Family Values Resigns ... And Whines

Per NYT Souder's prepared resignation:

It is with great regret I announce that I am resigning from the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as resigning as the Republican nominee for Congress in this fall’s election.

I believe it is the best decision for my family, the people of northeast Indiana, and our country.

I will submit my resignation to Speaker Pelosi effective this Friday.

I can never fully thank all those who have worked so hard, given so much and supported me through eight contested primaries and eight general elections.

Only when you have been the recipient can you really feel the humbling power of such generosity. It has been a privilege to be a part of the battle for freedom and the values we share. It has been a great honor to fight for the needs, the jobs, and the future of this region where my family has lived for over 160 years.

It has been all consuming for me to do this job well, especially in a district with costly, competitive elections every two years

I do not have any sort of “normal” life – for family, for friends, for church, for community. To serve has been a blessing and a responsibility given from God. I wish I could have been a better example.

I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff. In the poisonous environment of Washington D.C., any personal failing is seized upon, often twisted, for political gain.

I am resigning rather than to put my family through that painful, drawn-out process.
Diane and my family were more than willing to stand here with me.

We are a committed family. But the error is mine and I should bear the responsibility.
Not only am I thankful for a loving family but for a loving God.

My comfort is that God is a gracious and forgiving God to those who sincerely seek his forgiveness as I do. But I am so ashamed to have hurt those I love. I am so sorry to have let so many friends down, people who have fought so hard for me.

The ideas we advocate are still just and right. America will survive and thrive when anchored in those values. Human beings, like me, will fail, but our cause is greater than individuals.

It is based upon eternal truths. By stepping aside, my mistake cannot be used as a political football in a partisan attempt to undermine the cause for which I have labored all my adult life.

I love this area. This is my home. It has been such an honor to serve you. For 16 years, my family and I have given our all for this area. The toll has been high.

As I leave public office, my plans are focused upon repairing my marriage, earning back the trust of my family and my community, and renewing my walk with my lord.

I humbly ask you, for the sake of my family, that you respect our privacy in this difficult time.

I have no further comments.

He may not have any damn comments but I sure do.

"I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff. In the poisonous environment of Washington D.C., any personal failing is seized upon, often twisted, for political gain."

I could care less about your so called sins but I do care that you're a lying hypocritical piece of crap and have been for quite a few years. You are the poison of DC, particularly as one who twists for political gain the reality of your life and that of others into complete lies. DC didn't do squat to you to get you to be the kind of better than thou snake who can do as he pleases while lecturing the rubes. To use one of your allegories, Satan doesn't live in DC, he lives in you.

"The ideas we advocate are still just and right. America will survive and thrive when anchored in those values. Human beings, like me, will fail, but our cause is greater than individuals."

No, butthead your ideas aren't just and right and you demonstrated just what they're all about - pointless sanctimony based on your idea of a religious book that you'd legislate on others than yourself. That Revolution had a whole bunch to do with the Established Religion of England as it did a lot of other issues and it was a greater idea than yours. The First Amendment says you can practice and espouse your religion and the rest of us don't have to have squat to do with it.

I don't care whether your Party disowns you or licks your backside or your wife kicks the ever loving snot out of you but a whole bunch of us have been given the right by you to point and laugh. Point and laugh at you personally and at your idea that you and your ilk are somehow qualified to legislate the morality of the rest of us. You are the best exemplar of your stands.

Specter-Sestak Guesses

It is late enough to go ahead and guess and although I don't live in PA and haven't been there gauging sentiment I have some ideas. Primary elections are usually low turn out and mid-term ones are worse, add in that it is rainy in PA and this election turn out should be quite low. How turn out will affect the two campaigns has been an ongoing question. Some have proposed that the "machine" will win out for Specter with low turn out with their expertise, some that Sestak's dedicated enthused insurgent voters will come out.

I think one thing is over looked in the machine idea, that machine has been dedicated to beating Specter for years and years. The voters that you're supposed to be enthusing are the ones you've spent years enthusing to work against that guy. People do have memories and the more politically motivated the longer those memories last. Those people are going to be tough to get all hot to vote for the GOP "maverick" whose votes during Bush/Cheney were party line despite his talk otherwise.

Sestak is the insurgent, not that he's by any stretch an outsider and he's run as a Democrat. Insurgents get anywhere thanks to the enthusiasm of supporters, without machinery or the support of national organizations they will go nowhere fast without real enthusiasm from those supporters. Sestak is in a polling tie with Specter with all of the factors worked in other than who will actually go pull a lever.

My guess is that Sestak will benefit most from the weather and low turn out in general. I have no enthusiasm for Specter though he is preferable to Toomey.

Souder (IN-R) Values?

Congressman shoots abstinence video with mistress???

Souder's marriage is none of my business and I know nothing about it. What is my business is this idea that his type gets to tell people about what values they should hold and legislate them despite a lack of congruence with his own behavior. I don't get it, is it pandering to the Christianists or just plain election of a rotten sort of "it only counts for others"?

You'd think people would start to understand that BS is the GOP's business...

Too Much For Chris Wallace???

According to Faux News there is something that is too much for even Chris Wallace to swallow from the GOP:

WALLACE: You also write this, and let's put it up on the screen. "The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did." Mr. Speaker, respectfully, isn't that wildly over the top?

GINGRICH: No, not if by America you mean the historic contract we've had which says your rights come from your creator, they're unalienable, you're allowed to pursue happiness. I mean, just listen to President Obama's language. He gets to decide who earns how much. He gets to decide what is...

WALLACE: Well, but, I mean...

GINGRICH: ... too much.

WALLACE: ... in fairness, we're talking not just about any company, we're talking about companies that the — that the government has put...

"Well, but, I mean ..." Oh my god, even Chris Wallace has gone Commie Islamofascist?

I suppose Faux will correct an obviously failed transcript...

Oh go ahead and laugh - I've been trying to pick my jaw up off the floor over the whole thing for hours, barely able to type this. Point and laugh. Oh yeah, there's no difference between Parties...

Obama's Katrina

Sometimes I really wish the confounded media could find two original ideas to rub up against each other. Obama's Katrina - except, of course, that Katrina or its like has nothing whatever to do with the Gulf BP disaster. It is sort of like the "-gate" every scandal except that they naturally have nothing whatever to do with something like a politically inspired burglary and political cover-up of that criminal act.

A manmade corporate financed disaster is in what way similar to a hurricane? State and federal governments are responsible for flood relief, oil companies are supposed to be responsible for the oil they drill for. It is certainly true that a very large number of Gulf people are going to be harmed by the ecological smash up of oil all over the place and the Fed is responsible for trying contain a spill once it gets beyond the capabilities of ... well BP or whoever the oil bunch is pointing fingers at now. Once a hurricane forms it is one and its track is predictable and there is usually a period of some days to get squared around unlike something like an exploding oil rig.

However good or bad the Federal response, this would be something like Obama's Oil Spill problem, not Katrina or Gulf-gate or ... whatever overused media short cut for thinking they use. I'm pretty unsure exactly what it is that the media people are parroting that anyone with a brain thinks the Fed could do beyond what it is doing and has been doing. The Federal Government is scarcely full of oil drilling experts or spill mitigation experts - that being the province of oil companies. I do believe that a regulatory body sure ought to have people who know enough to ask exactly what a company proposes to do about a problem 5K feet under the water and base decisions on realities rather than corporate wishes. Sadly, getting this mess under control shows no sign of happening soon.

Does Beck Really Mean It?

When you listen to or watch Glenn Beck a question has to occur to you, "Does he really mean this?" He certainly does say things that run pretty much counter to mainstream commentary or one-ups it considerably (I'm using a real loose definition of mainstream here). It has been demonstrated pretty consistently that his version of reality manages to miss the truth and makes some real imaginative associations and all of that is quite publicly available. There sure do seem to be a sizable number of people who take Glenn Beck seriously. The question lays there - seemingly unanswered except by speculation.

I am not a psychiatrist and practising such a thing on a blog is pretty questionable but there ought to be some doubt about the presented level of sanity. I have been known to get "excitable" about politics and I do take it seriously. I do not resort to tears. I know that an accomplished actor can cry on demand, although some rather famous professionals have been known to resort to artificial aids to do it. I don't take the tears too seriously but the rhetoric is another question. I can't tell you who writes his on air stuff, whether it is his, mostly his, or mostly not - but he certainly spouts it. (I looked, but not real hard) You do have to want to believe what he has to say to believe it and I do sometimes wonder if that isn't the case with Glenn himself.

Feel free to weigh in, I've certainly not made any sort of a case...

Mid-terms ??

I have watched, with a certain amount of amusement, as the media and various pundits have predicted a Democratic disaster in the November mid-term elections. Certain factors have shown themselves as “critical” in their eyes including which party is in power, economics, and the mood of the electorate. These factors are stated as though they stand alone on the simple issue of their … name.

The “party in power” theme is supposed to reflect dissatisfaction with incumbents, especially those reflected in polls regarding the Congress. To be horribly over simplistic about poll numbers, if you take a two party system in a roughly evenly divided country that means half the people don’t much like the other party. Throw into that the seriously enthusiastic partisan nature of the divide on at least one side of the body and tempers become a bit more short. That divide means that rhetoric is hotter and progress through “the process” is slower and the public doesn’t care about process and numbers plummet. The caveat that is seldom spoken in election punditry regarding those poll numbers is that they reflect a general sense rather than a specific one. Throw the bums out doesn’t just simply include everybody - the excluded person tends to be “my bum.” The person elected to represent a CD or a State is known to those voters unlike the other persons from other places and voters tend to like their own. I take this theme quite a bit less seriously than a lot of pundits.

Mid-term disasters in relation to “party in power” have their roots in a whole lot of issues beyond simply who has the majority at a given time. One of real factors is the length of time that party has been in power. Democrats took a bath under Bill Clinton, they also had a really extensive history and a pretty high factor of, as best I can describe it, arrogance. The 2006 crunch for the GOP came after a long run both in opposition to the President’s party and as the party of the President and what looked, again, like real arrogance. Being the party of an unpopular (put mildly) President doesn’t create real favors with the electorate.
Economics as an issue has a bunch to do with who is held responsible for a state of the economy and where that state seems to them to be headed. Neither of these are too tightly linked to facts, they are an emotional response to a perceived status. This has a bunch more to do with who you relate with and how you see yourself and them doing than it does with the actual state of the economy. It also has to do with how their information sources treat economic news – or don’t with rhetoric taking its place. Figuring out how people will feel months in advance of November is pretty unrealistic with a moving target like the economy and emotions about it.
Mood is a funny thing and pretty darn capricious. Some of this regards what is actually getting done and even more has to do with perception. Information sources can have a lot to do with that and even more of it can have to do with how the politicians present themselves. Democrats being the party in power and supposedly under threat have fairly recently shown some kind of backbone publicly and the GOP has turned up the crazy but figuring out where that goes is way beyond my predictive powers and I’m damn skeptical of the crystal ball gazers taken seriously by media.

I’ll start taking predictions made about November and maybe even making a bit of guesswork myself after the Primaries are over and when November is in some kind of near future.

Oft Repeated Slogans...And Passage Of Time

Political slogans are generally simple minded catchy phrases that try to cover complex issues - and can bite later. I'm missing the crowds of GOP oriented folks chanting, "Drill, Baby Drill." There are lots of them that failed the passage of time but that one has to be one of the most egregious ones. I'm trying really hard not to enjoy their discomfiture ... alright, no I'm not.

(I take no pleasure in this disaster)

Why Politics Isn't A Dirty Word

"Damn politicians, they're all the same," is one of the lines you will hear with just about as much frequency as, "You can't trust any of them," or a variation on "It's all about them, not us." I'm not going to start right out denying these truisms or mocking them - yes I'm actually going to treat them seriously.

It is pretty safe to say that the "it's just right" kind of support for any legislation is a pretty distinct minority, things are going swimmingly when anywhere near a half of voters aren't actually not happy about it. You don't need for a piece of legislation to have attracted the serious interest of the heavy hitter money bunch to get this result and it can be from town council to the halls of Congress. Without the influence of money or Party leverage, things won't get done in something other than a messy fashion and there is a good reason for that; it is the number of discrete individuals being represented. That is the rub.

People just plain do not think the same way about things and the more opportunities there are for differences the more there will be. We actually propose that we can take a nation of over 300 million people and still get things done. The name for the way we do that is politics and it is never going to be mess free. It can't be, not with all the competing voices trying to have their own way over things that can be small differences or vast. I've watched these tussles get played out from town councils to Congress and I'm never surprised.

I play on the left of Democratic politics, though some would classify me as something else thanks to some of my views. Naturally, I'm just as convinced that they don't understand being left means something other than their views. Keep in mind that these folks are my friends and colleagues, not some un-named voters in some distant state from an opposition group. We see eye to eye on a lot of things, but we just don't on some others. So we muddle into some position we can live with. (I know that according to Will Rogers my membership in the Democratic Party bars me from belonging to a political organization) Anybody who is or has been married or had a Significant Other knows just how infrequent complete agreement is, and yet we wonder what is going on in politics. Those of you with such experience want a job being in a room with a bunch of people who "represent" a whole bunch of other people and try to get agreement? Well that, by god, is what the job of politics is about.

Just to be perfectly honest - I think a lot of crap things get done for lack of nerve, thanks to the influence of money, or Party arm twisting and not in search of some compromise in the good of the voters in general. That stuff is just the icing on the shit cake that is served from the get go.

Ah well, so it goes...

Another Reason To Loathe Lieberman

As is their usual MO (and emo) Politico provides a platform for any loony idea that seems critical of the Democratic administration of President Obama. Naturally, Pete King (perennial spouter of "teh stupid") gets space and somehow taken seriously:

New York Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, wants to know whether the Justice Department consulted with the intelligence community before it decided to hold his trial in civilian court.“I hope that Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen, but still,” King told POLITICO.


“I hope that if they did read him his rights, and if they are going for an indictment as opposed to a tribunal, that he did discuss it with the director of national intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, all the component parts of the intelligence community,” King said.


King acknowledged that Shahzad’s case is different. “It is different from the Christmas Day bombing because, one, this guy is an American citizen; it appears that most of the work was carried out here in the United States as opposed to [with] Abdulmutallab, who was flying in,” King said. “That said, before there’s a rush to indict him, I think they should make an effort to figure out what is the best venue for him.”

"But still..." WTF? Miranda is about legal notification in the US, not about citizenship, it is in fact - regardless of it. But still; I'm just ... uh, flabbergasted. What the hell does the CIA have to do with legal process? Did we somehow become a police state with secret police? I admit that for some time I've wondered if this guy has two live brain cells that talk to each other.

Then you get to one of my least favorite political figures, the LIEberman. I don't know what would pass his threshold of media whoredom, but I would think this piece of absolute stupidity would have gotten there.

“I’m now putting together legislation to amend that to [specify that] any individual American citizen who is found to be involved in a foreign terrorist organization, as defined by the Department of State, would be deprived of their citizenship rights,” Lieberman said Tuesday.


Such a law would potentially cover terror suspect Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born American citizen charged in connection with the attempted car bombing in New York City’s Times Square. He was apprehended Monday night at the city’s John F. Kennedy airport after he boarded a flight to Dubai.


“If you have joined an enemy of the United States in attacking the United States and trying to kill Americans, I think you sacrifice your rights of citizenship,” Lieberman said.

First comes the objection of standing - Miranda has not squat to do with citizenship. "...found to be involved in a foreign terrorist organization," seems broad enough to include most of his friends in the GOP. A real hard search of their campaign contributions should show that it isn't all domestic money and their behavior of terrorism of the electorate is long standing. "Involved" is one of those words. Does it mean taking bomb classes or does it include hitting one of their sites and actually reading it? I've said a number of times that Israel makes some of its problems with Palestinians and Arabs/Muslims on its own, since something like Hamas has said the same thing does that make me lose my citizenship? Would calling LIEberman a POS for his Israeli-centric politics strip me? How about supporting Lefty Democratic policies in the face of asswipes like him and King? The First Amendment is now stripped of its freedom of assembly clause? I guess calling these guys pissants and cowards probably ought to be forbidden speech and any of you that want to hang-out with me should be barred on pain of citizenless status.

Could we at least manage to ignore these buttheads or castigate them at all possible occasions? What possible political gain justifies letting Hoe LIEberman caucus with Democrats?

Our Elected Terrorists

Look two posts down and you'll see why I get upset about little things like the idjits John McPOW and his ilk are prone to saying. Goddam, it's not about politics it is about terror and the aims of terror.

The aim of terror is to influence the policy direction of a nation. Get that? The aim isn't killing people, it is to influence policy. If you change the fundamentals of your nation in response they have succeeded. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are the Basic Law of the US, they are not just some ideas bruited about by the Right or the Left. I don't give a damn if the terrorism is about guns or legal process or the right to assemble or what the hell ever, you are a pissant and coward to let them win. Pissants and cowards are now trying to drive the national direction in service to political advantage available from kowtowing to terrorists and they become, in that endeavor, the fellow travelers of terrorists.

The hell with them. The hell with those who don't call them out. The hell with their supporters. Pissants and cowards - the bunch of them.

Wishing For President McCain Right Now?

Now that a Pakistani naturalized American has been caught for the Times Square bomb attempt an almost inevitable reaction sets in with certain quarters - like, say, not-President McCain.

It would have been a serious mistake to have read the suspect in the attempted Times Square car bombing his Miranda rights, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday.

McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a longtime leading Republican on national security issues, said he expected the suspect in the case could face charges that might warrant a death sentence if convicted.

"Obviously that would be a serious mistake...at least until we find out as much information we have," McCain said during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" when asked whether the suspect, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan.

"Don't give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it's all about," McCain added during an appearance on the Imus show, which is broadcast by the Fox Business Network.

Do what? Evidently John McCain didn't spend anywhere near enough time in a N Vietnamese prison without the rights and protections of either US or International Law to have it figured out. The real problem is that we probably can't give him back to them and get any worse results than he proposes here or that existed with little pushback from him under good ole GWB. Let me be pretty clear to the evidently senile and unread Senator, the issue is THE LAW.

Yes, I have picked on John McCain when there are plenty of the "usual suspects" out there playing the same stupidity card. Uhuh, Pete King and Joe LIEberman have stuck their oars in the stupid pond, also.

What Does It Mean To Have Rights?

***Feb 27,2007*** Someone from England Googled into this and it has been a regular archive hit since it was written. I don't think it will seem dated today.

I will start with a disclaimer, an entire library could be written on this subject and I'm not going to.

The US government recognizes some rights, the basic documents of our form of government set some out. These documents begin officially with the Declaration of Independence, there are preceding documents, but this one is officially American. The Declaration sets out two ideas that form this nation's soul, that certain rights precede all forms of government and that when a government no longer serves its people they have the right to change it, violently if needed.

The Revolutionaries fought a long, bitter war against a government they previously had every reason to believe was their own. This experience taught them that their belief in inherent rights could come into conflict with a government's interests and that a government might not represent its citizenry. They had no interest in repeating the experience and tried to pre-empt such a thing's recurrence. They argued long and hard about the Constitution, having failed with the Articles of Confederation to create stability, in order to make a system which was strong enough to withstand the competing interests of its citizenry and flexible enough to meet those interests. Some things like Habeas Corpus they considered basic enough in Law to survive mention in the basic document, the Constitution, others were not so well codified and yet considered of great import. These others composed the Bill of Rights, a formal recognition of rights that were not derived from government, or created by government, but actually superior to government. The ideals of the Declaration of Independence were given codification or enumeration.

The things that they had declared in embarking on war with the most powerful nation in the world was now set out in definite wording. These men never intended that these rights superseded responsibility in action nor that a right allowed the destruction of our fellows, they assumed that simple humanity required an end point to the exercise of a right. They also were more inclined to err on the side of the individual's sense than the government's interests. It is important to remember that these individuals were primarily of English descent or of English Law culture and had watched and finally fought the disintegration of their relationship with their government over a clash of interests. They knew these issues first hand.

When you accept the idea of rights that are superior to and precede governance you have set a high ideal. You put your government out of business in areas where it has almost always interfered. These are areas that the citizenry has strong feelings and beliefs about, areas that governments have always used or suppressed in service to their interests. No one can deny that religion, as an example, is an issue that is of tremendous import to members of society and that its co-option by government is a powerful tool. It is extraordinarily dangerous to government to let it loose for free expression, government takes a large blow to its interests. Each of the rights that were enumerated is similarly debilitating to government and dangerous in the hands of individuals. The Framers were engaging in a risky course of action.

That brings us to us. We are engaged in a risky enterprise, the exercise of rights that all previous governments restricted in one way or another. The government cannot tell us to only praise it with our words, it also cannot tell us not to say mean hurtful things. It cannot tell us that to say one group is unfit to be within society is wrong and forbidden, it must allow us to go our own way. We can say that our elected officials are liars and cheats in the service of unelected elite interests. This creates a possible source of chaos that the government is forbidden to interfere with. The very few limitations the government is allowed to attempt to enforce are those that involve direct deliberate harm to other's rights. Virtually the only protection offered the government is in the transmittal of government secrets. Even in this arena the government treads on very thin ice, it has of late asserted privileges that it may find are specious. Just in the narrow limits of free speech and free press the situation is fraught with risk to order and civility and particularly to government.

It is easy in our modern world to become comfortable and believe we have safe and secure lives and it is a mistake. We live in a system that encourages and supports dissidence, and finally places the tools of rebellion firmly in the citizenry's hands. This systemic deprivation of power of governance is so deep and broad that its beneficiaries often are not aware of it. The tools of sedition range from speaking and gathering together, to having the arms to fight, and protections from governmental investigations. Every direction the government turns it is constrained. This is not the recipe for quiet sedate life if the people do not wish it and frequently despite their wishes it is not.

Because government, the enforcer of societal order, is so constrained it falls on the citizenry to exercise its rights in manners that do not create harm to their fellows. It falls to the citizenry to make informed and reasoned votes for those who represent them. It falls to the citizenry to be responsible for a government that allows and encourages cooperative society. The onus for failure of the system and violent reaction falls on those who have the very things that so constrain their government. There are those who would place restrictions on rights in the name of order and security, they would attempt to undo the system because its own members are failing it. This is misplaced responsibility, if a situation requires redressing it is not because rights are too broad, it is a failure of those responsible for the structuring of our relationships, which is finally the citizens.

We have the most glorious of opportunities, a government restrained and citizenry empowered and that is where we start. Almost a quarter millennia ago we put into operation the most daring and audacious experiment in history and we stand or fall on our own. We cannot blame the hamstrung and hobbled government, we are the power. Let us take ahold with both hands and move this forward, not fall back into the decay and decadence that is all previous governments.

Jesse Cornett For Portland Council

Sorry folks, I know squat about Portland local politics and I excuse that by having 350 miles and a huge population difference for my disinterest. I do know Jesse Cornett.

What I know about Jesse is that he is a straight forward sort who is smart and has good ideas and a willingness to think about them rather than knee jerk. Since I can't responsibly talk about Portland politics what you're getting is a personal rather than political endorsement. I'm only making this my business out of respect for Jesse. You can take that for what value you like, but I don't stick my oar in for small reason and I think Jesse is worth it.

Oil And Water

Many years ago, in the late '70s I worked for Chevron Oil Refinery in Richmond, Ca on the Long Wharf running pumping stations. The name is accurate; thanks to the shallowness of the San Francisco Bay the docks are about a mile from shore. This road is lined with pipes leading from the dockside pumping stations to storage tanks. The job involved off loading crude or loading lighter products for ships, large volumes with numbers that would amaze the unacquainted - all done over water.

A refinery is a smelly and dangerous place to work where mistakes or failures have huge consequences. Chevron at the time paid high wages with good benefits and demanded performance, for understandable reasons. I was paid good money to train for weeks to do a job that primarily involved watching things happen. Any product at all that got into the water was to be immediately reported and every system was designed and used to prevent such a thing from happening. Chevron owned its own fleet of boats to take care of and prevent bad things from getting out of hand.

What you need to understand from the above is that implicit in all the training and equipment is the idea that something bad is going to happen. Booms, absorbents, dispersal chemicals, boats, fire equipment, and breathing apparatus weren't everywhere because nothing bad was ever going to happen. The company made the assumption that something bad could happen and needed to be accounted for as much as possible while doing something hazardous. It is not rocket science to understand that if something bad can happen it probably will and this is what BP apparently failed to understand in the Gulf.

What the public does not seem to understand is that all bits that come from oil is present in the stuff that comes out of the ground. The stuff that comes out of the ground ranges from nasty gummy goo to vapors that will explode with small cause. The butane in a lighter to the rubber on the road in your tires is all there and it is a dangerous mix and there are also substances that are extremely toxic to the touch much less any form of ingestion. Simple static electricity generated by the motion of crude is a huge danger. Keeping oxygen away from that process is key, it takes a fairly narrow range of mixture of crude byproducts and air for them to explode or ignite but you're dealing with a bomb and that is just one of a slew of problems areas. Something can happen and given enough repetitions of action will happen and we do a lot of this.

At some point virtually every part of a system is subject to failure, it is one of the risks of doing any damn thing at all or even being alive. Because everything done or not done contains within it the seeds of failure there is inherent risk and that is what must be measured. You measure the risk of doing something and how to contain the failures and within that measuring is the cost and reward of taking an action. It certainly looks as though BP and the regulation system managed serious mis-measuring in this case.

The US needs oil, that is simply true. All crude is not equal, it is not composed of the same mixes of components and a great deal of N American crude is of the highest value type and that makes a huge difference in refining crude and what you get from it. What is now obvious is that there are serious risks to getting it from deep water and huge consequences for not properly accounting for those risks. It is not nearly as simple as the McCain/Palin "Drill, baby drill," slogan and propagating such a notion points up the abject stupidity of those propagandists.

I'm quite aware that the US cannot drill its way into oil independence or even have a large impact on its supply needs but... We need crude oil and we need high grade crude and we have some and we will go after it because we need it and have it. A desire to be ecologically correct or energy independent or to have alternative energy sources does not make it fact. A wish in one hand and kaaka in the other leaves you what?

This country has spent a good period of time running on wishes and not on hard headed analysis from tax policy, foreign policy, to resource policy. We have engaged in massive stupid attacks based on wishful thinking. We cannot grow gasoline and lubricants in any reasonable amounts without huge dislocations in food supplies much less in energy expenditures any more than we can cut federal income and magically make up the difference. Illegal immigration is not cured by magical thinking and the Middle East won't become a stable and reasonable place by praying for it. We need oil and we need to make accurate assessments of how to get it with minimal damage to other resources and our national interests and we've not done so. Ask the Gulf of Mexico or Iraq.

It costs money and potential profits to be responsible and no one seems to be willing and only wants to cry about any of it. I don't care whether you want to or not - that includes the eco-centric and the oil company executives and everybody in between. I'm happy to throw brick-bats at the oil industry, I'm even happier to include damn near everybody else with especial emphasis on politicians with responsibility to regulate and protect our national interests.

What Kind Of Dump Are You Running ?

What the hell is wrong with this place, this country? Too many broke people, too many unemployed, too many sick, too many criminals, too much death, too many sickly perverted animals masquerading as humans, too many threats and epithets, too many damaged veterans, too much ... damn etc.

I'm real sure the usual culprits are to blame - the queers, the other-religious, the lay-abouts, the different colored, the godless, and for sure the Communistic Nazis. Try to wrap your head around what is going on here and what the reaction is. For pete's sake yes, I do think this place is a mess and that list at the start isn't imaginary. What happens if you listen to the part of the population led by Faux News and Lafemme Palin you'll get a list of culprits that falls apart as soon as you look at it.

Reason has nothing to do with it, think about gays, marriage, and states for a second ... states that lead the country in incest, wife beating, child beating, and divorce lead the fight for the Sanctity of Marriage. What the hell? The politicians beating the hell out of the family values drum represent those places and that has resulted in what, exactly.

If you want to look for a real correlation for crime you don't look to race, you look to poverty. If you want to find clapped out educational systems look to the lack of funding and lack of respect for education and outcomes based on something other than merit.

Why the hell are people sick? Sure, as a population we eat too much of the wrong things and manage a real crappy exercise program and worst of all, go to doctors too late and emergency rooms when it's too late. Schools that can afford physical education programs and continue them create different results than ones that can only barely afford core programs.

We reward the failures of companies with exorbinate salaries for top management as they shed labor and product quality goes in the toilet. We encourage with tax codes and rhetoric the widening gap between wealth and the rest of the population and bust unions with rhetoric best saved for their masters. Our government tolerates currency manipulation that results in lack of competitiveness and job migration and gives tax incentives to those same companies to wreck their domestic production.

If you're wondering why most Americans are not represented in their economic interests you could look at who it is that is supposed to represent them. I won't even bother to lay out criticism of the GOP in that regard - if you haven't or can't figure that one out you either aren't paying attention or don't care. The Democrats are another story, you could look at nearly half of the US Senate and get a wholely different picture than what the Caucus results in.

This post has lain dormant in draft for a month, it is a depressing one and reflects some of the reason there has been a dearth of posts here. Where that is going to go as time passes is open to real question. It isn't even clear to me that much of anybody other than me gives a damn which tends to reduce enthusiasm.

Crist On A Crutch

Sure, it's a bad pun; but what do you expect in a comedy like Florida has turned out to be? The Republican Governor of Florida was losing in a Republican Primary for the US Senate, a governor with a job approval rating above 50% losing. The Tea Bagger faction's candidate Rubio running Charlie out for being ... something other than Rightwing.

I am no Crist fan, I watched his horseshit during the Democratic Primary and I was less than impressed with his dedication to the welfare of anybody other than Charlie Crist and certainly not the best interests of the voters in FL. I give a rat's patoot about Rubio or Crist and their futures, I do care that there are functioning political parties in the US.

The three way race seems to show Rubio, Crist, and Meeks carving up fairly even portions of the electorate at this early stage (Meeks trailing). In Meeks' case it is important to remember that most 3rd party candidates start out polling better early and fading with time. Crist could be an exceptional case already holding state wide office with popularity with the General electorate but history is unkind to Independents. It is not informative to look at Hoe LIEberman since the GOP shat all over its own candidate to help him out. (no, I can't be polite about that guy, won't be, don't give a damn)

I'm no prognosticator but a fracture of the FL GOP shouldn't hurt Meeks and the Democratic prospects, though a straight Meeks/Rubio would have been better for Democrats. A straight match up might also have taught the GOP something...

Obama's Racism ... Well, OK

It seems that everybody on the Right from the Washington Examiner to Rushbo and the RNC find President Obama and the DNC encouraging the young, the women, the minorities to get out and vote and particularly to do so to the benefit of the Democratic Party is racist or race pandering, or race fear mongering. Now considering the Right's state of disarray with those groups it would be understandable for them to not want them to come out and vote but it would seem to add to their problems with them to call their participation in the political process racist.

Maybe I haven't paid enough attention but I hadn't noticed that white males don't still run this country and its wealth. I have noticed that the bottom of the scale has gotten a bit more crowded, a whole lot of whites, browns, and assorted other categories have gotten shoved into it with those who were already there. It sure isn't in the interest of the Party of plutocracy and racism to have that group voting unless they're pissed off white people blaming their compatriots in misfortune for the actions of the ruling class.

Yes I call it the Confederate Party of Republicanism ... for a reason.

Stupid Political Theater And Financial Reform

It would seem that damn near everybody knows that most of America is not at all happy with "Wall Street." The quotes are advisable, investment banking and its ilk are a bit more broad in residence. Somehow the GOP seemed to miss that particular memo and fillibustered the "Democratic" bill. I am pretty sure anyone with a brain could have figured out that the "too big to fail" scam they ran would get outed and that would leave them not much of anywhere to go. There may be political capital with some piece of their base to oppose anything Obama, but that chunk seriously shrinks where the bankstas are concerned - down to the dedicated racists pretty much (excepting of course the plutocrats).

This left the GOP fillibustering a bill to do something meeting general enthusiasm. That is awkward. Some think Mitch McConnell didn't want to miss the Kentucky Derby, I think he realized that looking stupid is much worse than being stupid. (that's really saying something considering the viewership they're concerned with)

Arizona - Always Look Down

The new Arizona immigration law features as policy the rhetoric of the aristocracy and plutocracy. Never, ever look anywhere but down the social scale for the source of problems. It must be the fault of the poor and disrespected that Arizona has an illegal immigration problem - they talk wrong and do dirty jobs. It certainly shouldn't be a newsflash that this country has a problem with illegal immigration and for my readers also not one that I am a foe of illegal immigration because I do not like what it does to the job market and I strongly disapprove of the creation of an illegal serf class.

People immigrate to this country for a couple reasons, economic improvement, escaping repression (except maybe AZ), family. The biggest driver of illegal immigration is financial improvement and that comes with having a .... wait for it ... job. That job is not provided by the socially down scale individuals, nope not even a little bit. Those jobs start with the middle class small business owner and move up to the stratosphere of monster companies. A hell of a lot of people have made a hell of a lot of money off the backs of the despised illegals and those folks are the ones being ignored.

The farmer will, with some justification, state that he cannot compete without access to cheap labor. That is true, but only when the competition is also using access to cheap labor. He will protest that he can't hire people to do the work, and that is certainly true at what passes for field wages. Maybe you feel sympathy for the American farmer ... do you have a bit more of a problem with the companies that support true wealth like, oh say, former OR Senator Gordon Smith who could afford to pay $100K for a couple golf clubs while employing illegally at his pea plant?

This problem was not created down the social ladder it was created by the masters of the social ladder. It is not in their benefit to have attention paid to their union busting, wage depression, ecological devastation, or their disregard for the safety of labor, it is in their interest to create a scapegoat for their destructive behavior - especially a brown skinned scapegoat.

By the way, Arizona my family has been here for a really long time, some since New York was New Amsterdam and some since the Revolution and plenty on the winning side of the Civil War. There's an issue, in the winter I get somewhere in the area of sorta pale but once the sun is out I am ... dark and dress in ... work clothes ... and my grey eyes are behind shades. Thinking I'm Hispanic in descent would be understandable (if totally erroneous) and I don't carry "papers" other than my OR license. Stopping me for something other than a legal violation would bring a rather serious reaction. I do not propose to be interfered with by anyone short of my having done something meriting interference - like a legal violation and suspicion of my nativity won't do. Now if you're one of those red-headed pale illegal Irish you probably won't have a problem with those Arizona coppers.

It is a time tried strategy for the ruling class to create strife and discord amongst those being oppressed. Why act surprised?

Tax Bracket Stupidity

Marginal Tax Rate[3] Single Married Filing Jointly or Qualified Widow(er) Married Filing Separately Head of Household
10% $0 – $8,350 $0 – $16,700 $0 – $8,350 $0 – $11,950
15% $8,351– $33,950 $16,701 – $67,900 $8,351 – $33,950 $11,951 – $45,500
25% $33,951 – $82,250 $67,901 – $137,050 $33,951 – $68,525 $45,501 – $117,450
28% $82,251 – $171,550 $137,051 – $208,850 $68,525 – $104,425 $117,451 – $190,200
33% $171,551 – $372,950 $208,851 – $372,950 $104,426 – $186,475 $190,201 - $372,950
35% $372,951+ $372,951+ $186,476+ $372,951+

If you look at this table of Federal Tax Brackets you begin to understand how the government looks at wealth. Keep in mind that "marginal tax rates" apply only to the portion of income that exceeds the ceiling of the previous bracket. The gazillionaire pays 10% on his Adjusted Gross up to $8,350 and then he pays 15% on the amount from 8,351 on to ... etc. Once you make $372,951 you pay 35%, after all your deductions and excluding capital gains (on which you pay 15%) right up to ... well, gazillions.

Now somehow there is sufficient difference, $25,600, in incomes between 10% and 15% to justify a 5% increase in tax liability. There is no difference in income once you make $372,951, the government can't see it. As an individual you'll sure the hell see a difference in how you're treated and frankly the budget deficit sees it. If you toss the Alternative Minimum Tax into the picture you'll pretty quickly start to get some negative ideas.

Don't get me started on the idea that the SS/FICA tax with employer "contributions" at nearly 16% applied to all income up to $106,000 and nothing beyond doesn't have implications.

Which part of the fact that tax policy is not just about a budget, but also about behavior is it that misses most people? You do understand that in a given year there is a finite amount of income to be made in this year and that when some one person takes out huge amounts there is less left to go around. The fact that things like AMT and tax brackets aren't tied to median income amounts each year but rather to fixed dollar amount further states the problem.

Idiotocracy

I've been considering a new tag to cover some ground that something like "Confederate Party of Republicanism" or "Teabaggery" might actually miss. I'm aware that having those two snarky tags leaves a pretty narrow sliver that wouldn't fit, and hell, throwing "Media" into the mix probably leaves little else. Anyhow, I'd appreciate any ideas and reasons for inclusion you might have about essentially organized stupidity that would fit under "Idiotocracy".

(I know some Democrats might fit but they have a tag)

Deficit Idiocy

Sometimes you want to smash your head into something when you hear about "popular" concerns like the deficit.

This graph of what programs people want cut versus their percentage of the budget from The Washington Independent (h/t Newshoggers) ought to create that reaction amongst everybody including the GOP. The problem is that each little bunch has their preferred devils and their angels and none of it has anything to do with reality. Can this deficit spending continue? No, it cannot and this graph makes it obvious that taxes are the only solution that the public will tolerate despite their denials.

If you're gonna Teabag this post, point out which of these you propose to affect.

Bankers Are Almost Sorry ... And?

You can go to Boston.com to read the self-serving apologies some of the Bankstas offered up to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. You could go to McClatchy and read Greenspan spinning and spinning to deny having any responsibility for an economic meltdown. I'll just bet you'd think a crashed business might re-think how it does business. You could wish, maybe.

Then you'd start thinking that something like a Congress might take nearly 10% unemployment and crushed businesses seriously. You might, if you ignored who benefits and who gets screwed. There probably exists a fury tipping point where plutocrats can't game the system entirely but I'm not sure Congress would react before the pitchforks and torches were in action.

Ronnie Reagan and his voodoo cult of trickle down economics set us on this path. It became accepted wisdom that greed and wealth would look out for the national interests and any interference (especially tax) with that class was unfair and counter-productive. Regulations and taxes that interfered with the unrestrained grab for wealth became the devil's handiwork. The Teabagger nuttery isn't aimed at the causes of a bailout to stave off a depression, but at the bailout. Their fury isn't aimed at anything that has spit to do with anything other than Democrats and tax money. If you expect that bunch to lead the charge with pitchforks and torches you're crazy.

As for the GOP...go ahead and hold your breath. Keep in mind that any legislation that black Democratic President might sign is a victory for ... Democrats. I do have to wonder what kind of lesson it would take for a real large percentage of this country to not have its collective head up its collective butt.

Confederate Party of Republicanism - Virginia

This blog uses the tag "Confederate Party of Republicanism" for posts that reflect that regional domination of the GOP. It isn't an imaginary construct and yes, it is deliberately insulting - or at least was intended that way. It was an intention to snark that was sideswiped by reality.

The reality was VA Gov Bob McDonnell (R) making a Confederate History Month proclamation honoring those who fought to protect their homes and state...and managed to completely ignore "protect their state's right to enslave human beings." OK you say, an oversight which he corrected and it is important to engage tourism and etc. Nope. If this proclamation was about tourism and history it would have been entitled "Civil War History Month."

You are required to be entirely stupid to not get what this proclamation was about. It was about the Confederate States of America today. It was about racism and aristocracy being honored by the government of Virginia. It is about the Confederate Party of Republicanism and a nation that reflects a bit different view. Does it even begin to create a bit of a "hmmm" to note that this guy is freshly elected and can't run for the office again? That this proclamation is important now that there are serious Democratic majorities in Federal seats and a black Democratic President? That the State of Virginia helped elect this President?

If you take this (R) Governor's apology to mean spit you aren't paying any attention to much of anything. The fact that the option of "Civil War History Month" is being ignored as a clear statement of his intent says something about the dialogue in this country - and the media.

Here's A Real Pisser

Dr. Jack Cassell's Mount Dora practice says, "If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

I suppose there's something to be said about this, I'm just damn unsure what...

Oh, this is Florida ...

Rats In Teabaggery

Which one of you did this?

[R]ecent Tea Party people who allegedly denounced a Parkinson’s patient or spat at gay and black congressmen might well have been agents. Offensive signs might be Made in DC too. Next might come calls for violence by alleged Tea Party types, and perhaps acts, which can be used to suppress dissent. Peaceful resistance is not only right, it is all that works, unless you are with the state. If anyone urges the use of violence, the state’s characteristic action, he is probably an agent.

It isn't as though they're ridiculous enough without help. Oddly enough the Columbus, OH Parkinson's mocker portrays himself as an ordinary guy who "snapped." The State sure better come up with some better provocateurs.

I'm still waiting for one of their planks to call for the head of those responsible for the BushCo egregious assaults on civil liberties in the name of terrorism... How about maybe financial reform? Nah - instead they're the tools of the GOP as it sticks it to the ordinary guy.
Damn, Balloon Juice beats me again...

Objectivism And Fantasy

I wish I'd written that is one of my more common plaints:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

A h/t to the Balloon Juice commentariate.

Drill, Baby...Huh?

President Obama declared his intention to open some of the coast to oil drilling. There is almost undoubtably oil down there, a question occurs as to how much. There certainly is not sufficient oil to significantly affect domestic prices - despite GOP lunacy there just isn't that much oil here, period. The argument can be made that some is much more than none and while that is true there is the question of relative risk. I can't answer that one, the oil industry is considerably cleaner than in decades past but ooopses are real nasty.

I guess the question that I have is to what end this change in policy is being made? If it has anything to do with getting GOP support - well, I'd sure prefer some handcuffing going on, support or forget this. If it is about voters, I just don't know. I'm having a problem figuring out the targets. I keep seeing downsides and not much of anything on the upside.

Ok, that's a lot words to say, "Huh?"

Mismanaging Catholicism

Posts like this one are difficult for me to write, I belong to no religion for my own good reasons and yet I recognize the force for good that religion can be - or stand in opposition to. Sometimes things can really go south and the crap will hit the fan and when it is religion it really sprays.

Every organization will have some people acting badly. The bad behaviour will probably reflect a focus or theme of that organization. If it were police, probably violence or money, politics would be influence or money - and on and on. The Catholic Church very much revolves around sex and youth and it is no real surprise that sex and youth are featuring in misbehaviour. That these bad actors are going to exist in any organization is sad and damn inevitable. All organizations have to face that and deal with it. Somebody is going to screw up real bad.

The fact of violence does not make all police violent assholes, it diminishes the standing of the majority who work at a rotten job for poor pay for the benefit of the citizenry and particularly reflects on organizations who try to bury it. The Catholic Church did not face the fact that there would be bad actors in its organization and that they needed to be dealt with - they just wanted it to go away. In the process they turned their backs on most of what they guy they venerate stood for and what they pray for. They also managed to become a part of crimes.

Many organizations are both hierarchical and paternalistic, top down driven with a "the bosses know best" philosophy. This can work well or badly depending on a lot of factors, but one thing is very sure to happen - if the management screws the pooch the first instinct is to protect the management. For an organization centered around moral behavior that can be a fatal failing.

Management in the case of Catholicism tossed aside the interests of its main focus in service of management and in the process has become criminal. An organization in this position has two options - break out a chainsaw and cut dead wood or double down. At this point, Catholicism is apparently doubling down. The really nasty aspect of this is that it turns it into an ongoing criminal conspiracy. I do not give a damn, one way or the other, about Catholicism but I do care about the people of good will and intent who practice it being put in this position by Management. I care that a criminally unsafe environment for children is created.

It begins to look to me as though it is time for The State to take this in hand with criminal investigation and prosecution.

Palin And The Law ?

The Immoral Minority has a story up about Sarah, Willow, and law enforcement. I have no idea but the comments sound as though some locals have some idea. It does sound as though wealth and position will out.

RNC & T&A

The Hill reports:

The Republican who spent nearly $2,000 of Republican National Committee (RNC) funds at a Los Angeles nightclub known for simulated bondage scenes and nudity was indentified Monday as Erik Brown, CEO of Dynamic Marketing Inc.

Evidently the RNC doesn't care for the publicity:

"The chairman was never at the location in question; he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable," the spokesperson said. "Good reporting would make that distinction crystal clear. The committee has requested that the monies be returned to the committee and that the story be corrected so that it is accurate.”

In light of $200K for Plalin's clothes and her T&A act - why do they think they ought to get the money back?Surely the political content was at least as ... significant.

Balance In The Media?

Crowley at CNN had Axelrod on and seemed to think this was an intelligent question (I paraphrase), aren't both sides using violence to raise money since you guys have an ask that says "Our offices have been vandalized..." and aren't you a part of the problem?

WTF?

We need to pass this for the good of Americans somehow equates to this is Armageddon? Lives will be saved equates to "Baby Killer?" Etc, Etc, Etc - ad nauseum.

Oh yeah, to be sure - both sides are part of the problem...

Funny Results From Baby Toys

My grandson Brayden is 11 months and for his soon birthday Grandma got him a large push and ride train engine. The thing has buttons all over it that activate recordings and one of them includes, "Hi, I'm Lily - lets get going." Being digital recordings they start when ever the button is pushed and 11 month fingers like to push buttons. The "unfortunate" result in that particular button pushing has been, "Hi, I'm - Hi," and as you can imagine adult amusement.

GOP Public Stupidity

Sadly for my mental health I've been watching the news, in particular political news. I've been treated to some astonishing statements by people who are "big" in GOP politics. Things started off with real stupidity with Eric Cantor getting up and calling the Democrats out for complaining about violence and violent rhetoric (threats) by saying that a spent bullet hitting an office window not in his district that isn't his office was him being shot at and that anti-Semitic threats came in. Now I don't want to minimize the "badness" of threats and violence but exactly how Cantor can put anti-Semitism into this is somewhat beyond me - it is not exactly a feature or even bug of the Democrats - rather is is extreme far right and certainly not involved in any way with any current legislation. That can be dropped pretty much in the lap of the Medieval Catholic Church and spend-thrift monarchs. Evidently the 2nd A Republicans can't differentiate between a spent bullet and one targeted - odd. This crap was to be understood as "both sides do it." These are supposed to be the "smart guys" in the GOP...

I got to listen to Sarah rah-rahing for McPOW and make the astonishing statement that "arms" refers to votes and "reload" is about taking an election. Now I don't know what those terms mean to anybody other than Sarah but any shooter I know doesn't mean this and about any 6 year old would think something different. I certainly don't have a problem with shooting or owning firearms but I do have a bit of a problem with certain types of rhetoric. Taken along with the film of her amping up the hatred of those who aren't "real Americans" during the campaign I have a real difficulty buying into this convenient re-defining of terms.

For pete's sake, I have an understanding of political exaggeration and spin and I'm pretty sure most of the public understands that it is done and does a certain amount of discounting. There does come a point where spin turns into outright lies and exaggeration turns into exhortation to violence. It isn't as though it is a real fine line that is hard see. It isn't as though this crap is coming from something as fringe as the KKK or the John Birchers (ooops - CPAC sponsors).

How unreasonable is it to bring out the guns when a part of the Federal Government is going to slaughter your Grandma? I think the GOP having made its bed with this crap is going to have to go forward with it and that really bothers me. It bothers me because there is no way they can run on health care and not keep up the same behavior that's gotten us here or take it farther. With the pretty good things in the bill taking effect in front they have a rocky road to persuade or scare people away from it and the Democrats. The GOPers with Primary challenges can't help themselves from going after the "base" and they've got to keep them in the General. Look for more of the fear mongering and the rubes taking it more seriously than they should.

That's the problem with being stupid...

Frum And Wingnut Welfare

I suppose that if Frum wrote something that I partially approved of (bipartisan??) that would be the end of him with the wingnut welfare association, in this case American Enterprise Institute. A fellow conservative Bruce Bartlett covers it.

What you need to understand is that the failures of BushCo and neo-nuttiness found homes in places like AEI, Heritage, and some others. There, the failures they propagated and propagandized were worth paychecks, but evidently only if you don't point out that the elephant is naked. What I've read by Frum over the years convinces me that he is a conservative. On that basis we have little in common and having the GOP produce wins by paying electoral attention to Frum isn't something I'd wish. On the other hand, leading them back from the looney tunes edge would be good for the nation.

Well, they're not gonna put up with it. I can't work up to feeling sorry for one of the guys who helped sell the lies of Iraq and the lies of opposition as traitorous when he finally loses a job. What is hilarious is that he lost a job for not doing the same kind of crap - for being pretty smart. There are plenty of dimbulbs to take his place...

Frum will be fine, he ain't gonna starve or even find out how ordinary Americans get by and you can expect his conservatism won't evaporate with this demonstration of its stupidity.

GOPers Push Back, Lying Per Usual

The stupid the GOP has stirred up is biting them in the butt and they're trying to spin it and duck it and lie about it. Poor victim Cantor came out swinging (lying) claiming his office had been shot at - TPM police report. 'We didn't stir anything up, the Democrats are just going for political advantage,' is their current theme. Shaddig on Hardball, the tone stinks - we didn't have anything to do with it, Cantor was shot at too... These are just a few bad apples in a bunch of *patriotic god-fearing realamericans* and nobody should hold all of them responsible. We didn't stir up the crowd at the Capitol - we were just talking.

How about using lies to scare the shit out of people who think you're 'on their side?' People who despite all evidence think you'll tell them the truth? How about people who take some cues from what is said from the Congressional floor? You asses lied, lied, and lied in the most inflammatory terms and now that the people you lied to are losing their minds over it you want it to just be ... politics as usual. Those people are, what, for taking you seriously? I'm a political junkie so I know they're fools for taking you seriously - you want to go ahead and admit that?

Do you people lie with such frequency that you no longer understand that even though people expect politicians to speak with their political ends in mind that some of them actually respect you? You may know you're worthy of none of that respect - I certainly do - but that is not how they take it. You cannot do what you've done with your rhetoric without the RUBES taking it too far. The very fact that they elect and re-elect you should warn you that they're dumbasses who believe you. I know it's asking more than you are probably capable of; but you could stop to think about just how far you should take your lies.

The Tea-liban, Al Teada? Cantor Update

There aren't many of you who will read this that don't know I think Teabaggery is mainly composed of stupid ideas. I can't help that they espouse ideas that have nothing to do with reality. I can't help that it is apparent that there is a strong current of racism in their "Party." I can't help that some of their members use violent and abusive language and images.

What this also doesn't mean is that all of or even most of the people who adhere to the stupid ideas of Teabaggery are violent racists. That brush is entirely too wide for the stroke that needs to be made. Something their leaders and GOP fellow travelers need to think about is that extreme rhetoric doesn't just amp up enthusiasm; it also gives a green light to nut cases. Fear is a great motivator and it does tamp down critical thinking - but it also scares people with a light grasp on reality.

The problem is that the narrow success they've had with fear will dissuade them from looking at what the outcomes are. They will point to the actions of idiots and nuts as isolated cases and ignore that their fear mongering justified those people in their own minds. The examples provided by so many diminished the distance between lunacy and accepted behavior. How much distance is there between Boehner's own statements on the House floor to spitting, throwing bricks and cutting gas lines ... or far worse.

The First Amendment allows them to make stupid, inaccurate, and inflammatory statements, just as it allows me to call them fellow travelers of terrorists.

***Update***

Rep Eric Cantor says that his office was shot at. That would be horrifyingly dangerous and stupid behavior - if true. The problem is that I can find no reference to it other than Cantor's and the other is that guns do get fired in cities and bullets do travel, so whether Cantor's office was a target could be open to question. I would find a brick through my window infuriating and a bullet hole terrifying. Whatever your ideology it is simply wrong and dangerous.

As for the equivalency argument bullshit, c'mon - liberal or left "leaders" are not running around using violent racist lying rhetoric. I'm real sorry GOPers and Teabaggers, that rhetoric is coming from you. At some point that crap is going to make somebody's life very bad and you'll just stick your fingers in your ears and go, "Lalalalalala."

***Updated Update***
Damn Cantor you lying sack (misrepresenting) here is the relevant police report. I'm a Democrat (oooh he owns guns) and not anyone I know that knows a bit about guns and bullets would misunderstand what the visible evidence meant. So, he is either ignorant as a post, stupid as a box of rocks, or he's a lying sack of .... oh that's right, GOP.

Comments And Troll-tard Comments

I enjoy comments to this site, for one thing it assures me somebody is reading it and I'm not just wasting my time. I don't mind being expanded on or disagreed with. I write what I think, but I also know that I can make mistakes - or, horrors, be wrong.

Regarding troll-tards, look dimwits - if you think I'm screwed up you need to manage some actual critique to be taken seriously. Otherwise you're just mockery fodder. Shoot, I may even argue with you and I will treat you with some courtesy if you want to make an actual argument. Understand this, I am quite familiar with being disagreed with.

C'mon now, Blogspot gives you a bunch of ways to give yourself some kind of identity and they're neither complicated nor intrusive of your privacy. I happen to know that some of the people who stop by are quite smart and even witty, have fun.

Repeal Fantasy

The GOP doesn't mind lying to its folks, they plan to run on repealing the health care bill. Now that one is a bit much. They need over a 100 Seat swing in the House and a 20 seat change in the Senate to have a veto proof margin. I suppose that assumes they couldn't impeach Obama and Biden to avoid a veto. "We're going to repeal it." O....K....

Teabaggery Fury

Faux News says the Teabaggery Bunch are pissed.

Tea Party leaders, livid over the passage of health care reform on Sunday night, say their next step will be to turn from fighting the bill to running the people who voted for it out of Congress

Please do, go really hard at it. The utter stupidity of most of what you stand for and your over amped rhetoric and name calling will stand little inspection. Please invite it, lots of it.

Whose Waterloo ?

David Frum is a conservative and there isn't much we'd agree on in policy, not much. That doesn't mean that he isn't also a fairly astute observer of political manuevering.

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

In his political analysis he gets much right, but he misses one of the elephants (hehe) in the room - the Rovian political construct of destruction. Yes, they aped some of loon right talking points in ideology; but Cantor made it clear that this was about political destruction - health care was to be Obama's Waterloo. This was to smash him and ruin his political future.

Well, not so much luck there - I guess. I don't want to prognosticate how this will play out in the mid-term elections because I do think it could go either way. What did happen, as Frum notes, is that their influence was less than it might have been. Since I think the thing is too far right I wouldn't be pleased by that result.

I'm pretty pleased to watch the Republicans destruct with their reliance on right wing talkers... As for the tone of the rhetoric; the more the GOP demonstrates exactly who and what they are the better the chances are that ordinary Americans will recoil - resulting in either GOP re-alignment or immateriality.

Socialized Medicine

Which Democrat is going to stand up to the "socialized medicine" crap and point out that with hospitals required to provide emergency care that we already have the most bastardised ineffective possible socialized medicine? Effectively, bankrupted and uninsured consumers of health care are covered by the costs of the Federal programs and private insurance - all laid directly on taxpayers. There is no point in telling the teabaggery crowd anything. The rest of America? Well, one can hope.

Country First, Remember?

The Hill:

"There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it."

So something has changed? Oh, I know - McMaverick POWy Country First, anybody want to puke?

This Is What You're Up Against

One of the more coherent and less threatening comments at "FreeRepublic.com." (No, I won't link them - doubt it - go find it)

I know exactly what you mean. After the vote went down, I went outside and looked at the sky. I had the thought this this wasn’t a sky over America anymore, and there is no America now, and it felt like America just disappeared into the night’s sky, and now I was standing on someone else’s land, someone else’s home, and I could never go home again.

I will forever look at others as strangers, wondering, “Whose side were you on the night it all disappeared?”

This is the night that Ben Franklin feared when he replied to the question as to what they, the founders had given us, “A republic, if you can hold it.” We failed. We failed to stop the media from destroying George Bush to the point that America thirsted for Democrat rule. The media started the Reichstag fire, and we stood by without even lunging for a water hose.



48 posted on Sunday, March 21, 2010 8:29:06 PM by chilltherats (First, kill all the lawyers (now that they ARE the tyrants).......)

Here's the deal:
You know I didn't like the Senate Bill and I don't even think all that much of the Reconciliation. But... The status quo going forward years and years is not acceptable and what the GOP would be willing to actually do (who the hell knows?) would be so damn plutocratic and FYIGM that it would be worse than the status quo.

OK, the Freepers are loons, trolls like to call me a Leftard - I look real mild next to that bunch - but the Orange One (Boehner) already called out their strategy from the House floor. You cannot defend the Bill, you have to go on the offense and SELL it. It is hopeless to try to defend the thing in an election; with enough bad in it they've had to lie their asses off already in opposition. There is enough good in the Bill to win by campaigning on it. How many Democratic Congressmen will do so is open to question - political nerve is always in short supply.

***BTW, Ben Franklin would've called this putz a Tory and tried to get him tarred and feathered***

Stupack And The Nuns

The Catholic Nuns sent Rep Bart Stupack a letter stating that he should vote to pass the health insurance bill, his reaction was, 'so what?" He told Matthews on Hardball that they didn't count because they haven't been working like the Bishops. Hmmm.

So the nuns don't count because they're not the politically active Bishops.
The nuns don't count because they don't agree with Stupack.
The nuns don't count because they have vaginas (unused?)

Lets get to some of the crunch on this, nuns aren't being accused of molesting choir boys - that appears to be those vagina-less characters. The politically active Bishops, on the other hand, come from the ranks of those who are and have been molesting choir boys and who acted to cover it up and let it continue. Now in Bart's mind that bunch has the credibility. OK...

Well, no Bishop will ever get pregnant.

The Stupidly Intransigent Left

Since Rep Kucinich switched to yea what is there to be done with this metric? The evil villain of leftyism who held out is now whipping his colleagues after visiting the President on Air Force One so...
A) the CiC threatened to drop Dennis out the door at 35K feet
B) promised not to sell pics of Dennis and his wife
C) persuaded Dennis that this was as good as it was going to get and showed him why
D) whatever ???

I've tried to make this point to my more "moderate" friends, the left always folds to the Democratic "middle." It makes no difference how often the left is later proven correct on issues and the "middle" shown to be asses, the middle will have its way and call the left idiots.

Kucinich has stood fast calling this bill out as corporatist crap, which it is. Only a segment of that middle doesn't acknowledge how crappy the bill is but it seemed all screamed about the traitorous left all the while they were pushing at Reps to pass a bill they're not fond of. The left was pushing for results Reps weren't fond of but that is somehow different. The claim is that what the left wants may be good policy but just isn't possible.

Here's news flash for you, it isn't possible because you keep deciding it isn't possible. The Democratic Party drift into the party of 70s GOP isn't an accidental occurrence; it is that so - called middle always getting its way despite how right it wanders.

Idiocy Of Split The Difference

One of the real stupid ideas in circulation lately is that if there are two radically different approaches - say Liz Cheney and the ACLU - that half way in between is where sensible people land. This asininity assumes that there is equal stupidity or looniness in each position and that the middle isn't. The real big problem is that assumption which says that one idea is equal to the other; stating that the moon is green cheese and stating that it is rock are two radically different assertions but the moon isn't broccoli because that seems to be a middle.

Dick and Liz Cheney may have an emotional appeal to the fear ridden, and terrorists do terror for the sake of creating fear. Are we really supposed to buy into the idea that arresting and indefinitely detaining people for uncommitted crimes is a sensible middle? I don't often link Glenn Greenwald because he usually uses an awful lot of words to make his point; and I'm already guilty of that. In this case there simply are not enough words written on this, so Glenn is doing what should be done by a lot more people than just himself and a couple bloggers.

Some things are just plain awful.

Ben Westlund, OR Treasurer

I first met Ben shortly after he changed his Party affiliation from GOP to Democratic Party. His stated reasons, and I have good reason to believe them, were that the OR GOP's intransigence, hobby horse riding, and general wankery did not reflect the needs of the State. This from a State Senator from a strongly GOP district. He started a run for Governor against Ted Kulongoski (D) and quickly withdrew and stumped for Ted. I got a chance to spend some time talking to Ben while he worked Baker Co with Ted in the Governor's race. I was impressed with both his personal integrity and his dedication to Oregon's citizenry.

Two years ago Ben ran for State Treasurer and I spent the day with him, riding him in one of our parades in the Chevy SSR with the top down, at lunch, and walking our largest park meeting and greeting constituents. There were quite a few stops with people Ben knew, he was a rancher and we have ranchers. These folks were Republicans for the most part and adamant in their support of Ben as a Democrat. Ben, his campaign staff, and I spent a long day together which gave me the opportunity to get well acquainted with him. Please understand that in my role in DPO I didn't say bad things about our Democrats, but I gave real support to those I liked and I like Ben a lot. Ben and his staff stayed in contact after his win, asking if I had ideas or concerns - and to say hello.

Not too long after Ben's win, my son died and one of the first phone calls I got was from Ben. He was genuinely distressed and spent very nearly an hour on the phone trying to make words work. Words are a politician's tools, they are his life and Ben tried really hard. Any of you who have sustained such a loss knows that words are inadequate because nothing is adequate, but the expression of caring and desire to help does help.

Ben's death last week was a personal blow to me. He was someone I liked and held in high regard, as an individual and as someone who tried to look out for his fellows. Oregon is a poorer place now with his passing and so is political life. I have saved this so that it will reach his family and friends a bit later, when the real sense of how much has been lost hits after the initial storm of grief. I know I have no words to fix anything, but I do want them to know that their loss is not only shared, but how broadly it is shared.

I am so sorry for their loss and our loss,
Thank You Ben

NRO, Some Places You Don't Go

If you purport to be a Democrat there are some places you don't go to in an effort to make your case. Rush Limbaugh might be one such place, another very sure to make the list outfit is National Review. NRO isn't a kind of middle right sort of place, it is full out wingnut land full of Randian stupidities and neo-con chest beating. Maybe Bart Stupack is at home there - for some indefinable reason, since he is nominally a Democrat. Residence in The Family's "C" St home and close association with Catholic Bishops might explain such a brain fart as going to NRO, but clearly there is something amiss in Stupack land.

If Obamacare passes, Stupak says, it could signal the end of any meaningful role for pro-life Democrats within their own party. “It would be very, very hard for someone who is a right-to-life Democrat to run for office,” he says. “I won’t leave the party. I’m more comfortable here and still believe in a role within it for the right-to-life cause, but this bill will make being a pro-life Democrat much more difficult. They don’t even want to debate this issue. We’ll probably have to wait until the Republicans take back the majority to fix this.”

So this Democrat figures the Republicans are his only ally? Whoa... Maybe there's a problem with his reasoning. Since the Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of Federal monies for abortion there must be a bit more to it. Stupack's idea is that the problem is that paying for an abortion rider out of pocket doesn't avoid the Federal money that got into a subsidy. There is some logic to this, but taken to Stupack's stupidity level you have to understand that those Catholic Bishops he's taking his orders from are just pedophiles since those collection plate tithes paid for priests to abuse boys and from there paid those pedophilia Bishopric salaries. Oh, they didn't do the dirty deed of sex with boys? Same money there pal, in fact with this close association to "C" St that would mean money makes Stupack an adulterous pedophiliac Nigerian gay executioner. Some of us are fairly clear on who his allies are...

“They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online.

I've lived in Northern Michigan and the UP of Michigan and I have to tell you that beyond my parents, there are a lot of nice people there that aren't anything like Bart... I really wish we all could ignore Bart.

Break The System - Vote GOP ?

Along with the "qualified" endorsement of the Senate HCR bill came a question - doesn't passing these kinds of band aides and electing so-what Democrats just extend the mess we're in? That wouldn't electing good solid GOP majorities advance the systemic crash and teach people a lesson? This is the school that says without real pain real change won't happen.

I do agree that the FYIGM* school rules a lot more widely than is generally acknowledged and that unless that "I got mine" lose it real change won't happen. FYIGM is more commonly applied to the Libertarians than the public at large, a mistake - it is just the Randroids ruling philosophy versus the more general and less "principled" neglect of the public. The difference with me is that I don't believe that the pain has to be due to utter disaster.

The Right likes to claim that we've become a soft nation, maybe we have ... or maybe we've come to expect more of our governments' competence. I don't believe it takes complete disaster and wide spread suffering and death to create real change in this country. We were in the beginning of the worst recession since the Great Depression when the last election occurred. The worst is an economic term, rather than a social one, the actual social damage was quite muted thanks to extensive safety nets and the plowing of vast Federal resources into the problem. (I don't claim there wasn't real pain) In the face of that limited damage, discomfort as opposed to disaster, Barack Obama was elected President. Looking at the social aspects of that election should be instructive; a young black man with a funny sounding name and a non-Christian descent with limited national service was elected in competition with an old white 3rd generation Annapolis POW media darling "maverick" with a "Mc" prefix. If you consider that I am simply middle-aged and can remember watching on TV as civil rights workers were dug out of a dike you might understand the real social magnitude of that election. There was no disaster and yet a social change of shattering magnitude occurred.

Electing Republicans might well accelerate a number of failures, some, but would bring with them a lot of gratuitous collateral damage - theocracy and widespread scapegoating along with unnecessary wars are just a start. Most of the failures, plutocratism and dislocation of wealth, vanishing jobs, disintegrating health care, and crashing general income levels are inevitable considering the course charted over the last three and half decades. That crash will happen but the course to it and its size need not be disastrous to have effect. Discomfort amongst enough of those who vote will do the deal. The uninsured in this country today are not politically significant, you get junk like the Senate bill because the pain has not spread far enough into consistent voters and donors. FYIGM will fall apart when the middle's employers come to them and say, nope can't afford it and they can't afford it and keep a house. That crunch will happen pretty quickly and won't just whack the bottom of the scale and nothing in this bill will put that off to a significant degree.

There's no reason to believe that giving the keys to the Huns will result in Reformation. History shows something different in the face of disaster - Hitlers, Stalins, Pol Pots are the general result, not FDRs. This was a dangerous world when Hitler came to power, it is logarithmically more dangerous today. NO, electing half-assed Democrats (or even today's middle Democrats) will not stave off the bus going in the ditch, but it may well mitigate the pain.

Cassandra says the walls will be breached, but in this case the place need not burn to the ground. This 21st Century GOP needs a stake driven through its heart but giving them control to get there is crazy.

* (F^^k You I Got Mine)

Make Or Break Health Insurance Bill

If you think this blog is going to get used to call the Senate's pile of steaming crap something good, you need a box of rocks to improve your IQ. It reeks of stupidity and short-sightedness and corporate greed. If health insurance and more largely the health care industry is a vehicle running on four flats this thing amount to airing the tires back up, part way, and maybe patching one. At some point we're going to be back on the rims and grinding them off with the owners of air compressors refusing to let any more air get used. Yes it stinks - yes it needs to be passed.

The reason, and laugh at the we'll fix it rhetoric, is that the alternative is to leave the status quo in place until the wheels fall off and the suffering is sufficient to force the corporate hacks in Congress to do something. That would mean that somewhere approaching half the nation was dying or being bankrupted because only the rich and near rich could afford insurance. That might not be enough...really.

Even the reeking garbage that the Senate passed won't take effect immediately, it sits out there in the future. If you wait out the crash, those already screwed will suffer longer and their numbers will swell and there still is no guarantee. The mess this Congress has been capable of producing will have some palliative effect and guarantees its eventual failure but should demonstrate quite effectively what failure looks like without the long delay. Yes, the enriched groups will have more money for influence but their credence in the argument should be completely undercut.

The Senate is not going to cough up with much to fix the real problems. Some of the egregious junk like the Nelson vote buying will probably get some kind of repair but there is no real will in either the House or the Senate for methods that would affect the spiraling costs and monopolistic practices. Pass this thing because it is all you're going to get and because its built in flaws will force real correction - sometime real late in the game.

I won't bother calling my Rep because Greg Walden (R -OR 02) is as plutocratic and screw the regular guy as it gets... Yours might be a bit more amenable.

Israel to US - F*** You

While the Middle East veers around the edges of disaster our "friend" in the region counts on its lobby to keep a direct blow to Palestinian desires and US ideas of peace process from having any outcome. Israel is putting 1,600 new Jewish homes in East Jerusalem, land taken and occupied after the 1976 war.

There is no doubt that every nation has its own interests and will hew to them rather than another's in most cases. It is entirely reasonable and congruent with national sovereignty for a nation to look out for its own interests. Those interests can get pretty complicated when the region you live in is as unstable and possibly hazardous as the Middle East. It is a region of theocracy and military chest beating and a confusing and tangled history. Adding to all the nonsense of the area is the issue of being a virtual client state of the US.

For pretty serious economic and strategic reasons the US would like to see the area both stable and prosperous (somewhat more than a few "sultans"). The collision here would seem to be Israeli insistence that they should be free to claim land, on the simple basis of "we can." Such behavior runs directly counter to US efforts to get a peace process going and moving to some end that Palestinians can reasonably be held to. US interests in the Middle East are not Jewish - or should not be - but rather the fostering of forms of government we can exist with in some form of comfort. Judaism is not the interest of the US government, it is entirely meaningless in the construct of government in this country - but not politically. Given the politics of strengthening the hands of the mullahs in Iran knocking the snot out of peace between Israel and Palestinians ought to count for something.

In a part of the world where the primary support of a nation comes from outside non-Islamic white nations the default setting becomes Iran crazy if those other nations are not fair brokers. Whatever emotional connection Likud may have to East Jerusalem, it is conquered territory and conquered in recent memory. If the assertion is that due to force of arms Israel is permitted to behave in any manner it chooses, then the corollary must also be true - that countering force of arms is also as acceptable. This would mean that lacking, due to force of arms, a military that non-military tactics of force will be and must be utilized. To be sure, it is horrid to have buses full of civilians blown up, cafes shattered, or any of the other means taken by those with no military to fly bombs, shoot artillery, field infantry, and generally acceptably kill people and that is what you get.

We help fund the behavior of Israel, considerably fund that behavior. Our interests in the region are not served by that behavior. This would indicate that our money is being thrown away. It certainly is time to rethink the funding of behavior directly counter to US interests. It also will not happen. Theocracy is scarcely a dying business in the US.

No, announcing it during VP Joe Biden's visit will have no effect.

Media Jihad

Glenn Greenwald reviews the CNN "coverage" of Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol's attacks on the DOJ lawyers who were hired after representing Gitmo detainees. Somehow the lunatic rantings of the nepotism enhanced daughter of an ex-Vice President not only get national news attention but repeated as actual news.

It seems to be beyond some people's comprehension that it is the job of lawyers to represent clients, whether they are popular or not. It seems beyond some people's comprehension that accusations are not the same thing as guilt - whether the accusations involve shoplifting or terrorism. It seems that once the bogeyman of terror is involved - or maybe the 50's shades of Communism - reason is abandoned. It doesn't take a majority to engage in it, just a tipping point of numbers to enable lame weak idiots to repeat without cost garbage.

We seem to be there. Sad.

How Many Days?

How many days did it take to put together the Bail Out of Bankers?

How many days since without some sort of Financial Reform?

Who OWNS the Senate?

So Long, Jon Swift

"B List Blogger" friend and excellent satirist Jon Swift has died. For about a year the last post has been a link to my own sad post "So Long My Boy" and the comments section was used by his mother to announce his death. Tom Watson adds some details.

Jon (Al) tossed this blog kudos from time to time and his approval meant a lot to me. I am sorry to lose this fellow blogger and I add my voice to the ones his family will hear - Thank you for giving us this man.


If this means something to you, please go over to Jon Swift and let his family know.