Thursday, September 9, 2010
Burns on Rose
If you are still interested in the perfect storm of incompetence that went into the Iraq fuckuo and what may lie ahead, go see last night's conversation between John Burns and Charlie Rose. It takes 30 minutes and they discuss other things as well such as Burns' lack of a haircut and the new Brit government. I was transfixed by it. Burns knows his shit and I'm glad he got out of Iraq with his life and most of his sanity.
The View From India
Vijay Prashad tamps our politics into a nice neat brick in a piece entitled "White Fright".
This may be the most succinct single paragraph I've seen:
Why can't our "press" do that? We always seem to get the clearest view from afar.
Much more.
The far Right is making a bid to use the average American's economic frustrations in its campaign against the minorities and immigrants.
This may be the most succinct single paragraph I've seen:
Barack Obama's election was a blow to white supremacy. No longer could it be said that the highest reaches of American society were out of bounds to non-whites. It rattled the cages of hardened racists. Protests came fast on the heels of the election. Those who refused to believe that a black man could be President of the U.S. sought fantastic reasons to deny reality: that Obama was not born in the U.S. (a criterion for the office) and that Obama was secretly a Muslim (until now not a disqualification for the office). Having inherited an economic and foreign policy mess, Obama did not articulate a plan that generated confidence among the large section of the American middle class that saw its jobs and its wealth disappear (one indication of the lack of trust in the future is the decline in the birth rate since 2007). The unemployment rate continued to rise, and home foreclosures seemed unstoppable. The general drift in the country was fodder for the growth of small protests, whose presence attracted the attention of Washington's far-Right organisations and the money of the sturdy pillars of the far Right. Former Congressman Dick Armey's FreedomWorks gave its activists to the nascent Tea Party, and rising figures in the Republican Party, such as Sarah Palin, offered themselves as its leaders. They were funded by such figures as David and Charles Koch, owners of Koch Industries, the second largest private firm in the U.S. (after the agro-business behemoth Cargill). The grass-roots protests soon became astroturf events.
Why can't our "press" do that? We always seem to get the clearest view from afar.
Much more.
93-Year-Old Vows to Arrest Qur’an Burner
Pensito Review
Goddam, Pops (I don't get to call very many people that anymore)! That's the spirit!
Local (in my neck of the woods anyway) legend Stetson Kennedy, best known for his ground-breaking journalism exposing Ku Klux Klan members in the 1940s, is taking on the Qur’an burning church. The 93-year-old Kennedy has vowed to perform a citizen’s arrest of Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center on Sept. 11.
Goddam, Pops (I don't get to call very many people that anymore)! That's the spirit!
Question of the Day
Why do I have to know about this little troll named Snooki?
Good God, with all the news coverage of her, you'd think she cured cancer instead of just being a professional twat.
Good God, with all the news coverage of her, you'd think she cured cancer instead of just being a professional twat.
Can we do this ...
To George Bush when he goes somewhere?
If we can't get the war criminals to The Hague, maybe we can keep them under "house arrest". At the very least, give them something to think about before they leave the house.
Sounds like Blair can't run away from his own history. First he was pelted with eggs and shoes in Dublin then he canceled an book signing event in London. Now that protesters discovered he was preparing for a party at the posh Tate Modern in London, he canceled his showing there as well.
...
If we can't get the war criminals to The Hague, maybe we can keep them under "house arrest". At the very least, give them something to think about before they leave the house.
I say this ...
Every year.
Being the avid cruisers the Mrs. and I are (we frequent Holland America Line), the odds are not in our favor that we'll end up on a ship with these assholes one day.
Somebody'd be going overboard, be it me because I couldn't take it anymore or Jonah and the rest of 'em, because I couldn't take it anymore. It would, however, be fun to see Jonah try to outswim a Japanese whaling ship. Heh ...
Being the avid cruisers the Mrs. and I are (we frequent Holland America Line), the odds are not in our favor that we'll end up on a ship with these assholes one day.
...
By my count, that is thirty men and only three women, and I’m being generous about the “women” part since I’m not sure Phyllis Schlafly even counts as human anymore, much less as a woman. On the other hand, it would probably be worth the price of admission just to listen to Schlafly order Ramesh Ponnuru around all week (“Boy! Cabin boy! Bring mama a mai tai and I’ll give you a shiny new dime.”) while Rich Lowry cruises the piano bars with his new wingmen: Greg “The Gut” Gutfeld and Jonah ” The Much Bigger Gut” Goldberg.
...
Somebody'd be going overboard, be it me because I couldn't take it anymore or Jonah and the rest of 'em, because I couldn't take it anymore. It would, however, be fun to see Jonah try to outswim a Japanese whaling ship. Heh ...
As if ...
We didn't know this was coming:
Especially if we end up with a Republican Congress this fall, the health care "reform" legislation is a goner. At the very least, we're not going to get more (remember they said they'd make the bill better as time went on) for the foreseeable future. We'll be lucky to keep what we fought for.
...
They said that we just needed to pass this so we could get something better down the road. Perhaps that's true. But for the foreseeable future it's going to a fight just to keep the fairly crappy plan as it is, and I frankly have very little faith that' they'll be able to do it. I certainly hope they do.
...
Especially if we end up with a Republican Congress this fall, the health care "reform" legislation is a goner. At the very least, we're not going to get more (remember they said they'd make the bill better as time went on) for the foreseeable future. We'll be lucky to keep what we fought for.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
the Right to Be a Fucktard
El Rude-o. Go read.
When you read the rest, you will find that you have to grit yer teeth and agree with the son of a bitch. What he says is hateful and distasteful and stupid and uncaring and unmindful of possible consequences and damned un-Christian and he has every right to say it and calling bullshit on him will just get us a load of our own wind-borne piss back in our face.
Hypocrisy, stupidity, and plain old lying are protected speech. Anybody can say any damn fool thing they want to, and they do waaaay too often.
The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution allows one, nay, encourages one to be a total fucking douchebag asshole in support of whatever fucktarded cause one and one's yahoo posse want to hoot and holler over. It's that simple. It's that cut and dried. And the reason it encourages such behavior is that judging who is a total fucking douchebag asshole and whose cause is fucktarded is in the eye and ear of the beholder. For, indeed, one could have argued that blacks in the Jim Crow south who were peaceably assembling at lunch counters were the assholes. And one could argue the opposite. Many people considered the Chicago Eight a bunch of unAmerican hippie cocksuckers who deserved only imprisonment, if not exile. One could argue that Gregory Lee Johnson was a complete cunt for burning an American flag outside the Dallas City Hall during the Republican National Convention in 1984. But the Supreme Court said in 1989 that his level of cuntishness didn't matter. What mattered was that it was speech (with even Scalia agreeing). And that as such, go fuck yourself with your precious little hurt feelings.
That's the deal. That's why you say rights are rights. As New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has emerged as this passionate advocate for free speech, said, "The First Amendment protects everybody, and you can't say that we're going to apply the First Amendment to only those cases where we are in agreement." Bloomberg was commenting on Pastor Yosemite Sam's plan to burn a pile of Korans outside his shitty little church in Gainesville, Florida.
And you know who else is right? Fucking Pastor Yosemite Sam himself. Yeah, he's a hateful redneck son of a donkey ass-fucker (more or less). But read what he says on the church's website about why he's burning a Koran:
When you read the rest, you will find that you have to grit yer teeth and agree with the son of a bitch. What he says is hateful and distasteful and stupid and uncaring and unmindful of possible consequences and damned un-Christian and he has every right to say it and calling bullshit on him will just get us a load of our own wind-borne piss back in our face.
Hypocrisy, stupidity, and plain old lying are protected speech. Anybody can say any damn fool thing they want to, and they do waaaay too often.
Disgraceful Symbolism: IOKIYAR
Fred Kaplan in Slate:
Fred goes into the effect this might have on the troops but he didn't answer his own question posed in the opening paragraph. I will.
The reason the Repugs aren't condemning this disgraceful act by a publicity-seeking phony xtian preacher is because they don't want to piss off their anti-Islam base of haters two months before an election.
Book-burning in this case is not about denying knowledge like it has been in other times. It's entirely symbolic. The Qurans here are nothing but flammable wood products, probably printed in English which most Muslims in the world couldn't read anyway, and millions of printing presses the world over crank 'em out every day in most every language.
We oughta consider ourselves lucky that he's not going to burn a Muslim.
Republicans are usually eager to trumpet their support for the troops and the war against terror. So why aren't they condemning the Florida pastor who plans to lead his congregation in a Quran-burning bonfire on Sept. 11?
In September 2007, the Senate voted 72-25 to condemn the anti-war group MoveOn.org for running a full-page newspaper ad that denounced Gen. Petraeus, then the U.S. commander in Iraq, as "General Betray Us."
If the senators want to show their genuine support for Petraeus (and not just indulge in an easy political stunt), they should denounce Terry Jones for endangering the troops and providing aid and comfort to the enemy—and, better still, send federal marshals to Gainesville, Fla., to help the local fire chief (who has ordered Jones not to burn the books) maintain public safety.
Fred goes into the effect this might have on the troops but he didn't answer his own question posed in the opening paragraph. I will.
The reason the Repugs aren't condemning this disgraceful act by a publicity-seeking phony xtian preacher is because they don't want to piss off their anti-Islam base of haters two months before an election.
Book-burning in this case is not about denying knowledge like it has been in other times. It's entirely symbolic. The Qurans here are nothing but flammable wood products, probably printed in English which most Muslims in the world couldn't read anyway, and millions of printing presses the world over crank 'em out every day in most every language.
We oughta consider ourselves lucky that he's not going to burn a Muslim.
Burn a Bible, save a kitten
If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford.
Shit, Mark, an inch would be a safe margin! Right now it seems like it's a millimeter and closing.
There are far too many people who have allowed, or worse encouraged, their lizard brains to shape their lifeview, and they all seem to have a forum these days with their own media and political party. Ain't the rest of us lucky? Yeesh.
Comedic horrors thrive, moronism seems to inbreed and fester, and most of it manifests under the banner of a mutant Christian God, or extreme conservatism, or some form of fundamentalist moral outrage that can't exactly be explained but which often makes its most devout adherents appear to be nothing more than frenetic fleas sucking blood from the Great Hound of life. The beast merely scratches and sighs, and keeps right on gnawing the bone of eternity.
Oh, the hardcore lefty fringe has its violent cretins, to be sure, natty Earth Firsters to slavering PETA blood hurlers, eco-terrorists and freako off-grid cults, but those groups never claim to be a vital part of the Democratic Party. Liberalism does not depend on terrible education rates to survive.
The GOP, on the other hand, sucks hard from the teat of ignorant extremism, splashes gleefully in the shallow mud puddles of Sarah Palin's battered grammar, draws much of its power from the worst the human spectacle has to offer. Simply put, the modern Republican Party would not exist without its army of high school dropouts drunk on Rush Limbaugh and sexual dread. It's not difficult to imagine "Burn a Quran Day" becoming a new Texas state holiday.
What to make of it? After all, the world has always been speckled with rabid clowns, an endless parade of spittle-flecked sociopaths that make us shudder and sigh, many with "Reverend" before their names or "Show" just after it. American culture is rife with worldviews so narrow and poorly educated, you can be quickly convinced we are but an inch from permanent insanity.
Shit, Mark, an inch would be a safe margin! Right now it seems like it's a millimeter and closing.
After all, the Fred Phelps, the Glenn Becks, the Terry Jones of the world are but our basest natures made manifest, the bleakest, most paranoid, lazily ignorant parts of each and every one of us. Deny it at your peril. As Joseph Conrad once wrote, "the bitterest contradictions and the deadliest conflicts of the world are carried on in every individual breast capable of feeling and passion." He should know.
There are far too many people who have allowed, or worse encouraged, their lizard brains to shape their lifeview, and they all seem to have a forum these days with their own media and political party. Ain't the rest of us lucky? Yeesh.
"... a fucking disaster ..."
There is a critical point that I fear the commentariat is just not getting. In my darker moments I fear that some of my fellow economists aren’t getting it either but we aren’t going to go there.
...
I've been thinking this for a long time. For those who don't know, my dad was a defense contractor. During the Vietnam War, he had more work than he knew what to do with. He subcontracted to Grumman, Republic Aircraft, and several hundred machine shops that were working 3 shifts. His place was unionized and so were all the corporations and shops he dealt with. He went out in 1984, Grumman and Republic left soon after and now, I only know of 3 of those machine shops still in business and they're closed by 5 pm. Shit, these folks helped put a man on the Moon.
...
This is a failure of our basic institutions of production. The job of the market is to bring together willing buyers with willing sellers in order to produce value. This is not happening and as a result literally trillions of dollars in value are not being produced.
Let me say that again because I think it fails to sink in – literally trillions of dollars in value are not being produced. Not misallocated. Not spent on programs you don’t approve of or distributed in tax cuts you don’t like. Trillions of dollars in value are not produced at all. Gone from the world entirely. Never to be had, by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Pure unadulterated loss.
...
Not being an economist, or even good with money, I defer to experts, but to me it seems like we're turning into one big "unemployed nation". Everything we buy (nearly) is made somewhere else. I get parts from the Ford dealer and the box tells you where the part was made. Shit, I'd be surprised if the box itself was made in the U.S. Half of our military aircraft are made in another country. How do we get those jobs back when those in other nations will do them for less, with less benefits? How do we get the American people (as a whole) to pay a little more for "American made" when they can barely squeak by on their low salaries (or unemployment checks) buying Chinese or Vietnamese shit at Wal-Mart? I don't see how it can be done.
It's one of the reasons I fear this nation is in an irreversible decline.
Thanks to Mr. Philadelphia for the link.
Chicken? Egg?
Our pal D-cap has an excellent essay up on the state of "journalism" today:
Truth has taken a back seat to revenue and any control we might have had over our government is long gone. If a person gets their news solely from the TV, they have no clue about how things work.
Which came first - journalists turning into to a bunch of sideshow barkers because the only thing Americans want is to be entertained or Americans losing any semblance of reality because the once noble profession of journalism has turned into nothing more than a conduit to sell Tide and Toyotas?
...
The politicians have beaten the journalists at their own game - the politicians know it, the public knows it - only the journalists haven't quite figured it out. Journalists used to be savvy about their strategies and smart about their tactics when they went looking for the story. The victory was uncovering the truth, not selling the most Toyotas. Today people like Palin, Romney, Paul, Rubio, King, Boner, and McConnell have been taught to master anti-journalism skills and make the press work for them. They have been able to stack the deck and play the journalists to their advantage.
Truth has taken a back seat to revenue and any control we might have had over our government is long gone. If a person gets their news solely from the TV, they have no clue about how things work.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Trumka: "Most Crucial Election in 75 Years"
Truthout
When patience and enthusiasm don't work, fearmongering might. Right out of the Repug liebook, only I'm not lying. Be afraid. Vote.
Many unionists are frustrated as usual by the lack of a viable progressive alternative to the Democratic Party. But they'd best beware, as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says, of the serious consequences of being less than enthusiastic supporters of Democratic candidates in November's elections.
"The Republican Party of NO doesn't want our vote," says Trumka. "All they want is for us to stay home. They want us to feel hopeless and disgusted so they can come back by default." (my em)
When patience and enthusiasm don't work, fearmongering might. Right out of the Repug liebook, only I'm not lying. Be afraid. Vote.
1938 in 2010
Paul Krugman with a history lesson:
I had hoped that we would do better this time. But it turns out that politicians and economists alike have spent decades unlearning the lessons of the 1930s, and are determined to repeat all the old mistakes. And it’s slightly sickening to realize that the big winners in the midterm elections are likely to be the very people who first got us into this mess, then did everything in their power to block action to get us out.
Third plunge of the dagger
Read this piece at Words of Power.
A coupla terrific paintings and a few words about how the current Dark Ages started in California and are fixin' to maybe get darker from there in a coupla months.
Just as an aside, and I throw those in anywhere, Mrs. G says GOP stands for Greedy Obstructionist 'Phobes.
I know that we're not particularly fond of the Democrats right now, but the alternative is far worse. Cheney was right when he said the American people get their chance to be heard every four years, or in this case, every two years. As distasteful and arrogant as that is, it's absolutely correct. If you still your voice by throwing away your vote, either by voting for unelectable third-party candidates or staying home in disgust, you are helping the Forces of Darkness who seem poised to turn out in record numbers.
I'm not voting for Rahm or Axelrod or any of the other Dems I'd like to punch in the nose, or Obama this time, and I actually like our Dem candidates out here in California, but if I had to hold my nose to vote for them, I'd still do it in a heartbeat.
If you remember the apt right now old joke about the people in Hell up to their necks in shit, if the Repugs get back in control, coffee break's over. Back on your knees.
Dissed and Marginalized by POTUS' Inept Inner Circle, Progressives Must Rally (Again) to Save POTUS & the Democrats? Yes.
A coupla terrific paintings and a few words about how the current Dark Ages started in California and are fixin' to maybe get darker from there in a coupla months.
Starting to get the fuller picture of what has happened here?
As California goes, so goes the nation. Remember, the Reagan Counter-Revolution came to power here first.
So will the battle for Senator and Governor here signal the end of all hope, or the beginning of the reversal of the illness that has seized the US body politic?
And yet, it can even be worse. Just allow John Boehner to replace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, and send Carly Fiorina to Beltwayistan and Meg Whitman to Sacramento, and you will see how much worse it can get, and how fast. Right now, it is very bad, but we have some leverage and a place to stand. If we lose the House or are further weakened in the Senate, or if POTUS fails to be elected to a second term, and the 5-4 corporatist edge on SCOTUS is institutionalized for another generation, well ...
And those of you who think it might be better to stay home, and let it all turn back to the Greedy Oiligarch Plutocracy (GOP), in order to hasten some more radical change, you are as deluded as the tea-baggers who are following Beck and Palin over the cliff into a hell-realm.
Just as an aside, and I throw those in anywhere, Mrs. G says GOP stands for Greedy Obstructionist 'Phobes.
Which side are you on? Yes, it is another moment to choose sides.
Vote in November, and influence everyone you can to vote in November. We must buy ourselves more time.
I know that we're not particularly fond of the Democrats right now, but the alternative is far worse. Cheney was right when he said the American people get their chance to be heard every four years, or in this case, every two years. As distasteful and arrogant as that is, it's absolutely correct. If you still your voice by throwing away your vote, either by voting for unelectable third-party candidates or staying home in disgust, you are helping the Forces of Darkness who seem poised to turn out in record numbers.
I'm not voting for Rahm or Axelrod or any of the other Dems I'd like to punch in the nose, or Obama this time, and I actually like our Dem candidates out here in California, but if I had to hold my nose to vote for them, I'd still do it in a heartbeat.
If you remember the apt right now old joke about the people in Hell up to their necks in shit, if the Repugs get back in control, coffee break's over. Back on your knees.
Why do they hate our troops?
Another crazy Jesus freak preacher and his sheeple think it's big fun to stage a "Burn A Koran Day". Don't forget, these are the same people who were rah-rah, gung-ho, kill the ragheads and "support the troops" during the run up to war. Now, they don't seem to care about those same troops they been supporting.
I don't see anything in the way of "outreach" or "dovishness" from these people. If it weren't for the suits and ties, you wouldn't be able to tell the American Taliban from the Afghan type.
The top US commander in Afghanistan has warned that troops' lives will be in danger if an American church sticks to its plan to burn copies of the Koran.
Gen David Petraeus said the action could cause problems "not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world".
Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Centre, has said he will make a bonfire this week on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.
...
I don't see anything in the way of "outreach" or "dovishness" from these people. If it weren't for the suits and ties, you wouldn't be able to tell the American Taliban from the Afghan type.
Fuck Rahm ...
And if you wonder why the White House runs the way it does (and Barry will probably be just another one-term President), you just have to look to the Chief-of-Staff. Rahm Emmanuel is nothing but a double-dealing slime mold and it's come back to bite them, and the Dems, in the ass.
Michael Moore, via Digby, on Rahm's disregard for the base:
One day, before I die, I'd like to see a Dem in the White House who is a true Lefty (Obama & Co. would be considered raving conservatives in Europe). Ain't had one of them since LBJ. Alan Grayson, maybe?
Michael Moore, via Digby, on Rahm's disregard for the base:
Dear Rahm Emanuel:
Happy Fuckin' Labor Day! I read this week that — according to a new book by Steven Rattner, your administration's former "Car Czar" — during White House meetings about how to save the tens of thousands of jobs that would be lost if GM and Chrysler collapsed, your response was, "Fuck the UAW!"
...
Nonetheless labor unions did create a middle class for the majority (even companies that didn't have unions were forced to pay at or near union wages in order to attract a workforce) and that middle class built a great country and a good life. You see, Rahm, when people earn a fucking good wage, they spend it on stuff, which then creates more good paying jobs, and then the middle class grows fucking big. Did you know that back when I was a kid if you had a parent making a union wage, only one parent had to work?! And they were home by 3 or 4pm, 5:30 at the latest! We had dinner together! Dad had four weeks paid vacation. We all had free health and dental care. And anyone with decent grades went to college and it didn't fucking bankrupt them. (And if you ever used the F-word, the nuns would straighten you out in ways that even you couldn't bear to hear about).
Then a Republican fired all the air traffic controllers, a Democrat gave us NAFTA and millions of jobs were moved overseas (hey, didn't you work in that White House, too? "Fuck the UAW, baby!"). Unions got scared and beaten down, a frat boy became president and, like a drunk out of control, spent all our fucking money and our children's money, too. Fuck.
...
One day, before I die, I'd like to see a Dem in the White House who is a true Lefty (Obama & Co. would be considered raving conservatives in Europe). Ain't had one of them since LBJ. Alan Grayson, maybe?
Too little, too late ...
So, we're pretty much assured of a Dem disaster this fall. They pretty much have themselves to blame, from Barry on down. He should have been giving speeches like this from the get-go.
What the Dems don't seem to get is that the campaign season doesn't start 2 months from Election Day. The Rethugs are always campaigning, in one form or another, constantly throwing shit against the wall to see what will stick and the Dems need answer, and ridicule it. They can't wait until a few weeks before the election to mount a counterattack.
Unfortunately, after this election, the obstruction, with a Rethug majority, will become weapons-grade.
The Barack Obama who showed up in Milwaukee today is the one I remember from 2008 who seemed to disappear over the past year or so. If he keeps this tone between now and November, I'll bet on the press narrative changing from "Dems are hosed" to something far more positive. With a mix of humor, sarcasm and a generous dose of fire, Obama put Republicans on notice: Their days of obstruction are numbered.
...
What the Dems don't seem to get is that the campaign season doesn't start 2 months from Election Day. The Rethugs are always campaigning, in one form or another, constantly throwing shit against the wall to see what will stick and the Dems need answer, and ridicule it. They can't wait until a few weeks before the election to mount a counterattack.
Unfortunately, after this election, the obstruction, with a Rethug majority, will become weapons-grade.
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