2-4 2sday Crisis or Circus edition

"You never know what you'll do, until you do what you do. WHEN YOU'RE BROKE." -Todd Snider

Experience Matters -OR- We need a lot more lipstick!

If any one man knows what it's like to crash and burn it's the REproblican nominee. He has company now. Another wash-out pilot with delusional visions.

"I'm BAILOUT your brand new son."

In America -OR- Whachoo talkin' `bout Willis?

From poster Tanner Boyle (how cute) on one of the sandboxes in which I dabble...

Guys...none of this discussion really matters.
In the end, John McCain will be the next President of the United States.
Now, I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I'm a realist.

And, there is no way, no how, that a negro is going to be elected President of the United States in our lifetimes. It's as simple as that.

You can argue the polls, the issues, the backgrounds, and the qualifications of each candidate, both for the President and the Vice President...but in the end, color will decide this election.
America is not ready for a black President. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
It's that simple.

I asked, politely of course, if the last line included a typo? Was it supposed to be I'm not It's?

As we approach yet another defining moment in Electoral history, we take strength from the polls that we hate so much. IF (a biggie)the polls hold steady, IF the people are not as simple as to vote for more of what they've been getting, good and hard, for so long, that many younger voters have no working knowledge of what came before the current clusterfuck, IF having traded the future for the biggest pig in a poke EVAH, doesn't make them say fuggit, we're outta here, what kind of future is still possible?

We'll take over a franchise that has long-term contractual obligations that seemingly lock us into staying the course set out by BushCo. Wholesale change will be impossible. Our future's so dark, what's the point? We're Krazy Glued to this wheezing, pus-laden, obstinate, calculated, manipulated and permanently cast future of debt, war and diminishment for our lifetimes and our options have been so limited as to be non-existent. The next POTUS will have to honor our obligations. Won't he?
Our next Congress will follow policy, won't they? They won't be able to change the rules... hmmmm, Hey, wait just a cotton pickin' minute, YES THEY CAN! If we've learned ANYTHING from 8 years of BushCo, it's that rules are subject to interpretation.

What's more, I think enough of us realize the potential that can move forward in January that we can tolerate the reality of opposite world for another few weeks. We're phucked. It looks bad. The only thing that could possibly make things worse would be a NEXT POTUS who actually believes that because they can't believe anything else. Someone who will tap the current field of incompetents to serve in a MeCain administration for FOUR MORE YEARS?

Nothing's done that can't be undone. A bumpy ride either way, but only one will get us back to the highway.

Ginko Biloba? -OR- Better Debating Through Chemistry?

-Or- Analog candidate goes digital?

You could almost see the checklist. Names, dates, places. Get them all in. I didn't spend two hours cramming for the test NOT to use them ALL.

The obvious question, for me, is "Do we need mandatory post-debate drug testing?"

That was not the John MeCain that's been campaigning for 20 years.

Phriday Phuggery -OR- Here in Opposite World

Phreaky!

When you suspend your campaign you become more visible. When you cancel an appearance on a late night talk show to appear on the nightly news you serve up the tastiest comedy of the evening. When you return to Washington to do whatever you can to work out a deal, you wind up derailing the deal.

Yep, everything is working as expected. You are at the center of your universe. Opposite World. Where your campaign team is a veritable who's who of Washington power, influence, ethical contradictions with all the earmarks of a licentious cabal, it's only natural that you campaign as the maverick reformer.

War is peace, black is white, up is down, rich is poor, banks rob people, all pigs are fed and ready to fly.

ONLY in a world such as this could this race be a dead heat. In such a world, you can say you will not debate your opponent as long as there is injustice in the world and get away with it. You can avoid your past, your record, your speeches, your reputation and with only slightly cartoonish contortions you can even run against yourself. You can run as the outsider against your 40 year record in public life. You can pick a den mother from Alaska as your running mate and rewrite her bio to make her worldly and astute.

Inside is outside, wrong is right, spending is saving, anger is love, bad is good, weak is strong, bullshit is truth.

And half the people are right there with you, because they live in opposite world too. They are able to look at the outcome of conservative rule and blame liberals.
They can see all the evidence of arrogant greed and blame the poor. They suspended disbelief, and in their world that is all that mattered. All that existed.

Such people will not willingly return to the real world. They will believe anything. Except the truth, because the truth is just too horrible.

Pay no heed to the man behind the curtain -OR- BOHICA Baby!

Where do they come up with these brainfarts? Well that should be the question, but instead I, and I hope any thinking person, find myself asking "Why does this crap keep working for them?". But if I have the facts straight, In 41 days we're going to elect the next POTUS. There's a even shot that a Democrat may win. Not just any democrat, but a black, rhetorically progressive, quasi-liberal agent of change. Now the cesspool of malfeasance and inept arrogance that was unleashed by Voodoo Economics in 1980, that has festered and inbred and replicated and brought us to the precipice of the financial abyss 28 years later rears its ugly hydra-headed parasite-laden sphincter and looms over all. After 28 years of record setting recklessness, greed, avarice, monumental stupidity and filling-jarring sucker punches we're told that the ONLY thing we can do is go all in. All the chips for the next generation or four are needed and that will only bury the trillions of bad ideas, dilute the effect.

Response: The GOP nominee suspends his campaign to return to Washington D.C., where he's been AWOL for 20 months.



Yep, that oughta do it.

2-4 2sday It's Time to Decide Edition

2-4 2sday Meltdown Edition

My bailout plan -OR- Spin the wheel; win a prize

Pick 700,000 taxpayers at random. Criteria: filed on April 15th 2008, received tax refunds of $5000 or less and had their refund electronically deposited. Deposit $1,000,000 into each of their accounts, but put a hold on the funds.
Give the recipient list to Secretary Paulson and let him go try to borrow the funds from them. He can explain the emergency and sell them individually as to how this is their patriotic duty. He can negotiate terms, interest rate and repayment schedules.

At this point I would put more faith in the financial acumen of 700,000 of the working poor, than the crush of experts who are calling this bailout a stroke of genius.

CNN commenter gets it in one -OR- DOH!

"Republicans lowered my taxes, and will keep them low. But the value of my home has dropped 20%, my health insurance costs have doubled, gas costs $4 a gallon, and my investments are in the tank...

Please, tax me."

That's what I call the straight talk express. He forgot to include that his property taxes have doubled, his sales tax was raised and his kids' college tuition has doubled too.

Heckuva job GOP. Worshiping at the altar of RWR. Ignoring the reality that everything that say and do is just a continuation of the lies, that have had the exact opposite effect from their claims.

WIDOID RICSAS.

A day in the death of an American Soldier -OR- Goodbye Josh

Headlines: Sept. 18th

Blast kills 4 U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan

Gates apologizes for Afghan deaths from Airstrikes

U.S. is reviewing Afghanistan war strategy, Gates says

Remember the Powell Doctrine? The one that states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States?:

1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?
2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American people?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?


Yeah, well: FAIL

Since taking the Bush/PNAC detour into Iraq supplanting the Shrub's delusions in place of ADULT thinking, we've sent troops into a harm's way that we have deliberately, systematically, ineptly, criminally negligently expanded in all directions.

That's not leadership. That's insanity.

And that insanity has destroyed millions of lives, an economy, America's standing in the world, and now it has taken my best friend's son. SYSTEMATICALLY.

NOW they are re-thinking their strategy? For the umpteenth time? I'm neither shocked nor awed. I'm just more pissed off than ever that these fucktard blowholes were allowed anywhere near our interests, resources and decisions.

The first headline was taking place in conjunction with the second. Indiscriminate air strikes, -used to compensate for a devolving situation on the ground, precipitated by not having attainable objectives, without frankly analyzing the risks and costs, without exhausting all other non-violent means, without fully considering the consequences, without the support of the American people, more or less ensuring an endless entanglement,- killed some more innocent Afghanis for which the Secretary of Defense had to apologize while my friend's son was driving down a road in eastern Afghanistan and was blown up by an IED planted by people who don't hate us for our freedoms, they hate us for killing them and having to apologize for our stupidity.

Fucking Brilliant.

And what is the NEW strategy? MORE TROOPS.

"The additional request could add about 15,000 troops, above the more than 5,000 4,996 fresh troops in the president's current order, to bolster the U.S. presence in Afghanistan."

Fuck you Mr. Bush. May you be hounded for the rest of your miserable existence.

This elections "swing" voter -OR- Our standards. Double

What normal people see.



What crazy baseworld sees.



White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election

Tim Wise spells it out. Objectively. If you still don't get it, you really need to seek professional help.

Just because the words aren't coming out doesn't mean they aren't affecting the "undecided" voters.

When Barack Obama makes an appearance. When that appearance is covered by the media. For a measurable segment of the voting public, it IS a John McCain ad.

Because when you see this:


They see:



and suddenly McCain/Palin and their hypocritical zealotry, are the obvious choice to "protect" America. To sustain the privilege they refuse to claim, but continue to perpetuate.

Until we outnumber them. Until we outvote them. Until we expose their irrational fears. Until we move them out of the way of real progress on racial issues. Until we
WAKE UP!
Until then...

Out on a limb -OR- Oh Shit!

A picture's worth a thousand words? Good, I don't have words right now to decribe how royally screwed things are. There must be at least a few hundred individual pictures in the following. Half a million words? A Million when adjusted for inflation.

Fast and furious today.

This one should get mileage:

"Asked what work John McCain did as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate’s top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.

“He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”

Does he get royalties?

Now he can lose, then win a nobel prize for his humanitarian contributions to global communications. Is an oscar too much to hope for?

HOW do such things get started?!??! Why would anyone giggle themselves silly at teh stoopid displayed without guilt, without an appreciation for history and evidently without another viable thought in his head as to how to respond?

2-4 2sday Lehman Bros. Edition

Nothing More Need Be Said -OR- Why can't I write like Drifty?

Driftglass- "On That Day
we drank grief.

We drank rage.

We took long pulls off that dark bottle marked Vengeance, and toasted with tears the memories of those who had been murdered by monsters.

But now, seven years later, some of us just stay drunk all the time.

Please, please, please read the rest.


If you are not digging Driftglass, you aren't breathing.

When this image was posted to a wider audience, some folks were shocked and upset.
Fuck `em. The truth fucking hurts.

Might be too much to ask that they read the words that went with the image. That would require admitting we've been had. They might get angry and upset. They might have to WAKE THE FUCK UP.

It's just easier to shit in the shit with the rest of the poo-flingers, buy another ribbon magnet and blame it all on the Dirty Fuckin' Hippies.

Because I'm not a heartless bastard -OR- The Bravest

and why I can't just let it go. EVERY LAST responsible party must be held accountable.

Seven years later. -OR- Still thinking the unthinkable.

Why use a big conspiracy theory when a little one will do? How many strategically placed personnel would be required to make a dream come true?
What would domestic cells of dream weavers look like? What Petri dish medium would provide the optimum opportunity to make the dream a reality?
What perfect storm of circumstance could swing public opinion to your cause?

Predictably when I don my tinfoil hat and attempt to discuss my severe misgivings over the written history of September 11, 2001, I am immediately dismissed out of hand. Controlled explosions, conspiracy? Nope, not needed. Applying the K.I.S.S. principle does quite nicely. All we needed to do was nothing. Specifically, nothing to stop the attack. Absorb the punch. After all, how bad could it be? In the world that existed before that day seven years ago, the prospect of an attack "succeeding" was remote. But the opportunities that just a repeat of WTC 1993 would present were worth it.

Given the track record of subsequent events, is it conceivable? Likely even? that the braintrusts screwed up? Underestimated the threat and the consequences? Inconceivable? Consider the players and their placement, before and after 9/11.. PNACers occupied every strategic point required to fulfill their gameplan. They got more than they hoped for and almost immediately realized that their ship had come in.

Why aren't these assholes in jail? You broke it; you bought it.

William Kristol, Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush,
Dick Cheney, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes,
Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle,
Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, Norman Podhoretz,
Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen,
Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, George Weigel, Paul Wolfowitz,
Robert Kagan, Bruce P. Jackson, Mark Gerson, Randy Scheunemann,
Ellen Bork, Gary Schmitt, Thomas Donnelly, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Timothy Lehmann,
Michael Goldfarb, Doug Feith.

How long do you think they would have held up under interrogation?
If anybody had bothered to see beyond the nightmare that unfolded, dared
to round up the most likely enablers, sequester them and ask vital questions.

But who? Who had the stones to speak the unspeakable, question the highest authorities?
Where was there a breach in their ability to pull this off?

Water under the bridge? I take small comfort that they, predictably, screwed the pooch rushing to implement their plan. We haven't realized the PNAC nightmare...yet. Sleep, perchance to dream...

Wacko conspiracy nutjob? Sure why not. Good company.


Crisis Papers
Old American Century
Pitt summary
Linky Goodness
Global Research
Laudem Gloriae
Fringe?
Depth Chart

Confessions of a Rink Rat OR We'll meet you in the Parking Lot!

I know a thing or two about Hockey Moms. I never had one of my own, but I was adopted by one of the greatestof all time. During the hockey season, I spent most weekends with my hockey mom and her family, either in

the car traveling to games or helping out in the donut shop that supported the family's hockey addiction. (Our weight-training program was dumping 50# bags of flour into the mixer.)

Mrs. C was the prototype, complete with cowbell. There
were others, but they all paled in comparison. Somewhere between my last Bantam and first Midget seasons, things changed noticeably. A new breed of Hockey mom started showing up at ice rinks. A monied group wearing furs, baubles and flawless make-up.

Suddenly status was involved in 6 a.m. ice times. The old army duffle bags gave way to specialized equipment carriers. The equipment maker's logo grew, even on the padding that was covered up. Ability took a back seat to having the latest, properly branded and matching logos. Elite teams founded and formed around the adults for whom the hockey season was their social life.

But 4 a.m. 5 a.m. 6 a.m. ice times? That just wouldn't do. The house leagues that birthed this new elite would have to take the earlier times so that brunch ettiquette could be observed. Prime time ice was valuable and not fitting for skaters in rags. But I digress.

The enthusiasm shown by Mrs. C was for the effort, the skills and the joy players displayed on the ice. What mattered to the elite was winning. Being "better" than the other team even if that meant bending the rules. When things did not go well for their team on the ice, especially against an inferior social group, the adults seemed to lose it.

When the Republicans nominated Sarah Palin and used her Hockey Mom experience as a positive, I wasn't picturing Mrs. C and her cowbell. Instead I recalled all the parents who suck the joy out of youth sports. The ones who tell their social circle at little league games that they are going to run for the board saying they want to make things better. But not finishing the sentence with the truth; "For MY kid".

They could give two shits about better for everyone as long as their kid is the all-star. Their campaigns are predictably elitist appealing to the vanity of their supporters. The riff-raff they seek to dispel from the
programs, the economic cleansing they so desperately desire are communicated tacitly.

"If you want to be popular, hang with us." Sure, we'll fuck you over, but for the time period leading up to the vote, we'll let you sit with the cool people.

Sure you can try to run against and defeat us, but if you do, don't count on the wannabe cools for support. They'll do anything we ask for their shot at reaching our status.

Leaving the rink after a particularly satisfying victory over an elite team I had refused to join, I was met by a kid I'd known forever. His father was there too. Telling the kid to kick my ass. We looked at each other for an awkward moment, shook hands and went our seperate ways. The Dad screamed threats and obscenities at me long after I was out of earshot and smacked his own kid around for being a chickenshit.

That in a nutshell is my basic problem with Reproblicans in general and Boris and Natasha MeCain and Palin specifically.

2(+1)-4 2sday Voter Study guide edition