The Thailand Edition

The lyrics are a little easier to follow on this one.

Obama Ranks Ninth

At least in this post.  I wonder if it will get me locked out of my Blogger account like others who didn't show the proper appreciation of the new boy wonder.

Yippee!  100 members of the California National Guard return to San Jose from a yearlong tour in Iraq.  Unfortunately they won't be able to enjoy their time at home because there are so many fires that firefighters are having to let some fires rage in an effort to save communities.  So they can flood if we get any rain this coming winter.

He could be looking for Larry and Curly or he could be looking for a member of the opposite sex. 

When I was a teenager one of my chores was to take the cars to the gas station and wait in line to fill them up.  Both of our cars had odd numbered plates and I would waste a whole afternoon filling up the '63 Galaxy 500 and then the '69 Mustang.  I'd take a book, crank up the AM radio and off to wait in line I went.  I didn't mind because it gave me a real excuse to be out of the house and Dad didn't know how long the lines were.  Or weren't.  At no time did I have to dodge bullets or push my car towards a station I couldn't see and then when I got there find out it wasn't working because there wasn't any electricity.  For the Iraqis it's like the old saying, "water, water everywhere, nor a drop to drink."

I'm so happy that troop deaths are down in Iraq.  Too bad the same can't be said for Afghanistan.

Coming soon to a home near you.  And if you complain about the government, it will probably be sooner rather than later.

We don't take care of our own veterans, we certainly aren't going to take care of Iraq's.     Out of sight and out of mind.  Just the way America likes all of its problems.  That way we can pretend we had nothing to do with destroying their lives.

Meryl Streep is not the reason I want to see Mamma Mia!  Nor is it Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skaarsgard or Colin Firth and it's definitely not the ABBA music.   My reason is Amanda Seyfried, who's character's untimely death was the reason for Veronica Mars first season.

This reminds me of  In The Year 2525 except the that we won't have to wait until the year 6565 to pick our kids from the bottom of a long glass tube.

Last, and most certainly not least, Obama wants to not only continue a Bush plan, he wants to expand it.  Even if it doesn't work and encourages religious discrimination.  He will do anything and say anything to get elected.  Next thing you know, he'll be encouraging the citizenry to believe we want to stay in Iraq and bomb Iran.   Politicians may look different, but they all want the same thing.  Power, fame and fortune.  And they don't care who they have to step on to get it.

Circling The Drain

People have been so worried about the United Nations imposing a new world order on the United States, that us imposing a new world order on the rest of the planet has been overlooked by all but true freedom advocates. 

The controversial proposed pact, a "framework agreement" on common data protection principles, is likely to enable the Americans to access the credit card histories, banking details and travel habits of Europeans, although senior officials in Brussels deny US reports that the Americans will also be able to snoop on the internet browsing records of Europeans.

"Everybody's keen on this and sees the benefit of it. The French are very keen to continue the work," said a senior official in Brussels. "There's all sorts of information stored on computers nowadays that may be of interest to law enforcement agencies. If we reach agreement, we may well contemplate turning it into a binding international agreement."

snip

Under separate agreements being negotiated, Washington is insisting on having armed guards on flights from Europe to the US, is introducing a new electronic travel authorisation system where travellers to the US would need to apply online for permission to fly before buying a ticket, and last year the EU yielded to American pressure to supply the US authorities with 19 pieces of information on passengers flying from Europe to America.

Land of the brave?  Geez, what a joke.  Land of the broken income is more like it.  For those who toiled all their lives believing that they were working and saving for retirement,  reality is becoming harder to survive and being told to "ride it out" is as foolish a piece of advice as being told that  plastic sheeting and duct tape will make you safe from airborne pathogens.  Oh well, maybe they can go back to the old standby from the seventies, cat food.

Turns out I regularly eat nine of the eleven best foods recommended for good health, at least while I an afford them.   I'm growing both beets and chard, but I can't afford pomegranate juice and haven't really tried pumpkin seeds.  Canned pumpkin, turmeric, and cinnamon  must be in a recipe somewhere and this one includes dried plum, which is also on the list.  This recipe also includes pomegranate and candied pumpkin seeds to go on top of polenta.  Not too bad for a squash that most people think of as a dessert or Halloween ornament.

Why yes, we have become a rogue nation.  We could be our own little axis of evil, which leads to my favorite quote of the week.  And it's only Monday.

So, if you think we or Israel can attack Iran and not expect retaliation, I'd have to say with regret that you are a moron. If you think we could easily handle Iran in an all-out war, I'd have to promote you to idiot.

We believe in the culture of life only as it applies to preventing abortion.  After one is born, you deserve to die because you were born in the wrong country or to a family that doesn't make enough money to support the parents much less their kids.

My gas budget is $100 a month, so every month I drive less and less.  I use the car to go to the grocery store where I find food  prices higher than they were the week before.   I'm dropping my gym membership because even though it relieves stress, contributes to my health and gives me a little time away from taking care of my mother, I can't afford the gas.  Thanks to the policies of the crew without a clue, seniors who were born during the Depression of the 1930s are going to suffer and die during the Depression of the early 21st Century.  Great reward for all the hard work rebuilding this country after the Second World War.  Hopefully they won't have to suffer through another World War before they get to rest in peace.

BBB

Oldies But Goodies

Oh, to be young again.  The fridge was always full and the rent was always paid.

Blowing In The Wind

Newsflash!  Republican's are in to recycling.   Who knew?  And spoken by the master flip-flopper McCain himself so he can try and distract the populace all the times he's changed his mind in his decades long pursuit of being master of the free world.   According to McCain, a politician's word can't be trusted.   I can't tell you how surprised I...wasn't.  Almost without exception, a politician's goal is to get elected.  Then it's to be reelected and the naive fall for it every time, believing that the the next guy who promises them change will be the "one", when in reality the change the politician is talking about is to turn the power of the position they are campaigning for over to themselves.

But since Obama dispatched Clinton, he has seemed rather more attuned to what the people want to hear or perhaps he has simply traded the wants of a liberal audience for those of a more moderate one. Either way, he is treading that reliably time-worn path every nominee follows to the political centre. And the question for Democrats is whether to applaud Obama as a cunning politician who knows how to win or fret that he's given undecided voters reason to think his 'politics of hope' are just politics as usual.

First, let us count the repositionings. This past week, Obama expressed surprising disagreement with a Supreme Court ruling that outlawed the death penalty for child rapists (he had previously questioned the rationale of capital punishment). He resisted criticising another high court ruling that affirmed gun owners' rights, even though he had previously seemed to support the gun-control measure at issue.

Obama also dropped his once-stern opposition to a Congressional measure, despised on the left, that would legally shield telecommunications companies that co-operated with extra-legal US government eavesdropping. To some, even the contents of Obama's iPod, recently revealed to Rolling Stone, smacked of political calculation, combining as it did Baby Boomer classics (Stones, Springsteen, Dylan) with highbrow jazz (Coltrane, Miles Davis) mindless top 40 pop (Sheryl Crow) and edgy-but-not-too-edgy hip hop (Jay-Z, Ludacris). Perhaps this playlist should be titled 'Majority Coalition'.

I almost feel sorry for the those who have swallowed this election's Kool-Aid.  McCain is dangerous but there is no guarantee that Obama will appoint judges that are beneficial to women.  In this regard he is just like Bush.  All talk (albeit much more intelligently) about changing America for the good, with  no actions to back it up.  In Obama's favor, at he hasn't signed any death warrants, but on the other hand  he isn't willing to defend the Fourth Amendment.   If for no other reason that that he is a black male, he should fight this latest attempt to remove all expectations of privacy in one's home.

The next few months should be pretty interesting as the base who got Obama where he is, is discarded in favor of a center that doesn't exist except to the pollsters.

I'm being brave.  Number one, I've taken a less than popular view on the anointed one and two, I'm trying out some of the new features from Blogger in Draft.

Supremes, Crime, Terrorism And Stupidity

Given their rulings over the last few years, this can't possibly be good. Aquatic life doesn't stand a chance. If mining companies can't take care of the workers, the odds of them protecting marine life are pretty small. Couple that with the Supremes belief corporations über alles, toss in a little gold and the fish are going to, as they used to say "swim with the fishes." Plus, the Supremes don't believe in states rights. Or citizens for that matter.

What is wrong with this story? Thirty six years in solitary for a murder he probably didn't commit and the prosecutors suppressed information that might have helped him, but was found guilty because a guy who had been on death row says he saw him do it. Guy formerly on death row gets a pardon and the former member of the Black Panthers who was serving time for armed robbery, gets solitary becomes one of the Angola Three.

Oh yeah, the Taleban are running for their lives. Not. It seems they feel so comfortable with the non results produced by Operation Enduring Freedom that they can execute those they call American spies in broad daylight. Isn't is wonderful what great allies the Pakistanis make? Unfortunately, it's to the Taleban. Which is probably why CBS has kicked Lara Logan upstairs and the smearing of her reputation by Murdoch owned entities has begun. Can't afford to have the truth on the nightly news at this point.

You know Peggy is desperate when she starts stealing phrases from Aaron Sorkin. Let McCain by McCain? Which one? He's been a major flip-flopper for the last year. He was against torture before he was for it, etc. It sounded better when it was let Bartlett by Bartlett, which was used not because he was trying to cover his mistakes, but because he was timid in implementing his policies. Lil Peggy's excuse is her misconception that poor widdle McCain isn't getting enough positive press as Obama. Give me a break, he's had many years of press and if you feet that sorry for him you should have said something eight years ago when Rove and Bush were savaging him.

They can hope all they want, I'm not holding anyone's jockstrap in this election. And as to Obama's "I had to bite my tongue", he could have bitten it clean off and it would have been an improvement. The more he opens his mouth, the more he shows me the arrogance and disdain for women that turned me off twenty years ago.

Not according to John Adams, but Cheney has increased the power of the position way past what the forefathers had planned. Dan Quayle was important because he made George Bush the First look smarter than a stump and the Secret Service didn't have to worry as much about a wackjob trying to kill the president.