Time Flies When Gravity Hibernates

Tags

2nd Amendment, Humor, immigration, life in the foothills, Marco Rubio, NRA, right wing media, teabaggers

Be a blogger! You too can make up inane titles that will confuse and confound. Everyone races to see what the hell she’s talking about today!

Oh, hi there.

Just reporting briefly on the home front.

The Contrarian has met the oral surgery and he has lived to tell tales of wonder and astonishment. Actually he’s doing well, slurping down plenty of protein drinks and spacing out on percocet, which is a form of oxycodone, and sleeping sweetly.

My feet are doing vastly better. Turns out I don’t have bone spurs, but rather plantar fasciites. That is the inflammation of the tendon that runs from heel to ball and supports the arch. There is a marvelous product out there that is a heel support you put in your shoes. It almost immediately relieved the intense pain. While I still feel it, its hugely better and hopefully now healing. I’m also popping an Advil every eight hours or so.

The broken toe is more in the vicinity of “sore” rather than painful. I’m back into my tennis shoes, and have bought some hiking shoes that with the inserts should prove supportive. I still have my broken toe taped to its new best friend, the middle toe, and they are fast buds now. The bruising has spread to nearly my main man toe, but the area is barely tender at all now. I should be walking Diego by Monday or so.

Speaking of which, the poor boy is utterly freaked by the changes in his daily grind. No walks, and well the Contrarian ain’t the ball of fun he usually is–not throwin’ the ball and wrestling the boy. All of which makes him anxious, and when he is anxious he worries about I guess being abandoned. So he’s been going through a twelve-inch rawhide bone in about a day and a half, chewing himself silly. He’s a needy little guy, all the more endearing for his anxiety. I’m going to walk him a short way today and hope he doesn’t know the difference.

So. Now that you are thoroughly bored, let’s see what the cartoon world has to say today.

The gun safety “discussions” go on.

With some 90+ percent of the population favoring strong background checks, one wonders how long the reactionary right can hold out with its series of lies and fear-based tropes.

The survivalists will continue to listen as Wayne La Pee Pee Pierre threatens that to give an inch will be to give up the 2nd Amendment all together, for as he warns, Sandy Hook is what the President has been waiting for to do what he has always wanted: take away your guns.

The fact that not one single piece of legislation, nor rhetoric in over four years has suggested any such thing, is well, beside the point.

To a nut case, the very failure of predictions to come true, is why you should worry. It’s just a matter of time.

And the sun will one day devour and incinerate the earth. It too is just a matter of time.

A band of Dems and GOP’er’s are trying to fashion some sort of immigration policy.

The fascinating thing is this:

When Republicans are polled, something like 64% or so favor it. When the President’s name is attached to immigration reform, (with the same general details), favor-ability falls to 31%.

Tell me once again, that GOP opposition to the President is about policy and not about race. Do tell me again.

I continue to hear the same tired arguments: our borders are porous. Well the number of persons trying to enter the southern border without benefit of papers, has fallen dramatically since 2004. More entering illegally are sent back than ever before. In some studies there is now a negative effect, with more returning to their country of origin that coming here because they can’t find work.

Is the system fool-proof? No. But it’s hardly the sieve the reactionary Right portrays either.

It truly is impossible to gain any modicum of truth if you don’t know how to judge what you are watching and reading.

But this seems lost on those who have drunk of the kool-aid and found it “mmmm-mmmm good.” You see folks, when you have belief, and somebody out there is more than happy to tell you that you are right, you tend to be reinforced that your are right.

More so when you are told that even though you barely graduated from high school, and never liked to read, you are right anyway, well, whoa, what a rush!

Now add some “don’t listen to them other folks, they are all liars and just want to brainwash you”.

And then for good measure, use a logo “Fair and Balanced.”

Now you got ’em. And your robots will recite free of charge–

Hey you libtards, stop being sheeple and think for yourself, like we do!

That is a mind, tiny as can be, that has been trashed. I’m not sure it can be resurrected.

Well, it was funny after all.

Say what you want, he was a nervous wreck.

And his message was rather pedestrian.

I mean, talk about how student loans enabled you to go to college, and then trash the idea that the government can help you succeed?

Talk about living in a working class neighborhood and then offer your house up for sale at $675,000 bucks, (with a pool)?

Claim that the “government can’t control the weather” as you answer to climate change?

 

And as always, may your day be brightened by a sweet face:

Don’t hate me cuz I’m beautiful. . . .

 

They’re All Bums–Well Most of Them

Tags

Catholic Church, filibusters, gun control, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, pedophilia, President, senate, wacko right

Yeah, you heard me.

I try to get away from the idiots but they just keep coming. There is no end to the incompetent, self-serving bull crap going on in Washington. I mean it makes your head swirl.

First we got old Wayne La pee pee Pierre and his survivalist mentality. How’s this for logic: we can’t do background checks (which he FULLY endorsed in only 1999) because criminals won’t come in to submit to them.

Why shock me to death Whiney Wayne. I guess we shouldn’t have laws against bank robbery either, cuz you know, the bank robber he’s just not going to obey it.

Why can’t we have limits of the types of weapons that are sold? “Because we can’t trust these people,” according to Wayne. These people being the operative word here, as in “liberals” or “blacks” you know. Just because they say they won’t take shotguns and hunting rifles and regular handguns, “they” might just be lying.

Just as you Wayne lie to your constituents when you tell them that “who knows, the next disaster like a tornado the government might not show up, and well, people will have to defend themselves from marauding hoards.” Yeah you utter base excuse for a human being. That is so likely to happen.

If gun manufacturers can’t come up with better arguments than that, well, you deserve to be pistol-whipped boys.

BITE ME!

And then there is the king wimp of them all, Mr. Harry Reid, you know the soft-spoken little twit that Democrats are somehow forced to accept as Majority Leader in the Senate?

Why Harry, when asked about his support for gun safety legislation, says, “these are all things we need to take a look at.”

Take a look at ?

Where the hell have you been for the last two months you mealy-mouthed sucker on the NRA teat?

You’re the freakin’ MAJORITY leader. You’re in charge of what gets brought to the floor. You’re supposed to be a good guy remember? What is there to “understand” about high-capacity clips? Shall we ban anything over 10, or anything over 6? Boy that took a lot of time to “study.” And doesn’t it behoove somebody on your staff to have actually read Diane Feinstein’s bill? Is it so much different from the last one you enacted? What exactly do you do all day, other than feed lettuce to the Turtle Man?

Get off your stupid ass and DO something, and while you are at it:

BITE ME!

Speaking of whom, or what, or it, Turtle Man McConnell, I hear tell you are gonna filibuster the President’s nominee Richard Cordray once again to head up the Consumer Protection Division? This after you all admit there is not a damn thing wrong with his qualifications. This is solely because you don’t like the agency. Well that’s a new one.

Never in the history of the Republic has a party filibustered a nominee simply because they don’t like the agency he or she is going to head. Now we understand that those beholden to big business want no part of protecting consumers. No that would be wrong, You’re the party of rugged individualism. People have to take care of themselves. I mean it can’t cost too much to have a lab test done to find  that the damn medicine that  Pfizer produces won’t kill me, immediately, or grow hair on the bottom of my feet in two years.

This crap is absurd. And your pal Harry, God bless his stupid little head, was so scared of your wrath that he ignored the real opportunity to put an end to this insane misuse of the filibuster when he had the chance. Jimmy Stewart is crying in heaven today.

So Mitch?

BITE ME!

And Harry?

BITE ME AGAIN!

The President mentioned that he went skeet shooting at Camp David. Of course the insane Right, went insane, insinuating that the President was lying. Not because they hate him, of course, and if he cured cancer, they would see it as a Muslim Brotherhood Plot. No. Not for that reason. They don’t trust him, since he’s done so many darn things that were illegal and well everybody knows all of our FREEDOMS are hanging by a threat.

So he no doubt lied about the skeet shooting, for some reason, but reasons don’t matter, and are too hard to figure out, so let’s just say he lied, because well Black people have a habit of doing that, *nudge nudge*.

So the White House produces a picture of the present firing a gun that all agree is the type used for skeet shooting.

So of course, IT’S A FAKE!

It’s another conspiracy folks and the survivalists sure do love them some conspiracy.

BITE ME! ALL OF YOU!

Some of you may have heard of Archbishop Roger Mahony, retired from the archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2011 after having served since 1985. He and his top aide, Thomas Curry were both implicated in covering up child abuse by a series of priests. Just released documents show they actively attempted to protect priests from prosecution and withheld their names from police.

They have, in their retirement, been stripped of all public and administrative duties. This was done by now Archbishop  Jóse Gomez.

Children, we are told were threatened if they told the truth of what happened to them.

There was one way that a Church which claims to be the holder of the Keys of St. Peter and THE church of  Christ, (which you may or may not buy. I don’t and I am a Catholic), and that is to expose and drive out of the priesthood anyone who assaults a child. Period. End of discussion. You can offer them all your prayers and whatever, but first you REMOVE THEM FROM THE PRIESTHOOD. They are not fit to be priests. They are not some common sinners. They are predators of innocent children.

To all you who make excuses for my Church and it’s utter failing in this matter, I say:

BITE ME!

Oh, and I’m in a darn good mood today. The Ravens won, I walked the dog, the housework is done, the Contrarian cleaned the oven, and he’s taking me out to lunch. I’m happy as a clam. You don’t want to see me when I’m hot. No I suspect you don’t.

Related articles

• Will Harry Reid’s Filibuster Deal With McConnell Bite Him On the You-Know-What? (themoderatevoice.com)
• Photo of Obama Shooting Skeet Stirs Controversy (usnews.com)
• Harry Reid: “I’m not personally, at this stage, ready to get rid of the 60-vote threshold” (washingtonpost.com)

Well, Now that That’s Over With!

Tags

American Exceptionalism, Arkansas, China, Constitution, GOP, Michael Steele, teabuggers, wingnuts

If you woke up similar to this on New Year’s Day, then presumably you’re pretty glad it’s over with too!

So it’s on to the January blahs, or as it’s commonly known in Iowa, freakin’ cold, freakin’ snow, and freakin’ bleak. It’s something you learn to live through, other options being less enticing.

So, we made it to the big city and done our shopping. We operate like a finely tuned team. We hit the first store where we buy our meat. No packaged stuff, just a long case with meat and a slew of butchers behind the counter to cut and wrap.

Then it’s drop me off at the mega supermarket, while the Contrarian heads off to Wal-Mart for dog and cat food, as sundry clothing items and so forth. Then he returns to locate me. As it turned out today, I had just checked out with a teeming cart load when he arrived, so we were in total synch.

The lane is partly blown in so we travel via the field. Can you say washboard? The Contrarian went out Friday when it was still slushy and created a trail that has since iced down. Now it’s like getting the tires in groove and lettin’ her rip, no steering required. It’s a hair-raising event.

***

The most exciting news so far is that the GOPers are apparently about to unseat Mr. Steele as chairman of their party. Figuring they have “proved we are down with Negroes” one almost expects them to shout Arriba! and search for a token Latino or LINO, as they are called, to shore up that ethnic flavor. But as far as we know, no brown Beemers are in the running. No Cabin GOPers either.  Muslims are still too hot to handle, and women have been done (Sarah should suffice for a good twenty years). The Good Old P*ckers can be expected to stay fully in control.

***

Hey, don’t blame me. I swore off meanness for nearly two weeks. I’m raring to go!

***

It’s being reported that 5000 birds dropped out the skies of Arkansas, dead as doornails. Unlike doornails, they had once presumably been alive. Now we hear that 100,000 fish (did they really count them all?) have died in some waterway there. Reports of a Moses like figure and a guy with a lots of eye makeup named Pharoah, arguing on the Capital steps, are wildly exaggerated. We got the dead stuff report from Mock, Paper, Scissors, the rest  we dreamed up.

***

We are a nation of noodles. The news is full of instances in which teabugger candidates who were elected have fired lobbyists as their chiefs-of-staff. Some wacko state elected as their representative a dude who was illegally placed in the Justice department by Rove and was fired. He is now scheduled to sit on the Judiciary committee. West, the blowheart from Florida who claimed he had a higher security clearance than Obama, but was forced to resign his commission in the armed services, now claims that Obama is no leader because he sneaks into Afghanistan under dark of night in secrecy. This is no “leadership” as Wacko West sees it.

We are getting what we voted for aren’t we?

***

I’d like more than anything than to link up to great stories about the insanity of all these wingnuts, and do it without becoming angry, and despondent, and without hope, and resigned, and pissed off. I’d like that. I always say I’m going to remain above it all, just looking down and reporting the landscape, from up here in the trees, or clouds. But I don’t. Tell me how if you know. My blood pressure will sure thank you.

***

I hear the GOPers in the House plan to start the festivities off with reading the Constitution from front to back. This is a good beginning. It will undoubtedly be their first experience with the document. They might find that it is printed in one continuous piece of paper, and that the amendments are not “optional”.

***

I wonder who the GOP will put down once they have exhausted all the minorities on the planet. I mean after the Mauri and the Magyars. When they have hated and vilified and blamed all their woes on everyone else, who will they turn to them?

***

I’m wondering if parents who have kids about to enter college and suggesting they learn Chinese or major in Asian studies. It seems prudent to me. I think American “exceptionalism” has reached it nadir, nobody overseas buys it much, and China seems poised to take the helm, with India not far behind. Both have invested in the future. We are still romanticizing the past and wanting a return to the “good old days” when everybody was happy (meaning white men felt a lot more secure and in charge).

***

Related Articles

• Issa Fine Tunes His Investigation Target Net (themoderatevoice.com)
• 100,000 Dead Fish Wash Ashore in Arkansas: Is the End Near? (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)

US Politics for Dummies

Tags

Congress, DADT, Democrats, Dream Act, economy, GOP, Latinos, lobbyists, social security, Susan Collins, tax cut bill, teabaggers, Unemployment insurance, US Politics for Dummies, voting

No, we really don’t have to practice US politics for dummies here at AFeatherAdrift, for the simple reason that you readers are both sophisticated and knowledgeable. Those that need to be reading, aren’t of course. That would be the GOP, in case you were unsure.

The Dream Act passed the House. The Dream Act has, of course, no chance of passing the Senate. The brilliant requirement of having to have a super majority on any vote means that little gets done there. And most assuredly, even less than little gets done, when the GOP is about the business of “just saying no.”

The Democrats don’t have the votes to invoke cloture, so they are tabling the Dream Act. But The Reaction makes a good point, and one that at least won’t be lost on some GOPers, if there are any sane ones left that is.

Even in losing, the Democrats go down on record as the party who favors the sane, moral, and rational position, that young Latinos who were brought to this country as children, and who have completed high school, and either military service or college, can get legal residency in this country and move forward to citizenship. The GOP, on the other hand, continue to favor nativism and the cruel  and harsh persecution of undocumented aliens in this country.

The GOP continues to show the country deliberately and with clear intent, that it is the party of the rich and the white. Tell us how that works for you come 2012.

***

I thought that as part of the cave-in on tax cuts for the rich, we were getting an extension of unemployment benefits for an additional 13 months. According to Crooks and Liars, that just ain’t so, and the cap is still 99 weeks and you’re through. That is no compromise at all, as I see it. Read the link and see what you think. I’m completely unclear and now see the Democratic House anger as very justified. Guess I’m ready to oppose this damn bill too.

***

Can’t say as I’m surprised. It turns out that a slew of newly elected GOPer’s have hired lobbyists to run their congressional offices. Teabuggers ran on the argument that Washington was broken and a den of iniquity peopled with corruption and special interests who no longer did the people’s will. It seems to be business as usual, and that is exactly what we expected to happen. The poor teabuggers will soon find out that they have been taken for the proverbial ride. So much for “we the people” and all that rot. We warned ya, ya know.

***

I just want to personally thank GOPer’s in both the House and Senate for blocking a measly one-time payment of $250 to those who collect social  security and have been denied cost of living increases for two years running. Add another group that the GOP has lost in 2012. But do protect the right of the obscenely rich to avoid taxes Repukelicans.

***

I read this, but can’t find the link. It seems that teabuggers are mighty unhappy with the compromise tax cut extensions. They had been taken in by the promises of fiscal responsibility promised by the GOPers. Does the word sucker come to mind? Anyway, the novel answer being given by some Restuplicans, is that all that fiscal responsibility doesn’t start until the new Congress is sworn in, so it’s still business as usual until then. Now that’s an argument you can believe in! Enjoy your new master, teabuggers!

***

We all talk a lot about economic things, but frankly, most of us, (myself included) don’t understand this stuff all that well. Corrupting Conservatives, gives us a good primer on what all this tax business and economic growth actually mean. This is truly US politics for dummies in an economic nutshell. Do stop by and learn.

***

Was it just a week ago or so that Susan Collins said she was in favor pretty much of repealing DADT but couldn’t unless there was a tax cut bill negotiated, the “holy grail” of the GOP? Yes, well, now it seems that Ms. Collins has been instructed to stop that talk, and to get in marching line with the GOP. She is reconsidering her position. Olympia Snow, already did her bit to be immoral and unprincipled, she helped kill the Dream Act in the Senate. These people have no shame, and it proves that you can’t trust any Resucklican. They all lie.

Collins continues to make more demands on Reid, and the we shall see. Some are optimistic, but I’m too used to being screwed to expect the right outcome. Time will tell.

We all know why this is happening of course. Collins is being targeted by the teabuggers and well, re-election trumps principles doesn’t it? I mean, of course, nothing can be more important than retaining my government job.

***

What’s on the stove? Ribs in the oven with some smoky paprika mac and cheese and homegrown corn on the side. I’m getting hungry even as I type. It’s Iowa food today!

Related Articles

• Senate Tables DREAM Act, House Rebuffs Tax Cut Extension Deal (lezgetreal.com)
• Senate delays ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ vote – msnbc.com (news.google.com)
• Biden urges Dems to embrace Obama’s tax-cut plan (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Paul Abrams: Democrats (and Bloggers): Stop Arguing, Unite Behind “Hostage” Banner, and Win. (huffingtonpost.com)

I Can See the Epitaph Already

Tags

campaign finance reform, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Politics, Supreme Court of the United States

The late not so great US of A. The country that turned into a corporation and had a revolving door boardroom of like-seeing people. Total dedication to pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Giving lip-service to the Christian right, purged of it’s bothersome ethnic, religious, and racial minorities.

Imploding in a last gasp internal war between the greedy and the more greedy.

A vast underclass of disallusioned  workers who learned too  late that the pie was never meant for them.

A military treated to various hedonistic delights in return for which they insulate the wealthy from the mob, who beg for food.

Sound familiar?

I see that as America’s future. I surely do. And I don’t think of myself as much of a conspiracy believer. 

Back in January the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision, that the government could not limit corporate funding of individual campaigns, claiming that to do so denied its 1st amendment right to free speech. Essentially, corporations were declared persons for purposes of the constitution.

No rational constititutionalist of course would ever argue that this was part of the founders intent, but no matter, judicial “activism” only depends in the end on whether you like the decision or don’t.

But this is only part of what may be an insideous and ongoing plan to take over all of government.

Now, I am aware that many would argue that that has already happened. What with all the  K Street shenanigans which pass for “lobbying,” one can make a good case that the country is already firmly under the control of the business community.

But a few other things are most troubling at least to me.

One is the present state of the economy. Two things here. One is that by all the endices I’ve seen, most of corporate America is doing quite well. They are cash heavy, at least those large corporations. Yet they are not hiring.

The second thing that interests me is the fact that banks are still refusing to make small business loans to those who desperately wish to expand their businesses and hire new workers.

To me, these things seem related. And conspiratorial in goal.

Many would argue that nothing stops the pursuit of money on the part of enterpreneurial America. I agree, to a point. I do think that they can delay their money fetish just long enough to reach a greater goal: namely the election of a more favorable government which will allow them to pursue their goals in a more regulation-free way.

So, it seems to me that this gives incentive to banks to refuse to loan, and to big corporations to refuse to hire, all for the real purpose of making the Obama administration look as bad as possible going into the fall election cycle.

I certainly don’t think that corporate America is beneath this kind of strategy. Once upon a time, I would have thought that all but a handful of politicians would have cried foul. No, in today’s climate, especially among the GOP, I can see them easily going along with such a plan. Indeed, I can fairly see John Boehner and Mitch McConnell laughing and joking with glee every time the jobs report comes out.

No pain and sadness at millions of people out of work and struggling to raise they kids in some kind of decent home. I see most Gopers in callous disregard for the average American out there.

But it gets even worse than this. And thinking about it is what prompted this post.

We have before us an unprecedented (at least as I recall) number of candidates running for public office, pouring in literally MILLIONS of dollars of their own personal wealth. This is happening in Florida (Scott), California (Whitman) and Connecticut (McMah0n).

Once upon a time, we were taught that anyone could run for office. Anyone could rise to be President. That is increasingly not the case any more. Wealth buys all that TV time that is now essential to success. And some people are obscenely wealthy and prepared to use large chunks of it in pursuit of their goal of winning.

Perhaps for some it is merely an ego trip. But I suggest that for many, it amounts to a determination to change Washington into a more business friendly environment (as if it could be more so than it is). And this frustrates and inhibits the ability of the people’s voice to be heard.

Indeed, what with complaints about judicial “activism” and calls for impeachment, voting judges out whom you don’t agree with, and the like, we are soon to lose any semblance of a representative government controlled by checks and balances as OUR FOUNDERS INTENDED.

Ironic isn’t it? But it is now apparent that there is a pattern. The issue of founders intent is raised to object to what one dislikes, and ignored when we wish to subvert the very document itself.

I’m prepared to be shown that my logic is faulty here, but it does seem curious how all this somehow fits together. If indeed we are in the midst of those who are deliberately attempting to subvert our economic recovery to insert their claws more deeply into the fabric of America, then we have much to be concerned about.

And similarly, we need to look at the issue of whether we can allow any candidate for any office to spend outrageous amounts of money, even if it is their own, in pursuit of winning. When the playing field is not level, then there is no fairness.

What do you think?

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Sweeping Out the Flotsom

Tags

climate change, environment, global warming, Idiocracy, Inhofe, Media, Michelle Bachmann, polling, Sarah Palin, science, tea baggers

Trying to talk to a climate change denier, is about as effective as talking to a evolutionary biology denier. Both have too much invested in their world view to take a change on actual thinking.

This country has endured its worst winter ever in many places. Dallas is scheduled for nearly a foot of snow, while northern Florida and Atlanta are both hit with inches.

The wackos at Faux Nauseous spout how “Al is afraid to come out and be seen, since the winter snows clearly  destroy his claim of global warming.” Duh, what could be clearer? Most snow, coldest temperatures, ipso facto and all that jazz.

Except that their conclusion is laughable, and bespeaks an utter lack of intellectual prowess or, worse, as we often suspect, downright intentional misleading. It’s often hard to tell which. I mean is Senator Inhofe really nuts ( we hear he whistles “If I only had a brain” down the corridors of Congress), or is he the willing shill of the energy companies who pour thousands into his campaign coffers?

We do know that the majority of the tea bagging, evangelical Jesus spouting deniers do not know better. Their brains have long atrophied. The have been victimized by Faux Noise and K Street to the extent that they magically do their bidding, completely unaware that they vote against their own interests.

Inhofe claims that the “books are cooked” as regards climate change. This naively or not, claims that scientists twist the evidence to an outcome other than where it naturally would go for some ulterior reasons, the likes of which Mr. Inhofe has yet to explain. Science is peer-reviewed and scientists gain their celebrity precisely for bringing forth replicable findings which their colleagues across the globe can review, retest and agree or disagree with.

After bemoaning the fact that only the likes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, and a few of the left were countering the lies perpetrated by the Limbaugh/Fox/Inhofe conspiracy forces, finally the mainstream media addressed the claims.

Diane Sawyer brought on an actual scientist to address these claims. She calmly reminded everyone that scientists don’t have sides but pursue the evidence. They she pointed out that in reports issued years ago, reference was made that one of the consequences of this intense uptick in warming was that “storms would increase in intensity.” In other words, whether it be snow storms, thunderstorms, tornado activity, hurricanes, there is likely to be a greater range and ferocity, caused by shifts in the temperatures of oceans and the movements of deep sea “streams.”

Course, we know, that this will change no mind, for the already questionably brain dead will not bother to even read an independent source. After all, intellectuals are dangerous–they know things that the NASCAR bible thumpers don’t, and that’s too scary.

***

Speaking of intellectuals (I lied, my bad), Sarah just can’t keep her doncha/cantcha/wanna self out of the news these days. We of course were not surprised that she writes her “values” on her hand in an attempt to recall exactly what they are when being interviewed by sympathizing followers. The jokes are too numerous to set down.

But really girl, this is a tad much doncha think? At her next couple of “speaking” engagements she seeks to bar the press from coverage. No doubt to prevent them from getting more food for the mill. According the Think Progress, the Wasilla Wonder wants the media barred. This comes on the heels of her and her handlers barring phones, cameras and political questions from those  who line up ( why on earth they would is another matter–line up that is) to get her to sign her silly book.

Alaska bloggers are on a black list, and apparently non-English speaking press is especially turned back. This from a woman who wants to remove Obama because we are “losing our freedoms.” I guess she isn’t referring to any of those mentioned in the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. The total insanity of this woman and her reams of illogical drivel is enough to make one well, demand a recount of her brain cells. There can’t be more than 12, and I’m being generous.

And don’t miss this piece on David Broder’s love affair with the mooselady. A new word is coined for Sarah, the media that adores her, and the bowel movements that endorse her: Idiocracy

***

And speaking of well, demented women of a Republican persuasion, we must tell you that both women have fared poorly in recent polls. No doubt you are aware that Sarah has reached new heights when it comes to voter disapproval. More than 70% claim she is unqualified to be president, and the number is about 56% when referring to Republicans only.

Similarly, the crazy woman from Minnesota (that’s Minna SO ta to you) is an “embarrassment to 56% of the electorate.”  Only in her district does she poll a slight majority of favorables. This no doubt is similar to Steven King our own resident crazy, who I suspect only polls well in his northwestern district in Iowa.

This suggests that the crazies of any state are pushed/pulled to remote isolated little districts where they can be ignored by the sane working population of a state. We are heartened by the fact that the majority in these states can add 2 + 2  and = 4, and we will not continue with our packing to move to the Greater Antilles as we had planned (we pooh poohed moving to the Lesser Antilles, well, because they are lesser and they don’t have Diet Coke Caffeine  free, I learned).

Are We Watching the End?

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China, Congress, Contitution, economy, filibuster, Health care, legislation, mega corporations, politicians, Rome, special interests

Washington is looking more and more like the bloated, rotted corpse that was ancient Rome. You may think that is going a bit too far, but frankly, I don’t think it is. After all, Rome, which as we all know, was not built in a day, didn’t die in one either. It took decades and indeed centuries for the final nail to be pounded into a barely breathing empire.

No doubt some will say, that there are always naysayers and doomsday predictors throughout every era. Much like the perennial apocalyptic “the sky is falling” proponents, who surface at almost every moment in history, the claim is that “this too shall pass.” Things do indeed look worse up close and personal.

Perhaps, but I don’t think so. I think we are sliding down that ever slippery slope into the era of the reliving of past glories. Just ask the British, they probably never saw it coming either, nor I dare say, did the Romans. We’ve been through rough times before, and we survive. Yes, indeed we have, but it seems that what is going so very wrong in America these days has a cause–its an utterly dysfunctional government subject to archaic rules and laws that no longer make sense in the strange new global world in which we find ourselves.

My DD had a fine article on this today, and one that I urge you to read.  Most all of us have in recent years commented on the almost ground to a halt condition of our congress. Many things are undoubtedly to blame but I seem to see a couple big causes.

One is when we declared (for perfectly good reasons at the time) that corporations had some near human status in our legal world. This of course made it subject to being sued in tort actions and indeed occasionally in criminal matters. But it set the tone and allowed them to claim for themselves other “citizen” rights. Mostly, it gave them the right to “freedom of speech” and with that the right to support candidates both verbally and financially.  Little did we realize that soon, all our politicians would be owned by these increasingly large behemoths.

We did not foresee the growth of mega corporations, and certainly didn’t envision their global reach. Now their interests are often at odds with purely American interests, and they expect that their bought and paid for politicians will legislate in a manner than protects their interests even when the public is ill served by their actions.

We all know we need serious overhauling of the health care system, yet we are going to get a bizarre mishmash of directives that actually don’t do much of that, and don’t serve the public, but do protect the industries involved for the most part with a few “crumbs” to the masses.

We seem powerless to stop this, or change it. We have this odd, and I would suggest, irrational belief that our Constitution, so perfect for so many decades, is capable of  coping with the new world it finds itself in. Between the mega corporation and it’s puppeteering, we have the “special interest” lobby groups who have infiltrated the Beltway, their pockets stuffed with money and their demands backed up by a loyal mass of “followers” who claim they will vote their interest in large blocks against anyone who attempts to stand in the way of their legislative favorite. It is no accident that Joe Lieberman is now referred to as “Mr. Aetna” for his irrational and contradictory opposition to the public option and opening up of medicare. He is simply owned by insurance interests.

I cannot see a solution to this dilemma through elections. We would have to utterly replace every senator and house member for the most part, and all would have to be dedicated to an total overhaul of the rules of both houses that now seemingly bog down everything in endless debate, vote, cloture moves, threats of filibuster, and on and on. All of this is aimed at one thing only, and that is–effectively blocking anything meaningful coming from any quarter.

Better  to consider a constitutional convention to look at how our legislative process needs be changed in this modern world. And, without doubt, no senator or house member should be allowed to participate. No one on the payroll of any corporation or special interest should be allowed to be a delegate either. Yes, yes, I realize that there will be cries of “unfair” from nearly every corner of America.

But clearly, no sane person can argue that the Founding Fathers, whom we tend to lionize as gods of some sort, ever envisioned the world we inhabit today. Not even close. They could not, as we cannot possibly imagine the world of even a hundred years from now. Until we let go of our maudlin nostalgic clinging to words written on parchment long ago, we will continue to flounder in this growing cesspool  of greed, power, money, and sex that has become our national “shrine.”

I’ve had enough, but then I said that twenty years ago, and nobody was listening then. The chorus who join me in decrying this abysmal situation no doubt has been doing the same for twenty years. The big question is: Will we ever get beyond the rhetoric to truly address this or not.

If we choose to continue lamenting with no real effort to initiate reform, then the future looks bleak indeed. We have befouled our planet, and turned our government operation into a rusty, smelly, barely to be tolerated joke. And given our lackluster and ineffectual promotion of “good” education, it’s doubtful most of our kids will be able to speak the Chinese that will soon be required to live in America.

The ball, as they say, is in our court. Table tennis anyone?