cancer and don't have insurance, society has no obligation to cure you."

Yes sir, Jimmy Carter was so right when he said America deserves government as good as its people.

Shouting Conservatives and Whining Liberals

Shouting Conservatives and Whining Liberals

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The Weakness of National Military Strength

The Weakness of National Military Strength

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Afghanistan is not Vietnam

Let us be very clear: Afghanistan is not Vietnam.

Aside from the obvious geographical and climatic and ethnic differences our Afghan foe, the Taliban, does not enjoy of support and aid of powerful and nuclear armed allies as did North Vietnam in the Soviet Union and China. This is assuming, of course, that the government of our ally Pakistan, Afghanistan's next door neighbor to the east, does not fall the influence of religious fundamentalists, then Katy bar the door.

And, in light of Afghan theater NATO commander US Army General Stanley McChrystal's call for more "boots on the ground" or all is lost, we must keep in mind that most generals have what I call "McClellan's disease." For like the U.S. Civil War's most magnificently incompetent field commander, George B. McClellan, regardless the true size of the enemy arraigned before them our generals will always say they never have enough troops to complete the "job."

Yet to my way of thinking, the biggest difference between the current Afghan conflict and the Vietnam war is in the composition of the US army and Marine Corps this is, after all, an all volunteer force.

In an Associated Press news story on the ninth anniversary of the al Qaida attacks on the United States, reporter Heidi Vogt writes:

Many of the troops now fighting here were high school students at the time. Some saw the attacks on TV during class, and vowed to sign up when they were old enough.

Army Sgt. Joshua Applegate of Springfield, Mississippi, was in high school when the planes hit the towers, and enlisted two years later, though he said he had wanted to do it right away.

"I like my country too much not to," said Applegate, who arrived in Afghanistan in April

Many troops called Friday's anniversary a galvanizing event, and said marking the day reminds them that the U.S. mission here is important.

"It's still one of the reasons why we're here. Sept. 11 is part of it. For those of us who see the repercussions of fighting, it's still there every day," said Air Force Capt. Christopher Dupuis, 26, of Lacey, Washington.

"I feel that a lot of people have forgotten. I would have them replay the video from that day," said Air Force Technical Sgt. Shawn Merchant, 33, of Ellsworth, Maine.

"It became what Pearl Harbor was in World War II: Now we step up," Merchant said.

I am afraid that even though we here safe and secure in the United States desire a speedy withdrawal of US forces from a seemingly unwinnable situation in Afghanistan, there may be little support for a stateside peace initiative among the troops over there. Unlike the conscripted army and to a lesser extent Marine Corps in Vietnam, this is an all volunteer force. And while war may not be healthy for children and other living things is it positively wonderful for the career militarist. As a Vietnam era Marine Corps vet friend of mine relates, "My sergeant said, 'Boys when this war's over you better tattoo those strips on your shoulder. That rating's not going anywhere until Washington gets us into another one.'"

For the career militarist combat is the quickest route to promotion and in the AVF promotion means more than advancement in rank and medals. Not asking questions and following orders is the surest path of advancement in the AVF. As the late Col. David Hackworth observed:"Volunteers tend to go with the flow and seldom blow the whistle on military stupidity, flawed tactics and self-serving leadership. And draftees don't hesitate to make waves and tell the truth."

Quite frankly, the conduct of whatever one chooses to call the situation in Afghanistan it is clearly out of the control of the civilian leadership in the United States. The Democratic Congress at this time may say it opposes more troops for the Afghan theater and the president may demure but General McChrystal will in the end prove persuasive. Meekly, and under cover of darkness, the general's request for more troops will be approved.

The Frankenstein's monster which the late neoclassical economist and "free market-Jesus" Milton J. Freidman created at the behest of the crafty Richard M. Nixon, who out manoeuvred and manipulated the effete suburban, coordinator class anti-Vietnam war activists at every turn, is clearly in the driver's seat in Afghanistan. And we, the American people, had better "click it, or ticket it!" for we are along for a very bumpy ride.

Pres. Obama's removal of missiles from Poland is a good thing, too bad we won't hear about it on TV

Ever since President Obama announced a cancellation of a stupid anti-missile missile system that numb-nuts Bush wanted sited in Poland with the radar unit in the Czech Republic back on September 17, our right wing media has been having a field day saying it shows the guy's a push over and scared of Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Morons of both the mainstream media and the Republican Party are peddling the bullshit that "we're abandoning our "allies", Poland and the Czech Republic. Seems these badasses are afraid Iran, a goofball country surrounded by Islamic enemies with nukes to the east (Pakistan) and nuclear armed Jewish enemies to the west (Israel), will want to nuke Poland just to fuck with somebody their own size.

Well, here's what the Polish people think:

WARSAW (Reuters) - Almost half Poland's population supports a U.S. decision to scrap a planned anti-missile system partly based on their soil, a survey published on Saturday showed.

The survey published in the daily Rzeczpospolita by polling firm GFK showed 48 percent of Poles believed the decision was good for Poland, while 31 percent had the opposite view.

Political analysts say the economy is a far bigger priority than missile defense for Polish and Czech voters.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's center-right, pro-EU government never embraced missile defense as keenly as its more conservative predecessor led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski which it ousted in 2007.
Reuters.com

Make you wonder why these brave American assholes didn't consult the people of Poland, doesn't it?

Glenn Beck's '9-12' logo based on communist and socialist designs

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Photos: The current state of the Republican party

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The American Revolutionary War Hero U.S. Historians Have Ignored

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Remember, folks...

I don't want to hear a peep...a whimper...a squawk...or a squeak out of any of you when the Taliban march into downtown Kabul, round-up a bunch of women and begin murdering them for the television cameras in the soccer stadium for imagined offenses to the Qur'an, a book no one can read much less understand. Once again an Abrahamic religion rears its ugly head.

I don't want to hear or read one word about how terrible the Taliban is because these turbaned punks, many of whom are the sons of our old mujahideen buddies from twenty years ago, stop little Afghan girls from going to school.

And I especially don't what to hear one word of surprise or shock or indignation when our fighting soldiers and Marines march off those airliners and up to the TV cameras and tell the world, they could have finished the "job" (that "job" being to kill as many Afghans as humanly possible) if the politicians and "liberals" hadn't stabbed them in the back!

Believe me, we will hear interviews echoing those sentiments from returning G.I.s and Marines once some one pulls the plug on this thing in Afghanistan. Why? Because this is an All Volunteer Force, the bastard child of anti-Vietnam war activists and Richard Nixon, midwifed by free market Jesus, Milton J. Friedman. Our men and women in uniform are there because they want to be there. never mind if it is because of economic necessity, just don't take my son to be a soldier. Take the neighbor's boy.

Another reason many returning vets will be ungrateful because President Obama or the Congress or whomever pulled their sorry asses out of Afghan quagmire is because they were doing "God's" work killing and/or converting heathen Muslims. Remember this Alternet.org article from April 21, 2007 Birth of the Christian Soldier: How Evangelicals Infiltrated the American Military, by Michael L. Weinstein and David Seay, Thomas Dunne Books? Or how about this news story from Agence France Presse from February 13, 2008 US military accused of harboring fundamentalism. Or This one from Democracy Now! from May of this year: “The Crusade for a Christian Military”: Are US Forces Trying to Convert Afghans to Christianity?

Won't that be just great. A bunch of pissed off ex-Marine, ex-paratrooper snake-handlers and holy rollers ready, willing and able to convert the country to their twisted "Taliban" version of Christianity by force if necessary. Quite frankly, I think I'd rather we funnel off these armed and dangerous Jesus-loving pinheads off to fight and die, especially die, in a pointless war in a foreign land than hand them jobs in our civilian police departments.

Whatever the out-come in Afghanistan, it will not be pretty. But a percipitious withdrawal, say within 90 days, will have even uglier repercussions domestically.

Please think about it. You have been warned.
posted at Alternet.org

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Iowa US Senator Charles Grassley

Please Cut the Crap!: Me vs. Coulter -- Kicking the Ultimate RW Liar's ASS on Health Insurance

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Larry Allen Brown: A Rebuttal to Dick Armey's OpEd in the Wall Street Journal

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Chalmers Johnson: Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire

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When the kooks take the stage - The Boston Globe

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The French health care system is universal

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Why the Left Needs to Read Up on Reinhold Niebuhr

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The Belief in Regenerative War: Why So Many American Intellectuals Supported the Iraq War

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"America the Great ... Police State"--Gore Vidal

For those of us who had hoped that the Obama administration would present us with a rebirth of the old republic that was so rudely erased a few years ago by that team of judicial wreckers, Bush and Gonzales, which led, in turn, to a recent incident in Cambridge, Mass. that inspired a degree of alarm in many Americans. But what was most alarming was the plain fact that neither the president nor a “stupid” local policeman seemed to understand the rules of behavior in a new America, where we find ourselves marooned as well as guarded (is that the verb?) by armed police who have been instructed that they are indeed, once armed, the law and may not be criticized verbally or in any other way and are certainly not subject to any restrictions as to whom they arrest or otherwise torment.

This is rather worse than anyone might have predicted, even though the signs have been clear for some years that ours is now a proto-fascist nation and there appears to be no turning back; nor, indeed, much awareness on the part of our ever-alert media. Forgive me if you find my irony heavy, but I too get tired of carrying it about in “the greatest nation in the country,” as Spiro Agnew liked to say.

(--snip--)
But the true meaning of the mess in Cambridge has been carefully avoided by a media incapable of getting the point to anything if they can excitingly change the subject to something else. So here we now have a cast of characters that includes the president himself, a distinguished scholar and a feckless young policeman who on the radio said, when asked why he had behaved so rudely to the “old” scholar, he said because the old guy had been rude about his mother. I haven’t heard this excuse since the playground of St. Alban’s in 1935.

(--snip--)
What the police in their ignorance have not figured out is that they have lost all credibility since World War II. They are sort of parasites on the fringe of society and do no particular good for anyone except possibly themselves. Certainly to hear them complain—you’ve never heard such whines as from a policeman who feels he’s been wronged! Apparently, all Earth owes him a living, and he’s the bravest man on any block.

You can read the essay in its entirety at TruthDig.com

The Joint Public-Option Single-Payer United Front | AfterDowningStreet.org

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Dramatic Breakthrough on Healthcare: Blue Dogs to Get Mandatory Rabies Shots

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email to Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Dear Dr. Gates,

I do not blame you for being outraged by your arrest. From the news stories I read Sergeant James Crowley's reaction was out of proportion to the situation.

But do I think his actions reflect any racism on his part. Well...technically no. And I will get to that below.

If there was any overt racial profiling involved in your recent arrest it was on the part of the neighbor who called the Cambridge Police Department when she saw, "...two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry." (Melissa Trujillo, AP) Your neighbor owes you and apology...and then some.

However, what Sgt. Crowley arrested you for was "contempt of cop." Now as my cursory research shows me, African American men are arrested for "contempt of cop" at higher rates than whites, but I was almost arrested for contempt of cop myself last winter! This happened after I had spent two hours of struggling with a software problem on my computer, I decided to take a long walk.

During my walk the credit union where I do my "banking" was robbed by a white, male wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap and hooded jacket. Guess what I was wearing.

Anyway, as I was making the last leg of my walk home I noticed a larger number of police and Sheriff's cars than usual in my neighborhood. I had just crossed the intersection of a major street when the "Neighborhood Patrol" officer of the Des Moines PD pulled his SUV over to the side of the street where I was walking and haled me:"Where are you going?"

"Home!," I truthfully answered.

"You know a bank's just been robbed?"

"How would I know that, I was out on a walk!"

"You fit the robber's description," because, he said I had a narrow face, white hair and was wearing a hooded jacket, ball cap and sunglasses.

This particular bank robber had been caught on camera at an earlier robbery where it was established the man was well over 6 foot tall. I'm 5'6". And I told the officer so. He replied,"You know eye witnesses are unreliable."

Long story short, this went on for five minutes or so, during that time a local business waddled up and offered his two-cents worth that I did, indeed, match the description of the robber. During this time the office threatened me with arrest more than once. Noting that I was "feisty."

What saved me from arrest was that the cop radioed in a description of me and what I was wearing. Fortunately, besides being several inches shorter, my hooded jacket and cap were not the same colors as the robber's clothing. So I was allowed to go my merry way home. Undoubtedly had I been African American, different color clothing or not, I probably would have been cuffed and taken for a ride downtown. Needless to say, I was pissed and wanted to call in a complaint to the police and my city council man. But upon reflection that would have been futile. However, I have heard the words "arrogant" and "asshole," used by neighborhood businessmen with whom I trade, describing our "Neighborhood Patrol" officer.

I think your arrest goes beyond merely being an issue of white cop-black civilian man. I feel there is a systemic problem with our civilian polices forces throughout the nation. In the recent past two small town Iowa police officers, actually one was the chief, were tried, convicted and sentenced for rape. This has become especially acute since the founding of the Milton J. Friedman All Volunteer Force in 1973, since most police departments recruit officers directly out of the military. I have no remedy for the situation but as long as police officers, especially white police officers, feel that they are somehow apart and above those whom they are sworn to "protect and service" then arrests such as your's will continue.

I'm glad all charges, spurious as they were, were dropped.
Sincerely,
Ernest

Of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., asshole cops and Al Sharpton

Geezus, read this:

BOSTON — Supporters of a prominent Harvard University black scholar who was arrested at his own home by police responding to a report of a break-in say he is the victim of racial profiling.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. had forced his way through the front door of his home because it was jammed, his lawyer said Monday.

Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home near campus after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."

The woman, Lucia Whalen, is the circulation and fundraising manager at Harvard Magazine, a news and alumni magazine affiliated with the school. The magazine's offices are down the street from Gates' home.
MELISSA TRUJILLO (AP)

Here we have a case of racial profiling, but not by the police. The racial profiler in this instance was the woman who called police after seeing two black men with backpacks...yaddy-yaddy-yaddah, Lucia Whalen. Ms Whalen is white. Liberal hypocrisy rears its ugly head in what the local wing nut wags refer to as "The People's Republic of Cambridge." The bitch owes Mr. Gates a very large apology...and then some.

But what about the cop, Sargeant James Crowley of the Cambridge, MA police? Is he guilty of racial profiling?

Technically, I don't think so.

But what I do think Sgt. James Crowley is guilty of is being an asshole cop. And by asshole cop, the vast majority, I mean a guy, usually, who just because he wears a black uniform, carries a sidearm, mace, maybe a taser and whatnot thinks he's king of the world. You, guilty or not, are his serf in that instant and will obey all his commands whether they seem reasonable or not from your perceptive.

Now real criminals don't have any trouble understanding this relationship. But we law abiding citizens do. According to The New York Times:

According to his lawyer, Professor Gates told the sergeant that he lived there and showed his Massachusetts driver’s license and his Harvard identification card, but Sergeant Crowley still did not seem to believe that Professor Gates lived in the home, a few blocks from Harvard Square. At that point, his lawyer said, Professor Gates grew frustrated and asked for the officer’s name and badge number.

Professor Gates followed him outside, the report said, and yelled at him despite the sergeant’s warning “that he was becoming disorderly.” Sergeant Crowley then arrested and handcuffed him. Professor Gates was held at police headquarters for hours before being released on his recognizance.

Now here's where I say, "What the fuck! Did you really have to arrest the guy, Sgt. Crowley?"

No, Crowley didn't.

In fact: (CNN) -- A prosecutor is dropping a charge against prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the city's police department recommended that the matter not be pursued.

So cooler heads prevailed but not after the Cambridge, MA police department made itself look like a bunch of Southern nedneck sheriffs and until Al Shapton:

called Gates' arrest "an outrage of no small implication."

"I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black, but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs," said Sharpton, who is vowing to attend Gates' Aug. 26 arraignment.
NyDailyNews.com

Al Shapton is the last guy Professor Gates needs in his corner. Whenever this fried, dyed and laid to the side clown make the scene, the right wing bloviators lick their chops in hopes he'll say something they can work into their "pity the poor, privileged white guy" meme. So thankfully, no arraignment, no soapbox for Al Sharpton to pontificate on. And no "white" backlash.

I don't blame Professor Gates for being pissed. After all the guy gets home from a trip to China, he's probably tired after a long flight, which I know makes me cranky, and he can't get into his house. The next thing he knows some asshole of a cop is on his porch hassling him.

I'd be pissed too and I'd probably react just like Professor Gates.

And from a guy like Professor Gates' prospective, an African American scholar whose major works deal with racism in America, he will naturally react to perceived racism.

I see nothing but an asshole cop.

If this country had fewer asshole cops there would be fewer incidents like Professor Gates'.

More "poor" Paula....bleech

Here's an update to yesterday's post concerning the American Idol "judge" Paula Abdul and her whining campaign for a bigger slice of the American Idol-pie.

That paragon of American journalistic excellence, People magazine is polling its online readers on the question: Should Paula Abdul come back as a judge on American Idol?

Here's a sample of the comments

Silkrose July 20th, 2009

Yes, she should be back. I would miss her.

barbara July 20th, 2009

i love Paula. Yeah….. whatever she & the CEO’s decide. I, for one, would LOVE HER TO COME BACK. but it’s out of my hands ~~~ GO PAULA….”"” YOU “”" ARE THE FASHION DIVA~~~~~~~~~~

nichol July 20th, 2009

If Paula goes, im not watching and im asking my friends to do the same.. They brought Kara in hoping we’d get use to her and it would be ok to dump Paula but i dont think so..

Michelle July 20th, 2009

KEEP PAULA IT WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME WITHOUT HER PLEASE KEEP PAULA PLEASE

SA July 20th, 2009

Paula is AMAAAAZING… our generation just sucks so we don’t appreciate such artists from the past. She should be back!

I could go on but what's the point. You'll notice the major of posters seem to be female and young.

And scattered throughout the comments are some very pointed remarks, almost to the point of hatred, on new "Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi, a woman whom I, and I suppose anyone, knew anything about until her addition to the "Idol" judging staff. Though Ms. DioGuardi does have at least one fan

Danielle July 20th, 2009

I think Kara is a good judge. She actually makes sense, unlike Paula. I think Paula should have been gone a while ago and the addition of Kara was a smart one. Honestly I have to fast forward on my DVR every time Paula talks because I literally cannot watch her. She makes me cringe. I find that she says the same things over and over again and I also think she takes whatever Kara says and paraphrases in her own jumbled words. It’s time for Paula to move on so this show can continue to thrive.

And one "Idol" fan does get the equation right

Valerie July 20th, 2009

First, this is just a ploy by Abdul to get more money and more press…

Secondly, if they are going to have a singer as a judge, they should at least be able to sing. Abdul couldn’t sing her way out of a paper bag unless it was over-engineered with too much reverb and dubbing, etc.

Get someone in there who knows what they are talking about and has something constructive to say.

Yes, this is all bullshit publicity engineered to boost the ratings of Fox television's flagship program. A leaking flagship that is set to crash on the rocks of bloated salaries, inflated egos and diminishing amateur talents.

But the saddest fact of the "People" piece is those who are defending some one who clearly does not need defending. Ms Abdul will get her money and the stupid show will go on.

But in the skinner-box that is early twenty-first century America, the pigeons are dancing to the tune paid for by Wall Street's elite. As long as the unwashed remains fixated on the comings and goings of "celebrities," whom the right wing bloviating class labels "Hollywood liberals" and "liberal elite," then the folks who brought you the Dot Com-bubble, the housing-bubble and the TARP bailout-bubble will happily continue in their criminal ways.

The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure: From the Vietnam to the Afghan Quagmire

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Over paid, under worked and distorting the economy

Today's title can describe any mass-market entertainer in the Western world today, including your favorite professional athlete. If there has been any force over the past thirty to forty years which has distorted the industrialized world's economy it is the inflated salaries of mass-market entertainers.

The trend is particularly acute here in the good, ol' USA. Why else would "aging" soccer star, or "footballer" as they call them across the pond, David Beckham sign a $250 million contract with the L.A. Galaxy, a struggling Major Soccer League (MSL) franchise in a "major" market? Certainly it wasn't for the shear love of the sport.

But overpaid, aging sports superstars isn't the topic of today's rant, overpaid, under worked aging pop entertainers is: To wit one Paula Abdul.

It seems that the 47-year-old singer-dancer is in a bit of a snit:

Paula Abdul may not return to “American Idol” for a ninth season, her manager claimed in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“She’s not a happy camper as a result of what’s going on. She’s hurt. She’s angry,” David Sonenberg, the “Idol” judge’s manager, told the newspaper on Friday.

Sonenberg, who said that he became Abdul’s manager just weeks ago, at the end of June, added that he has yet to receive a proposal for a new contract for Abdul.
TheMoneyTimes.com, July 19, 2009

It seems that the "I'm not a pill popper" ex-pill popper is miffed that non-singing, non-dancing American Idol fluffer, Ryan Seacrest has pinned a $45 million, three-year deal to continue hosting the show. Allegedly the $15 million-a-year Seacrest is numbered among the "producers" of the hit Fox television "reality" show, being the rational for the big bucks. Seacrest, by the way, is the perfect right wing/libertarian/coordinator class personality Fox parent company, News Corp, owner and CEO Rupert Murdoch trawls for: White, suburban, two-parent household--daddy's an attorney, momma's a trophy wife--boy, who never did a lick of hard physical labor for a buck in his life though he will tell anyone who cares, and many who don't, that, now that James Brown's in the cold, cold ground, he's the hardest working man in show business. In short, Glenn Beck without the personality.

But of course this turn of events did not set well with Ms Abdul. Well, boo-hoo-hoo. I'd be happy getting a tenth of whatever Abdul gets for publicly making a stunning, middle-aged ass of herself on TeeVee.

But why should anyone care?

Ms. Abdul has fans who care and, like the aging diva, think she's getting a raw deal from Fox. And it is because of her fans that I care. So distorted has America's values become that legions of teenaged welfare-moms, minimum-wage divorced mothers and assorted under-paid and unemployed or under-employed fans think that it is just O.K. that a middle-aged woman with so-so singing and dancing abilities is remunerated beyond her true level of talent. In a sane world Paula Abdul would be making a decent in a Vegas lounge.

In a sane society Paula Abdul would be a nobody, but she is not. In all likelihood, should she follow through with her threat to quit the top-rated American Idol, she will sink into the obscurity she so well deserves so this is only a well coordinated stunt to get a few extra coins in her purse.

But we do not live in a sane world...at least in the middle latitudes of North America. We honor and reward people for who they are, or were, rather than what they do. The only intrinsic thing that a Paula Abdul or a Ryan Seacrest does is make it possible, merely by being face-talent for a wildly popular television show, for Rupert Murdoch to remain obscenely rich. As long a King Rupert gets his substantial cut, more than likely Ms Abdul will be back on the American Idol panel with her equally over paid and under worked colleagues.

We Americans are conditioned to believe that the professional athlete, the television actor and the movie star is worth oodles of cash because he or she is the best at whatever it is that he or she does. This may or may not the case, the scale usually falls on the "not" side of the register.

There will always be a certain amount of income inequity in any economic and political system. Perhaps this is a good thing too. But what the enormous salaries of the superstar professional athlete, TeeVee personality and movie actor do is provide cover for the even larger, more obscene amounts of money their ultimate bosses in the corporate boardrooms receive. After all even Oprah works for some one else.

If anything, our over paid, under worked entertainment superstars are part of the minor nobility, along with doctors, lawyers and the occasional reservation-casino Indian chief, in what is evolving into a "free market" capitalist version of feudalism. The Rupert Murdochs of the world are our petty kings, their sons heirs apparent, and all the rest of the Wall Street nobility our petty princes, dukes, counts, barons and so on down the line. For the rest of us the future looks bleak indeed.

After all, say our modern kings and princes of finance, labor is a fungible commodity. And as long as the unwashed can remain deluded that it matters more to them that a Paula Abdul is paid millions per year for setting at a desk, judging the talented as well as talentless, than what Walmart pays them to stock shelves, mop-up puke and chase down shopping cart all will be right with the world.

Randall Terry warns of ‘potential violence’ if health care reform passes

Randall Terry warns of ‘potential violence’ if health care reform passes

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Michael J. Petrilli: Sarah Palin, anti-intellectualism, and the plight of the liberal arts

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Killing the bunny

I just killed my bunny. Well, he was no more my bunny than the robins, sparrows and house finches who flock around my back yard. But he was my bunny in that I became attached to him...or her...in the few brief weeks of his life.

When we first saw him he was so very small we thought he must be orphaned. Perhaps his mother had been killed by one of the neighborhood feral cats so the little guy was left to fend for himself. I don't know when baby bunnies are weened so perhaps momma kicked him and his brothers and sisters out to fend for themselves as momma bunnies have done for millions of years in the scheme that evolution has laid out for them.

But, today, I had to kill him.

I liked to watch bunny creep from out the great hosta leaves in my back yard. I watched as he munched grass and, once in awhile much to my chagrin, a few leaves of white Nancy. When he was out back I was careful to talk to him, letting him know I was around, and he didn't seem afraid.

But just about an hour ago, for whatever reason, I looked out my front door and saw bunny in the jaws of my cat. He was hurt I could tell, quite possibly dying. I was angry with the cat.

I made her drop it. Then when I saw bunny was yet alive, though life was ebbing away, I ordered her to finish him off. She could not. My temper got the better of me. I picked up the cat, took her in the house and yelled at her. I chased her up stairs into the bedroom, were she is at this moment, hiding from her daddy's rage underneath the bed.

My neighbors hear the commotion. They wanted to help. They wanted to take bunny to an emergency pet hospital but it was already too late.

I tried picking up bunny with my Gopher grabber, a reach extension tool hawked by the late Billy May. Bunny was too big and limp however so I put on a pair of suede winter gloves, picked bunny up in my two hands and took him back to the hosta garden where he lived. Then I gently as I could smothered his nose until he stopped breathing and buried him a a shallow grave.

Or so I thought.

I just now looked out my back window and, were I a superstitious man, I would think I am seeing ghosts. But no, it's bunny. My bunny. I know it's my bunny because he didn't run when I went outside and talked to him.

The cat is also forgiven. She is back on her place on the front porch.

Funny. When I thought the bunny I had to euthanize was my resident back yard bunny I was filled with rage, regret and a touch of sadness. Now that I know, however, that I was just another in a long line of bunnies the old cat has instinctually killed over the years all that has lifted.

Et tu, Tom?

As you can tell from the post below I am not a fan of "cap-and-trade." Yet however weak it may be for cleaning up carbon pollution, and strong for lining the pockets of the Wall Streets assholes who fuck up this "free market economy" on a regular basis and get away with it, it may be better than doing nothing.

Well don't tell that to our good U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, liberal hypocrite when it comes to environmental issues. Here's what the late-Paul Wellstone's bestest buddy said of the "cap-and-trade" bill crawling out of the U.S. House:"The fact is the House bill, I think, does disproportionately hurt some of our Midwestern states, and we're going to have to get that rectified in the Senate[.]"

In other words my "liberal" Democratic U.S. Senator is standing in the schoolhouse door to protect one of the major air polluters in the country, MidAmerican Holdings, parent company of my utility company MidAmerican Energy,q.v. Des Moines Register, June 14, 2009.

In a news story by Thomas Beaumont in this morning's edition of The Des Moines Register:

Sens. Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley both have senior roles on committees related to energy policy, and they both say the House-passed bill unfairly penalizes Midwestern utilities and faces long odds in the Senate.

That hasn't stopped MidAmerican Energy Co. from conducting an ad campaign criticizing Iowa Democrats' support for the bill in the House. The utility says the bill would require it to raise rates in order to comply with provisions aimed at lowering carbon emissions.

U.S. Reps. Leonard Boswell, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack say they backed the bill despite reservations because they were happy with changes that helped farmers and rural electric co-operatives. Boswell and Braley described MidAmerican's ads, in print and on the air, as misleading and intended to justify a rate increase.

Well, jesus christ, Blue Dog Boswell and Braley just may be on to something. And why would this "investor owned"--Omaha-based billionaire Warren Buffett being the most major investor--utility company and polluter of Iowa skies seek a rate increase? Back to Beaumont's news story:

The bill would require utilities to obtain government allowances for the amount of heat-trapping carbon they emit. The number of allowances granted would be reduced over time, to compel power companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Half of these carbon credits would be awarded based on a company's emissions, and the other half would be awarded based on its annual sales.

Some large companies such as Seattle City Light, which provide emissions-free electricity to millions of customers, would be allowed more credits than they need, according to the formula.

MidAmerican, which operates mainly coal-fired power plants, would need to buy credits on a regulated market. The utility, the state's largest electricity provider, had fewer than 550,000 residential customers in Iowa last year.

In other words, MidAmerican will be a big loser in the "cap-and-trade" shell game. Warren's good investment doesn't look so good now. I mean he's in the business of making money from making money and if MidAmerican has to actually use some of its capital to invest in clean(er) electricity generation the value of its stock may take a temporary nose dive. We can't have that, can we? That must be why the "obsessively, relentlessly at your service" MidAmerican has been asking its customers to kick in a buck or ten for renewable energy for the past five years or so.

Well, fuck Warren Buffett and the Dairy Queen he rode in on.

And the usually reliable Beaumont either sallowed MidAmerican's, "we're just a li'l, ol' ma and pa Iowa utility company" bullshit or he was too lazy to "Google" MidAmerican Energy Holdings. Hell, the figure Beaumont quotes "...the state's largest electricity provider, had fewer than 550,000 residential customers in Iowa last year[,]" seems suspiciously low.

Oddly enough, while the Des Moines-based company keeps mum about the real number of its Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois customers, it has no problem telling anyone with enough dough to buy a big block of its holding company stock that subsidiaries PacifiCorp has 1.7 million customers in Oregon, California, Washington, Utah and Idaho, or that CE Electric UK is ...responsible for delivering electricity to over 3.8 million properties across the North East of England, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire[.]

Yet according to "liberal" Democrat Tom Harkin, poor li'l MidAmerican Energy is just a struggling li'l ol' Iowa utility that can't meet its obligations under the terribly flawed and too-little-too-late Waxman-Markey Climate and Energy Bill.

R ECs grow Astroturf to fight "crap & trade"

First of all I think the carbon cap-and-trade legislation, now wending its way with all the alacrity of a tortoise though the Halls of Congress, is kind of goofy. I mean the government "auctions," these "pollution permits," emissions permits in polite society, to all the electricity generating and coal-burning plants in the land. These "pollution permits" tell all the carbon-smoke producing industries know just how much carbon dioxide, CO2, the federal government will let them pump into the atmosphere every year. By selling these "pollution permits" to smoke-stack industries, like electricity generating plants, the federal government will supposedly rake in a ton of dough.

Now here's where it get screwy. After all the "pollution permits" are handed out and all the carbon-smoke belching industries find out how much they are allowed to continue polluting Company X sees that it doesn't pollute the atmosphere nearly as much as Company Y. So Company X sells its excess "pollution permits" to Company Y, for a profit, that can now go on its merry way spewing black clouds of CO2 into the air we breath.

As far as I can figure the theory behind this shell game is that the guys running Company Y will get tired of being screwed by the guys at Company X so this gives the guys at Company Y an incentive to clean up their act and in turn sell their "pollution permits" to some other Smoky Joe of a company. Of course, this being American, land of the "free market economy," we gotta have middle-men, brokers if you will, to set up and sell these "pollution permits" in some sort of "free market" stock exchange thingie. And this is where the real money will be made. The general public gets slightly cleaner skies while the assholes who bought you the Dot Com-bubble, the Housing-bubble, and last summer's Oil-bubble get to wax even fatter on the coming "Crap-and-Trade" Bubble.

But this being the United States there are always a few dipshits too lazy or too cheap or just too stupid to know a good thing when they see it. Either that or they just want to be spoilsports and wreck the good times ahead for the Wall Street fucks with their "cap-and-trade" bullshit because they're making a shitpot of dough doing what they've been doing for the last seventy years, thank you.

In this case the spoilsports are some of the good folks of theNational Rural Electric Coopertive Association, NRECA". It seems that a group of these "privately owned, democratically governed" businesses in the Chesapeake Bay region, North Carolina and Iowa just don't want to play ball. So they've sent up an Astrotruf organization called Find A Balanced Solution.com.

Here's what these guys are pitching to the bib-overall set out here in Iowa

We can't afford not to act on the issue of climate change. We also can't afford soaring energy costs. The answer is a balanced solution.

We can have a clean environment AND a healthy economy.

We need a balanced climate change policy that reduces emissions without raising the cost of electricity. The current cap-and-trade proposal before Congress will tip the balance, sending energy costs soaring at a time when reliable, affordable energy is essential for our economic recovery. The effects will be felt in every sector of our economy, in every business and every home.

We need a balanced policy that focuses on new technology, innovation and American ingenuity. Iowa's member-owned cooperatives are already addressing this issue by investing in energy efficiency, clean technologies and renewable resources. We can't let Congress tip the balance with policies that will drive costs up and drag our economy down. Work with us to tell Congress we want a balanced solution.

Act now. Tell your congressmen you want a balanced solution to climate change.


Member systems of CIPCO, NIPCO and Corn Belt Power Cooperatives

What the fuck does this double-talk supposed to mean?

As near as I can figure what this is supposed to mean is that you, Mr. and Mrs. Corn-fed Rural Iowan will see higher electricity bills if this "cap-and-trade" bullshit goes through Congress and President Oreo signs this steaming pile of crap into law. Well, d'uh, Mr. and Mrs. Corn-fed Rural Iowan, you are going to get higher electricity bills in the near future with or without "crap-and-trade" anyway, so what the fuck? You're screwed no matter what.

And as far as the "balanced solution?" My take on the above gobbledygook is, first: "We didn't try nothing and it didn't work so we're just gonna keep on doin' what we been doin', 'cause it makes us money"; and secondly: "We'll get around to 'clean' energy generation just as soon as the price of coal goes up. Trust us." Like that's ever going to happen since coal, the real villain in this melodrama, is the continental United States' number-one fossil fuel. We have more of the shit than nearly anywhere else in the world. And that's why the assholes in Washington, D.C. are playing around with this "cap-and-trade" garbage in the first place.

So either way, "cap-and-trade" or doing nothing, we, the American people, are screwed.

Look, if we lived in a sane country the electric utility industry wouldn't be in private, for-profit hands. At the very least if we just had to have private, for-profit entities own the electric grid, it should be highly regulated like the old AT&T was when it had a virtual monopoly on telephone service. Before divestiture AT&T was a highly profitable company that provided excellent service, in spite of Lily Tomlin, and everybody, except the boys at Bell Labs, was happy with the arrangement.

As far as I'm concerned, "cap-and-trade" is a load of bullshit. The only real way to get these polluting sonsuvbitches in line is to threaten them with legal action if they don't mend their ways. All "cap-and-trade" will accomplish is making the pricks who ran this country into the economic ditch it now finds itself in the first place a little richer and assuage the the consciences of a few well placed and well-known limousine liberals, who will undoubtedly also pad their bank accounts at the same time.

batshit crazy: Iowa Republican Party

The big political story going around the Internet is that all the "smart" Republicans want to keep Sarah Palin about as far from them as possible, I guess so her cooties don't rub off on them.

But not to fear. The Iowa Republican Party, the party that gave you Fifth U.S. congressional District Congressman Steve "Crazy Train" King announced today

The Republican Party of Iowa is hot after Sarah Palin to headline the state GOP’s annual Reagan Day Dinner this fall, state party executive Director Jeff Boeyink told The Des Moines Register today.

“Absolutely we are pursuing Sarah Palin,” Boeyink said, responding to Sen. Chuck Grassley’s comment that Palin would be a good fund-raising draw. That effort has accelerated since the Alaska governor’s surprise announcement last week that she planned to resign.

[T]hey are hoping Palin agrees to headline the state GOP’s Reagan dinner, the party’s premier fall fund-raiser.

“That’s the concept. We would love to have her be our headliner for our traditional fall event,” Boeyink said. “We would need a very large venue to make that happen.”
Tom Beaumont, The Des Moines Register.com

Damn, like I said a day or two ago, we ain't seen the last of this idiot woman. That's because she attract lunatic wing nuts like a corpse plant draws carrion flies.

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