Attack and Critique

It's All Greek to Me and George Kennan Fooled Around!

2011-11-23T19:44:00.000-08:00

Sure there may be neo-nazis in the new Greek government (see Naked Capitalism.com Nov. 23) but the real shocker was reading the NY Review of Books, Dec. 8th issue that outs George F. Kennan. The article by Frank Costigliola ties Kennan's extra-marital affairs to his frequent periods of illness over a long life. Christ, is nothing sacred! Did Dean Acheseson know? How come I didn't know? Well, honestly I couldn't care less. Still, I'm an old-fashioned guy who likes his WASP elite represenatives to be paragons of virtue. Okay, he wasn't born to the manor. Thus, he was the personification of the foreign policy intellectual, at a time when that actually meant something. So I'm just gob-smacked.
What about Hans Morganthau, Hermann Kahn (just gives me the creeps writing it down)Foster Dulles (nah)? Don't tell me. I can't live with the knowledge that Anne cheated on George Smiley. Sure, she was a fictiona character. What did LeCarre know and when did he know it? I mean about these other guys in the real world.
The above ravings are no more off the wall than the announcement by the police department of NYC , by a guy named Loeser, that the press were being protected when they were forcibly restrained from covering the police riots downtown.
The writers for the Daily Show need to catch up with the flacks for the cops...the true artful dodgers.

They're rioting in Africa, the Borough of Manhattan and...

2011-11-22T08:32:00.000-08:00

Perhaps Staten Island will fall to the Huns in due course. I must read Niall Ferguson's latest fairy tale about Western civilization to steel myself for the dark age to come. It is wonderful to see that the New york Press Corps are getting their asses kicked along with everyone else. This will help them gain some perspective that they may share with their editorial board colleagues...fat chance. Still, it is fun to read Michael Powell piece in today's Times "Gotham Reporters Meet the Fists of the Law."(NYT Nov.22) The Times is overflowing with turds of meaning such as the story on the hard times for young Wall Street types. I thought Tom Wolfe did the best job on I-bankers in his "I'm Charlotte Simmons." Kevin Roose tries to get us to sympathize with the plight of under employed or laid off I-bankers. Sorry Kevin. Read Kevin's touching tale in NYT, Nov.22 "A Blow to Pinstripe Aspirations." Roose does end this piece with an observation from a young woman , ex I-banker, who sees herself as having some sympathy for the masses she has recently joined. That should scare the crap out of Lloyd and Gary at Goldman. If serious, well trained people turn their energies to exposing the system that turned them out....well, you can understand why there would be gnashing of teeth on Wall Street. One Yves Smith is bad enough; imagine a dozen or more. I almost feel sorry for GS and its flacks. Still, they have a lot to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving: the cops are loyal for the moment and there is always the National Guard, the Army and private armies we created and armed for war in Iraq.

Beware of Greeks Being Democratic

2011-11-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Why oh why would the Greek Prime Minister want the deal he just cut with the EU, ECB, IMF to go before the Greek people for a vote? Possibly because he doesn't want to be lynched in his country; possibly because he can't depend on the military unless he has the backing of the legislature and a referendum of support from the voters. Who wants to be the next il Duce, swinging from a lamp post in downtown Athens?
The horror that greeted Papandreou's plan for a people's vote on the conditions of the austerity program and "financial rescue package" raises a question about who the bankers and their political hacks think they are dealing with: Greece is not a Banana Republic. Of course, there are some who miss "The Colonels." It was during the military's take over of Greece in the late 1960's-early 70's that the tax system was finessed so that the rich could escape taxation...fall out that is still with the Greeks to this day.
The Germans are shaking their heads, " We thought we had a deal?" The poor Wolfgang just don't seem to be able to see the Greek political situation as a mirror image of Angela Merkel's situation just weeks ago. Consent of the people and their representatives trumps the elite bankers needs to get this snow job over on the public.
Satyajit Das as a post on the blog Naked Capitalism that puts the current moves by the EU banksters and their political puppets in perspective (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/10/31/2011). Das has a witty title," Europe's Plan to End the Debt Crisis- Put the "Con" in "confidence" Part 1. Read it and weep or laugh if your a masochistic type.
Meanwhile everyone is looking at the Chinese to save Western civilization as we deludedly think we know it. The Chinese are fucked. How so? Well, they have close to a trillion Euros worth of public debt obligations from the Euro zone. If the EU craters into an uncontrolled meltdown and decade long depression, Chinese EU paper will be just that paper, good for burning. The Chinese are not worried about the moral hazard issues; they are very un-Germanic that way. They don't want to get stuck with putting hundreds of billions into a rescue plan that is not transparent. The EU has still not required the banks to put all their liabilities on the table. No way the Chinese want to show their hand too early. Makes everything so clear!
Would you want to be holding anyone's cards in this casino? The chinese remember what happened to the Japanes ewhen they bought into the American humilation of the 1990's. The assets sold to them lost value over night and the Japanese were taken to the cleaners when their economy went south. It this just plain fun or what!

Republicans Forcing Obama Win in 2012

2011-10-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

It is just too strange watching the Republicans self-destruct as if they have been grabbed by a force field, powered by idiocy. Herman Cain has gotten so weird that it seems he is playing it for laughs. Perhaps he is hoping that he will be asked to appear on American Idol.
Romney continues to do the politico version of the Energizer Bunny. He just keeps on going and going, saying what needs to be said to keep him in touch with the untouchables on the candidate trail. How depressing is that?
Meanwhile Barack is watching CNN and hoping to god that Occupy Wall Street(OWS) does not morph into a primary challenge from a real democrat. If the labor movement becomes more involved, Barack will have less to fear from OWS. How tempting it would be ask Sherwood Brown or Ron Feingold to run against Obama for the nomination. It isn't going to happen...but we can dream.

The Oakland State of Mind

2011-10-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

If you have been reading the blogospere about the Oakland vs Atlanta police conduct while dispersing supporters of Occupy Wall Street, you have to amazed at the differences...why? First, read NYTimes blog post by Mackey and Goldman. Nice work lads! Embedded with their commentery are video clips that show the contrast between Oakland and Atlanta polic eresponse to demonstrations (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/26 ).
As I was posting my own comment on the boys blog, I came across an outstanding article on Oakland's police department: it's history of criminal behavior, cover-up of brutality complaints and multiple investigations into police department corruption. Sounds like James Ellroy is running the Oakland PD. (http://www.guardian.co.uk). A young chap by the name of Paul Harris wrote the piece. Of course it makes sense that a reporter in England would write the article contextualizing the brutality of the Oakland PD.
I am reminded of the famous statement by Eugene Debs about Utica New York, which applies equally to Oakland California, "If America were ever to need an enema, it would be inserted in [ Oakland]."
The Blogosphere is having a salutory effect upon the people who are the real potential for mass mobilizations after police brutality as in Oakland.

Oh my, MQ denied civil rights...perhaps.

2011-10-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

I just don't get this, my favorite Yves Smith of the blog Naked Capitalism (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/) is all in a lather over Colonel MQ getting offed by NATO and the overly enthusiastic local Libyans. The New York Times, Fahim and Goldstone(www.nytimes.com/2011/0ct.20/2011 ) seemed to pursue this story as if it were the execution of two members of the Black Panther Party in Chi-town in the 60's ( ask your parents about this reference). Anyway, what is going on here?
Of course, the United States and its NATO allies are happy MQ is resting in pieces. Can you imagine the stories he and his lawyers would have to tell if he were to be tried at The Hague? As it is, the ties among the various intelligence agencies over the last five years will sooner or later come out: depending on who's pensions (buys) off or eliminates MQs high level agents. . Amnesty International is calling for an independent investigation of MQs final days. Hell, why not wait for The History Channel's findings? Between History Channel and National Geographic, the whole story should out in no time.
One can only hope that MI-6 and French Intelligence don't shoot each other while trying to destroy evidence of each country's collusion with Libyan torturers under. The bigger story of MQs ties to his brother psychopaths in office in West Africa and beyond is still little analyzed in the Anglo-American media. One can only hope for someone to turn over that rock very soon. Of course, whomever does turn over that rock, will not be getting much sleep for a long time to come....
We await Amnesty International's call for MQs release from custody...oops to late. Perhaps the Mormons will retroactively save his soul. How much more fun can we have with MQ and the horror, the horror of his fate.... Give me a break.
Just do not get Yves Smith's going on about MQ, except from a fashion point of view. It will be interesting to see if the professors at The Fashion Institute of Technology have a take on the effects of MQs demise on dictator chic in the future....perhaps, more Kevlar in the pants and shirts?

Eating Children and Such

2011-10-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

I may have dreamed this one up...it was several hours ago that I read on a news website that: witch doctors in Uganda were sacrificing children to guarantee prosperity for the businessman willing to pay to have the child killed (abcnews.go.com.2020/child-sacrifice-uganda-witch-doctor).
I must admit that Uganda has been off my list of places to visit for quite sometime. But this story got my attention. It seemed so grotesque as to be a parody. I thought that The Onion might have hacked the website of the news site. But no. Upon rereading the piece carefully, I let the full effect settle in.
I wonder what Swift would have said about this barbaric situation?
Then I began to think about whose children are being sacrificed to finance capital in my own dear country. Here we kill their self esteem by preaching "equality" of opportunity while making sure that formal equality is undermined by economic inequality. Tax bases are rigged so that schools in rich areas are able to provide extras for their pupils and wealthy parents can enrich their children's opportunities for success in academics and social climbing. A classic example of what i am alluding to is the systematic underfunding of the largest public school system in the nation, the New York City public schools. Generations of minority children, any already burdened by poverty, living in substandard housing, in neighborhoods with high crime and even higher unemployment go to schools that have been robbed of financial resources owed to them by the State of New York. No, it is not Uganda. Here we kill the child 's ambition and self-esteem....But, we let the children live on with fewer opportunities than their wealthy counterparts, poorer health prospects and shorter life spans. How civilized? How superior we are to our Ugandan businessmen.

The Lord Giveth and Taketh Away (eth)?

2011-08-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

So, Kerry stomped Mayo in the semi-finals of the GAA Championships. I was suicidal until I read in the paper of record that Libya was about to be liberated from the devil we know :
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/africa/22libya.html?hp. The Spring and summer of rebellion continues, minus Bahrain, of course.
How long will it take for Rick Perry to start talking about going Libyan on the Federal Government? How many jeeps and four wheel drive vehicle do you think there are in Texas? Why one could see the dust cloud rising from the Washington Monument when the Perry Ferries ( as the armada would have to be called) made its way to Washington) What other state would have the brass to make them pay tolls, even if it is a state's right to tax vehicles crossing its' territory.
Would Perry go to the U.N.? Not likely. Rick Perry and Hugo Chavez have some personality traits in common....they see devils in the opposition. Wait, maybe Chavez would find this comparison libelous....only a satirical jab compadre. Perry must be asking himself, " How hard would it be to take Washington? Even Obama is running against Washington. Would the defenders of Washington just vanish as the government forces in Libya have disappeared?
Here are signs to look for: Rick Perry appoints one of his a not to smart relatives to be Commander of the Texas National Guard. Troy Aikeman sells Texas two thousand flat bed trucks with gun mounts. Not too suspicious in Texas. Military satellites can only get reruns of Dallas as they pass over Texas during the later months of Perry's losing presidential campaign.
Perry changes his name to Oliver. Why? He invites the U.S. Central Command General Staff over to Austin for a BBQ: bring only your side-arms please.
We will see if the Spring of liberation movements gets the patriot's juices moving. Can't wait.

Walking on the Wild Side

2011-08-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

It is almost too much to post anything without feeling that something really stupid will happen and I'll be at it once again. But, I have time and stupid, venal and corrupt are words that get my juices flowing. Sometimes we get all three at once: the Mike Taibbi report in Rolling Stone Magazine on the destruction of thousands of SEC records of past investigations. The article reads like a triple winner: stupid, venal and corrupt government regulators . We will see or, maybe, not. The national attention span is a nano-second long. Plus, we have the terror of the economy and stock market imploding before our very eyes. Tyler, Bertha, Bob and Maria (MSNBC) are in the trenches with the ugly news of the obvious...the gimmicks are not working and U.S. and global economies are sinking.
Speaking of ugly, Rick Perry wants to "ugly" gentle Ben of the Fed. Like most loud mouths, Perry is all hot air. I would love Perry to have to debate gentle Ben on the economy. Still, it is amazing to see the press taking this Perry moron seriously; his creditability on planet earth sinks every time he opens his mouth. Perhaps a more gaseous planet wold be more to his liking...Jupiter?

The Trouble with Reading

2011-07-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

It is not that we have an information overload. Nor, do we have a lack of contextualizers to give us the scoop. It is what Jack Friday was talking about in the black and white dazes of TV: the facts, mam, just the facts.
It is just stupefying to read that Rick Perry is talking trash about GW. That is akin to the anus calling the sphincter something dirty. It's right up there with criticizing Charles Manson for having bad grooming and weird tats. Perry is a blatant, hypocritical moron; for him to dis bubba is like eating one's young. Former Bush aids are upset at Rick. But surely they must know how craven and opportunistic Perry is.... They worked for the master of craven and raving himself....Mr. Mission Accomplished.
On the Republican zoological chart of candidates for 2012, Perry is not the craziest yet. He sees the advantage, at this moment, to move to the right: so he disses bubba on immigration and big government. You just gotta love it when the mad dogs start chasing their own tails. I'm hoping that Perry will catch his and take a big bite out of it. Where is Hunter S. Thompson, now that we need him? There was a man who could appreciate a surfeit of assholes.

Rockets Red Glare Indeed!

2011-07-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hey,
Is it me or have you noticed that the rockets are really flying in Iraq and Afghanistan...not the D.C. Mall? The ten billion a month for the wars are producing some damned impressive fireworks displays e.g., the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. Sort of reminded me of the Soviet- style Intercontinental in Prague. I would suggest you try the Prague version at this point, even if reservations would be easier to get in Kabul this summer.

Yves Smith's latest post on Greek debt is priceless "Look What You Can Buy in the Greek Liquidation Sale." http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/look-what-you-can-buy-in-the-greek-liquidation-sale.html. Smith observes that the plan for Greece laid out by its new masters at the IMF and ECB call for Greece to sell off it many of its strategic infrastructure assets e.g., water systems, electrical plants, defense industries. It is the Chilean experience, short of a fascist coup.... But there is always time for that later. What about the Greek Army? Guess, they're staring at the Turks, who are staring at the Syrians and the Kurds.

Smith makes an aside about what we in the United States can look forward to if the Republicans can manage a financial collapse....The last time people spoke about selling off our water rights to investors people just revolted against the idea....Create a crisis now and perhaps opportunity will knock again for the boys at BlackRock and Goldman. Obama can't seem to see the benefits of Chaos in the national debt limits crisis; his fear is one the Republicans don't even think about...a mass revolt by the peasants across the political landscape. Obama is correct to worry that there can always be unintended political consequences to cratering the economy. The real threat is the political reawakening of a brain dead electorate. This is something that both political parties should be in agreement about.

Pack Up All Your Cares and Wows

2011-06-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

It's election time and Obama is trying to keep the left off balance in order to avoid a primary challenge. To this end, he is floating stories about troop withdrawals in both theaters of war, Iraq and Afghanistan. The NYTimes has had a half dozen stories in the past several days concerning the possible implications of a speed up in withdrawals from the combat zones.
The point is that Obama could care less about the in-theater consequences of the withdrawals. He is doing what he has to in order to make it palatable for the liberals and independent voters to not actively oppose him in the primaries and the nominating convention. Only the weak of mind, could possibly believe that once Congress cuts off the money to these "governments" that the United Sates will have any influence beyond its judicious use of Predator drones.
Obama still has the Republicans to help scare the voters. With Bin Laden out of the picture Michele Bachmann is the threat he will use to frighten the voters into conformity with his failed administration. If the economy continues to limp along and the Greeks play along with their own tragic-comic role, the financial markets will pretend that things are just fine....until they are not. The Republicans are already talking about 2016 as their year for their comeback. In the mean time, they can further cripple the pathetic attempts of the current administration to manage the Japanese like economic slump that will last a decade. Can't wait to read Obama's memoirs.

Seal Team Six and GS Downtown

2011-05-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

It's just a thought. All the training and nothing to do....Seal Team could do some side stuff to keep interested in the work sort off. Say, like kidnapping the executive committee of Goldman Sachs an delivering them to Syria...wait, Jordon. We aren't talking to Syria right now. Unlike the SEC and the non Justice Department, the Jordanians have ways of doing depositions. One of those fantasies that one has when one sees justice being done 9 or ten thousand miles away from home.
I could see it working like this: 85 Broad Street and a bunch of bicycle cabs mossy on up to the building. With the fleet of limos, who's going to notice the guys with the rocket launchers, M-60 machine guns, bags of claymore mines and Balance Bars. Simultaneously with the role up of the biker cabs are the para-glider guys landing on the roof of 85 Broad Street. you don't want to mistake the Federal Reserve for 85 Broad...as understandable as that may be. The real power resides at Broad Street....
Then the glitches....What does Lloyd Blankfine look like? and his buddy Gary and other boys and girls of the E-Committee. No girls, okay. Even with pictures of Blankfine nobody would be able to pinpoint him in a crowd....he is power without a shadow. Can Seal Team 6 capture this guy and his fellow mischief makers. This is as far as I got before I woke up. Osama is gone but the guys who could really bring the whole thing down are still here and the lights are on.

Look at the Bright Side of Japan's Disaster

2011-03-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Japanese capitalism has been stuck in a holding pattern for decades. The earthquake now will allow the government to mobilize the country into a virtual state of war to revitalize the economy and rebuild the affected areas of the island nation. Qaddafi should give the Japanese some billions for taking North Africa off the web pages for a couple of days. I call this Goldman Sachs Mojo. Remember, of course you don't, that GS was on the ropes when the Haitian quake hit and GS disappeared from the front pages for a bit. There are always silver linings in those clouds; maybe, not so much silver if the clouds are radioactive...but still , some people will benefit from the chaos created by mother nature. GS, Qaddafi and many construction supply firms are about to have a good day.
Of course, if a nuclear plants goes critical and blows, we will need to shift our winners and losers lists a bit. Consult your map for wind patterns and iodine supplies in your area. Perhaps the retiring of the space shuttle is a bit premature. Those who can afford it (GS types) might want to pay for orbit time while the planet cools off from an extra does of you know what.
I just hope the horror of horrors does not happen...William and Kate must marry and honeymoon with Habitat for Humanity in Japan....I'm just such a romantic. Sleep well and cover your reproductive areas if you must.

NPR: What Were They Thinking?

2011-03-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

The flap over NPR fund raiser Ron Schiller's absolutely accurate characterization of Republican and Tea Party activists raises the question of "objectivity." NPR reports more real news in 15 minutes than Fox does in 24 hours...excepting the weather and traffic reports. This recent display of false humility and falling upon the sword by NPR executives makes you wonder: are these people in touch with reality?
The really obscene part of the secret tape by the Republican scam artist, O'Keeffe was what Schiller had to do to raise money for such a worthy organization. What he said about the trolls on the right-wing of the political spectrum were uninspiring; he was doing his best not to call them crypto-fascists. The thing that he really got in trouble for was the obvious truth of his observation that NPR would be better off without government money. There really isn't a good argument for government funding of the news....especially if the government can't manipulate it.
So, if the liberal community wants NPR, it should pay for it. Once freed of government interference, NPR can make its' professional judgements without fear of political reprisals....maybe. Or, when the reprisals come, NPR can be proud of them.

Moammar, Sheen and Wisconsin

2011-02-28T21:40:00.000-08:00

Great minds do think alike! The NY Times March 1 has a brilliant insightful piece on Chuck Sheen and Moammar Gadhafi, http:// www.nytimes.com It is not true that Charles is the son of President Bartlett. He is the spiritual love child of Moammar. It seems both took public speaking lessons from "Crazy Eddy." Anyway, check out Alessandra Stanley's piece in the Times today. The child has a flair for global thinking, sort of a Zizek like connectedness to the Zeitlice. She nailed Charles and his spiritual dad. Oh, in the mean time, the Cheese Head in Chief, Gov. Walker has gotten the unions off their knees and fighting mad....Thanks gov. and Kock brothers for doing what Obama and the Democratic Party would not do...put the fight back into the labor unions....Should we be concerned that Wisconsin could be our Egypt? Nah, we can shop all we want and swear at the meter maids; we are free, right? As Hillery chides Moammar about a lack of legitimacy of his government, she had better be careful. The war crimes of her predecessor and the gangsterism of our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan are, well, embarrassing.

Tah

They are rioting,well everywhere.

2011-01-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

While we were all asleep, the Tunisians (Barberry Pirates) set about having their own version of a Prague Spring. Let's hope the Tunisian version lasts longer than the Czech rebellion of 1968. But, the Tunisians did not reckon with the shock wave that they have sent across the Middle East.
It is obvious that the local conditions in the individual country dictates the shape of the expression that protest will take. Still, it is just plain fun to watch the people take to the streets and express their grievances in a mostly peaceful way: remarkable given the brutality of the regimes themselves.
The United States has been supportive of corrupt regimes in the region for most of the post WWII era. Together with the French and British, we have played the divide and rule game ; now we find ourselves looking for some way of getting on the side of the people in the streets. Wonder what our friends in Mossad are thinking?
We should not be naive and think that Egypt will go the way of a western style democracy. Remember, the best organized political force in the country besides the military is the Muslim Brotherhood. They are keeping a low profile. However, when the smoke clears the Brothers will be a major force in any government. Lots of luck to our State Department buddies working the crowds in Cairo!

Violence There's Violence in America?

2011-01-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Blogosphere:
I came out of my trance the other day to find the media chimps up in arms over the senseless shootings in Arizona. So, I sat back and turned the tube off and saved myself thousands of dollars by not putting my foot through the flat screen. There was also the consideration of the NFL playoffs coming along.
I guess I just asked myself about the "sensible" violence" that national leadership is dispensing around the world, the two wars in progress, the many covert operations going on in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. to say that politicians are self-serving and deluded is too obvious; the more entertaining spectacle is the media asking soul searching questions about the rhetorical climate of hate filled political speech...bla, bla, bla.
This country is at war with tens of millions of people around the world; our Congress funds a machine of violence to the tune of 600 plus billions of dollars a year: not counting the spooks, the additional monies for wars in supplemental appropriations and other monies disguised as foreign aid.
The chattering class is having a field day; after all, the Arizona shooting came at a low point in the weekly news cycle. There is a god for low ratings. So, we will be faced with the media condemning bad speech by bad politicians while the media virtually ignores Iraq and the other little wars we are in around the world. What utter self serving hypocrisy. The United States is the most violent advanced industrial society on earth. Have a nice day. Go Jets.

Goldman Strikes Again

2010-06-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

The apocalypse may be diverting your attention from the likes of Goldman Sachs. So, is it any surprise that Lloyd Blankfein's Black Amex Card was found near the broken pipe of the BP rig in the Gulf. Mo Dowd, a columnist for the NYtimes, said her sources at the White House told her that the President was really pissed about this revelation. "The President does not have a Black American Express card and he is THE Black American!" the aide pointed out.

No one seemed to care that the card was found at the disaster site. It is now pretty much taken for granted that Goldman Sachs will continue to be associated with world case calamities of all sorts well into the decade. The close correlation between government attacks on Goldman and various global catastrophes has been document by us. Haiti, the Icelandic volcano, and now the Gulf of Mexico is caput. Interesting timing, don't you think. The theological implications seem clear to me...Lloyd is doing the work of god. Lucky the Vatican doesn't have this kind of juice with the Chairman of Chairman in the shy. I may apply for a Templeton grant to work through my proof for the existence of Goldman Sachs.

After a Long Winter's Nap

2010-06-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

Say it isn't so! Al and Tipper are going their separate ways. Our heads spin, our hearts race...what's for dinner? Do to the miracles of public health and a healthy diet (look at Al) the Gores were in danger of mummifying after forty glorious years. There was no end in sight, no flu strain to help in the near future....They bit the bullet and separated the pets and the gold fish. Tipper gets the Pat Boone albums and Al gets the photos of himself in various phases of enlightenment. The official cover story is that they have just grown apart.

Yeah, I can buy that: as Al gets fatter and fatter, Tipper is farther and farther away. Who knew that saving the planet might require eating it a chunk at a time. The rumors about Al being attacked by a Japanese whaling ship remain unconfirmed at this moment. But, we have not seen Al in any swim suit photo ops lately. Could be waiting for the scars to heal or he is just sparring us the horror, the horror.

Well, enough of that. Oh yeah! Did you see that Dr. Krugman had himself quite worked up in his last column "the Pain Caucus"in the NYTimes.com May 30, 2010? Krugman lays out the very likely possibility for a double dip recession based upon the mutterings coming out of the mouths of various people at the IMF, OECD and other drab financiers. He can't believe his eyes and ears as there is a substantial call for putting the breaks on fiscal stimulus to fight a non existing problem at this time, inflation.

Krugman gives all the rational reasons why restricting growth now is a very bad idea for the world economy in the short and medium term. The inflicting of massive pain across many national boarders to solve a non existing issue raises the question of what is behind this rush to the edge of depression. This is an opportunity for finance capital to further weaken it's enemy the regulatory and welfare regimes of the EU, and other activist state players. The steady play on fears of inflationary pressures has produced panic in the halls of Congress and odd behavior on the part of the Germans (I guess that is not surprising) and the European Central bank. It appears that the Chinese are not playing the game that would reinforce the power of the markets to dictate terms to the EU. Still, Krugman doesn't see or he refuses to call it for what it is: financial capitalists trying to provoke a collapse of the welfare state system across the globe. The Krugman might warn them to be careful of what they wish for. Without the state in control, there is no guarantor for markets or peace. Fascinating, isn't it!

The Sky is Falling!

2010-01-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

As the nation sits transfixed by the disasterporn coming out of Haiti, the facts on the ground here in the good old USA aren't too good either. Still, one can always say that Americans are so much better off than, say, Haitians. No argument there. But we aren't a third world country, with some exceptions. The New Orleans fiasco was a major embarrassment and still goes on....but it's not Haiti. Bob Herbert in the N Y Times, January 22, 2010 quoted a Brookings Institution study that points out that 30% of the population of this blessed nation lives at less than twice the poverty level for a family of four...$21,834. The fastest growth area for poverty is in the suburbs. What about Ozzie, Harriet, Rick and Dave? Forty thousand lives are lost each year due to lack of health insurance, and our infant mortality rate is that of Albania's. Still, we are not Haiti!

The recent decision by the Supreme Court to allow the outright buying of candidates by coroprate America will further reduce the risk of popular government's becoming a reality anytime soon. The marvelous legal fiction of the corporate person's free speech rights will most likely kill any attempts to stay the buying of the political system. Not since the Gilded Age has the prospect of wholesale political corruption been more likely. Where is Upton Sinclair now that we need him?

Poor O-man, he tries to save the elites from themselves and they don't get it. The last shreds of legitimacy of the political system have been buried by the supreme irony of the Supreme Court's enabling the corporate elites to bury the notion of a level playing field in terms of political contributions. This may have the beneficial effect of allowing the peasantry to suspect both major parties of being the same...bought. It now becomes a question of how to maintain the fiction of voter and citizen input into the process. O-man seems to perceive the threat of mass disaffection on the part of the voters, and he is rapidly mobilizing the circus team that got him elected in an effort to make it appear that he is ready to stand up to the malefactors of wealth...like the guys in his cabinet and at the Treasury Department.

The problem that O'man has is reality: the unemployed and the mortgage foreclosures and the lack of job creation and the wars and the corporate bonus pools announced by his friends on Wall Street and in hedge fund land. Still, it isn't Haiti. I feel so blessed that I am not in....

I am gratetful to the Urban Dictionary for the term Disaster Porn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/opinion

End of Year, World Still with Us

2009-12-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

From within the observation tower atop my massive physique, I was startled to realize that I was still with the world too. Unlike choosing my daily sartorial splendor, facing the unknowns of economic, political and existential crisis almost excites me (perhaps, a call for help). I have no doubt that the ongoing collapse of the American empire and the disarray that portends for all aspects of American power will impact me personally....no more cheap Mongolian Cashmere sweaters...just one of the unthinkable shocks to my sense of well-being. Then there is the terrorist media/ entertainment noise machine that tells me that H1N1 and various flesh eating strep infections are waiting for me. I have watched friends turn into infectious medical commentators, Johnny Appleseeds of disinfection...gaily spraying Lysol as they go about their daily routines. The pharmacy has become my new library and armory. I read every sign posted for my benefit: "H1N1 shots here," Yes, they care about us. It is comforting and I wonder how much my pension plan has invested in drug companies and Kleenex. We must soldier on!

Since I have turned 65, I now see myself as a profit center for the health care industry. I am worth more alive than dead to a host of health care providers and related businesses so long as I have Medicare and am showing vital signs for medical billing. This realization has given me a sense of empowerment. I am worth millions...sort of...like, if I were to have to replace some hips, maybe do a computerized hearing aid or two and have a couple of knee replacements. See what I mean? So, staying healthy has become the perverse way of sticking it to the ghouls of the heath care industry. I hate to think that moderation may have a place in my life. So it goes.

I have given up on mental health and I am saving a ton of money. My neurosis and I have become one. Let that sink in. It is not enlightenment that I have achieved, just looking the realization that I , like Popeye, am what I am. Uhmmmm.

These warm fuzzy feelings in no way release me from the obligation to rage that the excess of moral cowardice, greed and reckless evil that works it way through the political system. I hope you will join me and enjoy another year of chaos and venality in living color....the world as it spins.

The Audacity of Nope: Now More Than Ever

2009-12-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Nope, we are not going to drink the Obama cool aid. The delusional quality of the surge speech, 1 December, was masked by a supremely well delivered address (all the more frightening as the style covered the lack of logic and substance) harkening back to the rhetorical heights of the Kennedy presidency. Obama is no George W. Bush and yet he calls us to national unity after he acknowledges the apparent lack of consensus about his proposed expansion of the war in AFPAK lands. He stated the obvious: we have a weak economy, an over-stressed military, and a very sceptical public, tired of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So he calls for that which he has just admitted doesn't exist and cannot as long as people assess the facts in the real world.

We were not told how he would pay for the expanded war while he also needs to pay for health care and rebuilding the national infrastructure. The states are collapsing under the weight of lost revenues and unemployment numbers not seen in a quarter of a century.

He and his advisors have conveniently put aside the counterinsurgency doctrine manual written by the very generals running the two wars currently under way. The numbers of allied troops needed to clear and hold a country the size of Afghanistan would be in the range of 630,000. The doctrine did not fit the political situation so the doctrine mysteriously changed. Just as the numbers that were presented to the Bush administration by the Joint Chiefs in the run up to Iraq were deemed too high: ergo, the numbers change and the strategy is built on rosy projections of allied and indigenous troops joining the fight to hold key cites and choke-points along the southern border with Pakistan.

The idea that the enemy will react to this incremental pressure with a number of counter moves has seemed to escape those in Obamaland. Winter is upon the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, and military operations will be at a virtual standstill until the spring of next year. It would be especially ominous if the insurgency continue the fight during the winter. We are still seeing plenty of fighting and it is December. With more Americans to shoot and material to loot and blow up, the opportunities for high profile attacks go way up....remember the Tet Offensive....of course not. Force protection, i.e. soldiers protecting soldiers, becomes an ever bigger issue as the U.S. military presence is enhanced. The Taliban know that the American public is sceptical about the war...A Tet-like offensive in several areas at once could see our casualties go from eight a week into the hundreds. The enemy has patience; it is their land and their tribal networks we seek to overcome. Obama did not address any of the possible options of a counter attack by the Taliban...at a time of their choosing.

The speech Tuesday night was a classic of imperial newspeak. Obama stated that America is not an imperialist power in the classic sense. With over 450 major bases and hundreds more installations around the world, with a navy that is larger than the next three navies combined and a military budget that is larger than that of the entire EU, Russia, and China's defense budgets combined...why would anyone think that the United States posed a potential or actual threat to them? Stephen M. Walt in Foreign Policy has added up a conservative score card for American causalities versus Muslims killed by American actions. The numbers for the past 30 years are 10,325 Americans killed and 288,000 Muslims killed (see http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/30 ). You want to know why they hate us? Read this piece and think about the kind of firepower and carnage that is about to descend upon Afghanistan.

Obama is going to be a one term president for all the wrong reasons. Had he withdrawn the troops and lost the next election, he would have a place of honor in American history; this move will mark him as just another spineless political opportunist who played at being a leader without truly being one.

Ray Charles, Health Care and the Spiral Downward

2009-10-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

Our recent absence from the blogosphere is over. I have been catching up on my growing irritation with the Bama and his travelling circus. Cornel West put his finger on it ( Ray Charles coming up) in a New Yorker interview with David Remnick this week (Nov.2,2009). West said that he was impressed by the "spectacle" mastery of the President, Brother Barack. West loved the spectacle, but warned in Yoda like tones,"...in the end, even spectacle has to deal with the darkness. That's where the Blues man comes in." Of course, when talking about The Brother, with brother West, allusions to Jazz are never far away. But, it is hard to grove to anything in a bulletproof vest. Had West talked about being "black and blue" it might have made more sense given the state of the President's political agenda and the policy misfires that have been as frequent as a July 4th celebration on The Mall.

When think about our first Black/White President, I have been guided by a Ray Charles "Anthology" CD that resonated with the words of brother West. The track,"I Don't Need No Doctor" and "That Lucky Old Sun" were buzzing around in my brain as the non-health care, opt out-public option for almost no one bill was put forward by the Senate Majority Leader ( a misnomer of the first order). Ray needs love to heal him in his "I Don't Need No Doctor." If the insurance industry gets its way, that is the only thing any of will have to rely on for health care...
Plans to tax health acre benefits are in the same bone headed and heartless category as was the taxing of tuition remission benefits...socially regressive and put forward by Democratic administrations. Brother West has got to be singing the Blues over this one. As the screws are tightening on the poor and the middling classes, the endless work Day is accelerated by technologically niffy productivity tools. There's no place now that one may not work with the help of the electronic yoke around one's neck.

The compulsion to work, to check to response to check yet again and empty the emails....Sex offenders only wear ankle bracelets. The rest of us are faced with Blue Tooth, I-Pods, net books, notebooks, thumb drives and ten's of thousands of helpful applications that we do not have time to learn how to use because we are just trying to keep up with the storm of real tie info that may be useless anyway do to the push to get news out there 24/7. So Ray's critique of the work world of the sharecropper has morphed into the electronic sweatshop. The lash unemployment and global competition now substitute for the overseers whip....lose the family heath plan and have to go home and announce that. It is terrifying and almost universal in keeping the worker bees buzzing. Mr. Sun is lucky just playing in that sky all day...for sure.

I feel for Cornel West as he tries to stay honest while the show is already over and the failure is across the spectrum of domestic and foreign policy issues. Two wars, domestic "recovery" without employment, and the states cutting programs and services. The blessing is that people are stunned, scared and drugged...if they have insurance.

Have a groovy day,
Mr. Sun

Kennedy Still Dead as Press Corps Perspective

2009-08-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true that Teddy was never involved in the assassination of a foreign leader like brother John was with Diem of Vietnam or Bobby and his hit men going after Castro. He had a mishap with Mary Jo. Still, she was not a head of state and it didn't seem to be intentional.

The "liberal lion" stayed within a party that played along with the destruction of the regulatory system that protected the financial system, allowed for the worst disparities of income since the 1920's and couldn't get a decent health care bill through the Congress for 50 years.

I know I'm missing something here. The bullshit being shovelled by everyone from George Will to Keith Obermann just stuns me. Had Kennedy lead the fight for a real democratic party as in social democratic party, we might have someone to miss. As it is, he was just another player on the team that rules this country and ruins it; the torch is passed to one or another party hack: what is the difference to the average citizen?

Obama and His Advisors

2009-08-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

You just have to wonder: what planet do these fools live on? recent news story reported that Obama and advisers were surprised by the course of the health care debate. Why would you admit to be that stupid or naive or both.

The strength of the Obama aura was it 's glow of calm confidence and competence. "Yes we can," was the short version of, " We are so smart and well meaning and cute that we can't be stopped. We have truth and justice on our side." Anyone who was watching as Obama's transition team started to play the old game of going to the same golden Rolodex for candidates for political appointments, saw the early signs of trouble in Camelot II.

The reality that now faces us is the following: There is no new Democratic coalition around any shared agenda. Obama has alienated his loyal liberal base and shown a total lack of understanding of how to drive a democratic agenda to reshape the nation after the chaos of the Bush years and the lawless plundering of financial system by Wall Street and it's Congressional helpers.

To say that there is an exhaustion of ideas is to miss the point; there is a pervasive fear of systemic change so strong that a minor reform needed to stabilize the health care system is seen as the road to socialism: when it is the road to reestablishing the legitimacy of the two party system; the political leadership on both sides are too stupid to see that; worse, they see it and can't make it happen.

What now? The irrationality of the debate around health care shows how fragmented and disorganized are the elites in this country; there are economic, national security and elites preservation issues here and there is nada in the way of focused and managed debate. If the Democrats fall apart over health care and the mob mentality created and managed by the Republicans fosters more anxiety and disorder to further destabilize Obama's Office, we will see citizen activism that may not be pretty...Just in case you need to have an image of not pretty, see clips of Congressional town meetings.

Currently, the press is hoping that the mini bubble of the stock market will make us all feel better and wish ourselves out of this depression we are in. There is absolutely nothing to the numbers that gives any indication that consumers will start any kind of rebound...ergo, there is no recovery on the horizon. The massive number of resets on home mortgages and commercial properties in distress make any "green shoots" argument sound just plain stupid. The Fed. Reserve has been manipulating the markets to prop up the faux rally and some financial journalists have actually noticed that fact.

So, go to your A/C machine and sit in front of it; try not to melt down with the empire.

love always

Counting Words and Slow News Day at Politico

2009-08-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

What gives with the kids at Politico? My eyes landed on an article"Obama's words downplay wars"(8/13/09). Okay, true enough and let's talk about that issue...Noooo, instead we get this bean counting, well word counting nonsense that reads like a term paper from a graduate school linguistics seminar.

Guess what kids, Obama is leading the nation into an endless war, a grave yard for every empire that has tried to control the tribal groups of Afghanistan. We would be better off dropping money on them....it would be cheaper than sending troops. Gary Schroen's book, First In is a model for how to deal with Afghanistan and it warlords...it's all about family and feuds and funds.

Meanwhile, the polysyllabic men of Politico refine their their software programs to reveal that Obama has talked more about domestic issues than he has about foreign wars we are losing. Dah...wonder why that could be...as he about to get the bad news from his new military team...ie, this is going to cost you (us) big time. It is pretty obvious that Obama is about to end any chance for reform at home when he expands the war overseas. The Dogs, blue and otherwise in Congress will use the expanding war requirements as a way of strangling reform on every front at home....the real war is against the poor and uninsured, the unemployed and others who seek aid from their government...financial Taliban for sure!

E are about to get a kick in the teeth from this President that will lay to rest any notions of serious intent on his part to pull back from imperial adventures overseas. So, dudes at Politico put the grad. seminar papers away, cover the story, save some lives maybe.

http://www.politico.com/

Anyone Home?

2009-08-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends of Summer,

Sure, you ave to worry about the economy and Swine Flu and HINI and Kuzu...But, has anyone been watching the rocks up on the mountaintops of Afghanistan? Well Walter Pincus of the Washington Post wrote a story in the Sunday Washington Post that put me right back in the summer of 1965 when this country slid into the longest and most ruinous war until Iraq and now Afghanistan.

As Americans frolic in the water parks about the fairest of lands on the crowded planet, eating themselves into insensibility, the generals over in hell...Afghanistan are saying what nobody wants to hear: we will be there for a decade or more and spend at least 80 Billion a year on military and development aid. If you are a mercenary or KPR, this is music to your ears; if you are an Afghan arms dealer or tribal leader, there is money to be made selling your loyalty to the strongest party of the moment. The Grate Game is once again in motion and another empire is about to pay the price.

Obama is leading this country into a quagmire as deep and disastrous as Vietnam. The military is talking counterinsurgency while building up ground forces of it own....our troops are leading the fight...why, because, the national army is incapable of doing....there is no nation-state in Afghanistan. It is a fraud and the Old Testament world that prevails there (except for weapons and drug trafficking) gives no indication of changing. We need to dis engage and let the Taliban and everyone else know that we will contain the crazies that operate out of their territories. Pull back and let the regional powers deal with the mess.

Later this month, Mc Crystal will give his assessment of what is needed...it will not be his assessment because, the White House will shape it to their own interests...we all know that. So, as you slather on the BBQ sauce for the ribs, think of the kids from Detroit and Rapid City who will be on the Pakistani boarder...why?

http://washingtonpost.com

Too Much Love and Not Enough Love

2009-08-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

I am so glad to have lived long enough to watch " The Daily Show" and " The Colbert Report." Last night, 5 August, Colbert did a number on the "astro-turf mobs" that have been disrupting Democratic lawmakers town meetings in their home districts. In two minutes, Colbert uncovered their funding and logistics support from P.R. firms funded by the heathcare industry. It was a superb piece of journalism in the comedy mode...just gave me the giggles.

Stewart commented on to the non-news reports about the Girls from N. Korea and Bill's great adventure. Fox snuzz was all over Bill for going to N.K. and the government for not shooting his plane down before he weakened our country's resolve to fight terrorism....Stewart just pointed out that Reagan had done far more during the Iranian Crisis of the 1980's to trade guns for hostages and that he lied about that and a whole lot more. Without Fox, the writers on The Daily Show would have to be funny on their own...It appears that the right wing laugh fest will continue to role on and keep Daily Show writes fully employed into the foreseeable future...next week.

I was looking the other way and missed the latest shootings in Pa. I have to lay the blame on Match.com and the insaneidea that we are all entitled to be happy and in love and have an arsenal in case we are not happy and in love. Of course, this guy was not able to get a date: he was a computer geek, obsessed about his looks and worked for a law firm. Hmmm, that describes about a hundred thousand other losers out there....sorry, I meant to say, fine Americans who love their women and guns too much.

Now, we will get the feminists going on about all women hating men as being potentially gun crazed lunatics. Rather than realizing that hating women has been at the core of our religious and cultural traditions for hundreds of years...ie,most of our major religious groups have at one time or another supported the subordination of women, there has been systemic discrimination in wages and benefits for women and denial for them of protection against abuse. So, one nut job is a tragedy for the families involved, a nation with systemic abuse that killed and continues to kill hundreds and thousands through neglect and lawlessness is just business as usual.

Have a Nice Day

http://thedailyshow.com

http://thecolbertreport.com

Out to Lunch

2009-08-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Have been playing and shopping for essentials for the nitty-gritty of existence....blinds, etc. In the meantime and we do mean MEAN time, the world continues to revolve and regurgitate meaningfully. We have been contemplating some of the offering by the media sphincter.

WaPo reported today that various U.S. attorneys are competing for the high profile cases of the Gitmo detainees. Oh, how careers are built upon the mountains of bones and broken bodies of so many: too many to be counted at this point. Still, there is no end to the idiocy of the people's choice in Kansas. Both the Governor and a Senator have denounced any play that would put any of the detainees at Fort Leavenworth. The Governor was really worried that the reputation of the fort would be marred by the celebrity guests. There are rumors that Trump may offer one of his bankrupt casinos as the site for a prison facility for the Gitmo refugees. It is just impossible to make these guys sound any more stupid than they are...and they were elected by the good citizens of Kansas.

Bill is over in N. Korea to see if he can get the girls back. Good luck Bill. We expect that Bill's date book may be exchanged for the two jounalists. As we all know, the careers of these two ladies is made...the book deals, interviews and national tours should more than compensate them for their inconvenience. Will it be Diane Swayer or Katie Coric who gets to them first? Inquiring minds want to know.

By the way, has anyone been following the two wars we are still conducting. It is very likely that more troops will be going to Afghanistan as the draw down in Iraq continues. The fact of the matter is that 60,000 for 200,000 troops will make absolutely no difference in Afghanistan unless there is a tribal solution to power sharing by interested parties. The U.S. ignores a thousand years of history by plunging deeper into this conflict.

The clowns of Wall Street continue to dance around and wish a false recovery into being and the media dances right along with them. The mortgage crisis continues and unemployment will hit 11% by the end of March...Yes, kids, I have spoken. Remember, we were being told by the Obamaists that 9% was the worse they foresaw in 2009. It is past that right now. If the numbers were real, we would be taking about 16% unemployment now...if we included discouraged workers. Unemployment among minority youth is double the national average. So, what's to celebrate?

Yes, the billions of dollars of bonus money that is about to be bestowed upon Wall Street';s most deserving! That is good news. Your tax dollars at work.

Have a happy

Brew Hah, Hah, Military Spending, Diseased Care

2009-07-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

"Bud Lite" will be served at the Peace Picnic of the 21 Century to be convened by Obama, with Gates and Sgt. J. Crowley in attendance. If this is a "teachable moment" it should teach the White House to offer a decent domestic beer. Jesus Christ, a Sam Adams would have been a nice gesture: a brew from Massachusetts that does not make one gag as does Bud lite.

This is what passes for leadership from the President as the Congress is being sodomized by the health industry lobbyists and the military-industrial complex is stuffing its pockets through no bid contracts introduced in the House, defense appropriations bill. To say that these are obscenities is just too kind a description. As the "Blue Dog Dems" rail about spending for heath care, they mostly remain supine over the defense over runs and corruption of the political process that is the earmarks process that allows for pork barrel projects to bloat the defense bill.

Perhaps, the Congress is suffering under the illusion that the financial press is creating that the markets have been rebounding and that the worst is over; so, business as usual. This is too bad for all of us. For the average guy who's pension has lost 40% of its value over the last year, the next downturn will just leave him on the mat where he is already. The banks are hugely exposed to mortgage ARM resets that are coming do over the next two years and the commercial real estate market is sliding off a cliff.

So, sipping lousy beer in the garden with Skip and Jim just doesn't cut it...this country has weigh bigger stuff to deal with than the contra-temp of the Affaire Gates. I can just see how young Black Men are going feel safer because Skip Gates has gotten his pound of flesh from the Cambridge Police Department. Yeah, this is a teachable moment all right...smoke and mirror anyone?

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Beers and Understanding, A Latin Beat

2009-07-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

While Gates and his police officer partner, will be sipping beer at the White House, a NYT editorial put La Affaire Gates in perspective. The Immigration and Custom's Enforcement Agents have been trashing the Constitutional rights of Latinos and violating due process and search and seizure laws. The Cardozo Law Clinic has produced a report on hundreds of cases of ICE agents in violation of basic rules of law. trampling over the lives of defenseless immigrants and non-citizens and citizens. Just reading the few details of the report mentioned in the NYTimes editorial is revolting.

It makes me laugh that Obama has so much time for Skip Gates and his troubles while this outrage got zip comment from the Oracle on Pennsylvania Avenue. The report showed a systemic and long standing program of criminal behavior on the part of gangsters with badges and loaded weapons. This report should produce a wave of firings and arrests of ICE agents for crimes under official cover of the law. Of course, this type of report gets written about every twenty years. I wonder where the Latino politicians and media are when something like this should produce mass protest....? The faceless, the poor, with limited English, and no power....perfect as a punching bag for the agents of the state...who was in charge? Who let this happen?

Meanwhile, the papers are reporting the undoing of the el-Presidente's health care fantasy. He has been swallowed up and spit out by his own party....Of course, he can say, " Well, who else do they have to vote for." The said truth is that Obama and the Democrats are set themselves up for a backlash from independent voters who rightly feel they have been defrauded. And so it goes.

Http://nytimes.com

Bad Seeds and Other Hilarity

2009-07-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

I saw a heart warming advertisement for a film called, " Orphan." Suffice it to say that it looked like a pile of Bat Guano. But, a story about "bad seed" movies got me thinking, not always a good thing. It appears that preteen and junior high kids are a new horror type...This may be believable to anyone who has been out on the street when a junior high has been emptied upon a street at dismissal time. But, to call the little tykes demon seed is, perhaps, stretching it a bit. This there is a long tradition in literature and film that portrays children as perverse or possessed....I have found that to be true only with the onset of puberty....One institution in America has consistently demonized children and made money doing so...the Catholic church. See our blog entry on the Ryan Report and it's implications for the United States July 7, 2009.

Political corruption and you: perfect in New Jersey! You got to love love the theatrics around the commentary concerning the recent commotion about play to play politics in New Jersey. When ha sit been any different? And, does it make things work or is there actually a problem here? What yo ask? A very simple question. Does corruption lessen the efficiency of the political process or make it work. It is a wonderful question for poli sci classes and bar room conversations. Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney in New Jersey gets to posture about money corrupting politics....gee, josh Opie!

The best part of the corruption story is the rabbi connection. After the scandals of the Catholic Church's cover up of pedophilia, this looks like mere parking ticket violations by independent contractors...some exotic Syrian sect...how interesting.

California apologizes to the Chinese. The story of the exploitation of Chinese laborers and it correlative racism is not just a California story. The United States Government turned a blind eye to it; happily, it was just a part of the exploitation of cheap labor on a global basis: Chinese, southern European Slavic groups. The needs of industrial capitalism and robber baron greed were a symphony of misery, death and humiliation for tens of millions of contract labors in from the late 18th Century to the present....yes, my dears, we have our undocumented aliens and white slave trade still going on under our noses. Still, it was nice that Arnold acknowledged how Leland Stanford got the money to build his university.

Gates Soap Opera Now on the Air!

2009-07-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. continues to provide his followers with more entertaining rhetoric about his harrowing encounters with The Leviathan of state power...cop in Cambridge. America is a twitter over this comedy of errors.

According Yahoo News 22 July 2009, Boston is in a food fight over the Affaire Gates. We remain a yawing. The Obama is supposed to have said that the cop was stupid. Not the best move from a far. Oh well, the show must go on...I am reminded of Fred Sanford, clutching his heart and calling to Elizabeth. But, I liked Red Fox's performance...more authentic and well played.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2009722

A Gastro-Intestinal View of the Legislative Process

2009-07-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

We have been amazed by the similarity of the functioning of the intestinal tract and the legislative system of the House and Senate. In the end, the results are the same for both systems, a steaming pile of offal.

Many years ago, before most of you could read, Walter Karp wrote a book, Indispensable Enemies: The Politics of Misrule in America. This book makes my point in a somewhat more genteel fashion. Karp was a friend of the divine Lewis of Lapham, one of the finest chroniclers of the decline of the American Imperium. Lapham has kept Karp's work alive through the journal Harpers' Magazine. those of you have had the joy of reading Lapham rip the imperial jesters another one, understand that he does not recommend political writing that is light weight. So, go and find Karp and clutch his book to your bosom and then, read it. It is as timely now as it was when it came out decades ago. It removes the mystery of how the two party system is actually a one party plutocracy and explains how it got that way.

As the health care "reform" legislation is mangled in Congress, You will understand the silliness of this exercise in democratic appearances and be able to see the ugliness of the real process.

By the way, we recommend a posting on the Daily Kos by Edgar concerning Canadian health care. Apparently, poor Edgar was subjected to "socialized medicine" and it worked and saved his life for a grand total of $18 dollars out of pocket and a $40 monthly premium. Those poor bastards up north.

Http://dailykos.com

Gates and More Gates plus a House is Not a Home

2009-07-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Harvard Prof Henry Louis Gates, Jr. owes a debt of gratitude to the Cambridge Police Department for giving him an idea for his next PBS special. It is unlikely that Dr. Gates will share any proceeds from the project with the local PBA. As all the world now knows, Gates was arrested on the porch of his home when he followed a cop onto his porch, insisting on the cop telling him what his name was and badge number. The cops had been called to Gates hoe by a neighbor who thought she saw two black men try to break into Gates home. Well, she was right. But, it was Gates and his limo driver. The cops actually showed up and questioned Gates. It would have been all over but for Gates indignation at being questioned by the cop who had n way of knowing that the PBS star was who he was. As the cop was walking out, Gates was getting more and more insistent and the cop finally arrested him for disorderly conduct.

The picture in the Washington Post shows Gates in a rather animated pose...a pose he insists he would not take under such circumstances..."wolfing" it. Apparently, As Gates was being arrested he had an epiphany: this happens to Black people without friends at the Harvard Law School....outrage, script for TV series, interview with media....charges dropped. Off to Martha's Vineyard to recover.from humiliation....

I'm sorry. If Dr. Gates needs to be rousted by the cops to be made aware that those less privileged than he is are at a significant disadvantage before the minions of the law, he needs to take a course in criminal justice in my Harlem neighborhood. Of course, the Rev. Al Sharpton will
fill him in on being poor and Black in America. What a circus.

Another Gates, A little white man in Washington D.C. has robbed billions from the military/industrial complex and almost gotten away with it. Sec. of Defense Gates seems to have prevailed in his quest to kill the supplemental appropriation for more F22 fighter jets. The useless, over priced and maintenance plagued plane was voted down in the Senate by decisive margin, with bi-partisan votes. it now goes to a committee to reconcile the conflicting votes by Senate and House. If Saxby Chambliss is not able to incite Russia to attack Alaska...you can see Russia from Alaska, the useless plane may be dead. This is a small miracle in the world of make work military contracting....Life is getting hard for everyone....Swing Low Sweet Chariot.....

On another front, Luke Mullins of U.S. News and World Report shows that the mortgage crisis is only accelerating and the Obama program to low foreclosures down has been a sham ( my word). Today, 1 in 84 Americans have received a filling of foreclosure. Thirty percent of homes in America are now in a negative equity position (house is worth less than mortgage). Some cute little Italian B School prof from U of Chi has interesting proposal for addressing the crisis. Professor Luigi Zingales proposes a debt for equity arrangement with banks. Seems sensible but will never work because it seems sensible....

Chance the Gardner: are we in that movie?

2009-07-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

If you have not heard of the film or the book, "Being There," you need to see the film for the best commentary on the current political babble about the late economy of the United States. The plot goes something like this: an idiot becomes candidate for Presdient of the United States when people mistake his gardening advise as metaphors for insights about the economy.

So, when I heard the green shoots metaphor used in the financial press, I looked for the nearest pop corn stand. Is it possible that noboby in the administration had any down time between elementary school and their government service to watch one of the best movies on the illusions of power and the making of power through illusions? These folks need to let out more often.

A week of breathtaking analysis of Al Franken's ability to be boring like his Senate colleagues has shown that Al can look catatonic as the rest of the Senate members. We wee i enlightened by the headlines about Franken's seriousness. Jesus Christ, any idiot can be a Senator, look at Coburn or Sessions or Ensign. But, the country has lost a great humorist...not a very good trade at all.

The press is beginning to see Obama's move to the right as his strategic mistake....of course, there were people who said all along that he was not a liberal activist...nobody listened. Now, Obama sees that he is losing his supporters over the health care sell out, Gitmo and Afghanistan. The Democrats don't have to worry about the Republicans; the REPS will self destruct....But, there is no there there. The Democrats have refused to truly define themselves as an activist people's party. Too bad, they are going to lose the good will of many of the good, naive people who put Obama into the White House.

The Washington Post has a front line report front Afghanistan today that was brilliant and frightening. read it and as Country Joe once said, "We got to get out of that place, if it's the last thing we ever do." Anne Scott Tyson wrote a scary, brilliant piece. It sounded like Halberstram channeling his thoughts about Vietnam 40 plus years ago. And so it goes. Or, that the way it is.

http://washintonpost.com

Court Jesters and PTSD

2009-07-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

We've been lolling about and just stuck our head up long enough to hear the moron Sen. Coburn make his ethic slur while "questioning" Sotomayor. She brushed it off and moved on. I would have enjoyed it if she has gotten up and hit the obstuse moron in the mouth Of course, I do not advise high public officials on comportment...good thing too.

A recent poll showed that people were in no way moved by the hearing, from positions they held about the court nominee prior to the hearings. Since, very little of substance has happened during the Republicans questioning. who could be surprised. The E-word was used and disposed of quickly...the media showing tapes of Bush One mentioning the E-word during the Thomas hearings. Maybe, someone should do a comparision of their credendials to sit on the court. What a joke fest that would be....so, when it is over, we have a talented, experienced and liberal mind on the court to engage the righ wing ofthe court. Should be fun.

Another NYTimes piece today July 17, 2009 about violence, terror and uncertainty could be bad for your health. Vets from the last three wars since 2001 have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in ever increasing numbers. Read the article and it is clear that prolonged deployments and repeated deployments have added to the psychological wounds for these Vets. Much of this damage is directly a matter of policy about managing the war and the troop levels. We don't need to go back and talk about the reasons that got us into these conflicts.

I hope every idiot who is about to sign their kids papers to let them join High School ROTC or go into the military will read this article and maybe the report itself...College fund is great....except when you can't concentrate and loud noises send you diving for cover....To say that the country owes these vets is just the obvious...we owe it to ourselves to try and stop the imperial foreign policy that makes cannon fodder of the less privileged in our country....The bullshit about a volunteer army is just that....the poor and less affluent go the rich and their kids do not,

http://nytimes.com

The Lawlessness in High Places

2009-07-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

It just gets weirder and wackier by the day. We took some time, eat some ribs, drank a lot and came back to the blog-a-sphere with the hope that there was hope...rhymes with dope. Glen Greenwald, writing in Salon, posted 7/13, continues to beat the crap out of the new/ old administration on the pseudo-investigations that Congress authorized when it legalized Bush's spying with the amendment to the renewed FISA act. Greenwald shows how lame a pseudo investigative tool is the IG Office in getting to the bottom of the crimes of the Bush era.

Greenwald goes on to rip the administration another one on it support for war criminals-unless they are from Africa. Obama made stirring statements about bring African war criminals to justice....just not our own. Well, it would be too messy he tells us and it would distract us from looking forward. What crap. I highly recommend Greenwald to you all...Yes, I was in southern Connecticut over the weekend!

It is freaking time that the euphemisms just stop about water boarding and other torture techniques. The Washington Post reporter Carrie Johnson's piece on Sunday July 12 drove me wild with is line...[acts]"that could be likened to torture." What the hell is she talking about? Everyone, from John McCain to the Post Office have characterized the interrogation methods in dispute as crimes and torture. The only problem here is holding anyone accountable for them. Posties get a grip...please.

Another Postie wrote a really reassuring piece on the mental fatigue and relentless grind of the White House. Michael Shear's piece (7/13) should reassure us all that people with little sleep and inhuman schedules are making life and death decisions for the nation. Gee, how wonderful is that! It is not the usual puff piece and actually asked questions about what and why are people doing this to themselves...even when not being tortured by the CIA. The usual bullshit that you hear from the overachievers and under rested crowd is, " The Country needs us and our leader demands results." This is no way to run a candy store much less the Office of POTUS. Grow up and catch some zzz before you hurt yourselves.

http://www.salon.com

http://washingtonpost.com

O brother, Obama, David Brooks on Dignity?

2009-07-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

Polls are being taken and the President appears to be losing some of his charm for independent voters. Meanwhile, the Congress has just crushed Obama on a signing statement that he attached a recent appropriations bill. The Congress voted 429-2 to rebuke Obama statement. Barney Frank was adamant in saying that the President's conduct in this instance was arrogant and troubling.....Wll, does it remind anyone of another guy who was way into signing statement nullification of the congress's will...Hint, begins with a B...

Obama's secret weapon is the Republican Party and the demento commentariate of the right. When you ask yourself, who would you rather have takng up space in the nation's capitol, Obama still looks good by comparison...Only by comparison.

I am so thrilled that Joseph Galloway had two pieces on McNamara that truly buried him. Galloway writes for The Mc Clatchy News chain. He said it all. Read his two articles ion 7/6 and 7/7. I will not have to add anything to Galloway's commentary. And, I share in his delight to be reading this guy's obit. Kissinger should not be far behind....Henry, veer are you?

David Brooks is so cute sometimes. I think of Andy Hardy and Spin and Marty when I read him. He really is too smart to be associated with the right...so he hangs with Edmund Burke and channel's George Washington for advice on what has happened to dignity in the public sphere. The guy is having a hard time watching the human comedy down in the pit of D.C. I am sure his health plan has drug coverage...use it David, your right, we're screwed and doomed until the next election cycle. See his piece in today's NYTimes.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/

Health Cares Biggest Fraud

2009-07-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

How could anyone think that a healthcare bill going through a Congress owed by the very industry it is legislating about would produce a consumer friendly piece of work? Many comments have been made in the past month or so about how Obama is being played on health care; a rerun of the banking stimulus disaster. Henry Myerson, writing in the Washington Post (July 8)wondered why Obama has not unleashed his army of political supporters who made his victory possible. These are the 13 plus millions of dedicated supporters whose names are in the data banks of the Democratic National Committee. Myerson is perplexed by the lack of mobilization by Obama 's team for such a key fight.

The answer is obvious: the rank and file are far more liberal in their thinking about health acre and most other issues. Once they are mobilized, they may get out of control. The disaster shaping up now around the various strange constructions in the House and Senate bills are pure Beltway gamesmanship. Myerson seems to be thinking that the President is the leader of the nation and not just a tool of corporate interests. I have to assume that Myerson reads his own paper and saw the chart produced by his colleagues on the extensive connections between ex-staffers of the Senate Finance Committee and big Pharma. All you have to do is read The National Nurses Movement Blog to gage the impact of the betrayal that is playing itself out in the halls of congress.

We are witnessing the Obama administration betraying it promise to the country and weakening itself for the 2010 election cycle. The Republicans wish that Obama fails and he is obliging them with fake reform proposals that are ludicrous when closely examined. The fact that the single payer option has to jammed back into the discussion after Obama kicked it aside tells you that he is doomed to be just another player in the system of interest group deals in D.C.

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.calnurse.org/?Action=content&id=608

The Irish Church: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

2009-07-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

Things are not going so well these days in the Emerald Isle. The real estate bubble popped and the banks cratered with the real estate implosion. If that wasn't enough, there has been the troubles over an investigation of the treatment of the inmates at a reform school run by The Christian Brothers. The investigation, known as The Ryan Report, details the ill treatment dished out to children in this notorious reformatory. The Irish Times had an opinion piece by Jim Beresford (6/18/09) calling The Ryan Report a whitewash for failing to engage the issue of institutionalized psycho-sexual violence routinely practiced by The Christian Brothers Order. Mr. Beresford was, at one time, an inmate of the reformatory that was the subject of the report. The impact of The Christian Brothers teaching order on the Irish national character was profound; they were sanctioned by the state to education the youth of Ireland for generations. Read the piece, especially, if your a recovering Catholic.

The cover up that Beresford speaks about in the Irish context is quite the same on this side of the pond. The passing of the dramatic sex scandals in the American Church never addressed the sadism and brutality of the various teaching orders; the violence (discipline) was especially acute in schools for working class children. In 1950's America, there was no child abuse because it was known as discipline...a rein of terror existed in many classroom, unrestrained by the authorities and supported by parents who had been battered by the same thugs when they were children.

Things have changed; many of the sadists are dead and lay teachers are doing most of the teaching in Catholic schools today. Still, it is a shame that the Church in America has this dirty little secret that is still shrouded in silence. When I hear people say to me that I must have gotten a great education; I ask them what they mean. The ones over 50 always talk about discipline and self control. Had I gone to Attica Prison, I could have gotten better treatment and my parents would not have been burdened with the tuition and fees.

In general, the physical brutally was aimed at the boys; however, that was not always the case. Still, the overall atmosphere of psychological and physical intimidation was pervasive. There should be a truth commission in this country that talks directly to the issues raised by Jim Beresford in the Irish context. American Catholicism needs to come clean; as they say, confession is good for the soul.

http://www.irishtimes.com.newspaper/opinion/2009/0618/1224249067622.html

Coldest Known Object Hoax and stock tip for the Day

2009-07-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

We are smarter than the average bear and saw something fishy in a story on Yahoo about the coldest object in space being a man made instrument package for space exploration. We contacted Anne Coulter people and asked them if she knew that something in space was supposed to be colder than she was...they just laughed and said no way. As the space object was still .1 above absolute zero, we believe Colture's people have the edge on this one...coldest object in the known universe....the Coultergeist.

An article in the Journal of Sexual Medicine had a stimulating piece on vibrator use and sexual health. More women than men have used them. Of the subjects who used vibrators, many reported positive results in terms of satisfaction and arousal. Anne Coulter was not mentioned in this article.

You do not need to be writing for Smart Money to realize the implications for the solar battery industry. Al Gore had no comment on the issue of battery disposal and the environmental impact of vibrator use on a planetary scale.

Check out the You Tube land. Apparently, there is "techno war music." And where there's war the Fuhrer rears his ugly head in some amusing clips. Yes, there is Hitler humor after "The Producers." Hitler, Hess, Goering and so many more to disco and other tunes. Quite Pythonesque...in a Monty sort of way.

McNamara Lives!

2009-07-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

Don't cry for Bob, yes, some called him Bob, McNamara because he lives on in the system that he served as Secretary of Defense during the Sixties. The policy elites who run our current wars and prepare for the next war are just as devoted as McNamara was to the technocratic mindset. Rumsfled was almost a clone of the business school mindset about war as was Bob. The arrogance that got us into Vietnam has gotten into Afghanistan and Iraq. McNamara lives in the Orwellian language of military intellectuals who speak of kinetic battlefields and full spectrum dominance. The use of a pseudo scientific language covers a multitude of sins of omission ie, the lack of historical and political understanding of peoples and cultures not akin to our own. We blundered into Vietnam because we did not listen to the French, did not understand the people we were about to fight and dismissed the few experts we had within our own government who warned against a ground war in Asia.

Bob McNamara lives on. Bob Gates is finding out how hard it is root out the interests that use the war machine as a means to fuel their state's economy and guarantee their reelections. The waste that McNamara tried to control is today impeding the country's recovery from the greatest economic collapse since the 1930's.

Bob McNamara lives.

Wa/Po Froomkin Loses Cherry, North Korea Solved!

2009-07-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Dan Froomkin's Blog, White House Watch is terrific stuff. But, the kid surely has just about had it with the Obamatron and his merry men. Froomkin, he looks like his name (cute), tore the administration another one over the consistent undermining of the transparency promise of the early golden days of long ago...like January 2009. Indeed, through the miracle of the Post's, "way back machine" I was able to read the virginal love song of the Froomster after the Obama speech to his worthies at the White house on January 21. The Froom's s article of the 22 January was so full of good will and hopefulness that I had to take something to settle my stomach before I continued on my way through the posts to his column. It is a real lesson in how a very level headed columnist has been almost totally turned off by the Bushian blow back on the Obama people. The DoJ has employed the same idiotic rationalizations as the previous administration...when they had their spines removed is yet to be determined. Perhaps, Geraldo Rivera is on to that story.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/obama-bogus-new-excuse-for-se.html

North Korea: Problem solved by Rutabaga Ridgepol. No idea who this is. And yet he spoke to me when I caught his post on TPM ( Talking Points Memo); this blog is a very successful, social democratic group of Wiemar intellectuals released from the amber and blogging away, creating chaos wherever they alight. Just wonderful writing and intelligent analysis. Back to the Rut guy. He noted that "The Dear Leader" is about to keel over and his number one son is a basket ball nut....this intelligence was picked up from a kitchen help guy. Rut says that Obama can straighten nuclear stuff out on basket ball court and personal coaching clinic with Phil Jackson, etc. Hans Morganthau could not have put it better...I only hope Hillery has a computer in her office. Rut must have cc her on this one.

http://tmpcafe.thetalkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/rutabaga/2009/06

North Korea May Honor U.S. On July 4th!!!

2009-07-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. You got it here first. The North Koreans may send a rocket's red glare out over the Pacific on the Fourth of July. How anyone can think that this rocket launch might be anything but a friendly gesture from the Beloved Leader himself. Well, the Defense Department is amused and has said that the launch was expected. This might upset the North because it sort of gives it away....we all like surprises, don't we? It is not known whether the famous American fireworks family, the Gruccis have had anything to do with this launch.

As you know, rockets over NYC were prohibited by former Mayor Giuliani in a show strength against the Chinese years ago. Oh, that was Chinese in Chinatown, that is. Do not panic and stock pile and more than you already have for a normal July 4th catastrophe. Ice, beer, condiments; DVD's and hard liquor for the real men among you, girls included. I will be joining some Constitutional scholars at a Constitution burning and BBQ at Foley Square. Later, we will g to the Joyce Theater for the experimental dance of the Federalists Papers, performed by The Paul Taylor dancers.....

Happy Rockets and Rockeets to you all

Dowd barks and her commenters howl

2009-07-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

When I was informed of the Maureen column, I rushed to read and commento. Shut, the comments section was like the line for the last life boat on the Titanic. No freaking room at the Inn. So, settled down and read a page or two. Jesus, people really funny and enjoying being Sanforized.

Like an idiot, I was reading the Times story on the Marines moving into southern Afghanistan to put their new counter-insurgency plan into operation. A dear friend called and I tear-arsed my way to the Dowd column. Once again, she just doesn't get it. The Strategic Air Command got it, massive nuclear retaliation. You want to cut down on guys messing around: arm the women. Yeah, it would be messy for awhile, the murder rate would rise by 400% for a few years. But, honor killings could be legislated....am surprised they aren't in the South Carolina Constitution.

I must say that the sucky weather in NYC has kept me glued to my computer and the webbie warped commentary on Sanford. Now, here comes an Edwards story with video! This may be known as "The Summer of Sleaze." Did Henry Mancini do a song by that name? Could all this distraction be a nefarious plot by your stock broker to get you to stop threatening to sue him or her? Think about it...maybe not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/opinion/01dowd.html

Another gem rolled off the NYT turnip truck. In the business section today, it was reported that 75% of medically induced personal bankruptcies are filed by folks who had health insurance. Scamming the public is what they do; our friends at United Health Care are mention as was the sacred cow AARP. Who better to sell useless insurance to but the elderly. you just have to love these guys.

"All life is connected grasshopper." So, imagine my delight in seeing the learned comment by Melena Ryzik on the new Dillinger film. This passed winter I bought a fedora at Housing Works Thrift Shop. I was drawn to it. Now, I know why. I can be just like Johnny Depp in the movie...minus the Thompson .45 cal. sub machine gun. This story follows yesterday's tempest between the NYPD and the Banking Community ( leper colony). The romanticism of a bank robber movie, set in a depression, starring a strikingly handsome Depp...well, if I were Commissioner Kelly, I'd be telling my robbery guys no vacations this summer me buckos. I predict huge fedora sales from movie and I am trying to corner the quality felt supplies around the globe. Anyone want in?

All the above jewels were found online in the nytimes.com 7/1/09

Thank you Times for the fun and games...minus the Marines and healthcare fraud.

Obama Shape Shifting into Bush 43

2009-06-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

Well, don't just shake your head and say, "There you go again , being cynical." Check out Josh Gerstein's well done piece in Politico.com (6/30) on recent court decisions that have stymied the Obama administration from continuing to assert broad executive powers to hold terrorist suspects, and to assert that the courts have no role in determining the status of the detainees over seas. Federal judges appointed by Bush 43 have given the Obama DOJ lessons in why you don't want to piss off a federal judge with stupid arguments. The courts are openly attacking the administration and questioning the credulity of the cases that seem to evaporate in the light of judicial review.

So, we marvel at the marvie ironies of Bush 43 appointees reading the riot act to Obama lawyers over claims of executive privilege. The title of the article by Gerstein is "George W. Bush appointees break Barak Obama on terror policies."

http://www.politico.com/

In the mean time, the gift that keeps on giving, the gov. Sanford story. His penchant for giving press conferences and interviews (that none really want to hear) have become an stimulus package so to speak. The AP reported that its staff had access to the gov. crying in his office again, speaking about god and doors opening ( look before you leap). This is well beyond SNL and should be an entire panel at the American Psychiatric Association's next convention. Rush Limbaugh thinks Obama made Sanford do it because the poor man was so distraught over the path of America's decline; Sanford just said screw it, and he is did just that. Does Rush take regular urine tests or not?

By the way, has anyone heard from California lately? Recent stories that the Obama administration has told the state's leaders to drop dead on the state's fiscal crisis reminds me of the famous Gerald Ford position during the New York City fiscal crisis during the 1970's. Are these guys serious? True, the state has a bunch of idiots in the legislature and propositions have been passed by brain dead voters on several occasions to exacerbate the current crisis; still, California generates about 20% of the GDP of the country. Standing alone, the state is the world's 8th largest economy. It just doesn't seem smart or sane to be playing the fiscal rectitude game right now. They need serious help or we will be calling troops back from Afghanistan sooner than we think.

Sweet Dreams

God, Guns, Banks and Killing the Budda

2009-06-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Today's NYTimes was shimmering with tips from the cosmos....well, little bits of demented diamonds falling from the heavenly web edition. Katherine Q. Seeley article ( are you ready for this title) "God, Firearms and America come Together at a Church in Kentucky." The article does nothing to dispel one's horror at the title of this piece. This story comes from Louisville where indoor plumbing has been a tradition for generation.

One quote from the good pastor, Ken Pagano (Jersey transplant) "But for a deep seated belief in God and firearms, this country would not be here today." This article is not a screen play for a Michael Moore movie or Borat II. This is as unreal as reality can get. A must read for those of you who are thinking of retiring to a gentler southern clime.

Breathless, I staggered to "the City Room" and ran into Dominick Tao's piece on a spat between the NYPD and " the banking community." It appears that bank heists are up for 2008 over the previous year by 57%. This surge in bank robbing entreprenurialism has alarmed the NYPD; they in turn have suggested to the banks and the City Council that more bulletproof glass would be a good idea. The bankers have a more Diggers like approach to the issue. They don't think it's a good idea to frustrate the bad guys, who may take out their frustrations upon the bank staff and customers....precisely the reason why I carry 250K in small denominated bills when I go to B of A. I'm with the bank guys. Let them get the cash and get out, so that the NYPD may have the fun of chasing them. I am with the banks on this one. The real bank robberies have already happened in the financial bail outs; these amateurs who get maybe 11-12 grand a heist are just pests compared to Bernie and the Wall Street "Banksters" crowd...

Finally, I was lifted into the stratosphere by the Blog ktB (Kill the Budda). The post by Jeff Sharlet entitled, " Michael Jackson, Mark Sanford,& the Synagogue of Satan" left me tingling with joy at the shear lunatic brilliance of the piece and its creator...we are not worthy.

love and piece,

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29

http://killingthebudda.com/ktblog

Food Fight Between WaPo and Nico of Huff Post

2009-06-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

Saturn Smith posted on Salon.com's Open Salon 28 June 2009 a video clip of Dana Milbank and Nico Pitney going at one another as if in a genteel version of The Jerry Springer Show: for those who can read without moving their lips ( guilty). This is hilarious. Almost as good as Obama's and the Iranian President's bloviations ( much used term of Obama staffers).

Salon is dangerously close to The Onion's territory. Stories such as the food fight (Wapo vs Nico) are so delicious that one needs to run a mile after reading them...they are too good not to be fattening.

http://www.salon.com/

Madoff to Read Classics as Rehab while doing time

2009-06-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have an in with the Bureau of Prisons and have suggested a grueling reading program for Bernie starting with Proust and descending to Ayn Rand. It is possible that his attorney could plead that Rand is just too much punishment for a man Bernie's age. True sadists would, of course, have him read De Sade and if he acts out, French literary theory from the 60's on. Too horrible to contemplate; he does not deserve your pity.

The CIA used aural torture of its suspects. Why not have Matoff listen to old records of T.S. Eliot reading "The Hollow Man." That would fix his wagon. Everyday would seem as if it were 150 years. Bernie could be sent to the Modern Language Association meetings for the next 150 years or just one year...same difference.

Please add your suggestions of fit reading as punishment for transgressive behavior of the felonious kind....perhaps Genet?

The Big Sleep, Krugman loses it and Macho Man

2009-06-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

The dead seem to be everywhere these days. In the past week, a veritable celebrity massacre has occurred and not a word from the President or the Secretary of Homeland Security to reassure us that the administration will have a "war on death" plan soon. Could it be that the infighting between Homeland Security and DOD is retarding the longevity offensive we need to push back death and keep all of us around to consume our way out of the current depression ( recessions are for punks). We note the passing of pitch man Billy Mays an feel a twinge of guilt for all those times we mute buttoned him. Sorry Billy. Unfortunately, he is replaceable.

Paul Krugman the nice professor from the NYTimes has gone ballistic and accused those who voted against the climate legislation of committing treason. This is not the Dr. Krugman I have come to love. He called them ignorant, self interested and venal and treasonous. I would have thought that ignorant and self interested would have covered it. He is going to face some real heat on this comment from this Sundays online NYT opinion piece. He is sounding too much like the meat heads he so justly dislikes. Bad, bad, bad Dr. Krugman.

In the mean time I discover Charles M Blow of the NyTimes who's mission is data visualization. I don't have a clue what that means, but he got my attention with his remarks on "the Affaire Sanford." We quote the maestro himself, " 'Hiking the Appalachian Trail.' Is that what we're calling it these days" This line alone should get him a Peabody or a job on The Daily Show, writing for Jon Stewart.

He dumps all over the poor Red States and their lust for Internet porn and assorted audio-visual aids. He quotes from a learned treatise on the Porn industry that yours truely has now read; it is an amazing study in the marketing characteristics of the porn industry, with titillating details e.g. Red States consume just as porn as Blue States and the state that consumes the most internet porn per 1000 broadband users is Utah. How sweet is that. This learned study was done by one Professor Edelman of the Harvard Business School and appears in the Journal of economic perspectives, volume 23, number 1, Winter 2009. There is some rough language such as " regression analysis."This should be considered adult reading material. The actual title of the article is " RedLight States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?"

start with http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27opinion/27/blow.html

I owe Charles Blow for starting my day with a cosmic grin on my face. He has his own blog called Blog By the Numbers. Check it out.

We move on to "The Death of Macho" by Reihan Salam in of all places Foreign Policy posted 6/22 on the FP website. It is actually an intelligent analysis on the stresses facing men in the global economy now and going forward. Worth the read. Macho man, poor macho man. Sigh.....

Obama Speak on the Sunday talkies:

David of Alexlrod has accused the President of Iran of playing politics when he objected to U.S. statements on the current Iranian crisis. Isn't politics his job sort of. Have we missed the irony of the Alxelrod. Apparently, the high minded D of A lives in the land of OZ where politics is not the job of the head of state. Mucho weird.

Thank you for your support,

http://www.attackandcritique.blogspot.com/

Times They Aren't Changing: preventative detention

2009-06-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Rachel Maddow called out Obama on his recent speech proposing an official policy rationalizing preventative detention in national security cases. Of course, many of you served detention in high school. This proposal on detention is somewhat different and shows Obama is either brain dead, self deluded or more cynical than I am. Google "you tube" and watch Rachel man handle ( if that turns you on) this proposal to justify something he railed against during his campaign.

Glenn Greenwald in the opinion section of Salon.com June 28, 2009 smacked the Washington Post upside the head for floating a story that was clearly designed by the Obama media factory to test the winds in opposition or support on his preventative detention proposals. Greenwald riped the Post for uncritically swallowing the sound bites from the ever lovely anonymous sources; one beauty was that civil liberty organizations favor one approach to preventative detention over another. Say what?! Greenwald was on a role and just stomped the Posties pretty good. I found it disheartening that not only the Posties were involved, so was ProPublica an investigative reporting group. Man, you have got to read Greenwald, like dog with a bone. He also embedded the Rachel bomb to the Bama man.

For those of you who still hold out hope that Bambi's mother was only wounded and that Obama is really going to be better than his predecessor, my hat is off to you. Just let me know what your smoking. Greenwald and Salon.com are to be thanked for calling it as it is: a freaking disgrace for the Posties to be used by the administration to propose such an Obamination. I am especially puzzled by the Post, my favorite mainstream media outlet. What gives? This is Judith Miller land on WMDs.

http://dir.salon.com/topics/opinions/

Taking The Hill

2009-06-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

I have barely enough time these days to read," Bicycling: World's Leading Bike Magazine." The blogosphere sucks up all within its reach. I know there is life out beyond the blog but is it air conditioned?

We are in mourning this a.m. for the passing of Jacko and Farah. Today, is a bad hair day the world over. We had barely gotten Ed McMahon's demise comprehended when the lights went out for many of us....for whatever reason. Still, there is hope for another day with the announcement by The Hill of the 50 most beautiful people in D.C. for 2008. You have got to read these profiles.

Still, we must go on and take on The Hill.com, a wildly entertaining blog about the congress. How could it be other than entertaining when it is about capital capers. Perhaps my lack of sleep made me a bit more giddy than usual at the piece on a congressional committee attempting to force more money on the administration for F-22 fighter planes. The Secretary of Defense says he doesn't want them, the country doesn't need them and there isn't anyone around who could possible be a threat to the already huge air force we have in place. Of course, as the movie "Independence Day" proved, you never know who is out there in the far reaches of the galaxy. The Obama administration is preparing to veto the appropriation bill and Gates will way in to stop the buying of a weapon's system with no mission. This is about jobs in the home district and these congressional patriots are willing to give their all to put more money into a program, that the Defense Secretary says is useless to the needs of the military mission.

While we hear sticker shock over health care, tens of billions in obsolete and useless weapons programs rubble along, almost unstoppable. Kind of funny in a way...if you have a sick sense of humor.... And who doesn't have a sick sense of humor these days? Okay, Hanna Montana!

More later, once I get some more sleep,

http://blogspot.attackandcritique.com

http://thehill.com/

The Horror, The Horror or Crying in Argentina

2009-06-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

Another time out from reality as the media dumbs down for the Mark Sanford morality play. So much for health care, North Korea, Iran and the sale of the state of California on ebay. The AP had an analysis piece this a.m. that was priceless, "Analysis: Why do politicians cheat?" It was almost anguished in its tone. Political psychologists were spoken to and comments were made about guys with huge...egos. The article was stern in tone. The NY Times blogista, Kate Phillips on "The Caucus" piece was more urbane, but, of course, it would be. Bless her heart she included some emails ,alleged to be from correspondence between Mark and Maria of Argentine fame. I did not read beyond her posting of a brief sample of this private correspondence.

(disclaimer: I am not a trained analyst or lit. critter)

Having disclaimed all responsibility for what I am about to say, I must observe the more sensitive side of the Governor surprised me....For a man who was prepared to see people in his state go hungry on principle, I was not expecting such angst from the tough guy from the land of John C. Calhoun. I have to assume that agents for many publishers have taken note of the governor's sensitive prose style. Can a book deal be far off? There are so many lessons to be learned here...none of them of the slightest use to the nation in dealing with any of our country's serious troubles.

Still, who among us can drive past a car crash without looking....? How will the Reps. rebound; or to put it in a Cosellian riff "Will the party of Lincoln resuscitate itself and fight it's way back into the game. Here for further insight is Frank Gifford....Well, maybe not." We miss Howard? Sorry, I lost focus. As Tallulah Bankhead once observed, " There is less here than meets the eye."

Your humble servant,

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/

The Horror, The Horror!

2009-06-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

[ I lost this in the ether and thought it was more thoughtful any the other post on this burning issue]

Thank god, we can get away from the real issues of the day and talk about Mark Sanford and his "issues." Yahoo.com has something from the AP called "Analysis: Why do politicians cheat?" It read like a script from "Sex and the City' Worse, it could have been a sermon from the Oprah mobile. Because the story was analysis, political scientists were asked to comment. It's always nice to know that certain people are still alive and still commenting, even on something as stupid as this story. I got a bit nervous when one scientist was quoted talking about "out sized" this and that. I think that I could be a bit over stimulated by all these cheap thrills.

The press shows itself to be the gawkers at the crash seen, just like anyone else. The venerable NYTimes, blogista Kate Phillips tried to refrain herself and lost it when she quoted from alleged emails between Mark and Maria that were posted by a South Carolina paper. Actually, aspiring pols out there should read them; they show the governor is a lot more self aware as a bounder than as the chief executive of a small, humid state. I will not talk about a stimulus package for fear it could be taken the wrong way.

Back to Liz at the AP and the agonizing why, oh why do they do it....cheat that is. Well, maybe Liz didn't read the stuff that Kate had on her site and helpfully added a link to The State newspaper for more of the Proustian musings of gov. Sanford. It's amazing that no one has yet done the evolutionary biology dodge....I think I read in some old Cosmo or Popular Mechanics piece. It goes like this: men have huge, sex specific neural transmitters and many more than girls. So guys may be prone to acting like idiots because it is their destiny...sorry Darth V. I have heard this learned theory expounded in detail by many barologists and friends over the years. It makes sense the more one drinks.

We all owe the governor a debt of gratitude because Iran is depressing, North Korea is plain scary and California is about to be sold on ebay. If you pay attention to the health care debate you will become depressed and may need medical intervention that you can't afford or can't get your HMO to approve.

I am still waiting to hear from Karl Rove on the new swinging Republican Party; yeah, I was like the rest of you; thinking that the Reps were a bunch of uptight, bible thumping, golf obsessed stiffs...so to speak. Sure, they are...but there is this sensitive side to them too. I for one think that we should look past the obvious and seek out the existential truth of this crisis on the sand hills of the Carolinas. Anybody know if John C. Calhoun fooled around?

Let us not forget that we all would want a good friend like Cubby to lean at such a moment.

What about this Guy Cillizza at The Wash Post?

2009-06-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

Like David Shuster of MSNBC, Chris Cillizza has to ask his mom's permission to stay out late to cover world events. The picture of Mr. Chris on his Post column is a nice one; he is smiling as opposed to the semi-serious pose he does on Keith Obermann's MSNBC show. It is just that Cillizza smiling over his column today on "the Affaire Sanford," ( my characterization) will give the evil genius Rove more ammo to talk about the biased, liberal media. Sure the picture is probably from when he graduated from college; nonetheless, the impression it gives is one of glee as he reports the political car wreak of Sanford's misdeed. I am smiling so much these days that I could hurt myself.

It's great that Cillizza had a happy childhood and smiles a lot; still, he needs to ask himself, "What would Morrow do?" The Washington Post probably has other reporters who smile as well and they need to address this pressing issue before Karl gets there....Be afraid.

What Have They Put in Republican's Water Supply?

2009-06-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm impressed. If I wanted to score in some foreign city, I'm going with the Republican Team. Now, Sanford of South Carolina has his mi- life crisis with an Argentine senorita. I am impressed. All those years the liberal, left kept on calling the Republicans up-tight and repressed. Well, barely repressed and hardly clothed it seems. Oh, the joys and little David Shuster has put Hypocrisy Watch on hold, damn! David, come home boy; get it cranking. I was going to say, "Get it up." But, I'm not Rachel Maddow and I don't do that kind of trash talk....

I'm picturing Sanford as Pacino on the dance floor in "Scent of a Woman." Doesn't really work. Still, what the hell. Just when you think you have nothing to say, someone goes ape and does something really dumb. Confession time for sure. But, Karl Rove should see this as evidence of Republican virility and machismo. All that defense and war talk must stimulate the brain...if you know what I mean....Got to get invited to some Repub. mixers. Maybe, do some skeet shooting and take a road trip to stimulate the economy.

It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

2009-06-24T00:16:00.000-07:00

The real benefit to not sleeping is the gift that appears out of the ether. Today, June 24, the NYTimes reported that the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) will be giving naming opportunities to put your brand name on a particular subway station. Oh, the mind reels at the possibilities. Clorox has always been the brand that comes most ready to my mind when thinking about the subway system in the summer months. The whiffy scents of human habitation that greet one at the West Fourth Street Station call forth the Clorox brand name, and huge doses of that legendary product.

Perhaps there could be co-branding opportunities ie, Clorox and, well, any one of a number of effective deodorant products....the Time Square/Mennens/Old Spice/Brute & Clorox Station. In areas with high crime (they do not officially exist anymore), you could have the Smith and Wesson Station or The Taeser Stop on the Number 6 train. Grand Central Station and Penn Station could be sponsored by all of the anti-depressants or just a favorite e.g. Penn-Prozac or Grand Pharma Station.

We have not included the drugs for enhanced sexual performance: the L line is the obvious candidate. New York's public servants trying to make you laugh and cry at the same time. All of this goodness before 4 a.m.

Those Who Stand Up for Justice....

2009-06-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

President Obama bravely observed that history has a way of noting those who seek justice. Indeed, it is usually done posthumously, a nice bronze plague somewhere or a flower bed perhaps near the spot where they were shot or disappeared. How uplifting and inspirational and meaningless. The sound bites from the White House are meant to placate the carping from the right wing in this country. The Iranian government could care less about the press coverage; their real concern is to control the perceptions of the non protesters: who are these people in the streets? The regime needs to preserve its legitimacy and the monopoly on the use of force. Nothing Obama says will have a substantive influence on the internal power struggle over the elections in Iran.

Obama felt he has to respond to the Ayatollahs of the Republican Party who were posturing about being tough on Iran...pure theater, pure bull, 24/7. It needs to be pointed out that the United States has quite recently seen a Presidential election stolen from its nominal winner....remember 2000? It was only Gore's timidity that saved the country from a series of major protests in the streets. Michael Moore had a comment upon the Gore capitulation in his film Fahrenheit 9/11 when Gore refused to support a group of Black Congressional Representatives in a bid to challenge the election results.

The current death toll in Iran is unfortunate and we all can hope that it does not reach the level of say the Detroit riots in 1967. The Iranian militias does look or act much differently than the Chicago Police Department did at the Democratic Convention of 1968. So, as Archie use to say to Edith, "Stifle it. Why don't ya." For a country that still holds hundreds of people in preventative detention and has 50% of its citizens, in a recent poll, saying it is all right to torture suspects sometime, we should clean up our own act.

I'm a Bit Confused Again

2009-06-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

If I remember rightly, Louie XIV was supposed have said, "I am the State." The current president of France appears to be saying, "I am the taste." He proposes to ban burqas because he believes that they are a symbol of female subservience. Having grown up around a lot of black clad women, grannys and nuns, I just don't see this as the core issue facing the French nation. But, politics is anything but rational, especially in the nation that fetishes reason. President Sarkozy should be happy that his wife likes to dress the way she does and let it go at that; he invites far right nationalists to play the card of Muslims as outsiders, not good Frenchmen or women. This is a dangerous game. It is well known in the sociological literature that generational change comes as the younger generations assimilate and pick and chose their cultural styles. Force of law in this case will only keep people on the defensive. I hate to sound like a NYT editorial. Sarkozy is usually good for a laugh or two; this is not funny, even if it sounds that way.

Perhaps he did not get his history lesson correctly on the Louie quote? Maybe Carla hates black.? Who knows.?In the land of the Enlightenment, Dior and Chanel are the taste/State. Very odd.

Conservatives Can Be Sooo Cute!

2009-06-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

I just ran across a guy named Armstrong Williams. His blog was featured on The Hill, a pretty reputable political blog from what I can tell. First, I had to find out if this guy was real or if someone was making him up. You just can't be too careful when flirting on the web...so to speak. Yeah, he is for real and has a small right wing media factory of his own and everything. So, I asked myself, "Why would the smart folks at The Hill put his platitudes on their site?" Generally, you want to remove that stuff from your windshield before you start your car. you don't save this stuff...except for gardening purposes. (By the way, we are looking for a garden columist.)

In the posting on The Hill 6/23, the real Mr. Armstrong Williams points out that the national debt is much bigger now than it was when "The Prince" was in the Oval Office in 2007. Williams, like many of the Republican chattering class, seems to make no connection between the economic chaos of the Bush years and the consequences of the enormous debt burdens now staring us in the face. A historical hysteria is a common affliction amongst right wing pundits; not that the Democrats have any use for historical reality....still maintaining that we are a republic and not an empire is almost clinically odd. Obama has little interest in peaking under the sheets of the past administration; history is not policy and off we go to the new beginning. Can there be an old beginning? The mind boggles....moment to boggle.

I would not defend the Obama administration for any numbers of reasons, on a multitude of issues. But, I must say that I have my Rahm Emanuel moments when I read the zombie like musings of the dead political theory of the party of limited government. You have got to wonder how Mr. Williams keeps up the fiction of the Republican fantasy after the Bush deficits and the expansion of executive power during the Bushite years. Perhaps it is a blessing to be fact challenged. Still, it is not covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act. I am sure that Mr. Williams could get a Republican and Blue Dog Democrat to sponsor a bill to study his affliction; it is certainly widespread, a veritable swine flu running through both political parties.

I guess The Hill folks are just like me: I just can't say no to a guy who needs a quarter or a buck when he is down and out.

Some Odds and Ends

2009-06-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

I am feeling the pressure to be...not boring, UN-Gore, UN-Gary Null (perfect name). And, I must try to send my messages of warning and peace to any intelligent species who might thing that now is the time to come to earth and buy real estate in Manhattan. These are not my Prime Directives because I have intention deficit disorder that makes it almost impossible to take anyone or anything too seriously for too long.

I was harassed into calling this blog "Attack and Critique." But, I want you all to think of puppies and the Amish when reading my future postings. There is no getting around it: we are all really screwed as our empire is slip, sliding away (sounds familiar). So, with that in mind, I offer entertaining bits and pieces of our national and international catastrophe....history in the making. I offer you my worldview so that you do not feel compelled to tell me what I already know: I am not a serious person and probably will never serve my country on a coop board or substitute teach anywhere. So, let me share some of my observations, just for the hell of it.

Gitmo ridiculous has taken another prisoner in the person of Senator James Webb of Virginia. It appears that his brain was renditioned when he stated his objection to the release of four members of a Chinese Muslim minority group who were captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. These men were held in prison for almost seven years; they are now about to be released and Senator Webb objected to their release into the community of their co-religionist living in his state. The grounds for his objection was national security. The Chinese do not like these Muslims and call them terrorists. The Obama administration will not send these poor refugees back to China because they would most likely face torture and death; but, the Congress will not allow them to be settled in the United States....National security might translate like this: we have to kiss the Chinese collective behinds because they have 750 billion dollars of our debt obligations. Washington prays that the Chinese will not stop buys our paper and precipitate a collapse of the dollar. Of course, there is North Korea and global warming to add to the list.

When you think about it, the lives of a few men against all that money and Geo-political razzle dazzle, well, they're just people. Of course, we are all just people to be used for the greater good. Senator Webb's sense of national security seems to leave out a sense of national honor and obligation to the people who were unlawfully detained and robbed of years of their lives in the name of the our national interest. The courts found no reason to hold these Chinese refugees.

Of course, to have Gitmo detainees living amongst us would be to remind the nation of what we had become during the Bush years, the world's most trigger happy, super power. We tortured and called it enhanced interrogation; we kidnapped in the name of fighting terror; we violated the treaties and conventions against war crimes that we helped write. To have the living consequences of those policies walking amongst us would raise the questions that Obama and Bush don't have time for: the questions of accountability and justice. Not in the national interest I guess.

The Usual Suspects

2009-06-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Well, today we add a bit more lunacy into the already heady brew for you webmeisters ot there. Our subject is as vast as human stupidity will take us...vast. We will marvel with you over the many ways that human kind has found to make itself into the victim of itself.