S’more People I’d Like to Send to Antares

Tags

Bill Kristol, Charles Colson, Evangelism, fundamentalism, Iraq, Kirk Cameron, neo-con, right wing religious, Sarah Palin

Billy (The Man!) Kristol is just one of those guys you can define just by looking at his face. A few sentences from his mouth, and you are sure.

Billy was born in 1952 to educated parents, his father being managing editor of Commentary and his mother an English Lit scholar. Born in NYC he was preppy all the way. In other words, Billy was born the good life.

His dad, an old progressive, disillusioned, became the major founder of the neo-conservative movement. Billy, ever, his Dad’s boy, attended Harvard and soon was deeply enmeshed in politics of the Republican kind.

With a few others, he started the Weekly Standard,  holy grail of  neo-con thought.  Murdoch financed it. Nice to have everyone in the same bed doncha think?

It appears that Billy was instrumental in killing the Clinton health care initiative and well, one could argue that Billy got heady with power. He self-claims that he alone was the main creator of the Iraq war, and ain’t that something to be proud of?

He claims almost sole credit for promoting the “surge” in Iraq. Kristol, ever the war monger wanted to join in the Lebanese war in 2006, and mused that it might be an excellent time to “take out” Iran’s nuclear capability as well. “The Man” is a full-blown believer in American Exceptionalism, meaning that America is somehow entitled to rule the world.

There is an overriding smugness about Kristol, a looking-down-the-nose kind of superiority. One could wonder mightily whether he is really the result of an unholy tryst between his mom Gertrude and one Dick (The Dick) Cheney, but alas that is pure speculation. Both biological oddities (they call themselves men) have that air about them that most of the rest of us stink in comparison to their heavenly brilliance.

Of course, riding on his own self-importance, Billy pushed hard for John McCain to choose the Moose woman as his running mate. True to his immense ego, Kristol no doubt saw a pathetic-star-struck wannabe and thought he could meld and mold her into a perfect mouthpiece.

But the Sarah has turned out quite different. Her advice to Christine (hands off my private parts) O’Donnell, to not be handled by the professional handlers, is clearly what has happened vis-a-vis Kristol. She has not been amenable to being groomed into the perfect neo-con Barbie.

Kristol of course, smirks and chuckles about Sarah’s independence, but clearly he and others are concerned about her “mavericky” behavior. O’Donnell’s surprising victory in Delaware, have all but destroyed any hopes that the GOP can capture the Senate.

We have little doubt that Kristol has had more than a few phone calls that start out with “Why in the hell can’t you control that woman!” No doubt such attacks recall the long years of youth when Billy was without doubt the subject of much taunting as the sissy boy nerd. Much of what passes for his “expertise” today is merely payback for all those playground assaults.

Suffice it to say, if I ran into Kirk Cameron, I’d be inclined to pipe up with: “What stupid vat did you fall into?”

You remember Kirk, cute teen TV kid, Mike Seaver on Growing Pains?  Uhuh, yep, that’s the one. with Alan Thicke.

Today? Why, he’s a full-blown evangelical minister. He now stars in Left Behind movies although his post Growing Pains career was fairly successful.

Kirk became a born-again while still filming GP, and was, if one believes Wikipedia, often heard to demand that anything “racy” by stripped from the show. He married his GP girlfriend, Chelsea,  and apparently will not “kiss” another woman in film shooting because it would violate his vows.

Normally I don’t give a hoot if someone professes and practices born-again Christianity. I do draw the line when they have an ability, as Cameron does to reach the masses. Then I sit up and watch. And watching, in this case, will hurt your brain.

Cameron espouses all the usual crap of the right-wing–creationism instead of evolution, and with few qualms about altering Darwin to suit his purposes. He and his partner Ray Comfort then distribute the altered versions free on college campuses.

He’s recently finished a film called Monumental which “documents God’s action in America.” He supports Glenn Becks efforts, but questions his Mormonism. (I just love that sort of thing don’t you?)

He voices the usual enemies list: secular humanists, radical atheists, socialism, and one can assume that he is nix to abortion rights and gay rights as well.

Nexxxt!

Chuckie (Hatchet Man) Colson is another of your evangelical types, having discovered the true faith sometime as he contemplated prison or had plenty of time to think while there.

There are only so many resurrection careers available to the ex-con and this is one of them, not that I question the conversion of Chuck. I surely don’t.

It seems that he has been admirable in putting most of his money into his ministry, contrary to many of his evangelical buddies.

As part of the inner circle in the dark Nixon administration, he identified himself as “ruthless” and was known for heavy-handed tactics. He authored the infamous “enemies list” at the White House. He of course is most famous for being a member of CREEP and imprisoned for his cover-up attempts of the Watergate scandal.

He has been active in his prison ministry but of course began to dabble in politics again, bringing, with others,  a “just-war” excuse to then President Bush, to justify the attack upon Iraq. He is a vocal opponent of abortion rights and same-sex marriage. As of late, he has claimed that he will no longer use the term “same-sex marriage” or “gay marriage”  because as he says, “there is no such thing.” Yep, problem solved, just define it out of existence.

PS: Dear Antareans: Should you have sentient beings on your planet, please feel free to divert this garbage scow to a more suitable barren planet. Your friend, Earthing Sherry of the species Homo Sapien Sapien

Related Articles

• David Isenberg: William Kristol: Dulce Bellum Inexpertis (huffingtonpost.com)
• Is Palin a Puppet? (charlestoncitypaper.com)
• Kirk Cameron Announces New Documentary, MONUMENTAL: In Search of America’s National Treasure (prweb.com)
• Video: Clinton’s religious/human rights views upset Chuck Colson (alt headline: ‘Good work, Secty. Clinton!’) (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Marriage and the Battle for Language (dakotavoice.com)

War, Good God, What is it Good For?

Tags

Afghanistan, Iraq, Veterans, Vietnam, War

It may come as a shock to you to know that I am a pacifist. I hold no truck with war. None. I find it an ugly waste of life.

I am not a patriotic person by nature. I don’t understand artificial national lines of demarcation. I figure you farm where food grows, and you manufacture where factories make sense. Anything less makes no logical sense.

War never ends war, never has, and never will. Within every war are the seeds of the next one, and the next, and on and on.

It has been said that these interminable wars we now are engaged in, are real only to the actual soldiers and their families. The rest of us remain largely untouched. That is probably true. But it probably always has been like that. We fail always to see the deeper and more subtle costs that effect us all.

I read many years ago Normal Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead.  He won the Pulitzer for it, and well he should. I never felt the same way about war after that. I learned there is no glory, no adventure, no honorable patriotic pride. There is only blood, sweat, insects, rot, disease, discomfort, pain, mental distress and death. Nothing heroic or noble, just putting one foot interminably in front of the other, marching into the jaws of death.

I think it speaks volumes that most veterans don’t talk about their war. It is too horrific, too vile, too inhuman. The fear they have is, I suspect, the revulsion they might find. My father never spoke of WWII, except to point a time or two, as he gazed at his company yearbook, “This guy got shot in the gut right next to me. He died.” On some beach, somewhere in Italy. Somewhere in some far off land.

I’ve been reading Tim O’Brien’s extraordinary book, The Things They Carried. I found it on a great books list, and thought my husband might need to read it. He cannot stop reading it, re-reading passages again and again. My husband wasn’t a grunt, he flew on helicopters, yet O’Brien’s poignant vignettes of life in the bush of Vietnam ring so true that he finds common ground aplenty.

I’ve read about half, and there are times I want to set it down and not continue. So raw and so frightening are the feelings. Time and again, I cannot relate to the behavior of young men living in such hell. I try, but I fail to understand. I would guess they would act one way, and they don’t. My husband understands, but I do not.

The book is so aptly titled. For he speaks of what they carried common to them all, water canteens, rations, M-16’s, ammo. But he then goes on to speak of the more personal things, the letters, the rabbit’s foot, the pair of pantyhose of a girlfriend, a deck of cards, a bible. And then deeper still, the fears, hopes, dreams, terrors that each carried in varying degrees.

One line I shall never forget.

“They died so as not to die of embarrassment.”

Vietnam was a war of the draft. Boys were called up. Damn few chose to go. Most did about everything they could to avoid it. College was a safe place to be, but grad school was not. The state army reserves was excellent, but the waiting lists were huge. Conscientious objector status was good, but you really had to show a history of such beliefs before being drafted. Boys sometimes pretended insanity, or homosexuality to escape. And then there was Canada.

O’Brien almost ran. He drove to the border, he fought his internal battle for a couple of weeks. In the end, he says, he was not courageous, he was a coward, he went back home, to report for boot camp.

You see, it was the embarrassment. Better to die in a war you did not believe in, wanted no part of, than to face the embarrassment of family, friends, town. Embarrassment that one couldn’t stand up and do the manly thing.

Ironic, that the draft captures the young. The eighteen through twenty-something. Exactly before young men have found themselves, their self-ness. Still so locked into peer pressure, and wanting to life up to expectations of what others desire them to be. It’s an ingenious system that works, most go like lambs to the slaughter because they cannot bear to be different. Thought cowardly.

So they go. And they die. Or they are grievously wounded. Or they see and participate in horrors the likes of which we who have not drunk from this cup, cannot imagine. We would recoil, we would move away. We would relegate such as these to leper colonies, these no longer quite humans.

So they don’t mostly speak. They live among us, with their terrible memories. With guilts and tears unshed, with fears of cowardly acts, of monstrous visions. Of death, of more blood than any animal slaughter house would conceive.

Of the smells, awful rotting human flesh, the charred remains of villages, of once sweet smells now gone rancid because of associations. The sounds, that make fireworks at home on humid July nights intolerable. The same for backfiring cars. The sounds of helicopters rotate through the mind and recall the sinking feeling as one is propelled downward into a free fall crash.

These are lifetime memories. Never to be escaped. And they forever color and mutilate lives, shrinking the scope of opportunity. Forever icing over the heart. Always the need to protect the raw pain that is ever present, though often softened by drugs and alcohol or any other addictive and repetitive behavior that numbs the senses.

And since we, the unchurched in such affairs, don’t understand, we all too readily are willing to defer to the crazy minds who still think that war is an answer. And so we don’t rise up in anger and indignation and demand that this hell stop. We tell ourselves it is unfortunate, but necessary.

And it is not necessary. It is simply humanity stuck in a rut of pain giving and receiving, back and forth like some crazy swing set. And I weep for all, for all who are ground up in this endless meat grinder.

**

The lyrics to Edwin Starr’s War, can be found here.

For a poem about life at Landing Zone Betty in Vietnam, read Gary Jacobson.

Peace

Dusting Off Our Hands

Tags

Afghanistan, American Exceptionalism, Britian, empire, France, imperialism, Iraq, Middle East, Vietnam, War

We in America are quite good at forgetting the past. Any past that implicates us as being less than wonderful, that is. I suspect other countries might experience some of the same thing, conveniently dis-remembering their evil acts.

Do the French still recall their contributions to the Vietnamese debacle that captured so much of the 50’s and 60’s? I rather doubt it.

The British, no doubt don’t spend prodigious hours bemoaning that their interference in Middle Eastern affairs in decades past has at least something to do with the current troubles of the region.

We here in America are no different. We tend to gloss over, most of us at least, our horrific treatment of American Indians and our imperialistic behavior toward Mexico and the stealing of their land. No, we “move on.” And in truth, there is something to be said for that too. After all, I had no part in the near genocide of the American Indian in their glorious diversity.

But, of course, that doesn’t mean that I should forget. For in the remembering comes the responsibility to do what can be done to repair the injuries.

We are in danger of forgetting about Iraq. Since some measure of calm has returned (meaning mostly that our war dead numbers have decreased to some “acceptable” level), we have largely stopped talking about it. The news outlets don’t mention it much. Afghanistan has leapt up the charts of public interest as the death toll there, (again in terms of American lives) has started to climb.

But people live in Iraq and their lives have been forever (it seems) altered by our decision to enter their country and upturn it’s civil life. Of course, to a degree, we don’t care about any of that. There is still in this country a contingent that fails to care, as long as  American lives are not the ones lost. Iraqi casualties have always been hard to collect and estimates are wildly veering from one end to the other.

Mostly we see Iraqi’s through the eyes of soldiers who’ve been moved to help out some child or other who touches them personally. That makes good news and allows us the feel good moment where we can tell ourselves that our troops are “doing good.” They are, to be sure, doing their best, but they are sent there to kill, not adopt puppies.

 I  ran across the post today from one living in Iraq. It’s not a big deal, not so important a post. But it speaks eloquently to the day to day  crap that people now endure. This new Iraq that we have created with our bombs. Not a place you or I would like to live in. A fact of life for them.

And we don’t talk about Iraq much any more, and when we finally get completely out, we won’t talk about it at all. Other than to shake our head that it hasn’t become the shining city on the hill we promised it would be. They just don’t want democracy it seems.

Just like the Vietnamese didn’t want it back in the 70’s. Damn stupid people. Too lazy and uneducated to know what freedom means. It had nothing to do with the havoc we wreaked, the lands we destroyed, the villages ruined, the lives distorted and forever changed.

We pulled up and left, and wiped our hands of it all. Not our problem any more.

We’re looking, getting ready, to pull the plug on Afghanistan now. You can hear the remarks, see the looks. We’re starting to emotionally disengage. Our losses matter, and they are getting way too high. Osama bin Ladin is no longer the rallying cry. Screw him, we’re getting  ready to get outa here. We’re tired of dying and losing and feeling impotent and inadequate. We don’t know what is wrong with you, and frankly we no longer care.

Truth is, we are replaying a story that we have played oh so many times, more than these examples. We define lofty goals to cover our own singularly ego driven desires, we enter and shoot up the place. We install puppet governments, almost always comprised of people who have some powerful allies to now professional rape their peoples. They do it well. We can’t understand why they HATE US?????

No indeed we don’t understand, and we will never understand until we face up to the truth. We are no better or worse than any of the other imperial empires. We just aren’t as blatantly bloody obvious about it. We couch our blitzkriegs with flowery “freedom” words and esoteric goals of transforming lands into islands of prosperity. We lie, both to ourselves and to them.

I have no answers. You know better than to ask me for any. I just sigh as I watch this Afghani scenario begin to play out. There is not victory in sight, there is no reason to stay. We have not left the country better, just battered. And we will refocus.

Refocus without learning a thing, and we will soon find ourselves in another place in another time, promising freedom and jobs and equality and justice, and we will emprison, and practice no equality and no justice, and leave another land in smouldering ruins. Our OOPS factor is mighty big here in MeriKa.

They say China will soon overtake us and become the new bigger better best empire. Perhaps. But I don’t expect they will do any better with the crown than we have. There is just something wrong with having that much power. It corrupts. And somebody I believe said that. Absolutely in fact!

Exploding Brains

Tags

bailout, Barack Obama, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, diets, economy, GOP, HHS, Howard Dean, Humor, Iraq, Joe the Plumber, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Wynnona Judd

It makes no sense to me:

• Republicans continue to call a lot of the bail out bill “typical Democratic spending” instead of money to help the economy. Do they have some special way of “helping the economy” sans spending money?
• Republicans claim that Obama wants a spending bill that will put us in a financial hole forever, with no guarantee it will work. Do they have a plan that is guaranteed to work? If so, let’s here it!

***

Joy Behar, from the View had a point to make worth repeating:

Cudo’s to Obama for using the words “I screwed up” in reference to the tax problems of some of his appointees. We never heard that from Bush in eight screwd up years!

And a big 😛 supposed to be a tongue stuck out!–to those appointees who lied to the Prez, and sabotaged his economic drive because they didn’t come clean with their tax problems to him privately before all this!

***

If you need a few chuckles today please step over to Desert’s  Child, and read Katie’s post, What is Butt Dust? It’s that great little kid humor that just can’t help but curl your lips into a smile at the very least!

Or for more adult fare, don’t miss DistributorCapNY and his wacky sense of political humor here. You may never watch Imitation of Life the  same way again. The cast consists in part of Sarah Rice and Condi Palin!

***

Wynnona Judd was hawking her new album–about pain and joy. First song was about how she was going to keep trying at love. So I guess another marriage down the tubes. She’s also a “paid” spokesperson for Alli that new diet product that’s hot right now. The problem is, Wynnona was all sobbing and such on Oprah a good year or so ago, and was on the way to slimmery. If what I saw today is any indication, the Alli is not working much either. When will these people shut the Freakin’ up about their failed weight loss? The truth is, weight loss like most personal problems, are a combination of things personal to the individual. We are damned lucky if we can sort it out and find what works for US. It most likely won’t work for anyone else anyway.

***

There is something out there called Blog Roll Amnesty day. I don’t understand what it is. I love the blogs on my roll, most of them are current, I visit them regularly, thought I admit I don’t comment as often as I’d like.

***

Stop by Agitprop and read about how congressional aides invited Joe the Plumber to their meeting to discuss the economic package. The Contrarian brought this to my attention I think yesterday, and I kept saying “why?” I am still asking “why?” Perhaps the entire lot of them should be fired?  I am still asking “why?” Oh and before you lose you mind completely, it was the GOP staffers who sent out the invite. Making more sense now? Yes of course. Idiots do that kind of thing, idiot things.

***

Iowans do come up with ideas, and some of them aren’t half bad. How bout nominating Howard Dean as Secretary of Health and Human Services? So asks Century of the Common Iowan. Not a half bad idea in my estimation. Dean had a lot to do with Obama’s win I think and I also think he hasn’t received the cudos he deserves. He’s a doctor too. CCI laid out his further qualifications at Huff Po.

***

If you didn’t just hate Rush Limbaugh enough, here’s another gem:

Limbaugh: Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the heads up!

***

And finally, I recall a chill going down my spine when I learned on Inauguration day that Darth Cheney was not going home to Wyoming. I’m sure that thrilled Wyomians, seeing they could keep out that pollutant, but still. It seems my undefined fears were not baseless. I think our sick piece of sludge is still trying to run a shadow government. Emptywheel gives the details that suggest he is behind efforts to unhinge the Obama plan to remove our military presence from Iraq. Read it and get scared!

The Good, the Bad, the Bush

Tags

Bush, education, foreign policy, Health care, Iraq, legacy, presidential power, torture

There are precious few days left in the Bush debacle called a presidency. And much as I am delighted to see him go, I shall miss the great opportunities the numbskull presented for humor.

Why just a couple of days ago, the boy wonder gave his last press conference. And within a couple of sentences we were treated to the new word he invented: misunderestimate! Yep our backward idiot boy never loses his touch does he?

Well I couldn’t resist this article by the one and only National Review, written by Rich Lowery. He decided he could come up with 10 mistakes Bush had made. Amazing, given that Bushie himself can barely think of one.  Anyhow, this stuff is mostly code, so let me interpret.

Not getting congressional buy-in on detention policy immediately after 9/11. Going to Congress would have forced more deliberation when the administration was rushing into the hasty improvisation of Gitmo and made it harder for Democrats to grandstand once it became controversial. (Yeah, forget the legalities. Bush should have gotten the Dems married to the policy so they couldn’t oppose the unconstitutionality of it later. Dumb mistake.)

An ineffective management style. Bush the “CEO president” wisely wanted to delegate. Alas, the quality of some of his Texas loyalists wasn’t particularly high, and when people under Bush failed, his first instinct was to stand by them stalwartly (see Rumsfeld, Don) rather than to hold them accountable. ( Dang, and we thought Cheney ran everything. And, it helps if the “CEO” reads and has a clue when his underlings are stupid. It had nothing to do with loyalty and still doesn’t.)

Not replacing George Tenet after 9/11. Someone should have taken responsibility after the terror attacks. Tenet’s exit wouldn’t have prevented the WMD debacle, but at least he wouldn’t have been around to give his dramatic “slam-dunk” demonstration in the Oval Office. (When you are going to use a scapegoat, use ’em early in the game. When you lie to people they have a disturbing habit of regurgitating your lies. Unfortunate  truly.)

Deferring to his generals. Bush believed that his job was to listen to his generals and give them what they wanted. This made him overly passive during much of the Iraq War. It wasn’t until his generals had nearly lost the war that Bush fully stepped up to his role as commander in chief, going around the brass to order the surge, the most successful and consequential initiative of his second term.
(Admission that you don’t know a thing about war planning and pursuit is not a good thing. Who gave Bushie the surge? Are you saying that nobody including Cheney thought the generals were wrong?)

Not taking charge during Katrina. As soon as the National Weather Service bulletins were warning of the possible destruction of an American city, Bush should have rode herd on the tangled homeland-security bureaucracy and, once the storm hit, federalized the response to save New Orleans from the incompetence and limited capabilities of its state and local governments. (The man cannot correct what he doesn’t understand. He still doesn’t think he did a thing wrong with Katrina. Now how can he spot incompetence when he is incompetent? He can’t help it, he thinks it’s all about whether he landed Air Force One or not.)

Too much accommodation of a GOP Congress. Bush got what he wanted out of Congress at the price of looking the other way from burgeoning earmarks and a creeping culture of corruption. More triangulation at the expense of his own party’s leaders would have served Bush — and perhaps the ill-fated GOP majority — well.(So he was not supposed to act like a Republican? Who says he looked the other way? He is the free market dude right? I thought Congress, except for those pesky Dems were doing exactly as he wished.)

Not reading enough history. Bush has admirably applied himself to an extensive reading program as president, but if he had absorbed more history before taking office — particularly about military matters — he’d have had a better grounding to make important decisions. (Gosh are you saying there should be actual qualifications for president beyond age and origin of birth? That means we should be in pretty good shape now huh? Stop assuming the revisionist history of the ‘reader’ president is sticking to the wall Rich. It ain’t. Bush is a dolt and everyone knows that.)

Refusing to settle the internal war within his administration. The acrimony between the State Department and CIA on the one hand and the Defense Department and vice president’s office on the other was poisonous and debilitating. It hampered the prosecution of the Iraq War and led to the “Scooter” Libby mess that was the highest-profile “scandal” of an otherwise relatively clean administration. (I thought you just said this was his management style? It doesn’t appear that Bush was aware of much of this at all. He said after all that any leaks in the Valerie Plame affair would be prosecuted. I suspect he had no clue, since he had no clue about most things.)

Underestimating the power of explanation. By temperament and   ability, Bush was more a “decider” than a “persuader.” He’s not naturally drawn to public argument, giving his administration its unfortunate (and not entirely fair) “my way or the highway” reputation at home and abroad. (Yeah, we all agree, Bush was an asshat, anything more to say? Arrogance was his middle name. He was abetted in that by Cheney who can give a rat’s ass what the public thinks about anything, since they are mere vermin used to carry out policy and die in wars.)

Ignoring health-care reform too long. By the time Bush unveiled a serious and sensible health-care reform in 2007, it was DOA, leaving Democrats with the initiative on this crucial issue. (That requires that you believe in health care reform in the first place. Bush doesn’t care, nor do Republicans generally. People who are uninsured are just lazy. Next question.

Well, after that rather vapid list of “errors” made by Bush, one couldn’t end things like that. No, the intrepid Fred Barnes, co-host of the Beltway Boys, and co-editor or such of the Weekly Standard, weighs in on the ten things Bushie got right. Alert: Fred Barnes is nuts, so don’t expect any rational argument. The dude wrote a book about how Bush would be remembered as one of the greatest presidents ever–you have been warned.

1. His decision to jettison the Kyoto treaty.  (The sure sign that something is no good is that environmentalists, Al Gore, “elites” and Europeans are for it. So nothing is better than something. According to Fred, consensus on Global warming has “collapsed.” Your brain has collapsed Fred.)
2. Torture and other eavesdropping methods. (Fred calls this enhanced interrogation to get around the naughty word torture. Of course it saved lives, but nobody has ever explained where and how. Just trust them. Saying you got crucial evidence is not errr, evidence.
3. The rebuilding of Presidential authority. (Fred go and consult any constitutional professor you want. Part of your proof here is Cheney, and Cheney said he wasn’t part of the Executive, so his abuses of power hardly bolster your argument. We have heard the old “commander in chief argument for suspension of the constitution. Nobody with a brain is buying it.
   
4. Bush’s unswerving support for Israel. (Yep, the peace process in the Middle East has certainly moved forward in the last eight years. Fred seems to like any action that upsets Europe or the UN. Bush’s policies certainly did that. Fred says he was good at saying one thing and doing another. Yes, a fine legacy I’d say. Lie!)
5. No Child Left Behind. (Most have been mildly supportive of the measure, but Bush just discontinued pushing. Lots of complaints that teachers have to teach to the test rather than actually teach. It’s not at all clear that kids have learned more. Most say they haven’t. )
6. A foreign policy of actively promoting democracy. (Yes, at the point of a gun too. How original. Fred says he’s zinged a few dictators. Yes, they do seem to be backing down everywhere Fred. Could you point out one?
   
7. The Medicaid reform on proscriptions. (Tons of folks got no benefit at all. And it was and remains very confusing to figure out what plan is best. This is what the Rethugs call health care reform. I’m still looking for all this competition and price reduction from the drug companies.)
8. The elevation of John Roberts and Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. (Well I can’t argue with you here Fred. But I see it as a sad disaster where you see it as grand. So much for social issues. At least Obama can stem the tide and keep it even with his next choice.)
9. Bush increased our friendships in Asia without pissing off China. (Not at all sure what Fred uses as evidence here. China has us by the economic balls and we all know it. Fred ignores Pakistan of course. )
10. The Surge. (The surge stemmed the tide of American dead. Little else. It had little to do with troops, it mostly had to to do with paying off the tribal chieftains to war against the insurgents and al Qaeda. Furthermore, a lot of the violence ceased because the ethnic cleansing in Baghdad has been pretty much accomplished.

That pretty much says it all. What else is there to say?

Short Takes on the Day 10/11/08

Tags

Afghanistan, cake, Desserts, Election 2008, fruit, gay rights, Iraq, McCain, Presidency, Sarah Palin, War

I’m just pleased as punch to announce that the Connecticut Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage. This is so wonderful, and I think presages the failure of Prop 8 in California in a few weeks. I must confess that I am nearly as happy at the thought of the gnashing of teeth that is going on in the wingnuttery land of right wing evangelical discourse. Perhaps you folks might move to Alaska. From what I have seen, you might be right welcome there, or again, perhaps not. I’d not want to lay money on the re-election prospects of the disgraced Sarah Palin.

Well darn, another adage bites the dust. The apple does indeed fall far from the tree. Christopher Buckley, son of the famous conservative, may he rest in peace, William F. Buckley, is endorsing> > > > BARACK OBAMA!!! Slip by Break the Terror and read the details of his statement, which is worth the trip I tell ya.

Epicurious  has a lovely fall dessert. Pumpkin-Apple Streusel Cake.  It sounds heavenly. Just right for those days you spend outside in the clean fall air. A soup and salad and this for dessert would be just about perfect. Take a look and add it to your file.

Garrison Keillor  is a dude I can never get enough of. If you are the same, then link ’em up and move ’em out. He suggests that anyone still undecided today on this election can’t be persuaded by the use of English.  And I suspect he is right. Anybody realize that the mobs that now attend McCain’s mob scenes rallies, are huge turn off to the independents? I mean embarrassing to see walking talking human being calling Obama an Arab and a Muslim. Too bad they don’t have the courage to admit the obvious. I am a Racist would be the correct statement no?

Michael Tomasky  reports that General Petraeus at a recent Heritage Foundation luncheon, said some things that sound an awful lot like what Obama has been saying,  and an awful lot not like what McCain keeps trying to sell. This might play well in the last debate scheduled for next week. We shall see.

A very nice piece at the History News Network   on the Vice Presidency. It is my contention, and certainly that of many experts that an unacceptable VP candidate is more than enough reason to vote against the ticket. There have been way too many VP’s who have gained the main office through the death of the President. We cannot take a chance on a utter neophyte gaining the office. She would be at the total control of people we have not elected, and goodness knows who they might be. Sarah’s past practice has been to elevate unqualified high school classmates to positions of state power in Alaska. Anyone want the civics teacher as the Secretary of State?

Lil Bits of Rancor or Not 9/26/08

Tags

Christianity, Democrats, economy, evolution, foreign affairs, Iraq, John McCain, lobbyists, muffins, paleontology, Politics, religion, Republicans, Saints, Sarah Palin, Spain, Zoology

Last week, we reported on the gaffe of McCain in not recalling whom the prime minister of Spain was. Apparently the McCain caretakers are so frightened of these continuing problems with memory that McCain continues to exhibit, that they are willing to go to any expense to avoid making that admission. So, McCain, we are told, knew exactly what he was saying and knew exactly who Zapatero is. That claim makes matters ever so much worse to many. Is McCain willing to trash an ally to win an election? You betcha he is. Read this Huffinton Post report from AlterNet.

Recipe time. This one is Chocolate Chip Muffins. And according to Baking Delights  it’s the best recipe in the universe. That takes in substantial territory so I’m expecting a lot from this recipe. Hope you find it delicious as well.

Break the Terror  brings us this story. It’s not a new concept, but they flesh it out nicely. Remember that in the past few days McCain in his feeble way has attempted to tie Obama to Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac and an enabler of sorts? I just don’t get these folks, since Rick Davis, his main man was paid nearly 2 million in fees for lobbying for deregulation so they could do their thing unregulated as it were. McCain is either so totally unaware of what’s going on in his own campaign, or he is one of the more serial liars of all time.

By any chance did you feel older the other morning when you woke up? I know I did, and now I know why. It seems scientists are busy doing science things and think that life arose on earth some 80 million years earlier than previously thought. Creationists are scurrying to revise their assessments no doubt.

I don’t claim any expertise about the economy (gosh I hate being grouped with John McCain) but I’m told that if there is one article about this banking mess you should read it is this one. Sebastian Mallaby writes an op ed for the Washington Post. Ezra Klein  gave us the word on this.

History News Network has I think a worthwhile article on American politics and how we have come to this juncture. A distinct thread of anti-intellectualism runs through the heart of this country, and we are consistently drawn to the “guy just like us” who is never just like us of course. This is exactly when we most need someone who is extraordinary to help us through crisis after crisis. Will we again opt for ordinary? Why does the Republican Party continue to be able to co-op so many people with an message is that is false? Just some of the questions answered here.

Well, I bet you didn’t know this: Chimps prefer their food cooked. I don’t recall jane Goodall ever talking about watching her chimps around the campfire cooking on a spit. Wonder why she omitted that? Well, Live Science says it’s true. So it must be. Also Neanderthals seem to have eaten both seals and dolphins. I guess they were not politically correct. Such folks would be shunned today as rather grotesque wouldn’t you say?

McCain caught in another lie, and boy are they adding up. He said that Rick Davis, his campaign manager hadn’t worked for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for “years.” Turns out Davis was paid by both until last MONTH. So it seems McCain will either be calling Davis a liar and firing him, or biting the bullet again with another lie. So says Steve Benen at The Political Animal.

Laila at Raising Yousuf and Noor  tells us exactly what it can be like to be Muslim in America. This is exactly the type of hatred engendered, I submit, but the hate filled campaign of a John McCain. I visited a web site earlier today (I won’t mention the vile place) in which Obama and Biden were referred to as Obama bin Biden. This is what John McCain brings to America. It is a shame.

If miracles are your thing, slip by rogueclassicism  and read about San Gennero’s Blood which liquifies at certain times of the year, well, miraculously it seems. Examinations have concluded that the phials indeed contain blood and there is no final explanation of why it liquefies on certain days of the year.

John McCain seems to have painted himself in a corner. In an obvious attempt to stop all the talk about how the polls are going against him, he came up with the grandstand play to capture attention. Problem is, nobody is buying it. Universally it’s being met as a political ploy, one that is not working as several in Congress say that his parachute jump into the middle of negotiations and the president’s “meeting” have wasted time and stalled negotiations. See what the American Prospect  has to say on the subject. Johnny can claim he is putting country above politics, but the obvious conclusion is that he put his political future first. Not exactly the first time he has done that.

Oh and in case you missed it, Sarah Palin has unilaterally declared “victory in Iraq.” In her illogical laden but cute squeaky voice, Sarah has said that iraq and the surge are the pattern we must use in Afghanistan now. It will be difficult she  says, because of that pesky “terrain, even” in Afghanistan. What a monumental joke this woman is. She offends me on more levels than I can count. She makes women, and small town people look like idiots, and I’m seriously pissed.