People have spent large numbers of bytes regarding the election and the presence of the Reform Party and its large number of votes. There is a certain amount of hogwash involved in that analysis, the Mullahs approved the candidates so this is really a figleaf of democracy laid over theocracy. The number of protesters is impressive and they do actually face some risks for that behavior. Even that only really has meaning in the context of illuminating the extent of vote fraud. The vote fraud has a meaning and that meaning in the long run may be the most influential happening in Iran since 1979.
It has just been demonstrated to Iranians in general, not just the losers, that the Mullahs lie. They tell and support blatant lies to support political ends. The Iranian spokesmen for god are liars as well as dictators. We assume politicians mangle the truth and we suspect them of lying fairly often. We're never very happy to find out that we've been lied to but we seem to forgive a bit of it. There is a caveate, except in very rare circumstances our politicians don't claim to be god's messengers, they don't pretend to be holy. This is the line the Mullahs crossed in Iran, holy lies is a bit of a problem. This is going to eat at the system and it isn't as though only the losers cans see it.
I don't mind a bit when the theocrats get hoisted, I find them offensive whether Iranian or American Taliban.
Showing posts with label Lies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lies. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Bail Outs, Wealth, Cronyism, and Rightwing Stupidity
It's late and I'm a tad tired, but I'm also beginning to get well and truly pissed off. A bunch of greed head ratbastards wrote $60T of paper on $6T worth of mortgages and when that paper pyramid fell apart everybody acted surprised and since that kind of 'fall apart' exceeded the nation's ability to absorb it Uncle Fed rode to the rescue. Well, kind of. The idjits in charge of that fiasco take those Fed ducats and write themselves bonus checks for their fine performance and buy banks. Yes, we're not only financing failures buying solvent banks, we're giving them a great big tax break to do it. How in the hell I expected BushCo to look the devil in the eye and flinch from being his crony I don't know, but I backed this mess - or at least the idea of keeping the show going. There isn't any money back in the system, they're eating it for their gain - a real big goddam surprise consider the ongoing criminal enterprise in charge of our government. They've made a socialistic expenditure dwarfing all the third rate countries they scoff at and turned it into a wealth welfare program. You've gotta love it - even as you think murderous thoughts - the absolute hubris is so astonishing that a novel written with it as a premise would be laughed off the shelves and would be too sad to make the humor section.
PJ O'Rourke was funny at one time. Karla at BlueOregon pretty much blows a gasket at PJ's "We Blew It" article offering up her behind for some rightie kissing. PJ is a child of privilege and a high class education and he's wasted a fair intellect on comic book versions of Ayn Rand's pot boiler novels based on a surface understanding of the right. Ayn has an excuse, compared to her experiences of the failures of Communism even a shallow understanding of capitalism looks better. A high school freshman all stoked up on self-indulgent egocentricism will immediately get the hots for the unexplained but glorified characters and hopefully get over it well before graduation. If not they'll vote for a third term for GeorgeII because he looks soooo masculine in a flight suit and talks soooo tough. Never mind that historically every shot this bunch has at it leaves things in some degree of ruin to be fixed by the other side until a recurring memory lapse happens and they do it again. In PJ's world the only thing worse than the people who messed up the good idea is the people who oppose it - and they really are a mess. Just never goddam mind that those people kept telling them that you can't do it like that with getting a mess, nope - ask Rush as he calls this the Obama Recession/Depression or read one of the right-tard blogs where they ask how to prove the left set this off to win the election. Really, no damn kidding and no I won't link to them and give them credibility. PJ was funny once, a very long time ago, but his outfit has so damaged humor that all PJ is left with is the Don Rickles version of rude insult. How can he do irony with the Rush statements standing there? How can he exaggerate into satire in the face of right-tard idea that the evil liberals set off this economic whirlwind to win an election? Honest to god the right should leave humor alone, it isn't that there's no talent, it's just that their material can't match their own stands for humor...black humor.
***bn at P3 deconstructs poor PJ in a fitting manner.***
Here's the deal, things are going to get worse and a lot of people who shouldn't be at risk are going to find themselves going under. They'll have worked real hard and gotten a little ahead and be sunk because some wealthy assholes couldn't get richer fast enough that they could pay attention to what they were doing. Years ago financial planners were warning that derivatives were real risky not understood by more than a handful of people, so between them and swaps built on them they ran up ten times the value of the assets and exploded it in our faces. Not theirs. Ours. The ones walking away will be wealthy and the ones staying are gaming the Fed to get wealthier. I suppose you think you ought to have recourse? Maybe political or criminal? Make me laugh. There's recourse alright, but it's frowned upon and illegal because they don't issue ratbastard tags...there'd be a hell of line if they did. That's flatly the damn truth and you can get along with it or you can go howl at the moon because either will do as much to fix it.
Am I advocating burning them out of their homes and hunting them down like rabid skunks? It's a fun sort of thought in a very dark way, but it'll get you into a lot of trouble and ensure that their ilk institutes a really repressive government that GWB only dreamed of and half-assedly instituted. Expecting Barack Obama to actually fix what's broken is like thinking you can plug the Hoover Dam's turbine chutes with your index finger. Remember where Insurance Companies put their money and then think you're going to see actual health care reform and yes it is named single payer universal coverage and called socialized medicine by the beneficiaries of this bail out.
Some of you get pretty limited sympathy from me, you engaged in magical thinking regarding the stock market and the housing market. Prices are going up so they have to keep going up, even though you could see that it was buying pressure that was driving the prices rather than the actual assets. There's no end, the right assured you, free market rules and it isn't wrong. But there was your mistake, you listened to their horseshit about a market that has never, ever existed. Not once, not even in Adam Smith's own writing because he stated clearly that unfettered capitalism would eat itself through killing its own market. If you have pretty pictures of Dickens's Industrial Revolution or our Robber Barons then you have to love the right's ideas because that is them in operation. You like children in rags working 14 hour days for starvation wage while gold plated mansions are built for their exploiters you'll love trickle down economics because there it is in operation. Not St Ronnie's goddam fantasy world, in real concrete terms that is how it works. Or maybe you'd like something contemporary? Fine, Monday morning's financial news ought to give you something to chew on.
Sure, I'm kinda pissed off. Twenty years of clean and sober working like a pig doing quality work and this will probably sink me. What? You're surprised that people aren't spending money on big ticket items? You have some idea that the roof replacement that is needed isn't going to get put off, oh yeah, most people have several thousand dollars laying around that isn't doing anything and they aren't spooked. You own a car dealership and you can't sell a car because nobody can get a loan so you have me temporarily fix that roof and we both know it's not adequate but $30K just isn't there and so he prays I can keep him dry by nickle and diming it. Those nickles don't cut it on my end, there aren't enough of them and and my insurance companies and bonding agencies don't give a rat's patoot if I make a dime this month, they need their payment and it ain't small. Let's not even think about building a house...
The Republicans are starting to fight over whose going to run their Party. The Christianists have both hands on its throat and they will have their theocratic agenda flogged. They've paid their dues and now you goddam heathens are gonna get right with their god or they're gonna know why. You betcha. You can take your damnable science and stuff in a heterosexual way because you going to get along with the idea that dinosaurs were ridden by people six thousand years ago and that devil's cheat of millions of years is strictly a test of your faith. And if you get funny ideas about what goes where or who does what to whom you're going to learn better. Where you ever got this misguided notion that this isn't a Christian nation isn't just open to question, you'll be shown the errors of your ways. You'll find out that any policies that reduce abortions like good sex education and access to contraception are the devil's handiwork and just banning them is how it's done. Private education will fix your socialist notions, god will see to it, and oddly enough the corporate wing isn't all enthused about being stuck with ignorant savages for technical positions, though it's not such a bad idea on the work floor. These are the folks that are in competition for the electorate and they wonder what the problem is.
The world watched us stomp Iraq and a big chunk went, "What the hell?" and they'll shout, "Victory!" and have not the least damn clue what it is supposed to be. So we burn and spend our dedicated and professional military as though it were cheap fuel. Lies be damned, the world will recognize our Christian greatness and bow down to the light. Or maybe hate us like poison? They don't talk about fixing what's wrong with them, they talk about how evil the "left" is and how to beat them. There's nothing wrong with what they think, it's just that they didn't get it quite right - again. Goddamned again, and this election was won by six points, not twenty. That is the hold this half assed lie has on the electorate, that and hate and fear. What ever you think of the rapt attention of some Obama people it holds no comparison to the spit flecked rage of a Palin orgy. Now just what the hell do you propose to do with that? The people who just brought you the world's biggest socialization program scream socialist at Obama.
You betcha, this is going to be one big exercise in singing Kumbayah. My friends, you're not even real Americans, oh there's a lot of names for you but none that have anything to do with that red-blooded god-fearing American dream of the right. Republicans are having a fight, I keep thinking of ways to help them amp it up real good because this bunch isn't going to fix themselves until there's a hell of smash up.
Oh yeah, I'm pissed off. I'm not going to do well out of this but a lot of people are going to get it a lot harder and that's just multiples of more wrong and me more pissed. Here's the real pisser, you've got Boehner and Cantor in leadership just champing to screw the works as much as possible because the exact and only hope they've got is a disaster and with power in the balance you could measure how much they care with a very small thimble.
But hey, we won...
PJ O'Rourke was funny at one time. Karla at BlueOregon pretty much blows a gasket at PJ's "We Blew It" article offering up her behind for some rightie kissing. PJ is a child of privilege and a high class education and he's wasted a fair intellect on comic book versions of Ayn Rand's pot boiler novels based on a surface understanding of the right. Ayn has an excuse, compared to her experiences of the failures of Communism even a shallow understanding of capitalism looks better. A high school freshman all stoked up on self-indulgent egocentricism will immediately get the hots for the unexplained but glorified characters and hopefully get over it well before graduation. If not they'll vote for a third term for GeorgeII because he looks soooo masculine in a flight suit and talks soooo tough. Never mind that historically every shot this bunch has at it leaves things in some degree of ruin to be fixed by the other side until a recurring memory lapse happens and they do it again. In PJ's world the only thing worse than the people who messed up the good idea is the people who oppose it - and they really are a mess. Just never goddam mind that those people kept telling them that you can't do it like that with getting a mess, nope - ask Rush as he calls this the Obama Recession/Depression or read one of the right-tard blogs where they ask how to prove the left set this off to win the election. Really, no damn kidding and no I won't link to them and give them credibility. PJ was funny once, a very long time ago, but his outfit has so damaged humor that all PJ is left with is the Don Rickles version of rude insult. How can he do irony with the Rush statements standing there? How can he exaggerate into satire in the face of right-tard idea that the evil liberals set off this economic whirlwind to win an election? Honest to god the right should leave humor alone, it isn't that there's no talent, it's just that their material can't match their own stands for humor...black humor.
***bn at P3 deconstructs poor PJ in a fitting manner.***
Here's the deal, things are going to get worse and a lot of people who shouldn't be at risk are going to find themselves going under. They'll have worked real hard and gotten a little ahead and be sunk because some wealthy assholes couldn't get richer fast enough that they could pay attention to what they were doing. Years ago financial planners were warning that derivatives were real risky not understood by more than a handful of people, so between them and swaps built on them they ran up ten times the value of the assets and exploded it in our faces. Not theirs. Ours. The ones walking away will be wealthy and the ones staying are gaming the Fed to get wealthier. I suppose you think you ought to have recourse? Maybe political or criminal? Make me laugh. There's recourse alright, but it's frowned upon and illegal because they don't issue ratbastard tags...there'd be a hell of line if they did. That's flatly the damn truth and you can get along with it or you can go howl at the moon because either will do as much to fix it.
Am I advocating burning them out of their homes and hunting them down like rabid skunks? It's a fun sort of thought in a very dark way, but it'll get you into a lot of trouble and ensure that their ilk institutes a really repressive government that GWB only dreamed of and half-assedly instituted. Expecting Barack Obama to actually fix what's broken is like thinking you can plug the Hoover Dam's turbine chutes with your index finger. Remember where Insurance Companies put their money and then think you're going to see actual health care reform and yes it is named single payer universal coverage and called socialized medicine by the beneficiaries of this bail out.
Some of you get pretty limited sympathy from me, you engaged in magical thinking regarding the stock market and the housing market. Prices are going up so they have to keep going up, even though you could see that it was buying pressure that was driving the prices rather than the actual assets. There's no end, the right assured you, free market rules and it isn't wrong. But there was your mistake, you listened to their horseshit about a market that has never, ever existed. Not once, not even in Adam Smith's own writing because he stated clearly that unfettered capitalism would eat itself through killing its own market. If you have pretty pictures of Dickens's Industrial Revolution or our Robber Barons then you have to love the right's ideas because that is them in operation. You like children in rags working 14 hour days for starvation wage while gold plated mansions are built for their exploiters you'll love trickle down economics because there it is in operation. Not St Ronnie's goddam fantasy world, in real concrete terms that is how it works. Or maybe you'd like something contemporary? Fine, Monday morning's financial news ought to give you something to chew on.
Sure, I'm kinda pissed off. Twenty years of clean and sober working like a pig doing quality work and this will probably sink me. What? You're surprised that people aren't spending money on big ticket items? You have some idea that the roof replacement that is needed isn't going to get put off, oh yeah, most people have several thousand dollars laying around that isn't doing anything and they aren't spooked. You own a car dealership and you can't sell a car because nobody can get a loan so you have me temporarily fix that roof and we both know it's not adequate but $30K just isn't there and so he prays I can keep him dry by nickle and diming it. Those nickles don't cut it on my end, there aren't enough of them and and my insurance companies and bonding agencies don't give a rat's patoot if I make a dime this month, they need their payment and it ain't small. Let's not even think about building a house...
The Republicans are starting to fight over whose going to run their Party. The Christianists have both hands on its throat and they will have their theocratic agenda flogged. They've paid their dues and now you goddam heathens are gonna get right with their god or they're gonna know why. You betcha. You can take your damnable science and stuff in a heterosexual way because you going to get along with the idea that dinosaurs were ridden by people six thousand years ago and that devil's cheat of millions of years is strictly a test of your faith. And if you get funny ideas about what goes where or who does what to whom you're going to learn better. Where you ever got this misguided notion that this isn't a Christian nation isn't just open to question, you'll be shown the errors of your ways. You'll find out that any policies that reduce abortions like good sex education and access to contraception are the devil's handiwork and just banning them is how it's done. Private education will fix your socialist notions, god will see to it, and oddly enough the corporate wing isn't all enthused about being stuck with ignorant savages for technical positions, though it's not such a bad idea on the work floor. These are the folks that are in competition for the electorate and they wonder what the problem is.
The world watched us stomp Iraq and a big chunk went, "What the hell?" and they'll shout, "Victory!" and have not the least damn clue what it is supposed to be. So we burn and spend our dedicated and professional military as though it were cheap fuel. Lies be damned, the world will recognize our Christian greatness and bow down to the light. Or maybe hate us like poison? They don't talk about fixing what's wrong with them, they talk about how evil the "left" is and how to beat them. There's nothing wrong with what they think, it's just that they didn't get it quite right - again. Goddamned again, and this election was won by six points, not twenty. That is the hold this half assed lie has on the electorate, that and hate and fear. What ever you think of the rapt attention of some Obama people it holds no comparison to the spit flecked rage of a Palin orgy. Now just what the hell do you propose to do with that? The people who just brought you the world's biggest socialization program scream socialist at Obama.
You betcha, this is going to be one big exercise in singing Kumbayah. My friends, you're not even real Americans, oh there's a lot of names for you but none that have anything to do with that red-blooded god-fearing American dream of the right. Republicans are having a fight, I keep thinking of ways to help them amp it up real good because this bunch isn't going to fix themselves until there's a hell of smash up.
Oh yeah, I'm pissed off. I'm not going to do well out of this but a lot of people are going to get it a lot harder and that's just multiples of more wrong and me more pissed. Here's the real pisser, you've got Boehner and Cantor in leadership just champing to screw the works as much as possible because the exact and only hope they've got is a disaster and with power in the balance you could measure how much they care with a very small thimble.
But hey, we won...
Friday, November 14, 2008
Birth Certificate Still?
I have been a member of this email list since the late 90s, it's primarily about cars though frequently is more like some pals sitting in garage BSing. I haven't included the responses agreeing with me. During the election politics were pretty much treated as banned, out of general agreement to preserve friendships.
>From: Marc
>Is he really American? He was born in Kenya then moved to Hawaii.
Kruk wrote:
>I thought you had to be born in America to be
>President? That is why Arnold could not run for
>Pres. And he did not say he would be back either...
>A person has to be a natural born citizen of the
>United States to be President of the United
>States. There is a legitimate debate as to
>whether or not Obama is a natural born citizen of
>the United States. For whatever reason, he is
>doing nothing, at this time, to end the issue by
>releasing his original birth record.
>David
So, Chuck gets testy:
OK, let's have a legitimate debate about whether the sky is blue since I say
it is green and I've talked a couple people into buying it because they
don't like the blue. Anything else your dislike compels you to bring
forward? We already know he's a terrorist loving Muslim Marxist baby killing
scary black person who will teach your 5 year old to screw and disrespects
the flag. Not to mention he and his thugs stole the Primary and he's a
complete mystery who couldn't find his butt with both hands and has caused
the Obama Recession/Depression - 'cause Rush says so.
Here's the deal, in about 2 months GWB is gone, a new Congress takes office
and Obama takes office. McCain lost, fairly big, and is done this time
around. Sometime after that Congress and the President will have done
something and you'll have something to cheer or jeer. He was not appointed
by the Supreme Court; there is nothing in the vote margin to allow for
cheating or question. Now if you really want to pursue this stupidity why
don't you explain how it is that the current Republican administration with
all its police powers did not catch this and make it an issue? It is a
Federal Crime, after all, and they're not without resources; nor a strong
desire to not see Obama as President and McCain was pretty much their pal.
The fact that a conspiracy freak made an issue on right wing blogs and they
had a feeding frenzy doesn't make something reasonable. It certainly means
that some people REALLY don't like Obama. I expect to see a lot of ugliness
from that crowd, simply because they're already up to it. You don't like
the way the election worked out, tough shit, it's done. What you chose to
do with that is entirely your look out, but if you want to make a stink
about bullshit, I have no problem telling you so. You've chosen to play at
being an asshole in public, this is what happens. You knew exactly what you
were up to when you typed this crap.
Chuck Butcher
I don't care about politics or ideology on this one, I'm not going to be polite or nice about it. This kind of crap should not be tolerated or ignored on the basis of any relationship.
>From: Marc
>Is he really American? He was born in Kenya then moved to Hawaii.
Kruk wrote:
>I thought you had to be born in America to be
>President? That is why Arnold could not run for
>Pres. And he did not say he would be back either...
>A person has to be a natural born citizen of the
>United States to be President of the United
>States. There is a legitimate debate as to
>whether or not Obama is a natural born citizen of
>the United States. For whatever reason, he is
>doing nothing, at this time, to end the issue by
>releasing his original birth record.
>David
So, Chuck gets testy:
OK, let's have a legitimate debate about whether the sky is blue since I say
it is green and I've talked a couple people into buying it because they
don't like the blue. Anything else your dislike compels you to bring
forward? We already know he's a terrorist loving Muslim Marxist baby killing
scary black person who will teach your 5 year old to screw and disrespects
the flag. Not to mention he and his thugs stole the Primary and he's a
complete mystery who couldn't find his butt with both hands and has caused
the Obama Recession/Depression - 'cause Rush says so.
Here's the deal, in about 2 months GWB is gone, a new Congress takes office
and Obama takes office. McCain lost, fairly big, and is done this time
around. Sometime after that Congress and the President will have done
something and you'll have something to cheer or jeer. He was not appointed
by the Supreme Court; there is nothing in the vote margin to allow for
cheating or question. Now if you really want to pursue this stupidity why
don't you explain how it is that the current Republican administration with
all its police powers did not catch this and make it an issue? It is a
Federal Crime, after all, and they're not without resources; nor a strong
desire to not see Obama as President and McCain was pretty much their pal.
The fact that a conspiracy freak made an issue on right wing blogs and they
had a feeding frenzy doesn't make something reasonable. It certainly means
that some people REALLY don't like Obama. I expect to see a lot of ugliness
from that crowd, simply because they're already up to it. You don't like
the way the election worked out, tough shit, it's done. What you chose to
do with that is entirely your look out, but if you want to make a stink
about bullshit, I have no problem telling you so. You've chosen to play at
being an asshole in public, this is what happens. You knew exactly what you
were up to when you typed this crap.
Chuck Butcher
I don't care about politics or ideology on this one, I'm not going to be polite or nice about it. This kind of crap should not be tolerated or ignored on the basis of any relationship.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
So, You Think You Count To The McCains?
If you think personal behavior has something to do with public behavior you'd be excused for being dubious. Cindy and the McCain campaign have repeatedly referred to her as an only child, not quite accurately it seems. NPR has a story up about Cindy's father and his other daughter, her step-sister who was cut entirely loose in Jim Hensley's will and since by the McCains.
Precisely what led to this state of affairs I don't pretend to know and it certainly is true that one doesn't get to choose their relatives. It would seem that lack of funds to mitigate some of the Portalski family difficulties isn't an issue so there's a bit more to it. Since Kathleen Hensley Portalski's existence is ignored or really denied there isn't what could be called a familial relationship.
Oddly enough, Cindy's mother had another daughter as well, so that would be three girls not just Cindy McCain. Accuracy and truth have not been highly evident in the McCain campaign since the Primaries and this seems to be another example. If you're figuring on trickle downs from these clowns, you could ask Kathleen Hensley Portalski how that's working for her.
Precisely what led to this state of affairs I don't pretend to know and it certainly is true that one doesn't get to choose their relatives. It would seem that lack of funds to mitigate some of the Portalski family difficulties isn't an issue so there's a bit more to it. Since Kathleen Hensley Portalski's existence is ignored or really denied there isn't what could be called a familial relationship.
Oddly enough, Cindy's mother had another daughter as well, so that would be three girls not just Cindy McCain. Accuracy and truth have not been highly evident in the McCain campaign since the Primaries and this seems to be another example. If you're figuring on trickle downs from these clowns, you could ask Kathleen Hensley Portalski how that's working for her.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
The McCain Comedy Express Roars On
You have to appreciate the ... something ... of the McCain campaign. Out first was the vision of Obama as an elitist, you've seen the type, leaning against the wall at the country club making derisive comments...you've never been to a country club? Must have been a Republican reference. Then there was the lose a war for political advantage...in America? Ok, so there is always the truly funny shots of a guy shooting baskets with the troops while castigating the guy for ignoring the troops, that one had me rolling on the floor. Obama as Moses was, well, odd. There was something to comparing him to Paris Hilton, her response was funnier and smarter than McCain, though Brittany seems to have missed her chance. Tire gauges are for, hmm, NASCAR and other people who care about gas mileage, people without millionaire wives - and private jets. The McCain campaign and McCain have said that it's fun to be funny, evidently that Obama guy is a joke to them. At this point the Electoral College map says the joke is on them.
I don't know that John McCain is a racist, I do know that his Party likes to play to the stereotypes and prejudices surrounding race. The Magic Negro who plays a comedic part in a situation comedy or can shoot baskets, catch balls or otherwise be a celebrity without pretending to affect our life is a good thing. Once one starts to get ideas, and becomes, well you know, uppity, he needs slapping down. Mocking a Presidential candidate can be risky business and humor is frequently in the eye of the beholder. I thought the Purple Heart Bandaides were pretty funny, until I discovered they weren't self-referential bites for faux troop support by Republicans. (ok, I'm not that stupid) Obama tire gauges might be real collectors items if Obama wins, pointless if McCain wins and none of us can afford things with tires.
I've heard McCain described as a happy warrior, whatever the heck that means, but his happiness seems to revolve around somebody else getting beaten somehow, or maybe raped by a gorilla. He does get pretty funny when he can't remember which sports team he lied to the N Vietnamese about, depending on the audience. Actually the real joke is that his ability to get shot down and captured has something to do with him knowing how to win wars and be President. If he gets elected the joke will be on the people who voted for him minus the top 1% of the income bracket, the rest of us will be the punch line.
I cannot feature how McCain can get reelected to George II's third term but underestimating the ability of the electorate to club itself in the head is a bad idea - see John Kerry. I'm working on seeing no such thing happens this time, and I don't mean internet scribbling, how about you?
I don't know that John McCain is a racist, I do know that his Party likes to play to the stereotypes and prejudices surrounding race. The Magic Negro who plays a comedic part in a situation comedy or can shoot baskets, catch balls or otherwise be a celebrity without pretending to affect our life is a good thing. Once one starts to get ideas, and becomes, well you know, uppity, he needs slapping down. Mocking a Presidential candidate can be risky business and humor is frequently in the eye of the beholder. I thought the Purple Heart Bandaides were pretty funny, until I discovered they weren't self-referential bites for faux troop support by Republicans. (ok, I'm not that stupid) Obama tire gauges might be real collectors items if Obama wins, pointless if McCain wins and none of us can afford things with tires.
I've heard McCain described as a happy warrior, whatever the heck that means, but his happiness seems to revolve around somebody else getting beaten somehow, or maybe raped by a gorilla. He does get pretty funny when he can't remember which sports team he lied to the N Vietnamese about, depending on the audience. Actually the real joke is that his ability to get shot down and captured has something to do with him knowing how to win wars and be President. If he gets elected the joke will be on the people who voted for him minus the top 1% of the income bracket, the rest of us will be the punch line.
I cannot feature how McCain can get reelected to George II's third term but underestimating the ability of the electorate to club itself in the head is a bad idea - see John Kerry. I'm working on seeing no such thing happens this time, and I don't mean internet scribbling, how about you?
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Gitmo Farce
Republicans are going crazy in response to the Supreme Court's ruling that military detainees have a right to challenge their confinement in federal court. You would think that life as we know it has ended, that the reinforcement of an ancient right of people to challenge their incarceration's validity is something new under the sun. You will die in your bed because a right a common rapist has is afforded to people swept up by the law enforcement professionals in the ranks of soldiers in foreign lands. You are to believe that because they are held that they constitute the worst of the worst. Maybe some are, but that isn't all inclusive.
McClatchy has conducted an unprecedented compilation of interviews of released detainees, foreign officials, and US officials regarding the value and risk posed by detainees. The results are stomach churning. People have been held for years and subjected to mistreatment for little more than tribal grudges or as low ranking Taliban grunts. It is a horror show of self-reinforcing attitudes and perceptions fostered by the Bush Administration and its lackeys in Congress. It is an offense against the concept of marginally civilized behavior enshrined in the Magna Carta, AD 1215. The fates of over 770 individuals became political footballs for the Republican fear machine, it is the oldest game in politics, these people are bad and a threat because it pleases us to say so and scare you into supporting us.
It is instructive to look at the case of Mohammed Akhtiar, per McClatchy whom I quote at length to make this clear:
I am an ardent opponent of capital punishment but the actions of BushCo lead me to question that stance. The behavior of an individual acting in defiance of our laws to perpetrate horrid crimes arouses many to to blood lust, but I cannot see how that is more despicable than the behavior of these people acting under cover of governmental force to deny basic human rights to people taken at gun point in a foreign land. The fact that the people of the US have tolerated this is a blot on our national character that will be a long time stain. The fact that our legislators aided and abetted this calls into question the oaths they swore. The fact that this was a 5-4 decision says quite a bit about activist judges. Those who are not shamed by this should be shunned by all conscious individuals - fact is they'll get re-elected. We're a damn mess. A bunch of knee quaking pussies. Pah. I spit on them and George II better never get within that range of me or he'll get wet.
McClatchy has conducted an unprecedented compilation of interviews of released detainees, foreign officials, and US officials regarding the value and risk posed by detainees. The results are stomach churning. People have been held for years and subjected to mistreatment for little more than tribal grudges or as low ranking Taliban grunts. It is a horror show of self-reinforcing attitudes and perceptions fostered by the Bush Administration and its lackeys in Congress. It is an offense against the concept of marginally civilized behavior enshrined in the Magna Carta, AD 1215. The fates of over 770 individuals became political footballs for the Republican fear machine, it is the oldest game in politics, these people are bad and a threat because it pleases us to say so and scare you into supporting us.
It is instructive to look at the case of Mohammed Akhtiar, per McClatchy whom I quote at length to make this clear:
The militants crept up behind Mohammed Akhtiar as he squatted at the spigot to wash his hands before evening prayers at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.This man spent three years in brutal conditions at the hands of the United States with no ability to do anything about it. He was not a POW taken in conflict, he was BushCo's shadow criminal, one with no rights afforded to criminals or those accused of being criminal. He was bad, simply because BushCo said so. What reaction would you expect from people held in such a manner by our government? Uncritical love? Why should the world at large or even ourselves regard us as better than common thugs?
They shouted "Allahu Akbar" — God is great — as one of them hefted a metal mop squeezer into the air, slammed it into Akhtiar's head and sent thick streams of blood running down his face.
Akhtiar was among the more than 770 terrorism suspects imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They are the men the Bush administration described as "the worst of the worst."
But Akhtiar was no terrorist. American troops had dragged him out of his Afghanistan home in 2003 and held him in Guantanamo for three years in the belief that he was an insurgent involved in rocket attacks on U.S. forces. The Islamic radicals in Guantanamo's Camp Four who hissed "infidel" and spat at Akhtiar, however, knew something his captors didn't: The U.S. government had the wrong guy.
"He was not an enemy of the government, he was a friend of the government," a senior Afghan intelligence officer told McClatchy. Akhtiar was imprisoned at Guantanamo on the basis of false information that local anti-government insurgents fed to U.S. troops, he said.
An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.Lindsey Graham wants to amend the Constitution to protect us from this? We are protected by our government's adherence to laws and the limitations set upon it and its laws, not by kidnapping and abusing people.
One former administration official said the White House's initial policy and legal decisions "probably made instances of abuse more likely. ... My sense is that decisions taken at the top probably sent a signal that the old rules don't apply ... certainly some people read what was coming out of Washington: The gloves are off, this isn't a Geneva world anymore."Try to wrap your head around this, no rules, just the word of a man, the President is now supposed to be the law. Even the Soviets in the Cold War made a pretense of acting under the color of law and yet George II isn't to be held to even that weak standard. The people who ratified the Constitution would have hung him from a tree. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are supposed to be a brake on the impulse of government to accrue power to itself at the expense of the people.
I am an ardent opponent of capital punishment but the actions of BushCo lead me to question that stance. The behavior of an individual acting in defiance of our laws to perpetrate horrid crimes arouses many to to blood lust, but I cannot see how that is more despicable than the behavior of these people acting under cover of governmental force to deny basic human rights to people taken at gun point in a foreign land. The fact that the people of the US have tolerated this is a blot on our national character that will be a long time stain. The fact that our legislators aided and abetted this calls into question the oaths they swore. The fact that this was a 5-4 decision says quite a bit about activist judges. Those who are not shamed by this should be shunned by all conscious individuals - fact is they'll get re-elected. We're a damn mess. A bunch of knee quaking pussies. Pah. I spit on them and George II better never get within that range of me or he'll get wet.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
McCain Change Is Same Speech 6/3/08
If you weren't paying attention last night the TV had McCain, Clinton, and Obama on making speeches. If you missed the McCain effort, it was an effort apparently for him to do and much more so to watch without falling on the floor laughing. McCain is not much good at making speeches and should fire whoever his strategist was that suggested making this at a time where it would be directly compared to Clinton and especially to Obama. A lot of green for a background is not friendly to human complexion and John is somewhat challenged that way. Most of what was unfriendly to McCain is not poor speechifying or grimaces or background; it is what he says. For all of it you can see Politico.
Here's your frame made for you, now you get to guess where he's going with it.
There you are, vote for John McCain, he'll tell you doing exactly what the Republicans have for the last several decades is new and it is change. He'll call himself a maverick while he toes the Party line. Here's some sort of Leader You Can Believe In.
The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received. As the father of three daughters, I owe her a debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country beyond their reach.Sure John, your pals in the media overlooked Hillary's good points and seem to have played up you publicly calling your wife "c**t" and standing for everything that Hillary has campaigned against. She seems to have stuck by her spouse where you did what, exactly? Yes, John you should put yourself on the same table with Hillary.
Pundits and party elders have declared that Senator Obama will be my opponent.These are your pals who've let you get away with virtually any lie and any behavior and you're going to diss them?
But, the choice is between the right change and the wrong change; between going forward and going backward.
Here's your frame made for you, now you get to guess where he's going with it.
The right change recognizes that many of the policies and institutions of our government have failed.Since your Party did everything in its power to smash the mechanism of institutions and they failed I wonder that you make this argument and go on to list the failures your Party has fought all attempts to fix.
some of those changes have distressed many American families — job loss, failing schools, prohibitively expensive health care, pensions at risk, entitlement programs approaching bankruptcy, rising gas and food prices, to name a few. But your government often acts as if it is completely unaware of the changes and hardships in your lives.At every step I made sure this will be what happens to them. I have been an integral part of making sure that you were ignored in favor of the rich and the corporatist. See my list of advisers.
Our disgraceful failure to do so here in New Orleans exposed the incompetence of government at all levels to meet even its most basic responsibilities.That's too easy to kick apart.
The wrong change looks not to the future but to the past for solutions that have failed us before and will surely fail us again. I have a few years on my opponent, so I am surprised that a young man has bought in to so many failed ideas. Like others before him, he seems to think government is the answer to every problem; that government should take our resources and make our decisions for us. That type of change doesn't trust Americans to know what is right or what is in their own best interests. It's the attitude of politicians who are sure of themselves but have little faith in the wisdom, decency and common sense of free people. That attitude created the unresponsive bureaucracies of big government in the first place.Here's your change, we've spent the last seven years playing this card and doing our damnedest to effect it and we're going to sell it to you again. You're not to notice that this is exactly what we ran on in 2000 and 2004, and 2006 and you have the results right now.
You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third term.
So he tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country.I have voted 95% with the current administration, the GW Bush administration that I am now saying I oppose. I oppose it because I say so.
Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a presidential candidate who says he's ready to talk, in person and without conditions, with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang, but hasn't traveled to Iraq to meet with General Petraeus, and see for himself the progress he threatens to reverse.He hasn't talked to our political shill in Iraq but seems to have in DC so he just doesn't know how safe I was in a market with hundreds of troops and gunships.
we need a President with a record of putting the nation's interests before the special interests of either party. I have that record. Senator Obama does not.Make sure nobody mentions Chuck Keating or telecoms or my advisers like Black and Gramm. I'm pure as driven snow for the last week or so...
Senator Obama proposes to keep spending money on programs that make our problems worse and create new ones that are modeled on big government programs that created much of the fiscal mess we are in. He plans to pay for these increases by raising taxes on seniors, parents, small business owners and every American with even a modest investment in the market. He doesn't trust us to make decisions for ourselves and wants the government to make them for us. And that's not change we can believe in.On the other hand I advocate that the very rich not pay for any of the benefits they reap and the real tax load remain on those I just mentioned to you. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain - George II.
Lowering trade barriers to American goods and services creates more and better jobs; keeps inflation under control; keeps interest rates low; and makes more goods affordable to more Americans. We won't compete successfully by using old technology to produce old goods. We'll succeed by knowing what to produce and inventing new technologies to produce it.You can all see how well this has worked out for you, trust me, my hand isn't in your wallet.
We are not people who believe only in the survival of the fittestWe absolutely believe in the socialization of risk to protect the incompetent plutocrats and boost the ones that don't manage to fail.
The sweeping reforms of government we need won't occur unless we change the political habits of Washington that have locked us in an endless cycle of bickering and stalemate. Washington is consumed by a hyper-partisanship that treats every serious issue as an opportunity to trade insults; impugn each other's motives; and fight about the next election. This is the game Washington plays.And I've played it to the hilt with every filibuster I've voted for.
But he hasn't been willing to make the tough calls; to challenge his party; to risk criticism from his supporters to bring real change to Washington. I have.I did this, way back in time, before I became a Bush clone and caved every time.
as we did in the weeks after September 11th.Make sure to bring this up and make sure to remind everybody about all the crap you Republicans rammed through.
There you are, vote for John McCain, he'll tell you doing exactly what the Republicans have for the last several decades is new and it is change. He'll call himself a maverick while he toes the Party line. Here's some sort of Leader You Can Believe In.
Friday, February 08, 2008
The Politics of Prosperity, Bush and Clinton
Since George II is talking about prosperity to the right nuts today and Hillary just got done talking about a return to their prosperit, let's take a look at it. I'm going to reference the US Census Bureau's study and I'll use figures that provide an overlook of periods. You will note that the dates involved use periods the figures can reasonable take responsibility for. You have to understand the stance this blog has taken, which is that nobody in very recent history has shown any concern for the entire economic strata.
George II's record actually reeks, these numbers only slightly reflect the bias, the top 0.1% are not addressed and the actual bias in these numbers is striking. The problem is that data on this piece is sketchy at best outside a narrow range of time. The NYT report concerning 2005 is only a snapshot:
Moving from there to numbers concerning the more ordinary taxpayers and covering current Bush years we'll use 2000-2006 the last year available. I'll use the US Census method of 20% of income tables and bottom of top 5% in constant '06 dollars. So per Census:
(Bottom) '06/ 20,035 '00/ 20,981 change/ -946 or -4.5%
(2nd) '06/ 37,774 '00/ 38,637 change/ -863 or -2.2%
(3rd) '06/ 60,000 '00/61,086 change/ -1086 or -1.7%
(4th) '06/ 97,032 '00/95,773 change/ +1259 or +1.3%
(-5%) '06/ 174,012 '00/170,026 change/ +3986 or +2.3%
(1%) '04-'05 note that is a single year change/ +14% versus six years above
George II wants to tout his prosperity, by percentages of income 60% of American taxpayers have lost ground under BushCo. His definition of prosperity leave something lacking and he's telling the CPAC that we need more of it and apparently more or the lack.
Enter Hillary and Bill, she's taken experience credentials from Bill and evidently that experience foreshadows her policies and their outcomes:
(Bottom) '00/20,981 '92/17,741 change/ +3240 or +18.3%
(2nd) '00/37,774 '92/33,989 change/ + 3785 or +11.1%
(3rd) '00/60,000 '92/53,363 change/ +6637 or +12.4%
(4th) '00/95,773 '92/81,673 change/ +14,100 or +17.3%
(-5%) '00/170,026 '92/139,419 change/ +30,607 or +22%
(avg 1%) '00/313,469 '92/181,904 change/ + 131,565 or +73.3% Individual Income Tax Returns with Positive Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
I will note again that once the bottom of the top 5% is reached the different taxable income rules and reporting rules mask the size of the gains, capital gains are not paid until realized, meaning paper income is not measured until "cashed in." Please also note that if you are trying to measure Clinton growth versus BushCo growth that the Clinton years measure 8 years of growth versus 6 years for BushCo. The point of the exercise is internal growth and where it occurred and while measuring growth the growth is Adjusted Gross from tax tables which have changed over time meaning that if a larger portion of income is measured against taxes "growth" is shown where reality is something different.
Now if you'd like a snapshot of the bottom of the top 5% here is 1967 to 1992, a quarter century:
(1967) 98,012 (1992) 139,419 change +41,407 or +42.2%,
(1967) 98,012 (1975) 107,102 change +9,090 or +9.3% which is an 8 year span.
What you need to understand about gains and prosperity that has been claimed by either Clinton or BushCo is that it has had much more to do with the wealthy than anyone else. The bottom threshold of the top 5% is obviously well-t0-do but it does not equate to wealth, once 1% figures are reached one does begin to see actual wealth although it is the top 0.1% that controls the wealth of the country in a meaningful way. It should be obvious to anyone with a smattering of political awareness that Republican focus is on that group, what is not so obvious due to rhetorical masking and Party perceptions is that under some Democratic administrations the emphasis is also on the wealthy. Dare I mention the Clinton name?
George II's record actually reeks, these numbers only slightly reflect the bias, the top 0.1% are not addressed and the actual bias in these numbers is striking. The problem is that data on this piece is sketchy at best outside a narrow range of time. The NYT report concerning 2005 is only a snapshot:
While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.
The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent.
The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.
***
The disparities may be even greater for another reason. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that it is able to accurately tax 99 percent of wage income but that it captures only about 70 percent of business and investment income, most of which flows to upper-income individuals, because not everybody accurately reports such figures.
Moving from there to numbers concerning the more ordinary taxpayers and covering current Bush years we'll use 2000-2006 the last year available. I'll use the US Census method of 20% of income tables and bottom of top 5% in constant '06 dollars. So per Census:
(Bottom) '06/ 20,035 '00/ 20,981 change/ -946 or -4.5%
(2nd) '06/ 37,774 '00/ 38,637 change/ -863 or -2.2%
(3rd) '06/ 60,000 '00/61,086 change/ -1086 or -1.7%
(4th) '06/ 97,032 '00/95,773 change/ +1259 or +1.3%
(-5%) '06/ 174,012 '00/170,026 change/ +3986 or +2.3%
(1%) '04-'05 note that is a single year change/ +14% versus six years above
George II wants to tout his prosperity, by percentages of income 60% of American taxpayers have lost ground under BushCo. His definition of prosperity leave something lacking and he's telling the CPAC that we need more of it and apparently more or the lack.
Enter Hillary and Bill, she's taken experience credentials from Bill and evidently that experience foreshadows her policies and their outcomes:
(Bottom) '00/20,981 '92/17,741 change/ +3240 or +18.3%
(2nd) '00/37,774 '92/33,989 change/ + 3785 or +11.1%
(3rd) '00/60,000 '92/53,363 change/ +6637 or +12.4%
(4th) '00/95,773 '92/81,673 change/ +14,100 or +17.3%
(-5%) '00/170,026 '92/139,419 change/ +30,607 or +22%
(avg 1%) '00/313,469 '92/181,904 change/ + 131,565 or +73.3% Individual Income Tax Returns with Positive Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
I will note again that once the bottom of the top 5% is reached the different taxable income rules and reporting rules mask the size of the gains, capital gains are not paid until realized, meaning paper income is not measured until "cashed in." Please also note that if you are trying to measure Clinton growth versus BushCo growth that the Clinton years measure 8 years of growth versus 6 years for BushCo. The point of the exercise is internal growth and where it occurred and while measuring growth the growth is Adjusted Gross from tax tables which have changed over time meaning that if a larger portion of income is measured against taxes "growth" is shown where reality is something different.
Now if you'd like a snapshot of the bottom of the top 5% here is 1967 to 1992, a quarter century:
(1967) 98,012 (1992) 139,419 change +41,407 or +42.2%,
(1967) 98,012 (1975) 107,102 change +9,090 or +9.3% which is an 8 year span.
What you need to understand about gains and prosperity that has been claimed by either Clinton or BushCo is that it has had much more to do with the wealthy than anyone else. The bottom threshold of the top 5% is obviously well-t0-do but it does not equate to wealth, once 1% figures are reached one does begin to see actual wealth although it is the top 0.1% that controls the wealth of the country in a meaningful way. It should be obvious to anyone with a smattering of political awareness that Republican focus is on that group, what is not so obvious due to rhetorical masking and Party perceptions is that under some Democratic administrations the emphasis is also on the wealthy. Dare I mention the Clinton name?
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Dick Cheney, Rush, Truth, Are You Kidding?
Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble wrote a report for the Defense Department about the handling of some intelligence about pre-war Iraq and it featured Douglas Feith's assertions that Saddam and Al Qaeda had a mature and symbiotic relationship. Turns out nobody in the actual intelligence business believed it and for the perfectly good reason that it was hogwash. Dick believed it, Feith was their guy doing what he was told to do and they got what they wanted and it was...garbage. It was then, it was when the report was issued, and it was yesterday when Dick told Rush ,
"[A]fter we went into Afghanistan and shut him down there, he went to Baghdad, took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq; organized the al-Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene, and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June. He's the guy who arranged the bombing of the Samarra Mosque that precipitated the sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni. This is al-Qaeda operating in Iraq," Cheney said. "And as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq."
Feith's nonsense (and he's admitted it was just that) was leaked to the right-rag Weekly Standard before the war and were praised by Cheney at the time as the "best source of information on the topic." It was certainly as good as the "yellow cake" uranium letter.
And so regardless of the facts and regardless of the ISG's report, the Dick is still playing the same tune. Now is Al Qaeda in Iraq today? Surely it is, after all we took out their secular enemy and made mincemeat of the apparatus that opposed them, not to mention gave them a "cause." The picture of Dick Cheney standing in the bushes watching George II give his press conference regarding the Iraq war funding bill and Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria must give you pause. I'll leave it to your imagination what was running through his addled pate.
Cheney feels as though they're the only people allowed to talk to foreign leaders, so that if there's a chance things will get screwed up, they're the ones doing it. After Pelosi noted that she hoped peace talks could get under way Cheney's reaction to Rush was,"It was a non-statement, non-sensical statement and didn't make any sense at all that she would suggest that those talks could go forward as long as the Syrians conducted themselves as a prime state sponsor of terror." There are people the US just cannot talk to, Syria being one of them. North Korea used to be one of them, but since they have no oil and do have nukes and a loony in charge they apparently can now be talked to. Of course Bill Clinton was a traitor and Democrat when he talked to them. Boy is the White House pissed, they're so pissed it escaped their notice that Republicans just got back from Syria.
These people are so partisan and so locked into their little ideology or somethingology that they can't keep the lies straight, the players straight, connect dots that are right next to each other, or even tell convincing lies. You'd expect more from a five year old.
"[A]fter we went into Afghanistan and shut him down there, he went to Baghdad, took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq; organized the al-Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene, and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June. He's the guy who arranged the bombing of the Samarra Mosque that precipitated the sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni. This is al-Qaeda operating in Iraq," Cheney said. "And as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq."
Feith's nonsense (and he's admitted it was just that) was leaked to the right-rag Weekly Standard before the war and were praised by Cheney at the time as the "best source of information on the topic." It was certainly as good as the "yellow cake" uranium letter.
And so regardless of the facts and regardless of the ISG's report, the Dick is still playing the same tune. Now is Al Qaeda in Iraq today? Surely it is, after all we took out their secular enemy and made mincemeat of the apparatus that opposed them, not to mention gave them a "cause." The picture of Dick Cheney standing in the bushes watching George II give his press conference regarding the Iraq war funding bill and Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria must give you pause. I'll leave it to your imagination what was running through his addled pate.
Cheney feels as though they're the only people allowed to talk to foreign leaders, so that if there's a chance things will get screwed up, they're the ones doing it. After Pelosi noted that she hoped peace talks could get under way Cheney's reaction to Rush was,"It was a non-statement, non-sensical statement and didn't make any sense at all that she would suggest that those talks could go forward as long as the Syrians conducted themselves as a prime state sponsor of terror." There are people the US just cannot talk to, Syria being one of them. North Korea used to be one of them, but since they have no oil and do have nukes and a loony in charge they apparently can now be talked to. Of course Bill Clinton was a traitor and Democrat when he talked to them. Boy is the White House pissed, they're so pissed it escaped their notice that Republicans just got back from Syria.
These people are so partisan and so locked into their little ideology or somethingology that they can't keep the lies straight, the players straight, connect dots that are right next to each other, or even tell convincing lies. You'd expect more from a five year old.
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