I resent it. You're wondering if I re-sent something, no? Actually, 'resent' is exactly the word here. I resent the wholesale hijacking of the national agenda, re-aiming every one of us at the rationalization of the failed, stupid, immoral and lazy idea behing the current Iraq 'War'. Now we must win, because we failed. We must win because we must win. There are many reasons why we must now 'WIN', but not a single reason why we must 'FIGHT'.
And the only Republican nominee this year making any coherent, conservative sense is the wack job. Not the Jesus-freak wack job, the Texan. Want to scare the terrorists? Pull out of Iraq immediately and return to Afghanistan.
Bush is a fucking moron, a very shitty person. He and those of you who want to be like him have to fuck yourselves.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
My Bush SOTU Kiss-Off
I didn't watch the address. Who could possibly bear that? I know some stalwarts looking forward to the return of democracy, rabid anti-anti-intellectualists, even triumph of reason types were probably compelled to watch it. But I already knew how it was going to go. "I'm okay, you're better off, and if you're not I'm not talking to you anyway."
Here's how it should have gone:
"My fellow Americans, the state of our union is stronger than ever for our ruling class. We have stirred the pot and left it to the market. And we have seen what over a decade of unrestrained Republican libido can achieve. We have held our ground against those who would invest in the health of Americans at the expense of my core constituency, namely the financial services community who underwrote both my presidential and previous campaigns, the healthcare industry, the automotive industry, the public utilities and indeed even our homeowner industry, in the interest of keeping the economy working for the financial services industry owners.
"My fellow Americans, Iraq is a cluster-fuck. I regard it as my only failure that Iran couldn't be drawn into the open there, despite zero barriers and no borders for the first four years of this 90-day war. We found their droppings, their serial numbers on the IEDs, their mullahs and puppets running the ghettoes there, setting up health care and public works projects in their evil axis-like way. But unable to draw them into a fair and square honorable fight on the streets and plains of Iraq, we've had to resort to passive aggression against them, in the form of empty warnings and long-distance pissing contests with people we've never actually seen. Boy, I'd love to smack that Mahamanamanamama mima Jod in the puss, but you see he isn't even the real president there. The Ayatollah is.
"So where has the Iraq mess succeeded? Well, we've enriched the US Mercenary community. And we've padded the balance sheets of some of the biggest Bermuda-banking construction firms specializing in nucular and oil. But best of all, we've succeeded in exporting 30,000 additional American soldiers against the objections of the entire country, except for John McCain.
"I credit this 'surge' of force with the newly-established peace in Iraq, where the only hotbeds of violence are in Baghdad and Mosul. Ethnic cleansing and vendettas pretty well completed, there was no longer reason for unrestrained violence and bloodshed, and coupled with the US military knocking down doors provided cover for the evil-doers to back down like sissies.
"North Korea, well, how about Russia... Poland is... much of the world is beyond our influence now. But we successfully shifted the blame for the first recession of my presidency from the stock market and financial services richies onto the college kids and their newfangled 'internet', which obviously didn't work. And now we're working hard to shift the blame for the second recession of my presidency from the financial services industry onto the unqualified homeowner.
"It's hard work being the CEO President, hard to not know what's being told to you, hard to focus on your supporters in the face of so much need. But that's why our new economic stimulus package is so important. The slowing of growth in the financial services sector of the economy means that nothing is growing, since that and the government sector have been the only sources for economic growth since my installation by the lawyers and litigators.
"Passing this dog without reading so much means the Chinese get another block of shares, but also that when you all spend your $600, or whatever, the owners of Visa and Mastercard will get about 5%, and at $150,000,000,000, that's over $7,000,000,000 for the owners of the brand on your debit card. And that's who this economy is really all about. Let's have a round of applause for our financial patrons.
"But my fellow Americans, let us not forget the way I've fanned the flames of muddied waters by funneling piles- buckets and bales of US currency into the hands of private religious consortiums, who so stridently fight for the right to discriminate against minority lifestyles. Who so vehemently oppose scientistic explanation of evolution and disease.
"And never forget our victory over privacy, in the interest of protecting our private property from terrorists- but not from terror itself. If we don't immunize telecom giants from litigation at the hands of lawyers and the ACLU, we can abandon all hope they'll ever set up giant eavesdropping programs on our behalf again.
"But when you list the achievements of my administrations, don't forget how hard I've worked to soften work rules and protections for the rights of Americans to work at their chosen job for honest pay and quality of life, without allowing the Detroit automotive fossil to be properly buried in accordance with the will of the market."
Here's how it should have gone:
"My fellow Americans, the state of our union is stronger than ever for our ruling class. We have stirred the pot and left it to the market. And we have seen what over a decade of unrestrained Republican libido can achieve. We have held our ground against those who would invest in the health of Americans at the expense of my core constituency, namely the financial services community who underwrote both my presidential and previous campaigns, the healthcare industry, the automotive industry, the public utilities and indeed even our homeowner industry, in the interest of keeping the economy working for the financial services industry owners.
"My fellow Americans, Iraq is a cluster-fuck. I regard it as my only failure that Iran couldn't be drawn into the open there, despite zero barriers and no borders for the first four years of this 90-day war. We found their droppings, their serial numbers on the IEDs, their mullahs and puppets running the ghettoes there, setting up health care and public works projects in their evil axis-like way. But unable to draw them into a fair and square honorable fight on the streets and plains of Iraq, we've had to resort to passive aggression against them, in the form of empty warnings and long-distance pissing contests with people we've never actually seen. Boy, I'd love to smack that Mahamanamanamama mima Jod in the puss, but you see he isn't even the real president there. The Ayatollah is.
"So where has the Iraq mess succeeded? Well, we've enriched the US Mercenary community. And we've padded the balance sheets of some of the biggest Bermuda-banking construction firms specializing in nucular and oil. But best of all, we've succeeded in exporting 30,000 additional American soldiers against the objections of the entire country, except for John McCain.
"I credit this 'surge' of force with the newly-established peace in Iraq, where the only hotbeds of violence are in Baghdad and Mosul. Ethnic cleansing and vendettas pretty well completed, there was no longer reason for unrestrained violence and bloodshed, and coupled with the US military knocking down doors provided cover for the evil-doers to back down like sissies.
"North Korea, well, how about Russia... Poland is... much of the world is beyond our influence now. But we successfully shifted the blame for the first recession of my presidency from the stock market and financial services richies onto the college kids and their newfangled 'internet', which obviously didn't work. And now we're working hard to shift the blame for the second recession of my presidency from the financial services industry onto the unqualified homeowner.
"It's hard work being the CEO President, hard to not know what's being told to you, hard to focus on your supporters in the face of so much need. But that's why our new economic stimulus package is so important. The slowing of growth in the financial services sector of the economy means that nothing is growing, since that and the government sector have been the only sources for economic growth since my installation by the lawyers and litigators.
"Passing this dog without reading so much means the Chinese get another block of shares, but also that when you all spend your $600, or whatever, the owners of Visa and Mastercard will get about 5%, and at $150,000,000,000, that's over $7,000,000,000 for the owners of the brand on your debit card. And that's who this economy is really all about. Let's have a round of applause for our financial patrons.
"But my fellow Americans, let us not forget the way I've fanned the flames of muddied waters by funneling piles- buckets and bales of US currency into the hands of private religious consortiums, who so stridently fight for the right to discriminate against minority lifestyles. Who so vehemently oppose scientistic explanation of evolution and disease.
"And never forget our victory over privacy, in the interest of protecting our private property from terrorists- but not from terror itself. If we don't immunize telecom giants from litigation at the hands of lawyers and the ACLU, we can abandon all hope they'll ever set up giant eavesdropping programs on our behalf again.
"But when you list the achievements of my administrations, don't forget how hard I've worked to soften work rules and protections for the rights of Americans to work at their chosen job for honest pay and quality of life, without allowing the Detroit automotive fossil to be properly buried in accordance with the will of the market."
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Those CIA tapes
This is terrible, but I'm pretty sure about this. The past several years have revealed to the world cracks in our foundation, leaks in our roof, and fools herded in Novembers to elect partisan tools for undoing what's good for us. Right now we have a big problem on our hands. The Bush administration is going to leave (unless they declare a state of emergency and contract Blackwater and KBR to imprison us all) soon, and they've avoided everything for almost 8 years.
When the next administration ascends, we'll see a half-assed Afghanistan limping along, Pakistan is doing something wierd (hasn't made the news in the past week or so), China has lumbered forward to be the big greedy bully and they've politicked and bought their way into better competitive positions than ever before. Israel has been left to its own devices, not just the state but the whole situation. Africa is pretty well committed to its perpetual slide, the Amazon rain forest is approaching the tipping point, and the world science community has been sidelined by faithmongers in guiding US policy.
Now there are tapes. Just two, of course. They should have been preserved somehow, althouth being altered and remaining as primary evidence would be tricky... American agents, doing things to expose themselves to civil, criminal, or just plain honor-among-thieves justice, have been documented doing those things, those bad things. Yes, to a bad guy. Two bad guys. There are only two tapes. Ever.
I think (gulp) it's time to circle the wagons to stop letting the Bush team bury our international credibility and further fracture us as a nation. We're splintered now, and our allegiences are strained. Our economy is in the toilet, and our intelligence services have been beaten silly. We have to take the initiative to express our national interest pro-actively and say, "This failing has to stop. No further questions."
Ultimately, the Guantanamo detainees have to stand some kind of trial. Bush, et al, would prefer the olde-school methods of throwing them bound into a lake to see if they float. If the drown, they're innocent. These two tapes relate to two detainees? Only two? I suspect there is a body of circumstantial evidence against them. I think they can probably be put away Al Capone- style, using an unrelated charge to pack 'em away forever. And I know US prisons are hard to survive, although in that environment they may become new leaders.
But I think we should not allow this Executive cohort further damage us, expose our treasure and personnel, weaken further our international standings. We can come up with some way to punish this as a burocratic misdeed, and it probably warrants an obstruction charge- several. Or at least two. But let's not do it on the world stage. Let's get the initiative going to process Guantanamo first. The ground is too soft for a good footing, the tapes and their destruction have no independent standard. As the whole world is watching us work extra-constitutionally every day, let them see us dedicate ourselves to fixing it from within.
When the next administration ascends, we'll see a half-assed Afghanistan limping along, Pakistan is doing something wierd (hasn't made the news in the past week or so), China has lumbered forward to be the big greedy bully and they've politicked and bought their way into better competitive positions than ever before. Israel has been left to its own devices, not just the state but the whole situation. Africa is pretty well committed to its perpetual slide, the Amazon rain forest is approaching the tipping point, and the world science community has been sidelined by faithmongers in guiding US policy.
Now there are tapes. Just two, of course. They should have been preserved somehow, althouth being altered and remaining as primary evidence would be tricky... American agents, doing things to expose themselves to civil, criminal, or just plain honor-among-thieves justice, have been documented doing those things, those bad things. Yes, to a bad guy. Two bad guys. There are only two tapes. Ever.
I think (gulp) it's time to circle the wagons to stop letting the Bush team bury our international credibility and further fracture us as a nation. We're splintered now, and our allegiences are strained. Our economy is in the toilet, and our intelligence services have been beaten silly. We have to take the initiative to express our national interest pro-actively and say, "This failing has to stop. No further questions."
Ultimately, the Guantanamo detainees have to stand some kind of trial. Bush, et al, would prefer the olde-school methods of throwing them bound into a lake to see if they float. If the drown, they're innocent. These two tapes relate to two detainees? Only two? I suspect there is a body of circumstantial evidence against them. I think they can probably be put away Al Capone- style, using an unrelated charge to pack 'em away forever. And I know US prisons are hard to survive, although in that environment they may become new leaders.
But I think we should not allow this Executive cohort further damage us, expose our treasure and personnel, weaken further our international standings. We can come up with some way to punish this as a burocratic misdeed, and it probably warrants an obstruction charge- several. Or at least two. But let's not do it on the world stage. Let's get the initiative going to process Guantanamo first. The ground is too soft for a good footing, the tapes and their destruction have no independent standard. As the whole world is watching us work extra-constitutionally every day, let them see us dedicate ourselves to fixing it from within.
Monday, November 26, 2007
The Dyslexicon
Dyslexia is a serious issue. It's hard to recognize at first, and makes for lots of frustration and family tensions, keeps some kids at the margins, and it's very hard to help. It happens to different degrees, and unfortunately looks just like simple indiscipline. If you have it, it makes everything look like a word scramble and you can't turn it into information.
That's what the present administration is trying to do to us. Many of our federal agencies are still there, but they aren't producing their work the way we would expect. Check out the Non-Informist Lexicon of 'information' produced by our 'President' and his 'administration':
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004766.php
I call it the Dyslexicon.
That's what the present administration is trying to do to us. Many of our federal agencies are still there, but they aren't producing their work the way we would expect. Check out the Non-Informist Lexicon of 'information' produced by our 'President' and his 'administration':
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004766.php
I call it the Dyslexicon.
Let them beat each other up
The most worn page of the Party Playbook is the one with instructions on handling opposition jockeying: Let them kill each other. They're self-destructing. Watch:
So now, the Senators vying for the Democratic nomination are feeding the opposition. Clinton and Obama both belong in the Senate, but their prominence within the activist communities made their banks fat and they've been elevated to Personalities. I like their political ambition, but I think the government is a train wreck and we won't know just how bad for years. These liberals are the wrong kind: Optimistic.
Job 1 for the next President is going to be cleaning the mold out of the basement, trimming the fat, tightening the belt. Only by doing that can our government be used to effect deliberate changes society can tolerate.
So now, the Senators vying for the Democratic nomination are feeding the opposition. Clinton and Obama both belong in the Senate, but their prominence within the activist communities made their banks fat and they've been elevated to Personalities. I like their political ambition, but I think the government is a train wreck and we won't know just how bad for years. These liberals are the wrong kind: Optimistic.
Job 1 for the next President is going to be cleaning the mold out of the basement, trimming the fat, tightening the belt. Only by doing that can our government be used to effect deliberate changes society can tolerate.
Inquirer Letters Section
The letters section of the Philadelphia Inquirer are usually good substrates for discussion. Usually, they include one Republican hack, a self-defense note, something blue and national, and something relevant to Philadelphia-area readers.
This week, we start with a discussion of the Turnpike Privatization Scam. These are our roads. We paid for them already, and continue to pay as we use them. That's perfect, right? Bonds, real estate favors, tax money went to putting them there. It's not complicated, it's a flattened section of earth between two points, sometimes through mountains and over rivers. There are cash registers every so often to collect tolls, but mostly it's the flattened earth doing the work. So we need cashiers in the booths, and we need road crews. The PA Department of Transportation has those. And they know how to hire surveyers to check how flat the earth is, and they can commission work to go make it flatter as needed. Leasing it to a private company and then taxing the toll revenue will almost eliminate either toll revenue or flatness. Eliminate appointees, and as Barrish suggests we'll see a different budget environment over there.
Amtrak came up again. So many of us drive along railroad tracks an hour to work, and so few wish to travel with others that we are guaranteeing the retardation of public transportation. I favor not using gasoline whenever possible. Feet were made for walking. It's impossible to replicate the rail system of Europe or Japan here, we simply weren't intended to be a fiefdom, where the patron could wave his wand and squeeze juice from the serfs and make it happen. I favor a strong network of rails to ensure the safe and subsidized traffic in goods. And it seems obvious to me that if 20 people are going to Pittsburgh, they should split the gas and tolls by riding in a train. I'm a rugged individual, but like universal health coverage, transpo is something we all need, all benefit from.
This week's Republican sniper complains about socialism as the Senate runs a skeleton crew to prevent Bush's despotic recess appointments.
This week, we start with a discussion of the Turnpike Privatization Scam. These are our roads. We paid for them already, and continue to pay as we use them. That's perfect, right? Bonds, real estate favors, tax money went to putting them there. It's not complicated, it's a flattened section of earth between two points, sometimes through mountains and over rivers. There are cash registers every so often to collect tolls, but mostly it's the flattened earth doing the work. So we need cashiers in the booths, and we need road crews. The PA Department of Transportation has those. And they know how to hire surveyers to check how flat the earth is, and they can commission work to go make it flatter as needed. Leasing it to a private company and then taxing the toll revenue will almost eliminate either toll revenue or flatness. Eliminate appointees, and as Barrish suggests we'll see a different budget environment over there.
Amtrak came up again. So many of us drive along railroad tracks an hour to work, and so few wish to travel with others that we are guaranteeing the retardation of public transportation. I favor not using gasoline whenever possible. Feet were made for walking. It's impossible to replicate the rail system of Europe or Japan here, we simply weren't intended to be a fiefdom, where the patron could wave his wand and squeeze juice from the serfs and make it happen. I favor a strong network of rails to ensure the safe and subsidized traffic in goods. And it seems obvious to me that if 20 people are going to Pittsburgh, they should split the gas and tolls by riding in a train. I'm a rugged individual, but like universal health coverage, transpo is something we all need, all benefit from.
This week's Republican sniper complains about socialism as the Senate runs a skeleton crew to prevent Bush's despotic recess appointments.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
I want to work for Progressive Politics
I want to do that. Work for Progressive politics. I don't really want to attach myself to a politician, although issues and I are already pretty tangled up together.
SOS! I'm crushed in the middle class!
It's very hard to be en enlightened, open and generous member of our society. My trouble stems from my education and upbringing, but the leanings I have now were probably already there. Before the adults got to me.
I went to college and studied a whole lot of stuff without intending to use it to derive my living. But I studied a whole lot of stuff before that. I have a passport. I've studied world religion, world history, the various competing world philosophies toward economy, art, justice. And I've studied chemistry, biology, molecular genetics, language, you name it, I've tried to learn at least as much as I think people ought to know about each of these disciplines.
We all know there are more than one side to every story. But we also know those sides are 'colored' by our interest in the outcome, the verdict of history or even the immediate rendition of justice. At some point in the distance, these rays of hope converge on their source, likely a single point-event with a specific set of true characteristics.
In general, it's the testimony of the completely disinterested materially likely to bear the closest resemblance to the truth. And the truth as I see it puts industries on their own path, looking for self-preservation at any cost. Part of the cost is social stability. 'Elections' as we understand them involve the pushback by and against interests competing for their independence and self-preservation. And right now, the acutely felt push is being made on behalf of those larger industrial interests against the wishes and dreams of the humans living among them.
The ignorant undertow of the 'conservative' faction in the west has at its heart something honorable: Protecting the legacy handed us by our parents and theirs. But it elevates the conflict far beyond the reasonable. Change happens. It has happened, and denying it doesn't do anything to bring about its reversal. Just requires more things to be changed to suit that world view.
Consider that work was once sacred. It was considered a man's right to earn a living at his trade. But it interfered with capital. Capital's interest in earning and not paying trumps your right to be considered a professional. It also upends the playing field by taking the rules as they apply to doing business in one place, and simply ignoring them because you're doing that business somewhere else. This completely destroys the value of the individual lying between the priestly and political classes and the absolute bottom. If you can't find a patron, then you'd better find something meaningless and unproductive to do that will please the Capital class.
A small business in a labor town is strangled now by the avaiability of cheap labor. The same factors formerly commanding premium earnings are the ones a small business has to combat to stay open. Wages. Benefits. Environmental and OSHA rules. Payroll taxes. How can you employ Union carpenters and continue to win bids? You can't. Imagine trying to compete globally as a manufacturer, buying steel and fuel on the world market.
I went to college and studied a whole lot of stuff without intending to use it to derive my living. But I studied a whole lot of stuff before that. I have a passport. I've studied world religion, world history, the various competing world philosophies toward economy, art, justice. And I've studied chemistry, biology, molecular genetics, language, you name it, I've tried to learn at least as much as I think people ought to know about each of these disciplines.
We all know there are more than one side to every story. But we also know those sides are 'colored' by our interest in the outcome, the verdict of history or even the immediate rendition of justice. At some point in the distance, these rays of hope converge on their source, likely a single point-event with a specific set of true characteristics.
In general, it's the testimony of the completely disinterested materially likely to bear the closest resemblance to the truth. And the truth as I see it puts industries on their own path, looking for self-preservation at any cost. Part of the cost is social stability. 'Elections' as we understand them involve the pushback by and against interests competing for their independence and self-preservation. And right now, the acutely felt push is being made on behalf of those larger industrial interests against the wishes and dreams of the humans living among them.
The ignorant undertow of the 'conservative' faction in the west has at its heart something honorable: Protecting the legacy handed us by our parents and theirs. But it elevates the conflict far beyond the reasonable. Change happens. It has happened, and denying it doesn't do anything to bring about its reversal. Just requires more things to be changed to suit that world view.
Consider that work was once sacred. It was considered a man's right to earn a living at his trade. But it interfered with capital. Capital's interest in earning and not paying trumps your right to be considered a professional. It also upends the playing field by taking the rules as they apply to doing business in one place, and simply ignoring them because you're doing that business somewhere else. This completely destroys the value of the individual lying between the priestly and political classes and the absolute bottom. If you can't find a patron, then you'd better find something meaningless and unproductive to do that will please the Capital class.
A small business in a labor town is strangled now by the avaiability of cheap labor. The same factors formerly commanding premium earnings are the ones a small business has to combat to stay open. Wages. Benefits. Environmental and OSHA rules. Payroll taxes. How can you employ Union carpenters and continue to win bids? You can't. Imagine trying to compete globally as a manufacturer, buying steel and fuel on the world market.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Friggin' Specter again
Senator Arlen Specter, arguably the elder statesman and cooler head on the Republican side, is doing it again. He has a special problem with nominations during the Bush administration, holding his nose to approve the nominations of several anti-New Deal, anti-worker, anti-Me judges.
Now he's making a terrible and gratuitous concession to the dark side. Torture is illegal in the US, meaning the US government and our citizens are not allowed to do it. Waterboarding is torture. By refusing to accede that point, Mukasey paints himself as a politician. If he says it's not torture he won't be nominated. If he says it is torture he may be nominated to preside at Justice while war crimes prosecutions are assembled.
I'm okay with no head at Justice. We Americans have local judges and police, mayors, parents, all kinds of people in positions of authority who belong in our lives. Bush's AG has traditionally been the enabler for the decider, and not the advocate of public safety and order. The war on drugs, for example, doesn't need Mukasey, who would be more likely recruited to the cause of insider trading and corporate immunity.
Specter acknowledges he's voting aye on Mukasey despite the terrible position he's been placed in, but the important issue is simple rule of law. Bush routinely issues those infamous signing statements, written into the record as pro-forma absolution as he refuses to abide by the bill as he signs it into law. Allowing that wiggle room for this horrible sham of a 'President' is unacceptable. Mukasey's limp position here means Bush won't be prosecuted even though the technique is illegal because torture is illegal and waterboarding is torture.
Once again, this should invite another investigation. We were promised investigations by Fox, by the Republicans losing their seats, by the Democrats coming into power. Now they're in, and I'm glad they're strategizing for '08 and beyond. But we need to declaw these bastards and the front burner right now is assigning a lawyer to Justice who would hold the line and bring the administration back into the light.
Now he's making a terrible and gratuitous concession to the dark side. Torture is illegal in the US, meaning the US government and our citizens are not allowed to do it. Waterboarding is torture. By refusing to accede that point, Mukasey paints himself as a politician. If he says it's not torture he won't be nominated. If he says it is torture he may be nominated to preside at Justice while war crimes prosecutions are assembled.
I'm okay with no head at Justice. We Americans have local judges and police, mayors, parents, all kinds of people in positions of authority who belong in our lives. Bush's AG has traditionally been the enabler for the decider, and not the advocate of public safety and order. The war on drugs, for example, doesn't need Mukasey, who would be more likely recruited to the cause of insider trading and corporate immunity.
Specter acknowledges he's voting aye on Mukasey despite the terrible position he's been placed in, but the important issue is simple rule of law. Bush routinely issues those infamous signing statements, written into the record as pro-forma absolution as he refuses to abide by the bill as he signs it into law. Allowing that wiggle room for this horrible sham of a 'President' is unacceptable. Mukasey's limp position here means Bush won't be prosecuted even though the technique is illegal because torture is illegal and waterboarding is torture.
Once again, this should invite another investigation. We were promised investigations by Fox, by the Republicans losing their seats, by the Democrats coming into power. Now they're in, and I'm glad they're strategizing for '08 and beyond. But we need to declaw these bastards and the front burner right now is assigning a lawyer to Justice who would hold the line and bring the administration back into the light.
Friday, November 02, 2007
PA Troopers in Casinos???
No. This is stupid. We've made room for casinos to rapidly export the disposable income of Pennsylvania residents to other states and balance sheets, and we're paying for their security?
If they want to open their little casinos, let them fund an agency for security and self-regulation.
I was against 'gaming' in PA from the start, having actually been in Atlantic City, but now I'm angry about underwriting it.
If they want to open their little casinos, let them fund an agency for security and self-regulation.
I was against 'gaming' in PA from the start, having actually been in Atlantic City, but now I'm angry about underwriting it.
SCHIP, Poverty and the Wastrel
Bush doesn't know a lot of words, and having never been poor, challenged, or even held to account despite decades of poor performance and bad behavior he can't be expected to understand poverty, which has generally been hidden from television viewers. He's a protected, greedy and jealous snot, working for the first time in his entire boomer life to keep you from getting anything out of your tax payments.
I'm sure he doesn't get or care about the irony in his opposition to the present state of SCHIP legislation. He's been sheltered his whole life by the federal government, and is now protecting us from being protected by it. His parents were career government workers, and their extraction industry benefactors have also benefited non-stop from the largesse of the US Taxpayer.
In just the past few years though, gasoline has tripled in price. Milk is up to almost 2X. Everything has ballooned in price, although some markets are lagging. Per-capita income has dropped, if you excuse the financial services and energy swindle industries. So even if you weren't poor in the last days of Clinton, keeping your 4% annual salary raise wasn't enough and now you live per paycheck.
So that $60,000 per year anywhere near the formerly industrial northeast or midwest is peanuts. A family of four earning $60K is strapped. Mr. Bush takes home a salary nearly double that of his predecessor (properly aligning this executive salary with the insane disproportion of his corporate peers despite leaving the for-profit sector to go into Presidentin'), and he still sits on his blueblood cushion.
SCHIP gives Americans too much of what they want: something.
I'm sure he doesn't get or care about the irony in his opposition to the present state of SCHIP legislation. He's been sheltered his whole life by the federal government, and is now protecting us from being protected by it. His parents were career government workers, and their extraction industry benefactors have also benefited non-stop from the largesse of the US Taxpayer.
In just the past few years though, gasoline has tripled in price. Milk is up to almost 2X. Everything has ballooned in price, although some markets are lagging. Per-capita income has dropped, if you excuse the financial services and energy swindle industries. So even if you weren't poor in the last days of Clinton, keeping your 4% annual salary raise wasn't enough and now you live per paycheck.
So that $60,000 per year anywhere near the formerly industrial northeast or midwest is peanuts. A family of four earning $60K is strapped. Mr. Bush takes home a salary nearly double that of his predecessor (properly aligning this executive salary with the insane disproportion of his corporate peers despite leaving the for-profit sector to go into Presidentin'), and he still sits on his blueblood cushion.
SCHIP gives Americans too much of what they want: something.
Friday, October 26, 2007
If we end it now
If we end the Iraq thing now, as in 'poof- it's over', we'll have another 200,000 unemployed, with some medical benefits for a short time but soon to be on their own among us.
Suddenly civilians again, they'll be forced to readjust overnight. I doubt that's easy or even feasible without preparing (planning, Mr. Bush) for a big, national medical care overhaul and serious attention to emotional and psychological care.
Suddenly civilians again, they'll be forced to readjust overnight. I doubt that's easy or even feasible without preparing (planning, Mr. Bush) for a big, national medical care overhaul and serious attention to emotional and psychological care.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Relative Values of Voters
The Republican Party blew off the NAACP with near unanymity.
According to the US Census (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/07s0014.xls), there are only about 70-some million of THEM. Republicans get about 10% of their votes from THEM.
The '01 census counts almost 160 million Christians. So if they get half the Christian vote they're ahead of the guy with every vote from THEM.
That should explain why the comically uncommitted Giuliani, the desperate-for-despotism Huckabee, the charming old drunk character actor, the crotchety old man, the Mormon and the crotchety old Conservative all showed up at the Jesus Freak Convention to compete for their support.
So right now they're looking for room in their dogma to support serial-marriage Rudy, Never-did-nothing Thompson, McCain the rapidly aging or anti-everything Paul, so they don't have to vote for wacky-cult gay-marriage public insurance Romney.
If this were reality, we'd expect this freako fringe to be contemplating a ride on the next comet, or at least a third party to leave the things of this world to the students of it. But they're hypocrites too, and they really want to rule the world like the scion whose name it is a letter W.
According to the US Census (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/07s0014.xls), there are only about 70-some million of THEM. Republicans get about 10% of their votes from THEM.
The '01 census counts almost 160 million Christians. So if they get half the Christian vote they're ahead of the guy with every vote from THEM.
That should explain why the comically uncommitted Giuliani, the desperate-for-despotism Huckabee, the charming old drunk character actor, the crotchety old man, the Mormon and the crotchety old Conservative all showed up at the Jesus Freak Convention to compete for their support.
So right now they're looking for room in their dogma to support serial-marriage Rudy, Never-did-nothing Thompson, McCain the rapidly aging or anti-everything Paul, so they don't have to vote for wacky-cult gay-marriage public insurance Romney.
If this were reality, we'd expect this freako fringe to be contemplating a ride on the next comet, or at least a third party to leave the things of this world to the students of it. But they're hypocrites too, and they really want to rule the world like the scion whose name it is a letter W.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Back in black & white, almost, and kind of
If you want to look at some pretty fun rants about Tom DeLay and the rest of the scandal roster from early in this abyssmal political cycle, look at the stuff I already wrote. I've written a lot of stuff since that last post, intending to tune my craft. This page might have to be deleted, but I hope I can give you and others a chance to get some value from the provocative crap I can come up with sometimes.
Joy,
Joe Monster
Joy,
Joe Monster
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
As expected, the whitehouse whitewasher in spin cycle
Once again, the Bush crew points to a new report, jumping up and down and still pointing, excited to tell us it means the opposite of what it says.
The GAO reveals a grade of sub-F for this escalation to date, based on the goal posts as agreed before the surge. Allowing 3 of 18 correct answers, the boy in the White House is a functional idiot.
I don't have time for this anymore. Somebody else has to be the grownup in charge, and I believe heads of state must be held accountable for the terrible things they do, ostensibly in the name of their countrymen.
The GAO reveals a grade of sub-F for this escalation to date, based on the goal posts as agreed before the surge. Allowing 3 of 18 correct answers, the boy in the White House is a functional idiot.
I don't have time for this anymore. Somebody else has to be the grownup in charge, and I believe heads of state must be held accountable for the terrible things they do, ostensibly in the name of their countrymen.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Karl Rove is a big fat bitch, if there ever was a bitch
Absolutely true: The democrats did the dividing. The Republicans did the unified marching. Some continue to march, even after the country admitted it was Democratic.
If the legislative Democrats weren't reflective, weren't trying to counter the cynical Republican agenda, weren't trying to represent American people in districts, they certainly would have also been marching, and there would be no opposition.
It would also have been the one-party state so useful to the Stalinesque/Neocon MO.
I'm glad that fuckhead went back to his own country, and I hope Bush sweats and whimpers without him, like the dog he is.
Unfortunately, since they said he's leaving, we can deduce he's not going anywhere. Because they can't speak without lying. Congenital. Their lying genitals are in each others' mouths.
If the legislative Democrats weren't reflective, weren't trying to counter the cynical Republican agenda, weren't trying to represent American people in districts, they certainly would have also been marching, and there would be no opposition.
It would also have been the one-party state so useful to the Stalinesque/Neocon MO.
I'm glad that fuckhead went back to his own country, and I hope Bush sweats and whimpers without him, like the dog he is.
Unfortunately, since they said he's leaving, we can deduce he's not going anywhere. Because they can't speak without lying. Congenital. Their lying genitals are in each others' mouths.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Incurious George and the Bird Flu
Of course, since it's been in the headlines as a growing concern among health and science professionals, we can expect the Bush administration to issue a warning next fall: Elect a Republican, or the absolute inaction we've been taking on this important issue we really consider an opinion will sneak up and follow us home from Iraq.
Also of course, we don't know anything about what our Executive stand-in-for-a-real-President is doing. He's priveleged.
Cheers,
Also of course, we don't know anything about what our Executive stand-in-for-a-real-President is doing. He's priveleged.
Cheers,
Sunday, July 15, 2007
How the Democrats do it
This is how they are going to drop the ball:
I got a call from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Comittee soliciting funds for TV commercials targeting weak Republicans. As I told the nice lady caller, they don't need commercials. Bush and his thuglicans are already Democratic campaign commercials. They walk, they talk, and they do things, and every thing they say and do, everyone they walk with, only reinforce the general message that something's wrong and it rhymes with "Uglpew".
They have half the strategy working for them already, but the obvious second half, the B side is blank. What do they do? They ask for money to run commercials.
They are properly tying up the president. He's got the leash wrapped around both legs, and he can't keep up with his barking. But he is still President and Commander in Chief. He still gets to veto the laws passed by a Democratic majority. He's doing better at throwing back in the Democratic face than the Democrats are, and he is succeeding in making the Ds look ineffective and whiny.
But we want the investigations. We do. And we want the war to end. But we can't withdraw troops because we aren't the Commander in Chief. We can't dictate the budget because we aren't the final signatory.
The American people will appreciate the effective way Democrats in Congress are tying his hands, keeping his Attorney General lying in public at Congressional Committees, forcing everyone in the President's life to come forward and refuse to testify about his malfeasance. We will also be happy to hear the Congress has refused to provide a dime for the office of the VP. I want every thing the President does to be hindered so he can't screw things up any more than he has. That's enough for me.
But to take those extra seats from the party of the War (which we won years ago and have yet to win?) (which has transferred the treasure contributed by generations of working people into the hands of the few stockholders at KBR in the name of protecting the Saudi monarchy) (which has so altered the Justice Department and Justice System within the US that our children are reading civics books they can't possibly reconcile with the new ground rules) (which has passionately worked to protect the corporation from the person- in the legislature to exempt it from justice) the Democrats have to continue producing quality, clear legislation with no pork except what Republicans add, and to let Bush veto the "Save AIDS babies" bill, and the "Don't poison the babies" bill, and the "Don't burn up all the flowers" bill. Let him stand before us and hack progressive ideals to bits without the ability to hand out favors to donors or magnates.
This may be the only time in history when the high road can get us there. 1) Keep impeding the Bush agenda, 2) Defund the VP, 3) Quality, honest legislation written to make life a little easier for every human here.
I got a call from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Comittee soliciting funds for TV commercials targeting weak Republicans. As I told the nice lady caller, they don't need commercials. Bush and his thuglicans are already Democratic campaign commercials. They walk, they talk, and they do things, and every thing they say and do, everyone they walk with, only reinforce the general message that something's wrong and it rhymes with "Uglpew".
They have half the strategy working for them already, but the obvious second half, the B side is blank. What do they do? They ask for money to run commercials.
They are properly tying up the president. He's got the leash wrapped around both legs, and he can't keep up with his barking. But he is still President and Commander in Chief. He still gets to veto the laws passed by a Democratic majority. He's doing better at throwing back in the Democratic face than the Democrats are, and he is succeeding in making the Ds look ineffective and whiny.
But we want the investigations. We do. And we want the war to end. But we can't withdraw troops because we aren't the Commander in Chief. We can't dictate the budget because we aren't the final signatory.
The American people will appreciate the effective way Democrats in Congress are tying his hands, keeping his Attorney General lying in public at Congressional Committees, forcing everyone in the President's life to come forward and refuse to testify about his malfeasance. We will also be happy to hear the Congress has refused to provide a dime for the office of the VP. I want every thing the President does to be hindered so he can't screw things up any more than he has. That's enough for me.
But to take those extra seats from the party of the War (which we won years ago and have yet to win?) (which has transferred the treasure contributed by generations of working people into the hands of the few stockholders at KBR in the name of protecting the Saudi monarchy) (which has so altered the Justice Department and Justice System within the US that our children are reading civics books they can't possibly reconcile with the new ground rules) (which has passionately worked to protect the corporation from the person- in the legislature to exempt it from justice) the Democrats have to continue producing quality, clear legislation with no pork except what Republicans add, and to let Bush veto the "Save AIDS babies" bill, and the "Don't poison the babies" bill, and the "Don't burn up all the flowers" bill. Let him stand before us and hack progressive ideals to bits without the ability to hand out favors to donors or magnates.
This may be the only time in history when the high road can get us there. 1) Keep impeding the Bush agenda, 2) Defund the VP, 3) Quality, honest legislation written to make life a little easier for every human here.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Wow! Finally a firing!
Wow! Hard to believe, but after pages and pages of lies in print, hours of audio lies and an aggressive miseducation campaign, tons of ordnance, fuel, food, machinery, even after the cave people developed methods for shooting down our helicopters (flying over Baghdad too long, those fucks don't have ANYTHING to do by figure out how to blow stuff up), after a list of senior military officers were dismissed for speaking frankly, FINALLY, a high-ranking member of this collossal cluster fuck got fired for cause. He wasn't in Iraq though, and he's being replaced by the fuckup he replaced.
So now I turn to you, the "Support our troops" phonies. Your shithead war, your shithead president, the shithead Secretary of Defense, the shithead VP, everybody on the button-pusher side of this bullshit phony 'war'. How are you? How do you feel about the terrible conditions some of the the wounded soldiers you care so much about have been subjected to WHEN THEY CAME HOME WITHOUT PARTS OF THEMSELVES. Makes me think of the imaginary soldier spitters greeting the Vietnam returns. What a fuck in the ass!
Plop atop that sundae the gag order. We've invited these young (and more mature) patriots to our new colony in the sunny fertile crescent to help Paul Wolfowitz pad his resume, force them to get blown up by guerillas after bowing to Al-Sadr and failing to install our puppet, let anybody with feet waltz across the border with anything they can carry (no beer though), we yodel and moo about increased security and Constitutions, we wonder why physics continues to work even though Bush is president (Nature abhors a power vacuum, just as Iran abhors Sunni Iraq's easy water access), we herd our maimed finest into a sty, and then we threaten them with jail if they exercise their first amendment right to speak about how shitty the Republican Party is.
You're not bad people, I think you're just crazy. Right now you're saying "This isn't the Republicans, it's the Iraqis blowing them up!" But Bush appointees run the military, because the Republican Party gets free blowjobs at the White House. Or something, it's got to have a reason for life to have meaning.
So now I turn to you, the "Support our troops" phonies. Your shithead war, your shithead president, the shithead Secretary of Defense, the shithead VP, everybody on the button-pusher side of this bullshit phony 'war'. How are you? How do you feel about the terrible conditions some of the the wounded soldiers you care so much about have been subjected to WHEN THEY CAME HOME WITHOUT PARTS OF THEMSELVES. Makes me think of the imaginary soldier spitters greeting the Vietnam returns. What a fuck in the ass!
Plop atop that sundae the gag order. We've invited these young (and more mature) patriots to our new colony in the sunny fertile crescent to help Paul Wolfowitz pad his resume, force them to get blown up by guerillas after bowing to Al-Sadr and failing to install our puppet, let anybody with feet waltz across the border with anything they can carry (no beer though), we yodel and moo about increased security and Constitutions, we wonder why physics continues to work even though Bush is president (Nature abhors a power vacuum, just as Iran abhors Sunni Iraq's easy water access), we herd our maimed finest into a sty, and then we threaten them with jail if they exercise their first amendment right to speak about how shitty the Republican Party is.
You're not bad people, I think you're just crazy. Right now you're saying "This isn't the Republicans, it's the Iraqis blowing them up!" But Bush appointees run the military, because the Republican Party gets free blowjobs at the White House. Or something, it's got to have a reason for life to have meaning.
Wow! Finally a firing!
Wow! Hard to believe, but after pages and pages of lies in print, hours of audio lies and an aggressive miseducation campaign, tons of ordnance, fuel, food, machinery, even after the cave people developed methods for shooting down our helicopters (flying over Baghdad too long, those fucks don't have ANYTHING to do by figure out how to blow stuff up), after a list of senior military officers were dismissed for speaking frankly, FINALLY, a high-ranking member of this collossal cluster fuck got fired for cause. He wasn't in Iraq though, and he's being replaced by the fuckup he replaced.
So now I turn to you, the "Support our troops" phonies. Your shithead war, your shithead president, the shithead Secretary of Defense, the shithead VP, everybody on the button-pusher side of this bullshit phony 'war'. How are you? How do you feel about the terrible conditions some of the the wounded soldiers you care so much about have been subjected to WHEN THEY CAME HOME WITHOUT PARTS OF THEMSELVES. Makes me think of the imaginary soldier spitters greeting the Vietnam returns. What a fuck in the ass!
Plop atop that sundae the gag order. We've invited these young (and more mature) patriots to our new colony in the sunny fertile crescent to help Paul Wolfowitz pad his resume, force them to get blown up by guerillas after bowing to Al-Sadr and failing to install our puppet, let anybody with feet waltz across the border with anything they can carry (no beer though), we yodel and moo about increased security and Constitutions, we wonder why physics continues to work even though Bush is president (Nature abhors a power vacuum, just as Iran abhors Sunni Iraq's easy water access), we herd our maimed finest into a sty, and then we threaten them with jail if they exercise their first amendment right to speak about how shitty the Republican Party is.
You're not bad people, I think you're just crazy. Right now you're saying "This isn't the Republicans, it's the Iraqis blowing them up!" But Bush appointees run the military, because the Republican Party gets free blowjobs at the White House. Or something, it's got to have a reason for life to have meaning.
So now I turn to you, the "Support our troops" phonies. Your shithead war, your shithead president, the shithead Secretary of Defense, the shithead VP, everybody on the button-pusher side of this bullshit phony 'war'. How are you? How do you feel about the terrible conditions some of the the wounded soldiers you care so much about have been subjected to WHEN THEY CAME HOME WITHOUT PARTS OF THEMSELVES. Makes me think of the imaginary soldier spitters greeting the Vietnam returns. What a fuck in the ass!
Plop atop that sundae the gag order. We've invited these young (and more mature) patriots to our new colony in the sunny fertile crescent to help Paul Wolfowitz pad his resume, force them to get blown up by guerillas after bowing to Al-Sadr and failing to install our puppet, let anybody with feet waltz across the border with anything they can carry (no beer though), we yodel and moo about increased security and Constitutions, we wonder why physics continues to work even though Bush is president (Nature abhors a power vacuum, just as Iran abhors Sunni Iraq's easy water access), we herd our maimed finest into a sty, and then we threaten them with jail if they exercise their first amendment right to speak about how shitty the Republican Party is.
You're not bad people, I think you're just crazy. Right now you're saying "This isn't the Republicans, it's the Iraqis blowing them up!" But Bush appointees run the military, because the Republican Party gets free blowjobs at the White House. Or something, it's got to have a reason for life to have meaning.
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