The White Knight?

Many of us, I am sure, have been waiting and hoping for a White Knight to come along and rescue us from the disaster of Bush/Cheney. Wouldn’t it be ironic if our White Knight turned out to be half black? Of course Barack Obama may not turn out to be such a Knight, but at the moment he is basically our only choice and hope. It is certain that neither Clinton or McCain could be such a savior, as both of them are little more than a third term for Bush. Besides, Clinton has proven herself to be just as dishonest and deceptive as Bush, with her lies about NAFTA and her trips abroad. McCain, while an authentic war hero, is basically a fraud as a candidate for the Presidency. He has proven to have the courage of no convictions other than constant war. Now it has been suggested he has “senior moments.” Just what we need in the White House with his finger on the trigger, a hot-head subject to senior moments.

The campaign rhetoric must be trying for a new low of some kind. Now Richardson is Judas and Bill Clinton is Joe McCarthy, according to respective spokespersons. On the one hand I believe it is only fair for Obama to give as well as he gets, but on the other hand I hate to see the campaign degenerate so. James Carville, who referred to Richardson as Judas, is not someone to be taken seriously. After all, he’s married to Mary Matalan who has been Cheney’s flunky for years. How Carville, supposedly a staunch democrat, can be married to a Cheney supporter, defies imagination. Except when you conclude that they are both nothing but simple mercenaries in it for the money and willing and capable to do and say anything for their masters. I guess Washington D.C. is full of such people, a sad commentary on the state of American politics.

The Clinton campaign has now come up with still another creative idea to try to find some way for Hillary to get the nomination. She is behind in delegates, behind in the popular vote, behind in number of states won, and failed to get Michigan and Florida votes. She also failed to sell the idea of only some states should count (the big ones she won). So what now? She thinks the nomination should be based upon the number of electoral votes they have (she has a slight edge)! Nothing transparent about this scam. It will fail, of course, and then we’ll see just how creative she really is because there is little room left for her to attempt something else. Her claim to having more experience than Obama is also rapidly falling apart as more and more it is being revealed that she has grossly exaggerated her experience. When she finally has to concede she’ll just have to stand by and hope McCain wins the Presidency, thus giving her another chance in 2012. She has so discredited herself I doubt she could win even then, although it’s true, Americans have very short memories. Living in the depths of a depression might constantly jog it, however.

It’s bad enough that Hillary belongs to a secret “Fellowship,” along with some of the most conservative people in the country, but now her Pastor has been indicted for child molestation. There has been so much of this in churches lately I’m beginning to believe this is the main reason they exist. There seems to be a virtual epidemic of child molestation and child pornography in this country. What on earth is the matter with us? I don’t know offhand if there is much data available on this cross-culturally, but it would be most interesting to know if it is primarily an American phenomena, or perhaps a Western-European one. I rather doubt that it exists in such an important form elsewhere in the world (I could, of course, be wrong, but I don’t know how to prove it).

LKBIQ:
“The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatic atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.”
Eric Hoffer

It ain't over...?

Caught having sex on the altar,
woman says she wanted a
spiritual and sexual experience

There is an article by Barbara Ehrenreich in the March 31st Nation magazine entitled, “Hillary’s Nasty Pastorate.” If what this article says is true, and I do not see why I should question it, it reveals Hillary Clinton for the Republican she has been hiding inside herself all these years. “Lie down with dogs and you will get fleas.” Hillary must have fleas aplenty. A secret “Fellowship,” attended by some of the most conservative individuals in the country? This makes Obama’s relationship with the Reverend Wright look completely innocent and even wholesome by comparison.

Several more taser deaths lately, including one of a 17 year old (black) boy who apparently committed the sin of being “agitated” and “walking toward an officer,” who tasered him. He later died. There have been at least two more of these laser deaths lately, probably more. How many more little kids, teen-agers, and 90 year old ladies have to die before someone takes the latest toy away from policemen that obviously don’t use them properly? This is simply unacceptable.

Whoever said “it ain’t over ‘til its over,” (Yogi?) didn’t cover all the bases. Here we have an electoral contest which is over and yet, isn’t over. How can that be? Ask Hillary Clinton when she’s going to stop changing the rules and admit that it’s over. Or perhaps for her it ain’t over ‘til she’s destroyed Obama and the democratic party, waiting for 2012. This, too, is simply unacceptable.

Why is Joe Lieberman constantly at the side of John McCain? And Linsay Graham, too, perhaps to a lesser extent? And why, given the unprecedented turnout of democratic voters this year, plus the overwhelming advantage in fundraising, does the MSM keep trying to insist that McCain might actually win the Presidency? Especially when he is proudly running as a continuation of the Bush catastrophe? I guess for the same reason they keep insisting that the race between Hillary and Obama is still a close one, in spite of the fact that Hillary can’t win? We have a very serious problem in this country, it’s called the MSM, and it’s just doing the bidding of the giant corporations that own it.

I have quoted this before but I think it is worthwhile repeating it:
“Capitalism turns men into economic cannibals, and having done so, mistakes economic cannibalism for human nature.” Edward Hyam

I think I am having an attack of “weird.” It’s like I just popped out of the womb, looked around for a moment, and realized I was almost 80 years old. What happened? Here I am in a weird house, on a weird road, in a weird county of a weird state and weird country. I have a weird wife, a weird son, three weird cats. I am surrounded by weird neighbors, weird wild turkeys and weird deer, and doomed to watch the weirdest political contest yet. I’ll go to bed and take refuge in my dreams. I used to think they were weird, but compared with the presumed reality of the moment, I don’t think so any more. Sleep tight all.

LKBIQ:
"One of the most adventurous things left to us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams."
E.V. Lucas

Shame!

Pastor found dead with goat rope
wrapped around neck and feet. Wife
attacked by goat. Goat is executed.

Bill Clinton did something today that I believe was one of the sleaziest, most shameful things I have seen in a very long time. In a talk, or a speech, or whatever it was, he extolled the virtues of John McCain and Hillary. One might well understand why he would speak so highly of Hillary, but why this high praise of McCain? He emphasized that McCain was a war hero, that he had given everything but his life for his country, he was an honorable man, and, more importantly, a patriot. Then he went on speaking about what good friends McCain and Hillary are, and how they both love America, and how wonderful it would be if these two patriotic Americans could face each other in the election because, although they like each other so much, they do have differences about policies, etc. Wouldn’t it be great if they could face each other “without all these other things that get mixed up in elections” (not his precise words but close enough). This is almost as interesting as wondering who is doing his hair these days. But seriously, what is this all about?

First, one might well wonder why he is praising McCain so highly in the context of a Presidential race. Why would a democrat praise a republican opponent so highly? Even if what he says about McCain is all true, what is the point of building him up so highly if he is potentially an opponent? This would seem to be a violation of the most basic rules of campaigning. And why is he emphasizing what good friends Hillary and McCain are? What benefits accrue to Hillary because she and McCain are friends? And why the emphasis on how they are both patriots and love America?

This only makes sense in the context of his ignoring Barack Obama entirely, the implication being obviously that Obama is (perhaps) not patriotic, and (perhaps) does not love America, and even more implicitly, perhaps this is because he agrees with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright who (perhaps) doesn’t love America because of his sermon in which he said “God damn America,” and etc. And what are “all these other things,” that get mixed up in elections? In this context I can only take this to mean that uppity black man, Barack Obama, who is mixed up in this election. That is, standing between Hillary and Bill’s third term. Of course it also refers to racism which has (mysteriously?) become “mixed up” as well. This is most interesting. The black vote used to belong to the Clintons. But now they have almost completely lost it to Obama. So now that it no longer matters to them they can play the race card at will, throwing the blacks under the bus, and going straight for the white votes (little old white ladies and the (presumably prejudiced) white working class vote.

Hillary should have been finished some time ago. The only reason she is not is because the media want us to believe the contest is still a contest, which realistically, it is not. Hillary has virtually no chance to win, but with the media pretending it’s still a race they sell papers and ads and Hillary keeps pretending. She and Bill are so desperate they are willing to do and say anything, even though this is causing more and more thoughtful voters to detest them. I guess now that they have become so rich they no longer care. Even Bill Richardson, who owes most of his career to Bill Clinton, has now endorsed Obama and suggested that Hillary should concede. If Pelosi, Gore, Edwards, and others would join in, it would probably be over. Will they, or won’t they?

LKBIQ:
“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”
Albert Einstein

Can Obama win?

I know it must sound strange to ask if Obama can win when he is ahead in delegates, the popular vote, and number of states won. And I know it is mathematically and realistically virtually impossible for Hillary to win. But Hillary doesn’t have the decency to concede and seems willing to sacrifice everything, including the democratic party, for her blind ambition (or the corporate masters). It would be one thing if it were merely Hillary, but the problem is, it isn’t just Hillary. Her campaign, McCain’s campaign, and more importantly, the MSM are all embarked on a super campaign to destroy Obama. The main way they plan to do this is by focusing incessantly on the race (and to a certain extent the religious) card. This is why they are playing sermons by the Reverend Wright over and over and over, because they believe that will turn off lots of white voters. And they might be right. Racism, as Obama pointed out in his marvelous speech, is still a problem in the U.S. Hillary, when asked if she was playing the Wright card, merely shrugged and went on to the next question. The MSM won’t let the issue die. And McCain, of course, wastes no opportunity to join the fray and criticize Obama. So even though he is ahead in the race at the moment, and even though it is virtually impossible for Hillary to overtake him, with the support of the MSM and McCain she might actually do so. To my way of thinking, such as it is, this seems ultimately self-defeating. It will turn off so many voters, especially blacks, but also young people and progressive everywhere, she will not be able to govern successfully even if she should somehow win. Fifty percent or more of the American public will despise her (as I have come to do). McCain may be Bush heavy, but Hillary is clearly Bush lite (at least), and with either of them in the Presidency you can kiss any meaningful change goodbye. According to the latest Gallup poll, nationally Hillary has recaptured the lead from Obama. You see, racism and negative campaigning works (at least in the short run). It’s like all the schoolyard bullies have come together to pick on the one lone black kid on the playground. He may win, and should win, but the odds are beginning to look tougher and tougher. Thee is one relatively easy way he could prevail, if the MSM would reveal more about Hillary's membership in the "Fellowship," and if they would play Falwell, Robertson, and Magee sermons over and over. But they won't do that, will they? Let’s show the world, once and for all, that we can overcome racism in our country. VOTE FOR OBAMA AND BE PROUD!

I confess that I continue to be totally confused and bewildered by human behavior. I know that members of the human species have moved into, and successfully live in, just about every conceivable environment on the planet, from the Arctic to the deserts, to the tropical forests, at almost every altitude and climate, and so on. Marvelous adaptations, extremely clever solutions to living, brilliant discoveries, the invention of fire, the bow and arrow, harpoon, and poison arrows, to say nothing of firearms and now even nuclear bombs. BUT WE STILL CANNOT STOP KILLING AND TORTURING AND STEALING. What is our problem? It’s a small planet. We all have to live on it together. Instead of spending all our time working on new and creative ways to destroy each other, why don’t we work on ways to live together in cooperation and peace? We now have unmanned drones we send out to kill people. We may soon have robots that can patrol the streets and engage in combat (if we don’t already have something like that). We can have unmanned tanks and computer driven cannons, and everything controlled by technology. Just think, if our “enemies” can keep up technologically, we may eventually get rid of Rambo and replace him with the war of the nerds against the geeks. The 97 pounders against the couch potatoes. But what fun would be gained from torturing robots (I bet we’ll find a way)? It is all far too much for my feeble brain to even imagine. Maybe, just for starters, we can get the hell out of Iraq and reconsider what we are doing? Naw, that would be sensible, and there is seemingly no room for sensibility in the “modern” world. Cheers.

LKBIQ:
“The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
G. K. Chesterton

What is "it?"

I know I have commented on this subject before. But as I have yet to get an answer from anyone, I would like to ask again, what is the “it?”

President pea-brain said today, on the fifth anniversary of the “war” in Iraq, that although it has been expensive it has been worth it. Madeleine Albright, when asked about the half million Iraq children killed through the sanctions, replied, it has been worth it. So what is the it, that has been worth the deaths and destruction that Bush/Cheney and others have inflicted upon humanity in the last few years? It must be exceedingly important and valuable and I truly would like to know what it is. It surely doesn’t refer to peace in the Middle East. And it wouldn’t seem to mean democracy in the Middle East either. It also pretty clearly doesn’t mean the terrorists have been defeated. It can’t mean Osama bin Laden has been captured, nor does it mean that the people of Iraq are better off now than they were. It doesn’t seem to mean that Iran has been weakened or neutralized and Israel has not yet managed to completely destroy the Palestinians. As Iraq’s electricity and water have not been restored, nor has its basic industries or manufacturing benefited so that can’t be it. No one could possibly believe that it could be the surge as the surge is just a recent failure. So…unless it refers to the price of a barrel of oil now being $110, I still can’t fathom what it is. Does anyone know? I suspect if anyone but Bush had claimed it has been a success they would have immediately been carted off to the loony bin. Bush seems to be exempt from having to display common sense, intelligence, truthfulness, or, indeed, any basic human qualities at all. The worse things get, the more deaths that occur, the longer the mayhem continues, the more he smiles and dances and clowns around. Thanks to our inept and cowardly Congress the act continues. Perhaps someday someone, somehow, will be able to explain this.

“So?” If you didn’t hear it, that’s what Dick the Slimy said upon being informed that two thirds of the American public think the “war” hasn’t been worth it. He went on to explain that one (I guess he meant the administration) can’t just go with the winds of public opinion. I don’t know what winds he has in mind as the winds have been opposed to this stupid, illegal, immoral, and unnecessary “war” from the very beginning. They may have risen a bit lately but the direction has been consistent all along. This evil man has made it repeatedly clear that he doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks besides himself. And he’s been wrong about everything from the beginning. Really, truly, wrong, not wrong just a little bit. But again, thanks to our cowardly and inept Congress he is allowed to continue his evil ways with no interference. Never, I think, in the history of our country, has an individual been more deserving of impeachment (and arrest) than this miserable excuse for a human being. He makes Spiro Agnew look like an innocent cub scout but even he eventually had to go. Will anyone ever explain this?

A couple of pieces surfaced on the web today that deal with the question of white preachers and Hillary’s religious doings. There is no doubt that if the truth comes out about the sermons being preached by these evangelical far-right so-called religious leaders, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. will look quite sane by comparison (see Cent Uygur’ piece on Smirking Chimp). Let’s hope this investigation and comparison will continue. Hillary’s case is even more interesting as it turns out she belongs to an extremely conservative and secretive “Fellowship, also known as the “Family.” It has been suggested this is far more cult-like than most other religious organizations, and certainly more cult-like than anything about Obama’s followers (see Barbara Ehrenreich’s bit on Buzzflash today). There is supposed to be a book coming out on this later this summer. I think the Clinton campaign and others who are trying to make something of the Obama/Wright connection are going to soon regret it (unless for some reason these stories mysteriously disappear).

LKBIQ:
“I will not take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth.”
Carl Sandburg

Obama throws down the gauntlet

In Saudi Arabia, where
burkas reign, there are
beauty contests for camels.

Obama gave a fine speech, lacking some of his best oratorical flourishes, and getting to the point: are we going to try to deal honestly with the issue of race this time or are we going to just keep the crippling divisiveness going. It was a rare honest speech, pulling no punches, making no apologies, speaking to us as adults rather than naïve bumpkins that will believe anyting we’re told. He didn’t throw his friend and mentor, the Reverend Wright “under the bus,” but, rather, explained their respective histories and why they felt the way they did. It was dignified, thoughtful, and to the point. I doubt it will make any difference whatsoever to the racists who are out to torpedo his campaign, but they wouldn’t support him in any case. In lieu of just playing the Wright sermons over and over again I suggest the media also play the Falwell, Robertson and Magee speeches over and over again, along with some of the other evangelical nutcases that make Wright look like a thoughtful gentleman.

Of course what is playing out in democratic politics transcends race and gender and has to do with the battle between the forces of the DLC and the DNC. Or, put differently, the battle between the Brafia wing of the democratic party and the more progressive, grass-roots wing. The DLC, as you probably know, is the Clinton big money wing, while the DNC is the Dean wing with his 50 state strategy and more citizen financed wing. With over a million contributors to Obama it seems to be working pretty well. He is, after all, ahead in delegates, the popular vote, and the number of states won. Hillary can only bring him down by trying to destroy both him and the democratic party. She seems increasingly willing to do just that. If she should succeed in this she will have the Presidency but lose her soul, along with the support of more than half of the country. Unfortunately, she will have demonstrated, once again, that blacks belong in the back of the bus. I would be all for a woman as President, but Hillary has proven to be the wrong woman.

Both McCain and Cheney are in Iraq. McCain seems to have only a dim understanding of what is happening and has to have his buddy, Lieberman, whisper what’s what into his ear. Lindsey Graham is tagging along at his heels as usual. Graham for VP, heaven forbid! Cheney continues to speak about Iraq as if he might be on the moon. He claims the invasion has been a resounding success, the surge has worked, and things are just fine. Then, as an afterthought(?)he suggested they should pass an oil bill that would allow the international oil giants to come in and develop the oil fields (let the foxes into the henhouse). I don’t think Cheney is even aware of anything that is going on in the world unless it has to do with oil. I guess greed is unbounded.

I don’t know what Obama might do if he becomes President. But I’m pretty certain he will do something to change the direction of the country, unify us, and put our train back on track. I believe his coattails will help elect democrats to Congress. I do not believe anything much would change should Hillary become Pesident, except whatever changes the corporate power structure will allow her, probably mostly some form of universal health care that will reduce costs for businesses and continue to help the insurance and pharmaceutical companies maintain their ongoing scams.

LKBIQ:
“Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.”
Sir Winston Churchill

Incendiary language

Try as I might I cannot find anything much Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. said that I regard as untrue. And whether it is incendiary or not depends, I guess, on the position of the hearer. The one thing he apparently said that I find completely unacceptable is that the U.S. Government created AIDS to kill black people. If he indeed said this I find it not only unacceptable but downright wacky. Other than that I find that I am pretty much in agreement with his assessment of how things are in America. I suppose he didn’t have to say God damn America, but he could hardly say God bless America, could he? I mean, after all, we did impose sanctions on Iraq that killed an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children (Madeleine Albright claimed it was worth it). We did then launch an illegal and immoral pre-emptive “war” against a country that was no threat to us, an act that has resulted in perhaps as many as a million Iraqi deaths, mostly innocents, the deaths of almost 4000 of our finest young people and the maiming of thousands more, the displacement of up to four million Iraqis from their homes and country, the infliction of misery so immense that it cannot even be imagined, and torture and other war crimes galore. We are supposed to just sit back glowingly when we hear some dimwitted ghoulish politician regurgitate God bless America at every opportunity? Sorry. I find this totally unacceptable to say nothing of patently absurd. We are the killingest nation on earth at the moment, hands down. We do sell more military hardware for that purpose than any other nation on earth. We meddle in the affairs of everyone else as though we have some god-given right to manage the affairs of the world as only we see fit. The words of Reverend Wright are only incendiary because we do not want to hear them and have to acknowledge what we have become. We do have more black men in jail than in college. We are a racist country and always have been, as we are proving right now at this moment. We have condoned Israeli racism and quasi-genocide for the past forty or so years. We support dictators around the world as long as they do our bidding. We loot the planet of its resources and waste them as if there is no tomorrow (and one day soon there may well be no tomorrow). The Reverend is not saying anything that has not been said by social critics in books and articles for years, books and articles that are not widely read by members of the Brafia. The only reason Reverend Wright has become an issue is because they want to use race as an issue to bring down Obama, an instance of racism so blatant as to be laughable if it were not so important. You can thank Bill and Hillary for leading the way in this totally unprincipled attack on a good man who happens to be part black and therefore partly handicapped in his ability to strike back. Why Hillary thinks that making more people despise her is the road to the Presidency is a mystery I cannot fathom. Once when I was being put into an administrative position I did not want I asked a very wise old Hungarian man with lots of administrative experience what I could do. He said, among othr things, “you can do anything you want until someone tells you to stop.” Where are those who can tell Hillary to stop? Why are they not so telling her, as there is virtually no way she can win, and no way she could govern now even if she did win. When I first heard that she might prefer a one-time Republican President over a potentially younger Democratic one, so she could run again in 2012, I didn’t believe it. I think I believe it now. Where are wise men and women when you really need them?

Hillary has become so desperate she is now grabbing at straws. Her criticism of Obama because he said he would withdraw the troops within 16 months, and one of his advisors said he would obviously have to wait to see what was happening, somehow proves that he can’t be trusted. So he is supposed to do something that Hillary herself wouldn’t do. This kind of argument is so ridiculous it shouldn’t even be permitted. But when you don’t have much else to offer I guess you just scratch the bottom of the ludicrous barrel. For god’s sake Hillary, give it up before you end up burned at the stake.

LKBIQ:
“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”
Voltaire

We're hitting rock bottom

I didn’t blog last two nights because the first night we were on the way to Seattle. Last night I started to write but because of a technical problem I couldn’t save it.
Anyway, small loss. I also have had little chance to see much news. What I did see has been hilarious. The campaigns for the single most important job on earth have now been reduced to endless discussions of whose preacher is the wackiest. Can it get any more pathetic? The MSM seem to have decided that Obama is the one who should receive the most attention and they grilled him over and over and forced him to say he repudiated his minister’s words. I don’t know what all it is that the Reverend said, but from what they kept featuring on the news didn’t strike me as all that bad: Hillary is not a little black boy (true), raised by a single mother (true), who got ignored by cab drivers because she was black (true), and who lived in a culture controlled by rich white people (also true). Apparently he also said at one time that the U.S. has always been a racist society and likes racism better than religion (arguably true). Somewhere I heard that he also said that we (the U.S.) had unconscionably attacked another country and were killing innocent women and children (true), and so on. At some point he once said that cruse ships throw away more food in a day than people in Port-a-Prince see in a month (this, too, is probably true). Frankly, I can't honestly take exception to most of what he says. I think I heard someone claim that he said we (whites, I guess) created aids to kill black people (I didn't hear this so have no idea if he said it or not. I guess he could have). If he indeed said that, then I believe he is just as wacky as the rest of the religious nuts we have in this country. And if the problem is he is mixing politics and religion, so be it. Fallwell, Robertson, and the rest of the evangelicals have been doing it for years. None of these churches should be getting tax breaks of any kind, especially now that there is not even a pretense of being apolitical. Of course if you are a candidate for office in the U.S. you have to go to some church or other and pretend to be a believer because otherwise you couldn’t even be considered for office (there are just far too many nutcases in the U.S.). Obama claims he never heard any bad stuff in the sermons he heard. This seems to me unlikely, but obviously he can’t agree to the truth about the U.S. because “we can’t stand the truth.” What would you expect to hear in a black church? How wonderful things have been and are for blacks? It would be interesting to know what kind of crap Hillary’s minister dishes out every Sunday. It would also be interesting to see her tax returns. Does McCain even go to church? And how is it we don’t hear as much about Magee who seems to be even worse than Wright. Oh well, fussing about religious nuts will keep us occupied for a time. And thanks for the tornado in Atlanta, that will keep us from having to hear anymore about Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel and the Palestinians, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Darfur, etc., the recession, and truth and justice in general. And we are not in a recession, Bush said so. The surge has worked and the economy is strong. God is in his heavens and all is well, except that George W. Bush is a borderline retarded lunatic. But what the hell, he’s only the President doing the bidding of Rasputin and the corporations that control the world (and will soon have managed to corral all the money there is). So in a word, kwitzyerdambellyachin.

Seattle. The skies are overcast and it has been raining off and on for the past two days. We had lunch at Emmit’s Oyster Bar, an ancient restaurant across from the Pike Place Market created long ago by Emmit Watson who was a local Seattle columnist of some note, when I lived here years ago. It is very different now. Far more people, more traffic, more sirens, more confusion, and, alas, more inflation. Gasoline in particular is more expensive here than even in Bonners Ferry. The food available in the restaurants and markets is outstanding but will soon be too expensive for we mere mortals. But it remains beautiful, green and lush thanks to the rain. The camellias are just beginning to bloom, pansies and other flowers are everywhere. It used to be a great place to live. Now it’s a great place to visit.

This business with Obama and his church is about as slick a job of roviating as there is. First they emphasize that Obama is black and might have a problem through the idiotic racist comments of Ferraro. Now they drag in Obama's black church and some of his sermons. Black churches clearly are not altogether similar with white churches and obviously the messages are going to be different, and clearly perceived by whites as different. These differences are obviously fertile ground for more racism. Now that the race card is being played big time it obvioulsy is not going away. And Obama is obviously not in a position to attack the first white woman to have a chance to be President. It's a classic case of racism, "hit the black, he can't, or doesn't dare, hit back." It's like the whole history of the black experience being replayed in the 21st century. This is sad beyond belief. It is exactly what the Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been talking about in his sermons. Will we ever see the day when a black person successfully takes anything away from a white? I thought we might up until now, but Hillary's commitment to racism and divisiveness threatens to keep us mired in the deep south forever. Will she ever drink out of the same fountain?

LKBIQ:
“A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.”
Benjamin Disraeli

Hillary, it's over. You've lost.

There is no “battle for the nomination” that the MSM keep touting. The battle is over. Clinton lost. According to the math of the situation Obama is ahead and, barring some divine intervention, is going to stay ahead. Therefore, Clinton has lost. She cannot possible win enough delegates and winning the popular vote is such a long-shot as to hardly be worth bothering about. The only way Clinton can win now is through some form of trickery or illegality. But were she to win this way she would still lose. She started out with half the country disliking her (I don’t want to say “hating” her), and the way she has decided to run her campaign means that many more people are going to dislike her. Blacks, especially, will be outraged, but so will many of the current Obama supporters, whether black or not. It is almost certainly the case that if she became President under such cloudy circumstances, she would not be able to control the Congress and would, in effect, be pretty useless as President. The Clinton campaign has managed to raise the race card, big time, and it now will not go away, no matter what happens with ditzy Geraldine. It appears that even in Ohio much of her success was due to her bald-faced lying about her support or non-support of NAFTA. She didn’t really win Texas as Obama ended up with more delegates. Even if she somehow gets Michigan and Florida to re-vote she can’t possibly gain enough delegates. She wants the Michigan and Florida delegates seated as is, which is so blatantly unfair that it is not going to happen. If they re-vote, Obama is not going to lose out on all the delegates. Even if she wins three or four of the remaining states, she still cannot win. In short, it’s over. All she can do now is try to ruin Obama and may do so at the expense of the democratic party. Face up to it, Hillary, you have fouled your own nest, and you’re going down. You will not be President, and even if you were, you would have little or no support from an overwhelming portion of the American public. Give it up. You’re being beaten fair and square (if you have any conception of fair and square). Why wait until you have to produce your tax records, that will just make things worse. Tell Geraldine you love her, but thanks and no thanks. Tell Penn to get lost. Tell Bill you’re sorry he won’t have a third term. And now that you and Bill have become rich maybe you should come out of the closet and admit to being members of the Brafia. Take a long vacation with the Bush’s.

The Pentagon has decided not to release the latest report, based upon an analysis of 600,000 documents, that demonstrates basically what we already knew – there was no connection between Sadam Hussein and the terrorists. Of course we already know now about the report. So what else is in there so embarrassing you don’t want us to know? I guess American citizens, who are paying for your unbelievable excesses, have no right to know. And go ahead, ask Congress for another few hundred billion for your buddies in the defense industries. They’ll give it to you. Birds of a feather…

No impeachment, no impeachment, no impeachment. That’s fine. Let’s just wait until they’re out of office and arrest them for war crimes. What? No arrests? Why not? Have you not even any vestiges of sanity and decency left? Well, at least the nightmare years may be coming to an end. If we can just keep them from attacking Iran for completely made-up reasons perhaps we can survive until 2009.

LKBIQ:
“No society ever seems to have succumbed to boredom. Man has developed an obvious capacity for surviving the pompous reiteration of the commonplace.”
John Kenneth Galbraith

Okay Geraldine

Eighth grader buys Skittles,
draws detention, and loses
his class presidency.

Okay, Geraldine, I’ve seen your letter of resignation to Clinton, and I’ve also seen at least part of your interview in which you continue to suggest that what you said about Obama was true, and claim to not be a racist. If what you said was true, that Obama is only where he is because he’s black, that assumes (or certainly implies) that he has no other credentials, that he has no past accomplishments that are worthy of consideration, that he is there simply as a result of affirmative action, a token Presidential candidate. Even a cursory view of his record at Harvard and Law School, to say nothing of his public service, should make it eminently clear that he is not just some run-of-the-mill black guy who lucked out because of affirmative action. Thus, if I wish to accept your claim to not being a racist, I have to conclude that you are simply stupid. So take your pick, racist or stupid? As you have at least a 20 year history of racist remarks (remember Jesse Jackson), I am forced to conclude that you indeed harbor racist sentiments and express them in public which makes you in any ordinary definition of the term, a racist. That you persist in this behavior, seemingly unaware of how divisive and derogatory it is, makes me conclude that you must also be stupid. As Hillary refused to fire you, or even seriously rebuke you, I conclude that she, too, is either (a) a racist, (b) stupid, or (c) ambitious to the point of blindness. Perhaps it is all three. To claim, as some are doing, that it is just too difficult to decide between a woman and a black man, is a cop-out. Vote for the best candidate, never mind their gender or color.

I must concede, however, that this race and gender business is complicated and sensitive. As it is built in to our language and culture it makes it difficult to sort it out. For example, this morning in our local newspaper one of the headlines read: “Blacks Propel Obama to Victory in Mississippi.” While I suppose it is possible I find it highly unlikely that we would see a headline that says: “Whites Propel Hillary to Victory in Kalamazoo.” Am I being overly sensitive? How about when someone says, “he only won in Mississippi because of the black vote.” He “only” won somehow implies that the black vote is inferior in some way. Would we see a headline that said, “she only won because of the votes of women over 65”? I suppose we might possibly see a headline that reads: “she only won because of Hispanics.” But it seems to me that would put down the Hispanic vote in the same way as the Black vote. What about describing a black candidate as “clean and articulate?” Would you expect to see a white candidate described in those terms? I don’t think so. Now obviously this is not as bad as “nappy headed ho’s,” or “see macaca over there,” and such, but it is discriminatory all the same. This race business is tricky.

Gender is just as tricky, maybe worse. “She was wearing a tasteful beige pants suit with a lovely and colorful silk scarf.” Would you ever see, “Bush appeared in another fine $2000 dollar suit with handmade $1000 shoes? How about “she has the look of a castrating female?” Or related, “When I see her I just unconsciously cross my legs.” How about, “she’s as tough as a man.” You would certainly never see, “he’s as tough as a woman,” now would you? How about her cackle? You ever hear about a man’s cackle? Then there is cleavage to worry about, not really a problem for men. Then there’s, “she’s really bitchy today, must be her period.” We already know, of course, that women are too emotional, they tend to lack the ability to reason, and etc., etc., etc. Consider what men were writing about women in the not too distant past:

“…All psychologists who have studied the intelligence of women, as well as poets and novelists, recognize today that they represent the most inferior forms of human evolution and that they are closer to children and savages than to an adult, civilized man. They excel in fickleness, inconstancy, absence of thought and logic, and incapacity to reason. Without doubt there exist some distinguished women, very superior to the average man, but they are as exceptional as the birth of any monstrosity, as for example, of a gorilla with two heads; consequently we may neglect them entirely: (Gustav LeBon, quoted in Langness, 2005:54).

Darwin, himself:
“It is generally admitted that with women the power of intuition, of rapid perception, and perhaps of imitation, are more strongly marked than in man; but some, at least, of these faculties are characteristic of the lower races and therefore of a past and lower state of civilization.” (quoted in Langness, 2005:55).

You see, we’ve come a long way, baby, or have we?

LKBIQ:
“We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.”
H.L. Mencken

Geraldine is right

Fourteen year old drunken driver,
sans license, crashes van with
mother passed out in front seat.

Geraldine Ferraro is absolutely right about Obama. He would not be where he is if he were not black. HE WOULD BE THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT ALREADY!!! Does anyone believe that a white candidate who had won 14 elections out of 17, who was ahead in delegates, ahead in states won, and ahead in the overall popular vote, would not by now be picked as the candidate? If so, you must be living in the same fantasyland as George W. Bush, Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol, and Hillary Clinton. Clinton looks to me like she is becoming a combination of Captains Queeg and Ahab. She is slowly deteriorating before our eyes, slipping farther and farther into delusions of impossible grandeur. In her desperation she has stopped even pretending she will not stoop to the race card. Unless she repudiates Ferraro she is admitting it. I fear my admiration for her in the past has now been destroyed forever. It’s true, she’ll do and say anything to get elected, even when her chances now are less than zilch. Oh, and by the way Geraldine, “they’re” not after you because you’re white (whoever “they” are). They’re after you because you’re a stupid, white, female racist with a big mouth, apparently still living in the past. Obama won Mississippi handily largely on the strength of the black vote. I fully expect Hillary to now claim that black votes aren’t as important as white votes, just like small states aren’t as important as big states, and caucus votes aren’t as important as primary votes, and no one or party is as important as Queen Hillary.

One thing that I find upsetting, although I suppose it was predictable, is the limited number of white votes Obama received in Mississippi. He has done pretty well up to now with getting a good share of the white vote, so why not in Mississippi? Why not indeed? I fear it tells us something about racial attitudes in Mississippi that, shall we say, are not exactly the same as they are in, say, Wyoming and Idaho and other states as well. Jim Crow seems to be alive and well in Mississippi. I doubt this will keep Obama from eventually being elected President, but it certainly doesn’t help.

Admiral William Fallon, the head of the Middle East Command, has suddenly resigned. He says it was not because he opposed a war with Iran, contrary to Bush’s wishes. I guess he just wants to spend more time with his family?

Baying at the moon: The U.N. and the U.S. have told Israel to stop further illegal construction in the West Bank. They will continue. Did you expect anything different? I don’t like Ralph Nader very well. And I don’t want him to run for President again. But he is completely right about the terrible tragedy being played out in Gaza. What the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians in Gaza is absolutely unconscionable. No one seems to care, at least not enough to do anything about it. Israel is exempt from human decency?

Two astronomers have calculated that the earth will destruct in 7.59 billion years. Fair enough. But did they have to add that this should be an incentive for people to do something about leaving our planet? Nothing like planning ahead, I always say.

There has apparently been a rumor going around that Larry Grant did not knock on doors during his last campaign. People who know nothing should keep their mouths shut. Read the facts on Red State Rebels. And vote for Grant!

LKBIQ:
“Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.” (In some cases this was literally true!)
Samuel Butler

Advice for Obama

Celebrates his 43rd birthday with two
armed robberies in 45 minutes. Leaves
Checks and money on the street.

Dear Barack, let an older man offer you some advice because I fear you do not fully understand what you are up against. Do not try to argue or respond to any of the illogical, unreasonable, half-truths that are being put out about you by Hillary Clinton. Her arrogant and absurd offer of the Vice-Presidency when you are actually ahead in delegates and votes, for example. Or her equally absurd claim that only she can answer the phone at 3:00 a.m. Or her pretense that the contest is basically equal, or that caucus delegates are different, or that she isn’t sure you’re not a Muslim, and so on. The specifics of what she is saying are not the problem. The very essence of her strategy lies in the unreason and illogic itself. Put in its simplest form, she is trying to drive you crazy. She is going to repeat her illogical sayings over and over, and the more you try to argue with her, or employ any form of logic or reason, the more she will continue to do the same. She will use her illogic as a cudgel to beat you into submission. You will ultimately become so frustrated by trying to argue with her or explain anything logically you will eventually give up. The strategy is not to convince anyone you are unworthy of being President (she knows better than that), or that you might become her Vice-President (she knows better than that), or that you might be a Muslim (she knows better than that), the strategy lies in the persistent use of the illogic and unreason itself, thus provoking you into useless attempts to show that you are not any of those things until, out of sheer desperation and frustration, you will eventually succumb This is what people mean when they say you cannot argue with him/her because they do not respond to any form of reason or logic. Your best bet, by far, is to simply ignore her absurd statements and go on the attack. Why is she claiming experience she doesn’t have? Where are the tax returns? What did she really have to do with peace in North Ireland? Why can’t she play by the rules? What has she said to European governments? Don’t allow her to drive you slowly insane because you cannot argue with her. It is completely pointless. There is method in her madness and she knows perfectly well what it is. I fear you do not. I sincerely hope you will consider this advice from someone who has had a lifetime of dealing with just this kind of controlling strategy. Good luck and best wishes. You’re the man!

Hillary claims to be a fighter. She’s not. She’s a sneak. She’s like the rat that gnaws and gnaws at the door until eventually it creates a hole. She goes at it a little bit at a time but is relentlessly persistent. If one thing doesn’t work she tries another. Her latest ploy is to claim that caucus delegates are different from pledged delegates. There is a grain of truth in this but it’s not going to fly. Then there is her claim that some states are more equal than others. Then there are her expressed doubts about Obama’s experience (that is actually greater than hers), her fantasy that she alone can be Commander-in-Chief. Then her apparent dream that the superdelegates are going to eventually pick her even though Obama has the most votes. And on and on. It’s true, she never gives up. Too bad for the democratic party. She should.

Having driven the Palestinians into a dungeon-like existence where they can be picked off at leisure, and having recently murdered another hundred or so, including the usual women and children, and having Rice browbeat Abbas into agreeing to continue negotiating anyway, Olmert has responded by announcing the construction of more illegal housing in the West Bank. Now there is a commitment to peace! Olmert, you better watch out, you may give Israelis a bad name. Not that anyone in the West seems to be paying attention.

I was going to consider whether Jonah Goldberg had a brain or not. But I decided that was too easy and the answer too obvious. It’s a waste of time reporting on the obvious. Then I thought about Dick the Slimy. We haven’t heard much from him lately. But then I decided it was better to let sleeping dogs lie. He might come out from under his rock snarling and bite someone. So let me comment briefly on the Governor of New York. I am not upset over the fact that men solicit prostitutes as I know it happens all the time. But what I can’t stand is idiocy joined with hypocrisy. Spitzer was supposed to be this holier-than-thou Prosecutor with morals superior to those of the Pope. So not only has he proven to be a hypocrite, he has also proven to be unutterably stupid. He made these “dates” using his cell phone and left a trail of evidence so obvious that a child would seemingly have known better. And he also violated the Mann Act, a federal crime of some seriousness. He may or may not have had anything to do with money laundering or organized crime. This strikes me as somewhat similar to masturbating in the closet while standing on a chair with a noose around your neck (someone actually did this). Alas, poor Elliot, we didn’t know you well enough. Goodbye you idiotic hypocrite that could have accomplished so much. Maybe you and Giuliani together can start a school for fools and hypocrites, you could train people going on to Washington D.C.

LKBIQ:
“Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Hillary the slick

Woman’s body found in dry ice, along
with porch swings, toy night goggles,
and large sake bottles w/ lamp sockets.

Well, the war and torture party just keeps on going and going. Bush has now vetoed the bill that would have done away with waterboarding and such. He says the needs of he CIA are different from those of the army, marines, etc. I bet they are, and in ways that decent people should probably not want to know. It’s not very comforting to know that our country is being controlled by ghouls who obviously have no respect for human life or dignity whatsoever. As this veto is said to be safe from Congressional action that means that as usual the Brafia is behind Bush all the way. Bush and the Brafia cling to their mad desire to torture even though the experts say it doesn’t work. I find this depressing beyond belief.

It appears that Slick Willie has schooled his spouse very well when it comes to slickness. Hillary manages to convert everything into suspicion of Obama. Witness her “not as far as I know” comment on whether or not he is a Muslim. Then when she was commenting on being called a monster she responded with “I’d like to know what they are telling other countries…” Having said that she doesn’t think Obama is Presidential material she now suggests he might be Vice-President (on her ticket). This is not only the height of arrogance but also blatantly disingenious, implying that voters can vote for her but still have Obama. So desperate has she become she is also trying to tell us that even McCain would be better than Obama. And when her own campaign became shameful she demanded Obama should be ashamed. Being behind in the race she pretends she’s ahead. Not only that, she has now told us which states are important and which are not. And of course she and Bill are masters of lowering expectations. Is she taking roviating lessons from Karl Rove in addition to those from Bill? In any case, she doesn’t miss a trick. Queen Hillary the slick. She’s rapidly approaching the almost mythological stature of Dick the Slimy himself.

Hillary is supposed to win Pennsylvania easily. I’m not so sure. If she keeps on the way she’s going with her negative campaigning she may be digging herself into a hole too deep to escape from. Of course when she isn’t obfuscating and confusing event herself her supporters do it for her. Pat Buchanan, for example, keeps insisting she won Texas. Obama received more delegates, so how does Buchanan get off repeating incessantly that she won Texas? Reality and truth are concepts totally foreign to the Brafia, a vicious criminal conspiracy. I truly fear for Obama. Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage, Kristol, and the rest of the ultra-conservative nuts will goad one of their dim-witted listeners into doing something desperate. What they do, and get away with day after day, is far worse than merely yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre. Hatemongers, pure and simple. What is worse, they have an audience. The average I.Q. is 100. That means that half of the population have I.Q.’s of less than that. They are the supporters of this band of talk-show lunatic fanatics. Why can nothing be done about stopping the senseless slaughter in Iraq? The Brafia won’t allow it. Why are no no impeachment hearings? The Brafia won’t allow it. Why does Hillary keep running even though she cannot legally win? The Brafia has their ways. Al Capone was just tiny, tiny potatoes, compared to these guys.

LKBIQ:
“Military justice is to justice what military music is to music”
Groucho Marx

What is the problem?

French kissing a child under 13
In Virginia not a felony, merely
makes you a sex offender.

First, to anonymous: Of course anyone who wishes to run for office in Idaho should be allowed to do so. And no, no one is “entitled” to any office. But being a simple soul, I wonder why Walt Minnick didn’t run for Congress in the last election? He is independently wealthy and could have done so. Now I wonder why he picked district one in which to run, as in Idaho we don’t have many good democratic candidates, and he could just as easily run in district two where there would be no competition. I think his explanation that he’s building a house in district one is rather feeble. So it seems to me, he is either just a rich guy who recently decided he needed a new toy (a seat in Congress), or there is some other reason he decided to run against Grant at this particular time. I cannot help but wonder just what that reason is. And I do not believe it was a decision made by Minnick independently of the boys of Boise. The idea that Minnick can beat Sali and Grant cannot strikes me as equally feeble. So welcome to Idaho, and stop pretending.

As above, I realize that I am a rather simple person, from a simple background, living in a simple small town, in a pretty simple state, in a simply remote part of the mainland U.S. I admit to not being as sophisticated as my urban cousins. So kindly explain to me what the problem is. We have two people running for the democratic nomination for the highest office in the land (probably the highest office on earth). One of them is ahead in the number of delegates, is also ahead in the popular vote (I believe), has won the most states, and, if things play out pretty much as predicted, is going to stay in the lead with the most delegates no matter what else happens. He has just won in Wyoming and is predicted to win in Mississippi as well. So, even if he loses most or all of the remaining states, including Pennsylvania, and gets no further delegates (highly unlikely if not impossible), and even if Florida and Michigan somehow get to change the rules and get back into the picture, he is still going to be ahead in delegates, if not also in the popular vote. So what is the problem? He wins, his opponent loses. But, ah, I guess what is happening is the same thing that I encountered on my kindergarten playground, and has plagued us forever. There are, unfortunately, those individuals who simply refuse to play by the rules. There appears to be no way Clinton can possibly end up with more delegates. At best she can keep Obama from having a sufficient number to win outright. The solution to this problem would presumably be found in the special delegates who could decide who wins. Many believe they should simply go along with who has the most regular delegates in which case Obama would clearly win. If they decided against the one with the most delegates, who won fair and square, there would be a majority of very outraged voters. This strikes me as most interesting. If the win is given to Obama, on the basis of having won the most delegates (and perhaps the popular vote as well), the Clinton supporters would have a right to be disappointed, but at least they would have lost fair and square. If, on the other hand, the win is awarded to Clinton, she will have won only through foul play and trickery, in which case the Obama supporters will not only be disappointed, but outraged (and rightly so). So I ask again, what is the problem? To the winner goes the spoils. Since when would they go to the loser? Color me simple minded if you will. I still believe in truth and beauty and justice. In the meanwhile Clinton seems determined to destroy the democratic party if she doesn’t get her way. I want to know (1) where did she raise the 35 million dollars so quickly, (2) why won’t she release her tax returns, (3) why won’t Bill tell us who financed his Presidential library, and (4) why won’t he release the paperwork related to his final Presidential pardons?

LKBIQ:
“When I was a boy I was told anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.”
Clarence Darrow

Pizza and Politics

Just returned from the annual Pizza and Politics meeting in Sandpoint. If you subtract the people from Boundary County (Bonners Ferry, that is) it wasn’t much of a turnout. I don’t know what’s with the Bonner County Democrats, I guess they just don’t like meetings. Wendy Jaquet and George Sayler from the Idaho Congress were there and filled us in on some of the issues and problems that result from having too few Democrats in Congress. Republicans have been in the vast majority for years, which explains why Idaho has no power, bad schools, medieval laws and beliefs, and etc.

I was very pleased, however, to learn at the last minute that Larry Grant would be there. He was, and he presented himself very well as always. He’s really an outstanding candidate for the House of Representatives which now features, for Idaho, the one and only Bill Sali, who has proven himself unable to fathom even the simplest of ideas about how government works and what his role in it should be. His motto seems to be whenever in doubt vote no. As he seems to be constantly in doubt his voting record has been almost totally negative. He seems to operate by a rule that tells him, if it’s good for Idaho vote no. If it’s bad, vote yes. At least he’s consistent. I am still waiting for some explanation as to why the Boys of Boise decided to run Walt Minnick when Larry Grant is virtually a dream candidate. It would be most interesting to know all the background of this but Boise is so far away from Bonners Ferry it might as well be on another planet (sometimes I believe it is). There was a High School student in attendance tonight (very unusual) who was exceptionally bright and wanted to know why our schools were so bad, didn’t have enough money, and so on. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that if our Republican Congress had there way there wouldn’t be any money at all for schools. The mothers would be required to stay home and teach their children how to make bread and cheese, along with harnesses and cannon balls. Their motto has long been, “if it was good enough for Pappy, it’s good enough for you.” Vote for Grant! Vote for LaRocco!

It is truly inspirational to know that our candidates who are running for the most powerful position on earth have decided to engage in trash talk rather than discuss the issues. Issues, what issues? Hillary, it turns out, is a monster. Obama is worse than Kenneth Starr (I bet you thought no one could be worse than Ken Starr). Obama is not as well qualified to answer the phone at 3:oo a.m. as is either Hillary or John McBush. He may also be a Muslim, Hillary is not certain on this point. Before she died, that dreadful Olson woman was always crabbing about Hillary being ambitious. I used to support Hillary by arguing that ambition was a national value and there was nothing wrong with being ambitious if you were an American. However, I didn’t realize that Hillary was so ambitious she would say and do anything in order to get her way. She has demonstrated, as Gary Hart pointed out, that she has clearly put her ambition ahead of her love for country and is violating the unspoken rules of politics. Alas, he is quite right on this point. Hillary’s mad ambition is going to bring her down as she sinks lower now day by day. It is obvious she can’t catch up in delegates no matter what but she’s apparently willing to destroy the party to get her way (through some kind of miracle, like, maybe bribing enough of the independent delegates or some such thing). Get out Hillary before you are truly past all dishonor.


LKBIQ:
“Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.”
Ambrose Bierce The Devil’s Dictionary

Shame on you, Hillary

Pub owner bans “Danny Boy” for entire
month of March, Irish tear-jerker written
by Englishman who never visited there.

Apparently it turns out that the big flap about Obama assuring Candada that his threat to renegotiate NAFA was (wink, wink) just rhetoric, was actually another dirty trick of the Clinton campaign. It was someone from the Clinton campaign that called Canada but somehow Obama got the blame and, of course, by the time the truth came out, it was too late, the Ohio race was over. In any case, it is clear that Clinton blatantly lied about her support for NAFTA. She claimed to have always questioned it and thought maybe it wasn’t a good thing, and blah, blah, blah, when, in fact, she was strongly supportive of it at the time and up until now when she needed to deny it. Add this to her suggestion that McCain would be a better President than Obama because of his experience, her refusal to categorically deny that Obama might be a Muslim, and her fearmongering 3:00 a.m. ad, and I think it is eminently fair to say, SHAME ON YOU HILLARY.

In spite of almost universal condemnation from the international community Israel continues to systematically kill in Gaza, including, of course, the usual women and children. It should be clear enough by now that Israel has nothing but contempt for the United Nations and the international community in general. They have violated U.N. rules and suggestions from the very beginning and continue to do with impunity, knowing that their criminal partner, the U.S. will back them every time, no matter how egregious their behavior. Abbas, who said he would not negotiate further until Israel stopped their killing, has now been forced by Bush/Rice to rescind his statement of refusal. There can never be peace in the Middle East until Israel is forced to give up its colonial aspirations and stop stealing more and more Palestinian land. Israel will never negotiate in good faith as long as they have overwhelming military superiority and sanctioning by the U.S. Jimmy Carter is quite right on this issue, Israel promotes apartheid and is not going to change unless someone forces them to do so. One would like to assume that eventually Israel will have to go the way of South Africa and drastically change its policy.

The U.S. started a pre-emptive “war,” a blatant war crime. As might be expected other war crimes were executed as well: torture, killing of civilians, use of illegal cluster and phosphorus bombs, renditions, war profiteering, hiding of prisoners, and so on. Probably three to four million Iraqis have been uprooted from their homes and employment. Four thousand American troops killed, many thousands more maimed and crippled for life, trillions of dollars wasted, unspeakable misery so profound it is impossible to even comprehend, and what are we now upset about? A marine threw a puppy over a cliff to its death! I don’t condone the killing of helpless puppies. But I don’t condone the killing of helpless children either and there are one hell of a lot more of them than puppies. And we have ghouls like Madeleine Albright telling us “it’s all worth it.” Well, it hasn’t been and isn’t all worth it. This is in the same category as reading about some soldier or marine adopting a dog and sending it home. Or, equally as absurd, rhapsodizing over a sick child being sent to the U.S. for medical treatment after thousands and thousands of her countrymen were murdered. I’m not against this either but somehow I can’t help but see the hypocrisy and the absurdity of it all.

Now Boeing and everyone else in the U.S. is all upset because a 55 billion dollar contract for tanker aircraft went to another company, a foreign company (if there really is any such thing anymore as at least part of the planes will be manufactured in the U.S.). What I find fascinating about this is the argument that we should buy American. Doesn’t this seem to imply that we should buy American no matter how inadequate or shoddy the product? I don’t believe people started buying Japanese cars because they were not manufactured in America. They started buying them because they were better. I don’t know what kind of political factors may or may not have been involved in this decision but if the European planes are better why shouldn’t we buy them? Maybe Boeing and other American companies will eventually get the message, just like our car companies finally have, built a better mousetrap and they will come.

LKBIQ:
"The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way."
Samuel Butler

Hillary, please...

One thing I can’t stand is arrogance. Can you believe Hillary Clinton? She lost 12 state contests in a row, she is behind in the popular vote and behind in delegates, in spite of finally winning three states last night. So what does she say: She’d consider Obama as her running mate! She also said she’s ready to debate McCain. Hillary, dear Hillary, please slow down. You haven’t won the nomination. You basically haven’t changed anything. You’re still behind in everything. I don’t think Obama is going to select you as his running mate, at least I hope not. I should think the last thing our new President would want would be you and Bill cluttering up the White House. By the way, when are you going to release your tax statements? I understand Bill has been pulling in some really big bucks from some odd places. Making hay while the sun shines?

Some bipartisan company named Knowlegis does an annual report on the relative power of states and Congresspersons. You will be interested to learn that Idaho, in terms of power, ranks 53rd out of 55 possibilities, behind even Washington D.C., the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Wowie, what clout!

Larry Craig who was something like 69th once has now slipped to 98th out of 99 (who in the world is the 99th?). In Congress our own Bill Sali is ranked 423rd out of 435. Out of 200 Republicans he’s ranked 189th. Way to go, Bill! Might I suggest once again that you vote for LaRocco and Larry Grant. As it is, “we don’t get no respect.” Thanks to the Mountain Goat Report for this information.

I think after seven plus years of Bush/Cheney we may have finally reached the point where there is no longer any difference between reality and nonsense. For example, we are now told that people voted for Clinton because she will be a better Commander-in-Chief. Can anyone really believe that bit of nonsense. What conceivable evidence is there that Clinton would make a better Commander-in-Chief? What experience has she had that would lead anyone to think this? Is this just another part of her almost grotesquely padded resume of experience? Similarly, what on earth would make anyone believe she would be better at answering the phone at 3:00 a.m. than Obama, or even Woody Allen, for that matter? If a President had to answer a phone at that time of morning I would think they had better find a much better staff. We are being fed utter nonsense all the time. The MSM has no interest in what would have to be considered “real news.” The real news is so uniformly bad for Bush/Cheney they wouldn’t dare report it.

There is a great article in Vanity Fair entitled “The Gaza Bombshell.” In brief, it tells how Bush and Condi Rice attempted to fund a Fatah- led coup to do away with Hamas, the legitimately democratically elected government of the Palestinians. You see, Bush and Rice are so committed to democracy in the Middle East that when a genuine democratically elected government emerged in Palestine they furnished arms to another faction in order to bring it down. Of course like everything they try in the Middle East it was an embarrassing failure. Bush is still saying there will be peace between the Palestinians and Israel by the end of the year, further evidence if any is needed, that he is at best borderline retarded and at worst absolutely insane (perhaps both).

So now that nothing is settled with respect to the democratic nomination it’s on to Pennsylvania, according to Clinton. You see, she doesn’t regard any of the other remaining state contests as important. She decides what is important, no one else. I think we are going to have to start addressing her as Queen Hillary, or perhaps “Your Eminence,” or, better yet, “Your Royal Highness.” What a shame. I used to like Hillary. I even used to send her money. But no more. I still think she is smart as hell, and in many ways probably the best candidate, but she’s a DLC Republican and now that she has said McCain would be a better candidate than Obama she has certainly lost any admiration from me, as well as given herself away. She and the Republicans will give Obama no mercy from now on. Soon they’ll be rumoring that he’s not actually an earthling but some creature from outer space sent here to steal their lawn chairs.

I think Rachel Maddow had the best line of the discussion last night. When told that Obama had called Hillary she said, “he should have waited until 3:00 a.m. to see if she’d answer the phone." I wish he had.

LKBIQ:
“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn.”
Jane Austen

Nowhere

Nowhere. That’s where we seem to be at the moment. Obama wins Vermont, Clinton wins Rhode Island and Ohio. Ohio is big! Texas, at this moment, is too close to call. Clinton could end up winning Texas although I believe that is not the expectation of those who presumably know these things. Whether she wins Texas or merely comes in close she will almost surely decide to continue, even though there is no way she can accumulate enough delegates to win, even if she wins every other election from now on, which is highly unlikely. So what is she to do? She could, of course, gracefully withdraw, endorse Obama, bring the Democratic party together, and help insure a Democrat will occupy the White House next year. But we’re talking about Clintons here. Bill and Hillary I believe are much more likely to look after themselves than the Democratic party. First, they are DLC, merely a Republican presence in the Democratic party. Second, Clinton has already done what she can to insure that if she isn’t President, McCain will be. This can be seen pretty clearly in her statements to the effect that while she and John III are esperienced, Obama has nothing to offer but a speech. It can also be seen in her 3 a.m. ad, preying on our fears. Third, she has never even attempted to deny her ties to her corporate donors who have backed her almost exclusively until recently, and quite likely will now continue to do so. But if she knows she ultimately cannot win, and will have to concede later on, why should she wait, waste a lot of money, and continue to split the party? Whoever would have thought our corporate masters were clever enough to make sure we had a Democratic choice between the first woman or the first African-American, a diabolical scheme to split the party. If you prefer to think this was just serendipity, maybe you’re right. Maybe.

On the Brafia side we’re being offered John Sidney McCain III, written off as all but dead not very long ago. Now he seems very much alive (I guess). He seems to be a man with the courage of no convictions other than war is good. He wants to carry on the noble banner of George W. Bush, the worst U.S. President ever, with the lowest approval rating in history, a rousing 19%. He has been supported by a Vice-President who is arguably one of the most evil persons ever to hold office. These two, and their minions in the Brafia, are known war criminals who have also violated our constitution many times over, setting themselves up as above the law and somehow cowing a cowardly Congress into letting them have their criminal way at every opportunity. This is apparently the legacy that McCain wishes to continue. With Clinton’s help he may well succeed.

Obama just did what I think was a most interesting and clever thing. He gave a speech that will make everyone forget that Clinton even won Ohio and may win Texas. A speech that was so inspirational and moving that it cannot and will not be ignored. There is no doubt that Obama is a masterful speaker with the ability to make people want to believe, to have hope, to know that someone is interested in them and their welfare. Whether Obama can produce the results he strives for or not, he motivates people to want to do the right thing. If he becomes the candidate the contrast between him and McCain could not be more stark. If you want more of the past seven years, more war, more tax breaks for the wealthy, more crimes against humanity, more wasted taxpayer dollars, more military, more international hatred of our country, vote Brafia and McCain.. If you want the opposite, vote Obama. I am a very cynical person but I’m willing to take a chance on Senator Obama and I know the way of the others will lead us nowhere.

LKBIQ:
“Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.”
W. Somerset Maugham

The Dumb-headed Reverend Magee

What’s with this John Sidney McCain III? He’s proud to be endorsed by Magee? Magee, who believes Katrina happened because New Orleans was about to hold a sinful Gay Pride Parade? Who thinks the Catholic Church is a whore and some kind of cult? Who can’t wait for Armageddon when all the Jews that refuse to convert, and all the rest of us nonbelievers will go burn in hell while he and his true believers will ascend to heaven and live in blissful luxury forever? McCain is proud of this endorsement? And we aren’t laughing him off the stage? Doesn’t it make you wonder just a little bit if we aren’t all a few cards short of a full deck? But what would you expect from people who sit by the hour in front of little screens watching talking insects, talking animals, talking vitamins, carrots, and even hamburgers, talking cars, and even talking chocolate chip cookies, that also sing and drive cars? It’s almost enough to make you wish for Armageddon. Of course the Minister of Obama’s church supports the anti-semitic Louis Farrakon. If the candidates want my advice: stay away from churches and avoid “men of the cloth.” At least Farrakon is probably sane whereas I fear the same cannot be said for the pea-for-brain Magee. Magee endorsement or not, McCain is the perfect choice to lead the war and torture party. The way things are going with Clinton and Obama, McCain may well end up keeping us all in the war and torture business. The Democratic nomination needs to be settled soon, like hopefully tomorrow. Please, Big JuJu, be merciful.

Here is a joke for the elderly;

Two very old women were playing cards, they have been playing the same card games for over fifty years. One of them says to the other, “you know, my dear, we’ve been playing together like this for over fifty years, but suddenly I can’t remember your name.”

The other lady looked at her somewhat puzzled for a long time. Finally she said, “how soon do you need to know.”

I love jokes about the elderly because I have become one of them. It’s not all bad.

I do not believe we should allow people to hunt wolves for sport. How is shooting a wolf any different than shooting a dog? The only difference I can see is that you have to find a wolf to shoot instead of just shooting in your back yard. But if the sport lies in finding a wolf, why not just take a picture? I don’t understand killing for no reason, as we continue to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t believe in killing as punishment either. Life in jail is probably a much better punishment anyway, and it leaves the way open for the correction of mistakes, of which there have been many. I don’t understand the American public. I don’t think anyone else does either. Remember, life is just a terminal condition, transmitted by sex. Without us the world will probably continue for a long time – and be a better place. We are fouling our nest and time is running out. But cheers anyway. Pip, pip, keep a stiff upper lip, don’t give up the ship, and whatever.

LKBIQ:
"On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done just as easily lying down."
Woody Allen

What's in a name?

Lovely candidates for Miss
Outdoors skin muskrats
to demonstrate talents.

Until recently I hadn’t realized that names could be so important in politics. It seems there are people who somehow believe that someone named Hussein must be (a) a Muslim, (b) a Muslim spy, (c) an evil person, and (d) all of the above. Wow! With a name like Hussein you’ve just got to be all bad. I confess I wouldn’t be bothered about voting for someone named Hussein (I guess this makes me a communist or at least a fellow traveler). I would, however, have to pause before I would vote for someone named, say, Algernon. Percival, too, would cause me to think twice (would you want a President called Percy). And of course nowadays no one would vote for an Adolf, Bumsted, Rasputin, or Dick (who would want a Dick for President). In my blog of September 11, 2004, I expressed my feelings about names and why I thought we should adopt more American Indian-like names. Thus, for me, Hussein would become “Skinny half-black guy with ears and audacity.” Rodham would be “Nice lady who takes bad advice.” John Sidney McCain III would convert to “Snobbish military person who believes in eternal war.” But enough of names.

I gather the Frank Church Banquet was a resounding success. For the first time ever they actually sold all the tickets. I guess Markos of the Daily Kos gave a good speech, as did others. My wife who is “political” attended this annual event and came home happy to have met so many nice people and learned so much about Idaho politics. Personally, I regard banquets or meetings of any kind as the functional equivalent of having a root canal. But, as we say, busy girls are happy girls. Oops, sorry, busy women are happy women. Many of the Idaho bloggers met each other for the first time. I guess they took turns wearing a funny coat, taking pictures, and vowing to do battle with, ugh, Republicans. There is, undeniably, a Democratic renaissance in the making here in the reddest of red states. Democrats are fired up. Hooray! Of course the majority of voters here in the Gem state will probably vote for the war and torture party as usual. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if they didn’t for a change.

It is pretty clear that our Republicans (some of them now in democratic clothing) are continuing to pursue their “southern strategy.” Unlike the national Republican southern strategy this local version doesn’t depend entirely upon subliminal racism and code words. It is a far simpler version that can best be described as Ada-centric. That is, as most of the voting public resides in Ada country or thereabouts, all you have to worry about is getting the votes in that part of the state. What happens in the hinterlands of Central and North Idaho just doesn’t matter. It has long been so. The Boys of Boise know best what is good for all of us in the state. That is why we have poorly paid teachers, falling apart and underfunded schools, high drop-out rates, low wages, taxes on food, polluted lakes and rivers, low IQ’s, and medieval laws about marriage, abortion, and drugs, to say nothing of right-to-work. Candidates for office rarely deign to visit the north and when they do it is mostly token appearances. Larry Grant has been an exception. If you want a Congressman who will represent all of Idaho, vote for Grant. Why should Boise be allowed to continue running our fine state into the bottomlands of irrelevance. Vote Grant, vote LaRocco, vote Obama, and vote for change (actually you have to vote for change as that’s all any of us have left after seven long years of stupidity, greed, and incompetence).

I am sad to know there are people in Idaho who just can’t wait to shoot wolves and grizzly bears. Clement LeRoy (Butch) Otter, our Governor, boasts that he would like to be the first to shoot a wolf. Why, I wonder. I can’t believe he’s going to eat it. I guess he is afraid it might attack him (there is no record of wolves attacking people in the United States as far as I know). I don’t believe people want to shoot grizzly bears in order to eat them either, although, unlike wolves, you might actually eat one. I guess these folks think shooting wolves and bears is a “sport.” Shooting ducks, geese, and pheasants might well be a sport as they are moving and you have to have a certain amount of skill. What sport is there in shooting a wolf or a bear or a cougar with a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight from a distance? The only problem in these cases is simply finding one to shoot. What sport! You get your dogs to chase a bear or cougar up a tree and then when it is helpless you shoot it. Or you plant some bait and wait for an animal to come for it and then kill them. You might as well be shooting a cow. And trophy hunting in a fenced enclosure is so pathetic and despicable as to be beneath contempt. I don’t have any trouble with people shooting game for food. We have lots of people here in Idaho that do just that. But I do have a lot of trouble with trophy hunting or hunting merely for sport. If there are too many wolves or cougars (competing for the same animals people want to kill), let Fish and Game take care of it in the most humane way possible. Let’s not pretend it’s still the wild west and we’re all mighty hunters protecting our loved ones. You want to kill a trophy animal? Get a life.

LKBIQ:
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are stupider than that.”
George Carlin

Seriously

Seriously, does anyone know what we are doing in Afghanistan? Somehow, over the years, I have completely lost track of why we are still there and what it is we are supposed to be doing. As I recall, we went into Afghanistan to get revenge on the guys who blew up the trade center in New York (even though they were from Saudi Arabia). But we wanted to get Osama bin Laden, the ringleader. We failed miserably as we didn’t have enough troops or enough smarts to get him when we had the chance. He is rumored to be living in Pakistan, up in the mountains, and surrounded by people so protective of him no one will turn him in even for the reward of 100 million dollars (now that’s loyalty). Anyway, we don’t seem to really be looking for him very seriously anymore and Pakistan doesn’t want us poking around in their territory and we wouldn’t have enough troops or firepower to get him anyway. For all I know he might well be living in Prague or Paris or maybe even St. Petersburg. In any case the existence of bin Laden does not seem to explain why we are still in Afghanistan (although I am not a conspiracy buff, I am still not completely disabused of my notion that bin Laden is still a CIA asset).

There was talk, as I remember back, of wanting to build a pipeline for oil or gas or something through Afghanistan. Does that explain why we might still be there? If it does we are certainly not very serious about it or we would have lots more troops there – lots more. If this is not why we are still there, and if we aren’t seriously trying to get bin Laden, then why are we still there? It is said that at the moment Karzai controls 30% of the country, the Taliban contarol 10%, and the other 60% is controlled by tribal chieftains (often referred to as warlords). I don’t know where these percentages come from but they don’t seem to reflect the presumed reality on the ground that I see in other accounts. Most of Afghanistan has always been tribal and no one has ever conquered that wild country. The British failed, the Russians failed, and we are failing. This was entirely predictable, especially when we never made any provision for enough troops and then withdrew some of them to attack Iraq. There is no chance whatever that we are going to control Afghanistan. And knowing this, why in the hell don’t we just acknowledge the reality of the situation and get out? Oh, I forgot, we have to protect Karzai, now said to be merely the mayor of Kabul (why don’t we just retire him in Paris). We can’t get the Europeans interested enough to provide any more troops, they want out, and we clearly won’t get anywhere on our own, so what is the point?

Now the Bush/Cheney administration won’t provide us with any information about the 760 million dollar disaster sometimes referred to as our embassy. It is, of course, way behind schedule and also riddled with expensive overruns. It is also, I gather from at least some accounts, little more than a piece of junk. This monstrosity covers something like 27 acres, is the largest embassy ever, and is really meant to be just a Little America sitting there in a hostile country. It has its own stores and restaurants, tennis courts, swimming pools, bowling alley, and on and on, obviously designed to win hearts and minds. I haven’t seen anything lately about all the other permanent bases we have built that are not permanent (permanent is a term with considerable flexibility as the permanence could be for a few years, many years, even forever). They quite likely won’t be permanent for long as I suspect Iraqi hospitality will not allow them to be. Oh, well, what’s another few billion wasted.

The Israelis, having trapped a million and half Palestinians in Gaza, are now proceeding to starve, humiliate, and murder them at their leisure. It’s all the Palestinian fault, of course, for sending their somewhat puny rockets into Israel (once in a while they actually hit something). They are not supposed to fight back, its just like in The Maltese Falcon when Humphrey (you don’t see many Humphreys nowadays) says to Peter Lorre, “when you’re slapped you’ll just take it and like it.” Israeli is now threatening a holocaust if they don’t stop firing the rockets. Of course the Israelis have every right to defend themselves from the mosquito that is Gaza, they would never think of negotiating in good faith and giving back some of the land they have already appropriated or replacing the orchards they have destroyed, or making any good faith effort to achieve a just peace. “It’s our way or the highway,” and this is a disastrous one way highway leading nowhere for the Palestinians (except perhaps to a genuine holocaust).

LKBIQ:
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
Abraham Lincoln

Stupid laws

More jails. We need more jails. The number of Americans incarcerated for one thing or another has been increasing by “leaps and bounds” for the past few years so that we are now jailing one in every one hundred Americans. Is that an accomplishment of which we should be proud? We have more people in jail in absolute numbers than any other country. And we have a higher percentage of people in jail than any other country. Not content with such a fine record many states are having trouble building enough jails, anticipating further increases in the criminal element that seems to be growing in our country. Apparently it is regarded as easier or more responsible to keep building more and more jails than it is to consider the laws and circumstances that are resulting in this problem. One interesting and depressing fact is that we seem to be spending more money on jails than on education. Apparently our “leaders” don’t think there is any relationship between education and good citizenship and lives free of crime. Here in Idaho our Republican led Congress would be happy not to have to fund education at all, but they don’t seem to balk too much when it comes to more jails. Our present governor, Clement Leroy Otter (otherwise known as “Butch”) recently suggested privatizing our jails. This was rejected quickly, not because it was an inherently stupid idea, but because there was fear that convicts from other areas might end up here (I don’t know how they passed up the opportunity to make a profit). Whether we privatize or not it seems to be clear that we desperately need more jails. There is, of course, a perfectly sensible and even easy solution to much of this problem, just get rid of our incredibly misguided drug laws.

I don’t know the precise statistics but it is a good bet that fully one third of prisoners (probably more) are in jail for violations of drug laws, especially laws relating to the use of marijuana. It is well known by now (and has been for years) that this substance is nowhere near as bad as alcohol, is not addictive, does not inevitably lead to other drugs, and has been stupidly maligned for years. There is no reason a person who has or uses marijuana should ever be put in jail. Furthermore, it should be obvious by now that the laws having to do with marijuana don’t work (if they did there wouldn’t be so many users, would there). Our other drug laws aren’t much better. This is simply because drug usage and addiction is fundamentally a medical problem that has been made into a political problem. If drugs were made legal (but still by prescription) much of the prison problem would disappear almost immediately, just as was the case with prohibition. In fact, our current hysterical approach to drugs results, in some cases, in situations in which people who actually need the drugs can’t get them (doctors are nowadays sometimes afraid to prescribe drugs they know their patents need because they fear losing their licenses – big brother is constantly monitoring them). This is a situation that is out of control because of so many years of completely ill-informed legislation. Unfortunately, don’t look for it to change soon, even though other countries have demonstrated that drug legalization works and beyond any doubt reduces crime. There are sensible and responsible people in the world, they just don’t happen to be resident in our Congress. There is no doubt this is a serious problem in the U.S. that is causing untold misery for many individuals and families, to say nothing of costing taxpayers a great deal of money. One might think it would be something we ought to deal with, our “war on drugs” is every bit as much a failure as our “war” in Iraq, but we don’t seem to be capable of doing anything about either problem. It’s the American way! Oh, yeah, I forgot, steroids in baseball is a really big and important problem that requires immediate attention by our otherwise lethargic Congresspersons. What with constantly raising money to keep getting re-elected I guess this is the only problem they have time to consider. Do you think Clemens and Bond will go to jail? Probably not unless they smoked some weed. Just another chapter in our culture of the absurd.

LKBIQ:
“Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.”
Bernard Berenson

Huh?

Kicked in the head by a cow,
Montana man decides to
make organic goat cheese.

This is one of those puzzles that comes under the heading of: what the hell is going on, I don’t get it and it makes no sense. The problem is this: Bush now has an approval rating of a mere 19%, the lowest of any President ever. A majority of the American public is fed up with this “war” and want out of it as soon as possible. The public is equally fed up with Congress for the failure to stop this unbelievably expensive and unnecessary war.

McCain’s whole strategy is based upon his support for this unpopular war. He has adopted Bush’s position that it was justified and if we continue we will somehow “win,” although what we will win has never been specified. In short, McCain is closely identified with Bush and this “war” that is seen as a complete disaster and the greatest foreign policy blunder ever. It is known that Democrats are turning out in record numbers whereas Republicans are not. Some are predicting a landslide victory for Democrats. It is also known that there are Republicans who are supporting Democrats this time.

At the same time, the national polls claim that McCain is essentially even with either of his potential opponents. In some polls he actually leads by a few points, in others he is not far behind. Some are even predicting a McCain win in November. How can this be? How do you explain this peculiar situation? Do the polls lie? (a distinct possibility). Do the voters lie? How can someone promote such a useless and disastrous policy, in the face of overwhelming opposition, and still be considered a possibility for President? I confess, I don’t get it. Are there a large number of secret warmongers out there who do not want to reveal their true warlike nature? Are the MSM faking these numbers or loading the polls with leading questions? What the hell is going on?

I think we need some new terms to describe what goes on in fighting and warfare. It seems to me the nature of warfare has changed dramatically but our language to describe it has not. For example, we have traditionally described battles and such in terms like “savagery,” or “barbarism.” These terms strike me as no longer entirely appropriate. Now that we have “advanced” beyond bows and arrows and spears and bayonets and sabers, and rifles and such, and entered a new era of technological warfare with planes and bombs and nowadays even robots and drones, terms like savage and barbaric don’t seem very useful. Where, for example, is the savagery in pushing a button from five miles above the earth, even though that act may result in thousands of deaths? Or how about sitting in your office hundreds of miles from the battlefield and pushing buttons to send a drone over Afghanistan to kill someone. I guess you can stretch such acts under the terms barbaric or savage but somehow it just doesn’t seem quite right. But we have no terms, as far as I know, for “beyond savagery” (and we are certainly far beyond it now). I suppose we could define mass bombings of cities and innocent people as acts of humanicide and describe them as “humanicidic” but that doesn’t seem to me to be entirely satisfactory (somehow it’s just not quite powerful enough to describe such cowardly and inhuman behavior). Remember that until the Germans carpet bombed Guernica just prior to WWII such attacks on civilian targets were basically unknown even in war. Nowadays, of course, we just blissfully kill 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 or more at a time and think nothing much of it. Just with sanctions we kill 500,000 Iraqi children and our Secretary of State says “it’s worth it.” We’ve come a long way baby, from mere savagery. But think of the future. It may soon be the case that whatever nation has the superior technology they may be able to annihilate everyone else on the planet just by pushing a few buttons. We better start catching up with our education for science and technology. Never mind the arts and humanities, we won’t need them, having moved beyond even civilization. Exciting times, these, one never knows for certain whether we’ll blow ourselves up first, or just slowly drown in our own filth and waste. No one seems to care enough to do much of anything about it. I know, let’s privatize it! That works swell for the public interest. Does anyone even remember what the public interest is anymore? Don’t mind me, I just get cranky when I don’t get enough sleep, and I don’t get enough sleep when I’m cranky. I’m lost in the funk of modern life.

LKBIQ:
“I think we agree, the past is over.”
George W. Bush

There's no justice

Drunken man on lawnmower
goes on rampage, breaks
window, and goes to jail

There’s no justice. Some have been saying this for years. It’s true. Consider what is going on right now in Congress. They are spending their time (and our money) going after baseball players. BASEBALL PLAYERS! I mean, it’s like there isn’t anything else for them to be doing? We have a President and Vice-President who are known war criminals, along with their henchpersons, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, and more. These people have committed despicable acts of illegality and virtually the whole world knows it. But does Congress spend their time trying to bring them to justice. Of course not. They lied us into a pre-emptive war against a nation that was no threat to us (the number one war crime). They have tortured, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, hid prisoners from the Red Cross, engaged in secret renditions, war profiteering, illegal spying, doing away with habeas corpus, holding kangaroo trials in Guantanamo, and creating scandals one upon another almost endlessly. Congress goes after baseball players who may have used steroids and may have lied about it. A few in Congress are working to get Cheney impeached and seemingly are getting nowhere. Just can’t let anything that trivial interfere with baseball. This is so sick, so unbelievable, so tragic, so fantastically absurd there is no way to rationally even describe it. It makes one just want to scream and run around banging their head into the wall.

I have to change the subject, I can’t stand any more of the above. Let me ask another question. What happens when we run out of money? The dollar is now only worth one half of a Euro. We are in debt probably beyond our means to repay it (at least without a very painful effort for a very long time). At some point China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia are going to refuse to lend us any more money. Also, at some point, we will have to stop just printing more and more useless dollars as they will fail to be acceptable to anyone. So what do we do then? I guess we could sell everything to eager buyers around the world. I bet we’d get a lot for, say, Yellowstone Park. San Francisco would probably net a good bit. Then, of course, there are our national forests, and lots and lots of agricultural land. Actually, I believe a good bit of these properties are already being sold to people from other countries. I hope they will continue to let us reside here as serfs and peasants serving our new masters. We’re well on the road to that already. Soon the international bankers will have a lot more of our houses to go along with our businesses. Perhaps after global warming gets going a bit more strongly they could allow us to try and settle in Antarctica or the North Pole. You know, like they sent the convicts to Australia and indentured servants to New England. If you think I am joking I suggest you think more seriously about it.

George Bush’s poll ratings have now reached a new all-time low, 19%. No one seems to care. He’s still President. He still gives speeches and travels overseas representing us. Congress absolutely refuses to impeach him or even threaten to do so. I haven’t seen any ratings for Cheney recently, probably because there is no provision for negative numbers. They won’t impeach him either. Pelosi and Reid want to wait until the election because they think we’ll have a new President then. And we will, and won’t it be ironic if it turns out to be John McCain the Bush clone. Don’t laugh. The DLC has cleverly managed to lose the last two Presidential elections even though they should have been able to win by running anyone they could find hiding in an alley. I don’t see much hope for our country unless there is a massive turnover of personnel in Washington D.C., as well as some monumental changes in the way we allow them to conduct business. Vote for Obama and hope that he really will do something to change things. Neither Clinton or McCain will change anything that our corporate masters haven’t already agreed to, like medical insurance.

LKBIQ:
“Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.”
James Thurber