Thursday Morning Quickies

The Supremes surprised me this morning.  I thought the decision on the strip search was going to be 8 to 1, in favor of the school not the girl.  Instead of Ruth Bader Ginsburg being the lone voice of reason, it turns out it was the sexual harasser who was the holdout in favor of humiliating a girl.  Somehow that isn't a surprise.

I agree, Johnny Depp is one cool dude but now the whole world (aka the IRS) knows the waiter made an extra $4000 in tips this year.  It would have been really cool if the poor guy didn't have to pay taxes on it, sort of like the politicians and bankers who manage not to pay their fair share of taxes.

Filling out the paperwork for student loans isn't hard, it's tedious.  Just like college. And unlike college it can be done online, at your leisure.  If the FAFSA has to be simplified for students to understand it, how do they think they are going to understand their classes?  Just wondering.

Senators (the usual suspects) are introducing legislation to insure that the Iranian people are able to evade censorship and Ahmadinejad is complaining that Obama is the one interfering.

Goodbye Farrah, you made many a teenage boy and quite a few older men happy by reviving the pinup poster in the seventies.  Your work after Charlie's Angels revealed a depth of character that had been overlooked and highlighted the issue of abused women.  Thank you for being you and rest in peace, you deserve it.

BBB

Is Stupidity Stranger Than Fiction?

Sometimes people's names reflect their personality.  Michael Savage is one of them.  Instead of taking on the attributes of his angelic first name, he prefers reveling in the negative qualities of his last.   The safest place for him is Arkham Asylum.

SAVAGE: Then we got into the dominatrix (he wishes!) issue. I don't understand that part of it. I truly don't understand it because any heterosexual woman today over the age of 25 who grew up in America is basically a dominatrix. You ask any heterosexual guy. Within a short period of time -- what do you think it's going to last? Ehhh -- 90 days and after that you're living with a dominatrix anyway, so what's the difference? Why do they have to go to a professional? What does a professional dominatrix do that an ordinary woman doesn't do in America today? Half the women look like post-op transvestites to begin with, trying to look like they're gay or keeping up with the mores of the society. You ever see what they look like? They thin themselves down, they're on some kind of diet pill. The lipstick looks like it was applied by, what's her name, Joan Rivers when she was high. They all have a mouth on them, and the guy is, like, pushed into the background. It's any wonder I'm in talk radio. The safest place for a man to be today is in talk radio and listening to it.

Perhaps a little time reading the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, a name that has been tossed around quite a bit lately, would help him on his so far fruitless quest for humanity.

Better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

But that would require reading, knowledge of history and logical thinking and those qualities do not go very well with the diarrhea of the mouth that Savage, and his companion toddler Limbaugh, spew when their gags diapers are removed.  The sad part is that these two burbled and babbled about how civility is practically nonexistent in the Democratic party.   As opposed to being completely nonexistent from the last remnants of the I need my daddy to make it all better party.

Every once in a while the Supremes remember what their job is supposed to be (clue, they're not kingmakers) and refusing to review Obama's birth is one of them.   Accidents of birth happen all the time.  Let's use Paris Hilton as an example.  She may have been born into wealth on American soil but anyone with half a brain knows she isn't qualified to be President much less a garbage collector.  I, and my two brothers, were not born in the contiguous United States.  We were, however, born on American ground while my father served his country when we still had bases that were located outside the continental US to protect us from the Red Menace, by virtue of being born in a United States hospital and are considered natural born citizens. Period. McCain was born while his father was overseas defending his country and that should not be considered a penalty.  Obama was born in Hawaii after it became a state and that should be the end of the matter.  At least it would be for thinking people, but it appears others escaped Arkham along with the potty mouths.

Over the last few weeks my friends have been having a difficult time and I've tried to support them as much as possible.  My friend, we'll call her Lin, ruptured the maxillary artery on the left side of her face.  It started as a simple nosebleed and with Kaiser's wonderful efficiency they sent her home twice in one day.  On the third trip to the ER, one of the ER people finally noticed that the blood was spurting and not leaking.  By the time they had admitted her she had lost half of her blood volume and it was five days before she was strong enough to survive the surgery to repair the aneurysm.  This vibrant woman, who hapens to be a psychiatric nurse, lost over 20 pounds and a lot of the oomph from her personality.

My next door neighbor, we'll call him Dale, had his beloved dog die the other night.  I would have a picture of Tycho but it was scheduled for the day after he was gone.  All the dogs in the neighborhood knew something was up.  Losing one's best friend is devastating,  Especially for those of us who treat our dogs as our surrogate children.

On an even stranger note, every since Sarah Palin hit the airwaves my keyboard keeps dropping the g.  Very frustratin.

Oh yeah, are we human or are we dancer?  I must be old because I don't know what that means, but my signs are still vital and my hands are warm.

BBB

Friday News Blues

How can you tax something that no longer exists? People who believed that saving for retirement with a 401K have watched the steady decline of their investments in the train wreck that is the stock market. Over the last few months the value of their "investment" has decreased from fifty to seventy five percent and left them very little to retire on. At this point social security is the only stable plan for retirement in existence and the Republicans keep trying to destroy that too. For the small investor to believe they are going to make enough money in the stock market to retire on is like me going to the casino thinking that I will hit a royal flush and win the jackpot. Not likely under the best of circumstances but conservatives think that everyone should gamble with their money and the stock market fits that requirement. Unfortunately some people fell for the scheme and now that their 401K is worth next to nothing they have had to reenter the work force or delay their retirement by several years. And how the heck can Exxon Mobil's pension fund be underfunded by 1.4 billion when the company just posted record profits. Again.

His prerogative. Get over it. The right didn't seem to mind when Bush or McCain did the same thing. But with different newspapers.

Did she really mean to say this or was it a slip of the tongue?

"There is research going on, and my hope is that women are finally going to have some options when it comes to sexual disorder treatments," Kingsberg said. "Right now, there are very limited options, but I think it's coming."

Double standard? You betcha. If the threats had been about McCain, the plotters would have been charged and convicted immediately. But what can you expect from someone who got their job under suspect circumstances.

Typical. Stevens has his very own version of reality. If he was a black male who had robbed a candy store, he would be behind bars already.

Almost unbelievable, until you remember that the Air Force flew nuclear warheads over the US a few months ago and didn't know that either.

BBB

Needs To Be Shared

Hung out with the BARBarians last night and this afternoon I got this in my email.  It was too good not to share.

BBB

Something Ventured, Nothing Gained

John, quit your whining.  What did you think was going to happen after people felt comfortable enough during Republican campaign stops to yell out names such as terrorist and phrases such as "kill him?  That after getting people all riled up they would bring you milk and cookies?   Did the Oklahoma bombing teach you nothing?  How about Eric Rudolph?  People in your party run around accusing people who don't think like them of belonging to terrorist groups all the time.  Heck, the other half of your ticket has done it quite frequently in the last few weeks.  You accuse Obama of being naive when your behavior is absolutely clueless.  At least one hopes that's what you are because the other alternatives are far worse.

Excuse me, some of us have been speaking out for years.  What's going on now is that people are starting to understand that they let their fear get in the way of their common sense and now nothing in their life is private. 

Only two years ago, the Bush administration could count on public fear of terrorism and a Republican-controlled Congress to support an array of anti-terrorism tactics and programs that tested or exceeded the limits of US law.

Coercive interrogations, indefinite detentions, secret overseas prisons, and warrantless surveillance of phone calls and emails were among the tools used in its no-holds-barred response to the September 11 attacks on the United States.

But with the administration near the end of its term, said Lewis, "things are starting to come a little unglued.

"The approach this administration took is breaking down. Some of it is, as it loses its political steam and its credibility, people are willing to speak out."

Of course they are.  Being the sexually repressed country that we are, listening to our pillow talk is off limits.  I just want to know where to get the talking pillows.

Now onto the upcoming Depression. Getting Congress to pass the bailout bill was only the beginning of the Great American Ripoff.  The tip of the iceberg, one might say.  It was just to get the money so Bush could do what he wanted with it, which is to reward the crew without a clue one more time.  No matter how much money you give to the people on the top, as long as the people on the bottom get nothing, the economy won't get better.  As long as the people on the bottom can't spend money on anything other than the basic necessities of life this problem will continue to get worse.  Then we are going to find the rest of the iceberg.   Just like the Titanic.  Golden parachutes are of no use when you are drowning.

Industry executives quickly told Mr. Paulson that they liked the idea, though they warned that the Treasury should not try to squeeze out existing shareholders. They also begged Mr. Paulson not to impose tough restrictions on executive pay and golden-parachute deals for executives who are fired.

Mr. Paulson heeded those pleas. In his remarks on Friday, he carefully noted that the government would acquire only “nonvoting” shares in companies. And officials said the law lets the Treasury write most of its own restrictions on executive pay, and those restrictions can be lenient if they are applied to a set of fairly healthy companies.

If you are on the bottom and get fired, you can barely collect unemployment.  If you are on the top and get fired, you get lots of money and a bonus package.  In other words, the more incompetent you are, the more you get rewarded.

Speaking of the Peter Principle, how much more trouble can one Republican VP candidate get into?  Much more than one would think.  It seems that in their haste to protect her from herself, they might have done more damage than they intended.  Hoist on their own petard.  It would almost be funny except that this is the possible future of America we are talking about.

3Bs

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

Sunday Morning Musings

When is your last request subject to change?  When you happen to be a Catholic Cardinal who is one step away from "Sainthood".    It seems that Cardinal John Henry Newman had requested that he be laid to rest next to his long time friend Ambrose St.John and that's where he's been since he died in 1890.  Now that he's one step away, the Vatican wants to move his remains to a special sarcophagus in another town.  The Vatican's excuse?  So the remains will be more accessible for venerating faithful.  Hmm, sounds more like trying to remove any inference that he might be gay.  It almost cracks me up because it is so hypocritical.   Through the years Popes have had mistresses and even children, but that some people might think that one of the saints was a homosexual is something that must be covered up.   Religious tolerance is rarely tolerant or religious.

The first mention of Obama and his speechfound in my Google Reader News was at spot 26, Sarah Palin was the number two article.  The press has found a new darling and she's photogenic.  For a Republican.  I wonder how long it's going to take the Demowienies to learn how to play politics?  After so many years of doing the same old thing and getting the same old bad results you would think they could get a clue.  But time after time the Republicans manage to steal the stage and make the news world revolve around themselves.   The only way the Dumocrats are going to be able to steal the political stage back would be if Obama decided to either not run or appoints Hillary as his new Veep pick.  And we all know that isn't going to happen.  The Republicans got just what they wanted, which was to run against Obama and not Hillary and the American citizenry are going to get four more years of McSame. Oh joy.

There is one other thing that pissed me off about John Edwards and his "liason" with what's her name, and it's something I haven't seen mentioned in the news.  Has the man never heard of protection?  The all weather raincoat should always be used when liaising with anyone other than your spouse.  With an HIV infection rate of one American every nine and a half minutes, the odds are not on your side if you ride bareback.  Personal raincoats also reduce the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy, but I guess condoms might be hard to hide from your wife and buying them yourself or asking an aide to do it would have been a dead giveaway that you were having an affair.  You set more than a bad example of behavior by having sex after taking marriage vows and your wife having more on her plate than she should have to deal with in one lifetime, you have given the impression that unprotected sex is okay.  It isn't and many more children will be born with a disease that could have been prevented by a little forethought.  Something you didn't think was important.  That's why I'm pissed.  In that one, or however many it took, act, you showed a lack of leadership and glorified irresponsibility.

The list of noshows at the Republican Convention is quite impressive.  And it can't be blamed on Gustav.  Or the California budget crisis.  No matter how hard they try.  Minneapolis is nowhere near where Gustav is expected to make landfall.  And they can't really think that we would believe that they want to be available to help those who can't afford to leave their homes.  And that budget thing?  Total BS since the Republicans are the ones who are holding everything up by insisting that the poor make up the difference in the budget instead of those who can afford to pay taxes.

I was never a Warren Zevon fan until it was too late, but here is a video that Billy Bob Thornton made with Warren and John Waite and a few others before Warren's last appearance on the Letterman show.  It isn't the whole song, but you can tell everyone knew it was going to be the last time.  Knockin' On Heaven's Door. It's enough to bring tears to your eyes. He had some great friends.


And because I'm really pensive this morning, Johnny Cash and his rendition of Hurt by the Nine Inch Nails..


BBB

It's Finally A Horse Race

Ever since I realized we were once again going to get stuck with choosing the lesser of two evils, I've been saying that if McCain picked a woman it would do serious damage to the Democratic platform.  Since everyone decided that McCain was too old and might not be able to serve his term completely if he picks who I think he might, the Democrats will have a much harder slog uphill.  With a lot of unhappy women leaving the party in droves.  Bet the powers that be wish they had listened a little harder to the discontent of Hillary's supporters.

McCain and his advisers were smart, they picked exactly who I thought they would.  Sarah Palin.

So much for the convention bump.  We're gonna have fun now.  Yup, the Demowienies have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

BBB

Born To Serve

Once again the Demowienies are in the process of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  Why am I not surprised?  So much for that much lauded theory from the usual Democratic pundits who haven't rubbed elbows with the common man in years.  You know the theory that said that Obama had a better chance of beating McCain than Hillary would.  This election cycle has been rigged since day one and anyone who thinks that things are going to change in January needs to share their psychedelics with the rest of society.

An untried, unproven (did you know he's black?) political upstart against a professional politician whose main claim to fame was to be shot down in Vietnam and held as a POW; who left his first wife while she was recovering from a car accident for his current and much richer wife; who can barely tell the difference between Iraq and Iran, much less Shia or Sunni;  was closely related to the Keating scandal and hasn't accomplished much since then except to keep running for office and now he's ahead in the polls.

And the best part?  The Republicans haven't even brought out the big guns yet.  One of Hillary's greatest strengths (yes, she had some to go along with her baggage), besides her experience and her previously shown ability to work well with others, would have been that they couldn't dig up any more dirt on her than has already been thrown.  Not so for the anointed one, have you seen the story about the brother? This is just the beginning.   I hope Hillary takes the Gray Davis approach and decides to live a life of happiness away from all the lies and selling of souls for votes.   She and Bill will be able to laugh sadly at the mess that people who supposedly knew better have created and left the American people to drown in.

As goes California, so goes the nation.  Down hill and into the sewer ditch.  Californians were so sure that getting rid of Gray Davis and installing Schwarzenegger would make things better for the state.  Several years later and now look at where we are.  No budget, deeply in debt and no way out except to either hurt the people who have nothing more to give or give to the people who keep finding things to take.  You remember the takers from when we all used to go to grade school together before they destroyed one of the best educational systems in the country.  They had all the best toys, hung around in cliques that the average (read poor) person couldn't get into and made sure they were the only ones on the cheerleading squads and running for school offices. The original '09ers. Obviously they haven't changed one bit.

What has changed is that the American people still believe in royalty and have decided to appoint those with money as the sole arbiters of what is best for the common man.  That would be the other 99% of America, soon to be known as the poor and downtrodden.  Or in the language of the Dark Ages, serfs.

BBB

Critical Thinking Went To The Dogs

Pot calls the kettle black.  With absolutely no trace of irony. Or shame.

Good luck with that.  If the courts think that committing treason by outing a CIA operative is okay, they won't give a flying fig about politicizing the Justice Department.  This is what happens when everyone kowtows to a leader whose objective was to destabilize the government, remove the protections of the Constitution and install extremely conservative judeges to prevent undoing the changes.  Things are going to get much worse and may never get better in our lifetime.

I personally can't stand Obama, but requiring him to dumb down his rhetoric so the Wal-Mart voter will understand him says more about how far behind America has fallen in critical thinking than it does that Obama is an elitist.  At the rate we're going, in twenty years our Nobel prizes will disappear and all our new doctors will be from foreign lands who go to third world countries to get a little experience.  That would be us.

I was wondering how long that would take.  As if building cities in the desert was a brilliant idea with long term potential during a global warming cycle.  There have been some rumblings recently and now McCain has decided to apply the economic plan for the poor to the water supply in the western states. But in reverse.  Take from those who have and give it to those who don't.  Because in this instance, those who don't, have the money and need the water for their playgrounds.  Next thing you know, they'll suggest taking it from the headwaters and divert it around the states that the Colorado used to run through. 

Hoo boy!  The Gateway Pundit must be desperate if the opinion of a man with questionable sexual history can be seen as more patriotic than a presidential candidate because he got goosebumps when he held his Olympic uniform for the first time.  Wow!  And then he bags on the the commentator as a liberal tool for asking the questions.  It's funny how conveniently El Pundito and his commenters, forget that said commentator was very good at an American sport himself and was considered a hero by those who watched him play.  And unlike the person he was questioning, he doesn't pretend he's an amateur at a sport that he has been getting paid millions for the last 12 years. Dumb de dumb dumb.

Our day has come and gone.  As an acupuncturist trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine I can say that yes, China is on the move and has every intention of dominating the world.  Both financially and power wise.  While Americans are content to think that history is last season's episode arc of Lost, the Chinese take the long view and include centuries of history in their decision making.  Then they plan for centuries in the future.  Unlike Americans whose idea of the future is January 20, 2009 and not much else.  The Chinese laugh at us because we like to wait until we're thirsty before we think about digging a well.  Or as our grandparents used to know it, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Which goes along with a penny saved is a penny earned.  Not borrowed.  From China.

BBB

Waking Up To Reality

Yesterday Pravda the New York Times, the wonderful paper that gave us Judith Miller and forgot to cover the facts that led us in to an illegal and devastating war, had an editorial about the Hamdan monkey trial.

It is impossible, in any case, to judge the evidence against Mr. Hamdan because of the deeply flawed nature of this trial — the blueprint for which was the Military Commissions Act of 2006, one of the worst bits of lawmaking in American history.

At least when John Adams was defending the British soldiers of the Boston Massacre he had a snowball's chance in Hades to win and was able to use something called proof so that justice could be served.  Such liberties are not encouraged by the diaper wearing crowd that purports to be the "daddy" party (And we found out what they meant by that, didn't we Misters Craig, Vitter and Foley?)are currently destroying everything that our Founding Fathers held dear.  The truth is no longer self evident.  Nor are we created equal, especially if you believe in the wrong maker, have brown skin or wear a turban and a beard.

For seven years Bush and his cronies have ridden unbridled through the Constitution, laying waste wherever they went.  From the Patriot Act forward they have done nothing but seek more and more power with less oversight than almost any junta in history.  Currently Bush is in China blowing smoke out his ass by chiding them gently (since we need their money to survive) for human rights violations.  Cynical people might consider this more than slightly oxymoronic once one remembers Katrina, the destroyed country of Iraq, spying on American citizens at will before 9/11, outing CIA operatives for revenge, the highest prison incarceration rate in the world, his gleeful enforcement of the death penalty while Governor of Texas and since becoming President bringing death penalty cases in states that don't have the death penalty, and then because it continues to be bad, New Orleans.  Yes, our bobble head in chief is giving advice in humanity.  As if he knew what it was.

A dire assessment, but unless he quits pandering to the right, probably accurate. Then we'll end up with McCain and even less of the Constitution will apply to the average American, who isn't going to be what they think it is.

Majority rules.  But what happens if the majority changes? It's like the old saying.  Be kind to your kids, they're going to pick your retirement home someday.

BBB

Are The Trains On Time Yet?

Nothing says politician like reversing yourself to meet the results of a poll.  Even when they know the poll is hogwash, that the resulting answers are bogus and that it won't solve the problem at all.  In true political fashion, Barack Obama once again sways with the breeze in his effort to become the Decider's heir.  I remember how badly I was treated when I pointed out on another site that the closer to the election the more of his true self would be revealed.  That he would say or do anything that gets him closer to the goal.  Opportunistic?   Most definitely.  Between FISA, drilling off the coasts, and now wanting to let the Florida and Michigan delegations have full voting powers restored to" reunite" the Democratic party (under his banner), some of them must be feeling a little betrayed by now.  Betrayed by their own naivete.  I can hardly wait until his VP pick when the shaft slides all the way in.

Um duh!  Low wage workers usually tend to be people of color and are therefore more likely to be predisposed to liking Obama over McCain.  For those who are melanin impaired, it's easier to identify with someone who hasn't always had a silver spoon in their mouth.  And after years at the bottom of the economic ladder, poor people  realize that rarely does a change in presidents improve their individual lives.  Nice of the WaPo to point out the glaringly obvious.

Another strike against the consumer.  All in the name of progress.  Wherever Orwell is, he's probably sitting in stunned amazement with mouth agape, bewildered by not only was his book off by several years, but it would cover areas he never thought about.

"Some insurers can make a decision in the same day, or right on the spot," Franzen said. "That's the real 'value-add.'"

skip

When an insurer makes an online query about an applicant, Ingenix or Milliman's servers scour the data and within minutes or less return reports to a central server at the company. The server aggregates the information going back as far as five years, including the drugs and dosages prescribed, dates filled and refilled, the therapeutic class and the name and address of the prescribing doctor.

Obviously that decision will be no.  There is a new world order and the have nots won't be eligible for it.  The really sad part?  There didn't used to be so many have nots.  Isn't it wonderful how the Republicans and their Demowienie enablers have been able to cull the herd in such a short amount of time?

BBB

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.

Rambling Thoughts

Man's inhumanity towards man is one thing, directed at a child is another. Unlike most recent police shootings, this one was totally, absolutely justified. I may not have seen the preceding events, but my imagination is good enough that the image will probably never leave my mind. Thank goodness I wasn't there, I would have probably tried to run him over with my car. Rabid animals are dangerous.

Cheez'n'rice! What has to happen before America gets a clue and realizes that we aren't wearing white hats anymore?

Bush and his imagination are no where near reality. I guess insanity is a better defense than incompetence. Or stupidity.

They're coming to take me away, ha haa, hee hee. Except it isn't to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time.

No? Really? I wish I could be surprised and outraged, but I'm not. It's the cost of doing business nowadays. Just not for the little guy.

Monkey see, monkey do.

3Bs

Meanwhile, We Watch And Do Nothing

It is past time for Mugabe to go. Preferably to hell. He and his supporters make Saddam Hussein look like a school boy and considering how he was demonized... Cutting off an opponents wife's feet and a hand and then burning her alive is so far past cruel that I can't believe it really happened. But it did and it wasn't the first time. The week before they burnt a 21 year old pregnant woman to death because her husband dared to stand up to the regime. Harassment by the police is making it difficult for anyone to oppose Mugabe's government, especially if you keep getting arrested for running.

Our lovely Pakistani allies executed a woman they accused of being both a US spy and a prostitute. They say it was the Taliban but after seven years why are there any still around, much less in another country that is supposed to be on our side?

The envy, oh the envy. Other countries get to execute minors and you know the death penalty proponents are jealous. Albeit too soon to use it for the election and won't be considered the least bit hypocritical. If McCain, Kristol, Bush and Cheney have their way, all of Iran will pay for their crimes. As if the crew without a clue needed an excuse to step in and bomb Iran back to the Stone Age. I thought that was what was supposed to happen in Afghanistan, but it got forgotten along with Osama bin Laden. Not enough oil.

Laura Bush is pledging $10.2B for Afghanistan. Was this at the behest of the House of Representatives or has something else been changed in our Constitution without the hassle of being amended? I guess the people of New Orleans should move to Afghanistan if they expect to get any help instead of living under a bridge while supplies get stored in a warehouse at the cost of $1 million a year. And are then given away to states other than Louisiana. Because FEMA didn't think that New Orleans needed any more help. I guess selling one's home at a loss because you can't get back is standard operating procedure. So much for an ownership society. Or a Christian nation.

3Bs

Wednesday Wanderings

I quit reading MoDo almost two years ago. I used to really like her, but her schtick never changes. For years she has hated the Clintons, now she has decided to go after Michelle Obama. A woman I do not like, but in no way does she deserve violence. Real or implied. When I clicked on the link, Mincing up Michelle, I was hoping it was going to be about Malkin. Instead it turned out to be a hatchet job on Michelle Obama. Turns out I wasn't the only one disgusted with the title, or the author. Unlike some other brave souls, I wasn't tempted to read it. She used to be funny, now she's just the wicked witch of the east. Where's Dorothy when you need her? Since MoDo can't resist painful strategies.

When I was married we lived in a tiny town called Reutti, which was a little southeast of Neu-Ulm in Germany. It was really cool. Out our living room window we could see a castle in the distance and in the fourteen months we lived there, there was only one light we could ever see, the rest of the castle was always dark. Across a field was a farm with real animals. So cool. The fact that the grocery store was on the other side never bothered me. It had killer cold cuts, wonderful breads and cheeses and lettuce that never got crisp. Even when frozen. And the Gasthaus made some of the best spaetzle and Jagerschnitzel I've ever had. More people should visit the country.

Of course it is. And at the rate the oil companies are making obscene profits and not having to account for their actions, it will cost over $5 a gallon by the end of the summer, if not more. It already costs me $4.52. But I'm getting a bus pass and will use it as often as possible. Or until the VTA runs out of money.

I feel sorry for gay and lesbian people and not because they have a different sexual preference than mine. It's because they are always being used as pawns instead of as people who deserve the same respect as anyone else on the planet. The only time they get decent notice is just before an election and then once the candidates they support have been elected, they're ignored until the next time they're needed.

Do you know your Walkscore? It lets you know about restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. that are within walking distance of your address. Too bad there are only 7-Elevens and Starbuck's (3!) within walking distance. Fresh vegetables and meat are out of the question, they're nine miles away.

BBB

McCain, Starring Roles He Would Rather Forget

Courtesy of YouTube, more Repubican macaca moments. While I won't vote for Obama, I will never vote for this bigoted, sexist idiot who after all these years in politics, can't tell the difference between Iraq and Iran. Sort of like push and pull, they start with the same letters, maybe that's why he's so confused.



And how does he feel about women's reproductive rights?


And his meal ticket, I mean wife.


BBB