Sunday Morning Musings

The commentators at Faux News want the military to screen Muslims and thinks that they should be treated as potential threats.  How 1940s.   And just a few days after running the story of the 442nd Regiment and the 65thh anniversary of their rescue of a Texas infantry regiment during WWII.  Crazy people are just that, crazy.  It doesn't mean that everyone who is Muslim is crazy.  Or a terrorist.

Emphasizing the three Rs means that other courses get lost, such as history.  A survey in Britain revealed that kids between 9 and 15 have a rather inaccurate view of the past, such as Hitler was a soccer coach and Auschwitz was a WWII amusement park.  The Holocaust was the celebration of the end of the war and that America entered the war because a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor. 

Twelve percent of respondents said the symbol of Britain's Remembrance Day is the golden arches of McDonald's, rather than the poppy.

I wonder how American kids would have answered the questions.

The insurance company rescue bill has passed.  Thank goodness I have VA health care.  My doctor actually listens to me, explains his reasoning and follows up to make sure he covered all the bases.  Everyone should be so lucky.  The minute health care reform became about insurance reform the battle was lost.  Money talked and reform walked.  Health care will not become less expensive and as more companies move their jobs overseas there will be fewer jobs that provide health insurance benefits.  Soon the only people who will have coverage will be the Congress critters, their constituents can only hope that Doctors Without Borders will provide services to Americans in addition to serving other Third World countries.

Sacramento politicians are whining again.  The poor widdle babies.  Making $116,000 a year and they're protesting a cut to their additional $35,000 a year per diem rate, a $400 month car allowance and free health care.  Their constituents are unemployed or work for companies who have cut benefits and increased premiums and the state lawmakers don't think it's fair for them to have to do the same. An 18 percent cut in benefits has them up in arms while other state employees who actually provide services to the public and make much less have had their salaries cut by 18 percent by eliminating their work days and calling it a furlough. It must be nice to have a job where the first requirement is that you are clueless.  Marie Antoinette would be so proud.

Yes, the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, but why does someone who isn't a member of a "well regulated militia" have the right to deprive innocent bystanders of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  The last few days the news has been filled with the unfortunate shootings at Ft. Hood, Orlando and now Amarillo.  It's pretty sad when a tourist can't stop in a bar without being shot for no reason.  How many dead people will it take before American society realizes that not everyone can or should have a gun?  Charles Whitman shocked the nation in 1966 and forty three years later nuts are still running around with guns and a willingness to use them.

Diarrhea of the mouth?  You betcha!  Someone as ethically and morally challenged as the quitbull should keep her mouth shut and attend to the problems in her own family before telling other people what they can, cannot or might do.

I want a cloaking device.  Not to hide me, just my fat.  I'm more into the Eureka personal model than the Star Trek battleship model.

BBB

Another Dumb, Biased Ruling

It's time to leave.  I thought I was ashamed of my country because of torture, now I'm terrified that I live in a police state that has no rules or regulations to protect me from people who are already known to coerce confessions out of innocent people.

Scalia, who read the opinion from the bench, said their decision will have a "minimal" effects on criminal defendants. "Because of the protections created by this court in Miranda and related cases, there is little if any chance that a defendant will be badgered into waiving his right to have counsel present during interrogation," Scalia said.

What kind of drugs is he on if he thinks that cops won't badger people?  Hell, they tase sleeping naked people.  I may know my rights but a lot of people don't and if cops tell a suspect, and you know they will, that they have no right to an attorney they will be able to force confessions out of innocent people.  They've done it before and now it will become standard practice.  As if the Sotomayer pick is going to change anything.  Too little, too late.

Banana Republic?  Yes we are.  The average American is so screwed.

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Will The Democrats Screw Up?

Wow, how clueless do you have to be?  Of course the Dumocrats are going to screw up.  Unfortunately for the Repubs it won't be as bad as they themselves have done in the last eight years.  William Jacobson. a law professor from Cornell (I thought you had to be smart to attend there much less teach) sets out his reasons why the Specter defection will turn out to have a silver lining for the GOP.

So I'm not depressed about the long-term future of the country, although the next few years will be tough politically. The Democrats will screw up big time, as they did during the Carter years, and the damage they cause will be generational. But the clean-up is worth looking forward to, even if the mess is not.

How...kind of him.  As if the problems created by the last eight years aren't going to be generational.

His first argument is no surprise because I've been saying the same thing for years. The first duty of a politician is to get themselves reelected, preferably to higher office but staying in the Senate is a no brainer if you can't be President.  And just like any other party, if your date gets obnoxiously drunk it is better to go home with someone else.  Especially if you plan on getting there in one piece.

Now, in regard to the torture hearings, if America sits on its ass and does nothing to rectify or show shame about the situation, it will give those who hate us even more ammunition, not less.  As my father pointed out to me in 1967, the people in America have short memories and the people in the Middle East have extremely long ones.  The Turkish-Armenian situation is but one sad example.  Plus, and this is a big one, they are willing to die for their beliefs.  The majority of Americans aren't and our recent behavior more than makes this clear.

To accuse the Democrats of being the isolationist party is one of the most laughable arguments I've heard in years.  I was a Republican because I was an isolationist and a fiscal conservative until they lost their freaking minds.  Republicans ran up the national debt, like they always do, and went nuts on immigration.  If you were born brown and out of town you became the reason that everything went wrong in America.  Sheesh, get a grip.

Last time I checked we were a Republic, not a dynasty.  As history (there's that word again) has shown many times, the balance of power shifts across the globe pretty frequently.  Maybe if we hadn't spent all our resources, wasted our good will and destroyed our military in two useless wars we wouldn't be in the position of having to watch other countries pick up where we left off before we had our mental breakdown.  America is no longer a free society.  Our phones are tapped, there are surveillance cameras in almost every town, the police become more like the military every day and while the Second Amendment is in no danger, the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth definitely are.

The national debt was way out of control before the Democrats were elected to power.  It got that way while the Republicans held sway and decided that the rich needed to be richer at the expense of everyone else.  Young people aren't stupid and since recent studies show that math scores are increasing they will be able to do the arithmetic.  A simple math problem might consist of something like this.  In 2000 there was a surplus and in 2008 there wasn't.  By a wide margin.  Yes, the deficit is going to be bigger for the next couple of years but that wouldn't have happened if the GOP hadn't engaged in a reverse Robin Hood scheme for the last eight years while at the same time increasing the size of government with duplicate agencies that contained their unqualified cronies.

Human rights, that's rich.  And who says it's only three members of al-Qaeda that were tortured?  It's much more widespread than that and everyone knows it.   Pregnant women wouldn't have joined the cause to blow themselves up if they and their baby had something to live for.  They don't.  We have turned their homes, fields and farms into one gigantic war zone in an effort to get revenge on people who are already dead.  Human rights belong to everyone, even if you're brown from out of town.  Other countries, who are much smaller than us geographically, have survived terrorism for years.  We have one instance of terrorism and now the nation wears diapers and cries for mommy.  They aren't destroying us, we are doing it ourselves.

I've been buying foreign cars for years and Detroit has been the reason.  As a woman I require that my car be dependable and affordable.  As an example in 1987 my brother and I got new cars at the same time.  I got a Honda CRX and my brother got a Pontiac Fiero.  He sold his car at the end of six months because it had spent three of those months in the shop and still didn't run right.  I drove the Honda for fourteen years and was grateful every day that I got over 40 mpg.  Detroit's solution was to build bigger and more unstable gas guzzlers.  And now there's no more Pontiac.  The government certainly can't do any worse than the auto execs did.  Unless it's run by people who say their goal is to drown it in a bathtub.

Health care.  Don't make me puke.  I grew up on Air Force bases using military healthcare.  It was nowhere near as bad as going to the doctor today.  Oops, I don't go to the doctor, I can't afford it and I don't qualify for health insurance because I have a preexisting condition called asthma.  The emergency room is my fallback for when it gets out of control and I think I'm going to suffocate.  We won't even go into that dental and vision thing, they don't seem to be on the radar of the entitled so why bring up another problem that those who have everything they need would like to ignore.  Oh yeah, that argument about waiting months for a surgical procedure?  Maybe you should talk to all the people who have health insurance and been denied procedures so the insurance companies can give their executives and shareholders enormous bonuses and dividends.

I'm black, there is racism, get over it.  When you have black communities in states where local governments have built services around them and they didn't have running water like their neighbors did for the last fifty years, that's racism.  When things like education and skills are equal and blacks and Latinos are earning less (provided they got hired) than their melanin impaired compatriots, that's racism.  When you cut essential school programs in poorer districts that are predominately black and politically mrginalized, that's racism.  When prisons are filled to the brim with people of color who have committed petty crimes against themselves while rich melanin impaired executives who destroyed the lives of millions go free, that's racism.  Those are facts and they aren't going away.

The GOP is in trouble for a reason and the reason is this.  They are out of touch with the average American.  Their base consists of angry people who vote on single issues by claiming that the Bible disapproves of certain behaviors they deem immoral while ignoring the rest of the Bible teachings that encourage them to take care of their fellow man and to have compassion and pity for those who are suffering.  The elite of the party are just that.  Elite and as far removed from their base as they can get in their personal lives as they can manage and not get outed.

The party of Lincoln is falling apart and the more they scream about how unfair it is and the more rabid they are to return to a time that only exists in their imaginations, the further from the mainstream they will be.  As so many other Republicans have said before me, I didn't leave the party the party left me.

BBB

Soup Lines, Bread Lines, Unemployment Lines

What a Corker!  And the right hand said to the left hand "I don't need your help to jerk myself off, I'm going to show you how to be a fiscal conservative again.  We won't even need tissue paper."  Meanwhile, what's left of the American Automobile industry is flushed down the toilet.  And why don't the Republicans in Congress care?  That's way too easy to answer.

Because they have a salary that's way too high for the job they aren't even trying to accomplish; they have health care for when their ulcers (that they might not be reelected or any other physical problems that affect "normal" people and then the taxpayer so nicely pays it for them without ever seeing a bill to make sure they aren't being overcharged!) goes bad; because they really don't realize that it is their constituents who are the ones in major financial trouble (and who gives a flying fig about them since most of the Senators aren't up for election for the next two to four years and they know American memories are short, name the last 10 Presidents in under ten seconds) and they know that after the inauguration they will still be able to go on a junket vacation on the taxpayers few remaining dimes.  Because we all know that the solution to this problem is to cut back everyone's wages and eliminate all pensions except for those in government and the problem will magically solve itself using the free market system.  Of stupidity.  Whatever happened to making government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub?  Or did Katrina show that little plan wasn't going to work?

As I sit here and watch the country I was willing to bleed and die for, I wonder why it took me so long to realize that my country truly is apple shaped and that we are well on our way to a fatal heart attack or stroke.  Then I realized that the people currently in power think all those stories about soup lines (great link with pictures and everything!) and The Grapes of Wrath were just brilliant works of fiction to make the have nots not feel so alone and that it really was never that bad, will never be that bad and it was probably made up in the first place to give the photographers something to do.  Methinks that sometime soon the crew without a clue will finally realize what the Second Amendment was really about...and that it had nothing to do with owning guns just because you wanted to.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It has everything to do with making sure that once again the have mores will understand that the have nots have had about as much not as they can take and still call themselves men and women instead of slaves.  We may not have taxation without representation, but we certainly have had representation without repercussions to the perpetrators of our current mess.

If we all work together, we just might get both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights back into the positions of authority that they held for hundreds of years before this bunch of bozos decided to drive the Escalade over the Grand Canyon to see if it could fly.

Without wings, a pilot or parachute for anyone other than the owners.

BBB

I'm Back, Sort Of

I've been pretty depressed as well as stressed to post lately.  First let me say thank you to Missouri Mule, a beautiful person who helped me through my darkening times.  You pack one heckuva kick and I was glad to be on the receiving end.  Thank you and may you be repaid in kind for the rest of your life.  There are good people on the planet and you are one of the best.  The same goes for the Omnipotent Poobah,  Ponzo and my other anonymous donor. Thank you all for your efforts.   I'm still drowning, but several people have thrown lifelines to delay the inevitable and I don't feel completely alone. 

Speaking of the inevitable, the campaigning or the false suspension of campaigning (the poor widdle baby), the mudslinging and the avoidance of reality continues.    If there is going to be a $700 billion bailout, couldn't we try the trickle up effect?  Please.  Just once to see what it's like?  You know the one where you give every man, woman and child $2500 and they spend it on things they need to.  Like paying the mortgage, going to the doctor instead of the emergency room, catching up on late credit card payments, putting food on the table and buying kids stuff for the next school year.  Maybe a few companies could start building things in America so we aren't constantly buying things from the international discount store.   Because the trickle down effect doesn't seem to have trickled down far enough.

A tropical storm watch in Maine, what a concept.  Somehow when I think of the tropics, Maine doesn't spring to mind.  Tell that to Hurricane Kyle.

Did you know that 2 x 43,112,609 -1 is important?  No it's not how many voters there are for McCain or Obama, it's the new Mersenne prime number. Thirteen million digits.  Now if they could only find Osama bin Laden.

As much as Jehovah's Witnesses are despised, this is one thing that you will never catch them doing.  And for two reasons.  One, they don't participate in politics and two, they believe that you have to live by laws of the country you reside in.  Or as it was explained to me by one of the elders many years ago, that includes even little things like driving the speed limit or cheating on your taxes.  Pastors are supposed to be preaching the word of God, not their interpretation of it and most certainly not to use his name to support a candidate.  It's against the law in this country and then there are those pesky Ten Commandments.  Republicans have gotten so used to breaking the thou shalt not kill, steal, bear false witness or commit adultery commandments, that breaking a few more is no big deal.  Sort of like our former Bill of Rights.  False idols and no other god before me, how quaint.  And we see how they honor their fathers and mothers by reducing any benefits and treating them like parasites because they are living longer than previous generations.  Methuselah would be in a world of hurt if he was alive today.

The Google is at it again.  On the good side they have come out against Proposition 8 and on the dark side they are supporting a bill that removes the copyright protections for cartoonists, songwriters, artists and photographers.  It's called the Orphan Works bill and it is being hotlined behind the closed doors of Congress and will likely be tacked on to the bailout bill with little notice or discussion from the public.

3Bs

A Spoonful Of Sugar

Is supposed to help the medicine go down and the medicine must be pretty bad if the Democratic convention is any indication. 

I used to read about 182 feeds a day (can we say info junkie?) and geek that I am, I've been tracking my Google Reader Trends and can honestly say that in the past few weeks I've gone from a 100% reader completion rate down to less than 70%.  Which seems to reflect my attitude about the hype that most around the blogosphere lives for.  The same old stories, told over and over again.  Ad nauseum.  The only Olympics I watched were when I was at someone else's house and Michael Phelps was on for the few minutes I was there.  The same will probably hold true for the Demolympics and the Repubolympics the following week.  Almost like the Truman show except the buck never stops being passed around.    Though the pictures of our Commander in Chief trying to raise the roof or having to be helped from his seat by several men were pretty entertaining.

Fortunately the Dark Wraith (Ron Paul had the same reasoning of why Republicans should have voted for Kerry in 2004 and wasn't afraid to say so) published Ted Kennedy's speech (courtesy of YouTube) over at the Big Brass Blog so I didn't have to suffer through the constant inane twitter of the Dan Rather, Chet Huntley, Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley wannabes.  If today's"newsmen" had the talent of their predecessors, half their gravitas and any ability to research their own sources of information instead of reading a daily transcript handed to them from whichever contact person is in charge, we wouldn't be in the mess we are now.  Seriously, since when did an Obama child swinging the gavel and making the press corps laugh, become news?  Trust me, it's nowhere near the equivalent of JFK Jr saluting his father's casket as it went past.  Not even close.  And you can't make it so.

I tried to read the transcript of Michelle Obama's speech but found the reaction to be overhyped as well.  Letter perfect?   In whose language?  The Obamas are not the Second Coming and if the people who consistently ignored all the signs, portents, Katrina, extremely conservative Supreme Court judges, Executive Orders, an inept Attorney General, a politicized Justice Department, the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act until it was too late are now excited because they smell some sort of change in the air, they should check their diapers.  Because they are full of it.

Our country is in deep doodoo and instead of pointing out how, where, when, what, and why, we get...the promise of change.  No concrete plan, no pointing out the perpetrators of the country's downfall so people can see why there is going to be a difference between a Republican and a Democrat administration other than a somewhat historic black candidate.   Because there isn't one.  The Democrats enabled Bush and his crew without a clue and can't afford to point it out.  The Republicans won't miss that opportunity to point out the obvious next week.  Nope, instead we got a touchy feely opening, we are just like you speech.  I'm surprised she didn't say I feel your pain.

Obama has been so busy backpedaling, reversing promises he made to the progressives who helped him to get where he is, that he can't be trusted.  I don't believe a word he says, not that I ever really believe politicians.  For Obama, his FISA vote was an excellent example of him looking toward the future and making sure that there would be that much more power to grab than it was about standing up for the Fourth Amendment and what this country used to stand for.  There is not one guarantee other than his word that changes with the Republican wind, that we won't end up with more conservative judges and the elimination of the little that's left of the Bill of Rights.

Shirley Chisholm must be turning in her grave.

BBB

And That's The Truth

As a black female in America, many years of observation have honed my instincts and taught me which battles are worth my time to try and win, and which are worth fighting for but will never change minds that are permanently closed under the guise of everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  Guess which one this is.

The last few years have plainly shown that anyone who thinks that racial issues are okay in America, are obviously not one of the races that have been historically shunned in this country.  There has never been an Italian, Asian, Indian, Black or Hispanic President.  We can't even address the blatant sexism that exists and is glorified every day in this country by people who should know better.  If Muslim countries where the woman walks three feet back and to the right can elect a female Prime Minister or President, what's our excuse?  Other than the obvious?

One of the peculiar media memes of the past year has been a lot of tormented nonsense about whether the ascendance of Barack Obama means that race is somehow off the table as a defining issue in American life. Of course his prospective nomination is a historic moment, but I can't even begin to understand why this is a controversial topic. How can anybody suggest with a straight face that pervasive racism is not the reason why, in a year when every imaginable factor favors the Democrats, Obama is even or trailing in the polls behind an addled, war-hawk septuagenarian who is disliked by his own party?

To me it is Katrina that puts the lie to any fantasy of a race-neutral America. And it's Katrina, not 9/11, that displays the nation's potentially fatal 21st century weakness. While countless billions have been spent converting our society into a police state to prevent another unpreventable attack by a handful of neo-medieval wackos, the story of the ongoing destruction of a historic, majority-black American city -- before, during and after that storm -- has been briskly swept under the carpet or, more accurately, abandoned to investigative journalists, documentary filmmakers, NGO social workers, corrupt or incompetent bureaucrats and other irrelevant social debris.

As time passes on, it will be the blatant lack of response to Katrina that identifies this country.  Identifies her as the liar and hypocrite she is.  Today's Americans, having got their piece of the "pie", are determined to maintain the status quo by making sure that nobody else gets a slice.  They are no longer interested in the tired, the poor, the hungry or the hurting, it might upset the apple cart of their self induced superiority.  Unfortunately, compassion wasn't written into the Constitution and even if it was, it would have been eliminated right along with the rest of the Bill of Rights in a futile effort to protect us from a bogeyman in a cave half the world away. Because a frightening majority of the people in power, are determined to stay there.  No matter what the cost.

Our Founding Fathers must be so proud.  Not.

BBB

Indict, Impeach, Imprison

Sounds good to me.  Riddle me this.  If you've lied about WMDs, lied about al-Qaeda involvement, lied about outing a CIA officer, why should I believe you when you say that you didn't forge documents to start a war under false pretenses?

From the nucking futz department. The crew without a clue is putting every American outside the country a moving target. For torture.

I've been a poker player for about 18 years and absolutely loved the game until Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker with a 7-2 offsuit.  It was a disaster for the game.  Now everyone and his brother wants to play poker and go all in on almost every hand, even if they're playing $3-$6..  Odds don't matter, logic doesn't matter, position doesn't matter.  A big stack you can bully someone with does.  The San Jose card clubs are in a word, deficient.   From the food to the lack of services.  There are so many rules and regulations, they can't even replace your drink if the floorman knocks it over.  You don't even get a deck of cards when you make a Royal Flush.  Nothing, nada, not even a picture.  If they would let us have jackpots, bring back the masseuse while playing, anything, and if I had money to play I wouldn't mind the proposed tax hike in the card rooms to save city services.  But what do the players get in return?  Higher table fees that don't go into the pot, which will mean less players per hand.  49 tables sounds nice, but shouldn't there be some money in the pot to fight over?  Otherwise, what's the point?

Oh joy, another taser death.  Aided and abetted by police brutality.  I guess he was supposed to yell fire instead.  With the usual cover-up.  The Swissvale police also don't seem to understand the First Amendment.  Specifically the part that deals with peaceful assembly.  I guess they think that since they aren't Congress, the Amendment doesn't apply.  To people without badges.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Oysters get herpes?

At the usual place

From Sea To Shining Sea

After almost three and a half years of blogging, these last few days I have been finding it difficult to care.  I've always had varied interests, but since 2004 they have been limited to politics, cooking and a few other assorted hobbies, but mainly politics.

Through the years, many of the blogs I enjoyed reading caught Ted Barlow disease and disappeared.  The latest were Mixter's Mix and Ponzo (I guess I'm not an invited reader).  I doubt if I'll quit, but my energy is low and readers are few.  I am a first-born and will always have an opinion about everything (just ask me!), but I'm tired of being irritated and disappointed in my country and my government.  That isn't going to change because I stop writing about it constantly, but the world needs more positivity and right now the only thing I'm positive about is that we are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

In the last four years it has become sadly apparent to me that most Americans are of the sit and wait variety.  They are willing to sit and wait, hoping that things will change for the better and are content to focus on their own lives and the lives of troubled stars, pregnant stars and "reality" shows that have nothing to do with real life.  Anything but paying attention to how the country has changed around them.

What really brought it home to me was this season of Jeopardy!  One of the things I noticed about the contestants was that they knew stuff about movies and obscure musical groups and very little about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Revolutionary War or how and why this country was founded, but they could name some specialized mammal that I, nor anyone I know, has ever heard of.  Now, that's depressing.

The election isn't going to change things by much since our freedoms have been whittled down to almost nothing and there wasn't a peep from the general populace during the process and I don't expect a majority will demand them back.  Using the excuse that it won't get worse is just sad.  Our media hasn't done its job and the people haven't asked it to, people are too busy pretending that life is a reality show and everyone will get a do-over.  And besides, it won't affect them, it only affects the bad people.  Until it's too late and their homes and jobs are gone.

When I was a little girl and we were stationed on Air Force bases throughout the world, unlike today we had no choice about radio or televisions stations.  It was Armed Forces Radio and Television Service and the government spin on world happenings, or it was learn a new language.   No such thing as cable or the internet.   I'll never forget going to see the original Batman movie and having Burt Ward's voice blow us out of the seats.  We had been watching the tv show on a Puerto Rican station (because tv didn't start until the news came on at five and went off again at ten) and Robin had a boy's voice, so the change was pretty noticeable.  AFRTS eventually showed Star Trek a year behind the States and we were really surprised to see that black girl on the bridge.  But I digress.

I loved going to the movies, except for one thing.  The Star Spangled Banner was played before every movie and it was required that you stand and put your hand over your heart.  I hated it.  When we got back to the States and moved to California we still had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at the beginning of classes.  I hated that also.  Only seniors were allowed to not stand and recite and when I became one, my butt never left the chair.  Not once did I feel guilty or unpatriotic.  Otherwise I wouldn't have joined the Army two days after graduating high school.

Why did I hate doing those things so much?  Well first of all, they forced us to do it.  Since it was by rote and not intention, it was just like reciting the ABCs and had less impact.  Ask anybody you know to recite the Pledge or the Anthem slowly and sound out the words and you'll realize that 98% of the people have not a clue as to what they are saying.  If, and it's a big one, they can do it without the singsong repetition.  It's amazing how many words aren't correct.

Secondly, America The Beautiful should be our anthem not some old Enlgish drinking song.  We really do have a purple majesty, they are called the Rockies and they don't try to usurp power for themselves or their cronies.

I want my country back even though I know that it's impossible.  The one from the late sixties and seventies that had hope, that just knew things were going to get better and wasn't afraid to stand up and demand that justice be served to those who deserved it.  Not even a President was immune.  Not the country that currently exists in its place and demands that someone who lied about taking steroids be forced to spend years in jail while one who outed a CIA spy has his sentence commuted and people are begging for him to be pardoned.   My how the priorities have changed.

And not in a good way.

3bs

When Choice Is No Choice At All

It's so sad watching the happy lights go out of Obama supporters eyes.  It's never good watching people whose hopes and dreams are being shattered.  After all the rhetoric, the nasty comments directed at people (one of which was me) who didn't believe what he said about hope and change, they are waking up this morning to a candidate who cannot be distinguished from any other politician running for office.  Oh, they were s proud of themselves when they vanquished Clinton, made Edwards out to be too pretty to be effective and gloated unceremoniously when their candidate was anointed the winner by the same people who have been bought off by the telecom companies.  Now they are beginning to realize that what they got was a wolf dressed up in Little Red Riding Hood's clothes on the way to Grandma's house.  My, what big teeth he has.

In return for this uncritical devotion, their candidate didn't just move to the center, he hightailed it for the right so fast that even Regan MacNeil (I hear Bobby Jindal wants to be VP and he will fit right in with this current course of action) wouldn't be able to keep up with his changing positions.   Obama has abandoned his original base as fast as he could while telling them that he would compromise.  Yes, the former head of the Harvard Law Review is going to vote to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, a subject I have ranted on before, and seal our republic's death so we can be a ruled by a dictator with no checks or balances and Buy n Large will control our every move.  Power corrupts.  Absolutely.

Last night I was talking with a friend and her sister and mentioned Obama's recent comments on late term abortion and that the psychological health of the mother wasn't a good reason.  Turns out the sister had lived in Texas at one time, had an abusive husband who beat her so badly that the baby died in utero and she was forced to carry it for ten more weeks until it was born.  Dead.  Needless to say, he will not be getting her or any member of her family's vote.  She was willing to forgive Obama everything until she heard that.  Makes you wonder what other positions he is going to reveal now that he feels that he has the power of inevitability.

Once again the Demowienies have picked a candidate on his "electability".  The only problem with that strategy is that you end up with a candidate that people are forced to vote for only because they dislike the other guy even more.  This is not an effective way to run a country that is supposed to be for, by and of the people.

I can't vote for either candidate because I believe they are both dangerous, they both stretch the truth to the point of unbelievability and neither one is going to make my country or my life better.  Or safer.  What they are going to do is finish destroying a Constitution that stood for over 200 years, right up until the current reign of error.

I always remember where I was on August 9th, mainly because it's mom's birthday, but 1974 was notable for several reasons.   I was leaving basic training at Ft. Jackson and rode a bus through Georgia before arriving at Redstone Arsenal, AL to learn how to repair guidance systems.   In that amount of time one President resigned for lying about his involvement in a cover up to bug the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and another arrived in office never having been elected to any office by more than a few thousand people.  At least it was for 28 years.

This year I hope to spend it with mom and hoping that the results from the Strangebedfellows moneybomb has an impact.  It isn't as if we had an independent media who reported instead of trying to make the news or that we were marching in the streets like we were in the '60s and '70s to let our representatives know that we were serious.  Nope, today we send money via the internet a month after the damage has been done.

3b's

The Founding Fathers Go Down In A Hail Of Bullets

All that fighting and dying during the Revolutionary War was for nothing. The new boss is just like the old boss that they risked everything to get rid of.

Amendment One

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. We can complain about being screwed and the Government will stop the bad behavior. Wow, what a cool idea.

Amendment Two

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. A militia is no longer necessary, shoot at will. So what if innocents death by gunfire increases? It isn't as if Virginia Tech, Columbine or Charles Whitman were isolated instances. It's much more important that some gap toothed, banjo playing idiots have the right to own a gun even though murder is illegal and very few people hunt for their dinner. You just know they'll be out celebrating and shooting their guns into the air with no concept of gravity.

Amendment Three

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. How quaint. I'm sure that the Supremes will find some way around that. Maybe political officers to make sure that you don't complain about the government while in your own home.

Amendment Four

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures , shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. That's been toast for a while and the new telecom bill will ensure that you are monitored from birth to grave. I guess they won't need those political officers after all.

Amendment Five

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Starting with making kids pee in a cup in school to the political prisoners in Guantanamo, the only part of this amendment that is still valid only useful if you've done something wrong and have to testify before Congress.

Amendment Six

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. Unless you are in Guantanamo or have the misfortune to be either brown or poor. Then you're guilty because the prosecutor said so, so there's no need for fair trial.

Amendment Seven

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. Since when?

Amendment Eight

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Unless you are a person of color or a child molester. Bobby Jindal could give a flying crap about those who rape women, but he wants to chemically castrate child rapists since the Supremes said you can't kill them.

Amendment Nine

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. But 9/11 changed everything, didn't it? Our rights need to be constrained because we need to be protected from the latest bogeyman and the little people would only get in the way of bringing "justice". Besides, if you haven't done anything wrong you have nothing to worry about, do you? And if the government says it's wrong tomorrow, well you should have known better.

Amendment Ten

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Unless it imperils the drug companies.

Freedom of speech has been restricted, we practice cruel and unusual punishment, the rights of the people to hold assemblies is being limited, the press rolls over bet than Fido, the government doesn't listen to the people who elected them and the average American neither knows the rights they used to have or why they were written down and ratified in the first place. What a fucked up country we have become.

BBB

Why Should They Be President?

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Welfare, War On Terror And Stupidity

Somehow I was under the misconception that the purpose of the state collecting child support from delinquent fathers was so that the kids could get the money. Boy was I wrong. It seems that the state collects the money to reimburse the feds for welfare costs. The kids get very little of it and the cycle of poverty continues. That's really efficient. This way it looks like the state is doing its job and the unfortunate can stay where they are. As hard targets for institutional racism, poor schooling and future incarceration.

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are just pesky old pieces of paper. A fifteen year old has been held in Guantanamo for the last six years and just might get his day in court. Forget the speedy trial he hasn't received as he aged into adulthood, now he isn't even allowed to know the witnesses (so much for the Sixth Amendment) against him. Because they are "worried" about the witnesses lives. I thought that was what the witness protection plan was for. Not that they should need it since the majority of witnesses are military. Presumed guilty until convicted without being able to build an adequate defense. America, the land of the free, home of the brave. Six years of this crap and they only expect to try 80 of the 305 that they are holding. All charges, no evidence. Hunger strikers are force fed through nasal tubes and others are likely to die of serious maladies before ever coming to trial.

The war on terror was never funded correctly to begin with, now it is being barely funded at all. The only thing that has happened in the last seven years is a restriction of our freedoms without a concurrent increase in our safety. Why am I not surprised? Maybe because it isn't about protecting the country, it's about controlling the people.

There are very few people that I despise so much that they are considered to be an infected pimple on the ass of humanity, but the ChimpFuhrer is one of them. He wasted a surplus, dragged us into debt so deep that our grandkids will still be trying to paying it off and now he wants Congress to pass spending bills for his pet projects (war). He should go back to reading My Pet Goat.

Of course, the Demowienies don't know much about the democratic process either. A political party determining a state's right to hold elections when they want is a power play, not democracy. It is long past time for a national primary. The stranglehold that a few states have over the rest of us must be broken. The people of California, Florida, Texas, Michigan or Montana deserve the same choice of candidates that Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina have.

Ebony and ivory. Due to the wonders of photography, Michael Jackson looks normal.
Michael Jackson looks normal again.

In Memoriam

It's amazing how easy it was to dismantle the foundations and freedoms that this country was built on. As someone pointed out, nowadays it's always 1984 in America.

More recently, there has been the post 9/11 creation of a virtual avalanche of legislation and commissions designed to protect the country at the expense of the Bill of Rights. The two Patriot Acts of 2001 and 2006 and the Military Commission Act or 2006 have collectively limited constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of association, freedom from illegal search, the right to habeas corpus, prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, and freedom from the illegal seizure of private property. The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments in the Bill of Rights have all been disregarded in the rush to make it easier to investigate people, put them in jail, and torture them if necessary. A recent executive order of July 17th, 2007 goes even farther, authorizing the President to seize the property of anyone who "Threatens Stabilization Efforts in Iraq." The government's own Justice Department decides what constitutes "threatening stabilization efforts" and the order does not permit a challenge to the information that the seizure is based on.

One would have thought that the systematic dismantling of the Constitution of the United States would have been enough to satisfy even the most Jacobin neoconservative, but there is more on the horizon, and it is coming from people who call themselves Democrats. The mainstream media has made no effort to inform the public of the impending Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. The Act, which was sponsored by Congresswoman Jane Harman of California, was passed in the House by an overwhelming 405 to 6 vote on October 24th and is now awaiting approval by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is headed by Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. It is believed that approval by the committee will take place shortly, to be followed by passage by the entire Senate.

Whatever. We are so screwed and the majority doesn't even notice. Or care. Why do I get the feeling that Osama been forgotten laughs a little more each day?

A little music to remind you how easy it is for things to change. The focus is bad, but the song rocks!



Or how about this one from a little earlier?

Monday Morning Blues

Alameda County police are going to start scanning the irises of sex offenders and collect them in another database. It sounds good until you realize that with very little effort, people's rights are being infringed upon and terminated. Just being a passenger in a car will be considered a good enough reason to scan you.

"The way the technology is evolving, there will be a hand-held camera in six months," Melley said. In the future, he said, "an officer will be able to have a hand-held iris recognition scanner on his or her belt, and as part of a routine traffic stop could simply ask the driver and/or passengers to look into the camera."

In other news designed to increase hysteria, there is more to this story than meets the eye. In this day and age there is very little about childbirth that isn't managed to the nth degree. Her doctor had to have known throughout the pregnancy that she was a Witness and should have been prepared. For the story to say that she died because she refused blood is irresponsible. I'm not a Witness and I also refuse blood transfusions, they could have made plans beforehand.

Bush doesn't care one whit about what Congress, the nation or anyone else thinks. Like most megalomaniacs he believe that he's right and everybody else is wrong. Vetoes, signing statements and executive orders are the way he subverts the Constitutional process and the people's will. There won't be much in the way of a recognizable Republic when he gets done. Obviously, just the way he wants it.

Is our economy in trouble? If it isn't, why are rap stars starting to use Euros in their videos? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Back to the whittling down of the former Bill of Rights. The government position on email seems to be that if you sent it, then the government has the right to read it because you have no expectation of privacy since you used and ISP. How else is it supposed to arrive at its destination and why would I think that if I've addressed it one individual that others should read it along the way?

Iris scanning, GPS locators, illegal tapping of phones and people turning in other people because they are scared and suspicious of their own shadow. They think terrorists are everyone but them. If you suspect something you should report it. Now, who thinks that they are safe? If someone on the street doesn't like the way you look or act, you could find yourself in jail and having to defend yourself against accusations that are nowhere near the truth. Meanwhile, Osama sits halfway across the world laughing at how little it took to disrupt our freedoms and force a change in our way of life. To something a little closer to the Taleban model.

Six Years On

It's that day again. The one where people gnash their teeth, rend their clothes and cry over people they never knew while mewling about how terrible the world is and how we should be monitored from birth to death to make sure it never happens again. For the families and friends of the victims, my heart goes out to you. The rest of you need to get a life and quit using a tragedy to prevent you from enjoying what is here. Too much television has pickled the national brain into believing that this was the defining moment of our nation's history. It wasn't.

Our defining moment happened hundreds of years ago and it wasn't televised. When the signers of the Declaration of Independence gathered, they knew what they were doing and what the eventual cost could be. Many of the believers paid with their lives in order to give future generations freedom from the tyranny of an out of touch leader who felt that the colonies were his personal line of credit. Nathan Hale, John Paul Jones and Patrick Henry fascinated me as a fifth-grader. Their reported sayings energized my interpretation of history, inspiring me to believe in the freedoms that were later written down as our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The current generation is willing to give up everything that these people fought and died for, because they are scared that something bad might happen to them. Some people need to get a grip on reality. Do people honestly believe that there that many terrorists who could destroy us? Do people honestly believe that there that many terrorists who could destroy us? There are more than 300 million of us spread out over 3.7 million square miles. If you live in Ottumwa, IA, the only people coming to get you are people who didn't like Radar. Why are we running around scared of every little shadow and any dissent from the official line is called treason? Americans are supposed to be braver than that. And smarter.

What the heck happened to my country?

Crossposted at Big Brass Blog.

I Have A Question

I had this idea that taking a day off to recharge my batteries, might give me a more positive perspective on things. And it did, even after I stepped on the hot barbecue coal and burnt one of my middle toes and the ball of my foot. Right up until this morning, when I stupidly started reading an article that would only confirm the accusations I made while the national shame that was Katrina, was occurring. Now I'm absolutely positive that the Bush administration never had any intention of ever helping the citizens of the Gulf Coast and every day that goes by it looks like they actively worked to prevent them from getting help. Even if it didn't cost this country a dime.

So, my question is this. Exactly what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors in this country? Even if we blow off the incompetence of preventing 9/11; the lack of pursuit of Osama bin Forgotten (by the crew without clue that is);, Abu Ghraib; Guantanamo; Pat Tillman and the cover-up; the varied and false premises for war with Iraq; the debacle of said war; the lack of a connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda; the abuse and lack of support for our troops (both during and after service); still no WMDs; deliberately outing a member of the CIA; the destruction of the Bill of Rights and the flagrant disregard of the Constitution; doesn't deliberately refusing while actively preventing to help the citizens of the country you supposedly are in charge of, deserve some type of formal charges? There are dictatorships that have been held to more accountability than these guys.

Crossposted at 3Bs and If I Ran The Zoo.

Are We There Yet?

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Mistakes Were Made

Has the NY Times declared war on the Bush presidency? When you open an editorial with all guns firing, it make one wonder.

We wish we’d been surprised to learn that the White House was deeply involved in the politically motivated firing of eight United States attorneys, but the news had the unmistakable whiff of inevitability. This disaster is just part of the Bush administration’s sordid history of waving the bloody bullhorn of 9/11 for the basest of motives: the perpetuation of power for power’s sake.

Time and again, President Bush and his team have assured Americans that they needed new powers to prevent another attack by an implacable enemy. Time and again, Americans have discovered that these powers were not being used to make them safer, but in the service of Vice President Dick Cheney’s vision of a presidency so powerful that Congress and the courts are irrelevant, or Karl Rove’s fantasy of a permanent Republican majority.

Wow! Don't hold back, say what you really mean.

Mr. Gonzales, who has shown why he was such an awful choice for this job in the first place, should be called under oath to resolve the contradictions and inconsistencies in his story. Mr. Gonzales is willing to peddle almost any nonsense to the public (witness his astonishingly maladroit use of the Nixonian “mistakes were made” dodge yesterday). But lying to Congress under oath is another matter.

These guys lie to themselves all the time, the FBI, Congress and the American public are no biggie at this point. Even after having one of their own convicted for perjury they will persist in thinking that it was a fluke or that they can prevent prosecution in the future.

Have you ever noticed that this administration uses the most obscure, little noticed, provisions to achieve their goals, but presidential daily briefs that warn there is an imminent attack blew right past them? Or that they could conjure and execute a plan to expose a CIA agent, lie about it and that nobody would notice or object? Add to that being unable to anticipate problems that people with no access to sophisticated information can see from a mile away (Katrina and the Iraq debacle spring to mind), a faulty interpretation of the separation of church and state and let's not forget their deliberate misunderstanding that their branch of government can override the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and you have a full kettle of hubris.

You bet mistakes were made. We weren't supposed to find out.

Color Me Unsurprised

Who would have thought that the FBI would abuse the authority given to them under that wonderful Patriot Act? And break the law when they did it. Tsk, tsk.

Newt, Newt, Newt. So morally compromised you just have to be a Republican. And so are those two other shining examples of marital fidelity, McCain and Giuliani. Why is it that the Mormon candidate is the only one with one wife? I'd also like to point out that the Clintons are still married. To each other. Preach on about those Republican family values.

What difference does it make if you are National Guard, Reserves or active duty military and were injured in Iraq? Unfortunately, quite a bit. It seems that where you live and how many in your area were called up with you, determines whether or not you qualify for adequate benefits and how quickly. What a load of crap. Once you serve, once you are injured, there is and should never be, a difference in care or compensation. Why should someone who had a $60,000 a year job, be forced to wait to live on less than $10,000 because they were injured in the service of their country? Keep on supporting those troops, they're doing so well. Aren't you proud to be an American?

Karl Rove believes that so-called "Bush doctrine" will be embraced by future presidents. So, lying to the American public, faking intelligence, an inability to anticipate, profligate spending, destruction of the Bill of Rights, ignorance of the Constitution, landing the country in a quagmire, incapable of properly supplying the troops that are sent off under false pretenses and then ignoring them when they come back are supposed to be embraced by future Commanders in Chief? Why not just call it a dictatorship and make it official that the average citizen no longer matters to those in power?