Friday - It rolls on in

Friday September 25, 2009

. . . Right off the bat, Happy Birthday Bruce Springsteen! (He turns 60 today)

. . . .Somewhere, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich et al are fuming mad, I mean just literally sitting there smoking. They have probably all retreated to some private club somewhere to get drunk as hell together. They wanted so badly for the United States to get attacked again, another terrorist attack, and prove that they were right with their belief that somehow the country was fundamentally not safer under Obama, that only the Right wing could keep everyone safe.

. . . .Seriously, the neoconservatives have to be just squirming. They've been wrong for 30 years on foreign policy and military strategies, and have always insisted that the Dems and a liberal President wouldn't know how to handle it. This Administration, in 9 short months, is picking off Al-Queada leaders, very effectively, and just foiled a major terror plot. Now, they've outed Iran with good covert intelligence work.

. . . .From Andrew Sullivan, on the neocon reaction:

f you believe that the only strategy American can have is bombing, invading and torturing, today's events must be a little disorienting. Here's Goldfarb desperately trying to spin against the administration:

There seems to be real bipartisan support in both the House and Senate for Congressionally-mandated sanctions that are not held hostage to this president's naive focus on diplomatic engagement and the faith this president obviously has in his own powers of persuasion.

Heh. Then this piece of undigested prose from another Kristolite. Jonah Goldberg approvingly reprints the following email:

So let me get this straight, our crack intelligence community knew about this second Iranian nuke plant a year ago (so it couldn't have been that big of secret to begin with) which means our Wonderful and Gracious Dear Leader knew about this second facility and STILL felt the need to reach out to the Iranians as if they were rational actors who could be trusted along with canceling the missle defense site site in Europe?

The sheer simple-minded dumbness of these people never ceases to amaze. Obama has maneuvered these past few months to isolate Iran without seeming to bully or dominate. Because of that, he has a decent chance of getting real sanctions approved by Russia and maybe even China. But this delicate piece of diplomacy and public relations infuriates the unchastened neocon right. They like their foreign policy crude and simplistic and ... well, Cheneyesque. Even after such an approach failed to provide any real results except the occupation of two countries and the nuclear empowerment of North Korea and Iran. Ideology remains entrenched, immune as ever to the facts on the ground.

Obama is more the conservative than they will ever be.

. . . .Zazi, the terrorist that was arrested in Denver, was a trained Al-Quaeda operative. The CIA tracked him to Pakistan where he received his training, he was handed off to the FBI, who monitored him in Denver, monitored his bomb-making material purchases, tracked him to New York, where he planned the largest terrorist attack since 9/11 to coincide with the President's travels to New York to speak to the U.N. The only fly in the ointment was when the NYPD, of all people, through their informant, let Zazi know that the FBI was on to him. Why they would do that, who knows. When he fled to Denver, he was captured there.

. . . He was Afghan born, by the way. This one was true intelligence work, and true procedural work done to thwart it.

. . . .Which lends credence to Joe Biden's pressuring the President to alter the Afghan game plan, not do a troop surge, and instead leave a Special Forces brigade to go in surgically after Afghan and Pakistani Al-Queada cells.

. . . .Surprisingly, I heard the same thing on the radio Thursday night, on Fox News, of all things, on Bill O'Reilly's show, when two of his regular analysts, retired military combat commanders, experienced in the Mideast said flat-out that was the only option that will work. Otherwise the U.S. would have to commit to sending in as many troops as it put into Iraq and do a years-long nation-building exercise, one we can ill afford.

. . . By the same token, pay close attention to a succession of things. Netanyahu laid the moral framework at the U.N. on Wednesday for Israel to attack Iran if the nuclear program continues. This morning's surprise announcement at the Pittsburgh G-20 summit of the U.S., U.K. and France's standing together against Iran's nuclear program, and their revelation that I'm sure took Ahmadenijad by surprise (but no one else) that they knew that he was just months away from nuclear weapons capability.

. . . .Again, listening to those same two analysts, it wasn't surprising, but their outlook was pretty bleak. The best case scenario, again, best case, was that Israel would bomb Iran before the facility was complete, but wouldn't be able to do anything about it, since it was 2 miles underground. They didn't see much hope for the U.S. to do anything about it, since it would involve invading and bombing another sovereign country, and we're stretched too thin as it is, as well, it would mean attacking a country that is friendly with both Russia and China, the big problem being China, who holds all of our debt.

. . . .Now, this really does transcend party lines, it's not about Right vs. Left, Dem. vs. Repub, con vs. lib; this is about all Americans, and if you can't see that, you don't have any place participating in a political discussion.

. . . .Because a lot of you don't have HBO, and don't listen to Bill Maher (and you should be):

New Rule: If America can't get its act together, it must lose the bald eagle as our symbol and replace it with the YouTube video of the puppy that can't get up. As long as we're pathetic, we might as well act like it's cute. I don't care about the president's birth certificate, I do want to know what happened to "Yes we can." Can we get out of Iraq? No. Afghanistan? No. Fix health care? No. Close Gitmo? No. Cap-and-trade carbon emissions? No. The Obamas have been in Washington for ten months and it seems like the only thing they've gotten is a dog.

Well, I hate to be a nudge, but why has America become a nation that can't make anything bad end, like wars, farm subsidies, our oil addiction, the drug war, useless weapons programs - oh, and there's still 60,000 troops in Germany - and can't make anything good start, like health care reform, immigration reform, rebuilding infrastructure. Even when we address something, the plan can never start until years down the road. Congress's climate change bill mandates a 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions... by 2020! Fellas, slow down, where's the fire? Oh yeah, it's where I live, engulfing the entire western part of the United States!

We might pass new mileage standards, but even if we do, they wouldn't start until 2016. In that year, our cars of the future will glide along at a breathtaking 35 miles-per-gallon. My goodness, is that even humanly possible? Cars that get 35 miles-per-gallon in just six years? Get your head out of the clouds, you socialist dreamer! "What do we want!? A small improvement! When do we want it!? 2016!"

When it's something for us personally, like a laxative, it has to start working now. My TV remote has a button on it now called "On Demand". You get your ass on my TV screen right now, Jon Cryer, and make me laugh. Now! But when it's something for the survival of the species as a whole, we phase that in slowly.

Folks, we don't need more efficient cars. We need something to replace cars. That's what's wrong with these piddly, too-little-too-late half-measures that pass for "reform" these days. They're not reform, they're just putting off actually solving anything to a later day, when we might by some miracle have, a) leaders with balls, and b) a general populace who can think again. Barack Obama has said, "If we were starting from scratch, then a single-payer system would probably make sense." So let's start from scratch.

Even if they pass the shitty Max Baucus health care bill, it doesn't kick in for 4 years, during which time 175,000 people will die because they're not covered, and about three million will go bankrupt from hospital bills. We have a pretty good idea of the Republican plan for the next three years: Don't let Obama do anything. What kills me is that that's the Democrats' plan, too.

We weren't always like this. Inert. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law and 11 months later seniors were receiving benefits. During World War II, virtually overnight FDR had auto companies making tanks and planes only. In one eight year period, America went from JFK's ridiculous dream of landing a man on the moon, to actually landing a man on the moon.

This generation has had eight years to build something at Ground Zero. An office building, a museum, an outlet mall, I don't care anymore. I'm tempted to say that, symbolically, all America can do lately is keep digging a hole, but Ground Zero doesn't represent a hole. It is a hole. America: Home of the Freedom Pit. Ironically, it's spitting distance from Wall Street, where they knock down buildings a different way - through foreclosure.

That's the ultimate sign of our lethargy: millions thrown out of their homes, tossed out of work, lost their life savings, retirements postponed - and they just take it. 30% interest on credit cards? It's a good thing the Supreme Court legalized sodomy a few years ago.

Why can't we get off our back? Is it something in the food? Actually, yes. I found out something interesting researching last week's editorial on how we should be taxing the unhealthy things Americans put into their bodies, like sodas and junk foods and gerbils. Did you know that we eat the same high-fat, high-carb, sugar-laden shit that's served in prisons and in religious cults to keep the subjects in a zombie-like state of lethargic compliance? Why haven't Americans arisen en masse to demand a strong public option? Because "The Bachelor" is on. We're tired and our brain stems hurt from washing down French fries with McDonald's orange drink.

The research is in: high-fat diets makes you lazy and stupid. Rats on an American diet weren't motivated to navigate their maze and once in the maze they made more mistakes. And, instead of exercising on their wheel, they just used it to hang clothes on. Of course we can't ban assault rifles - we're the first generation too lazy to make its own coffee. We're the generation that invented the soft chocolate chip cookie: like a cookie, only not so exhausting to chew. I ask you, if the food we're eating in America isn't making us stupid, how come the people in Carl's Jr. ads never think to put a napkin over their pants?

. . . .Senator Stabenow from Michigan in the Finance Committee hearings yesterday. Go Debbie!:
- Senator Kyl from Arizona on not wanting maternity coverage in his health care policy because "he wasn't likely to use it"
- Senator Stabenow - "I think your Mom did"

. . . . One of the only 5 economists with a brain, Paul Krugman, was on Bill Maher last night. Krugman said, in his own estimation, that while the American Dream is not dead "it's dying pretty fast" particularly in terms of social mobility. "On bad mornings, I wake up and I think that we're turning into a Latin American country, but on good mornings I wake up and I think, well, this is America and there is another FDR right around the corner. I was kind of hoping that Obama was FDR, but maybe not."

. . . .I am so tired of cons, neocons, and the Right being one-trick ponies, beating the same tin drum. I will listen a Rightie yell "socialism" when they've turned off their public utilities, (goodbye showers, flushing toilets and lights), shut off their Internet and cable TV, stopped using the post office, parked their car and not filled it with gasoline that was transported in DOT pipelines, and don't take public transportation to my house over Interstate highways, and walked to my house paying tolls to every property owner's lines they had to cross.

. . . And for those of you Righties, cons and neocons who are thumping your tin drum about schoolkids singing for the President this week, you've got selective amnesia. Your boy, GWB, had a group of kids singing his praises, with a special song written just for them to sing to him in The Fucking White House on Easter weekend, 2oo6.

. . . .Matt Taibbi, my favorite reporter, from his blog, on what I still consider the biggest story and the biggest issue out there:

Alan Grayson: I would like to know whether it is within the Federal Reserve’s legal authority to try to manipulate the stock market or the futures market.

Federal Reserve GC Scott Alvarez: I don’t believe the Federal Reserve tries to manipulate the stock market…(Yoda: Do or do not, there is no try.)

Alan Grayson: Does the Federal Reserve actually possess all the gold that’s listed on their balance sheet.

Scott Alvarez, doing a classic poker body language tell, and taking his time: Yes…

Alan Grayson: Who actually executes the trades for the Federal Reserve in the markets?

Scott Alvarez: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which executes trades through Primary Dealers.

Alan Grayson: Can you name one Primary Dealer?

Scott Alvarez: JP Morgan Chase

Alan Grayson: Do you mind if we have a GAO audit to see if there has been front-running or insider trading by them? Do you mind? Is that ok with you?

Scott Alvarez: I am not sure if I have that authority…

via “Have The Federal Reserve Or Prime Brokers Ever Tried To Manipulate The Stock Market?” | zero hedge.

First of all, apologies again for being absent from normal posting routine. We are putting to bed a very large story today, so I’ve been nuts.

Anyway, Alan Grayson, Bernie Sanders, Ron Paul and others keep hammering away at this whole Fed-secrecy issue, and every now and then we get some pretty interesting exchanges. Zero Hedge relates this one between Grayson and Fed counsel Scott Alvarez. It’s becoming abundantly clear that at some point we’re going to start to hear details about monstrous front-running operations involving the major banks on Wall Street.

I recommend that everyone watch this clip just for the sheer entertainment value (scroll to the bottom; I’ve embedded it there). I have personal experience with… well, let’s call it the unique personality of Alan Grayson. In his capacity as an attorney he once basically threatened to have me dismembered and have my body parts dumped in a tin canister and fired into the center of a burning supernova. And that’s actually underselling the real language he used. We were having a disagreement about the use of information given to me by a certain source in a story about military contracting, and in the middle of what had been a normal contentious argument between two sane adults, dude suddenly assumed this crazy monster-voice and just went medieval on me. He was roaring into the telephone about how he was going to crush me, how I was going to wish I had never messed with him, how I didn’t know who the hell I was dealing with, and so on. One phrase I remember in particular was, “I am going to strip the bark off of you!” It came totally out of the blue and it was like being on the telephone with a metamorphosing werewolf — the whole performance genuinely freaked me out. I may even have peed a little, I can’t remember.

When I heard Alan Grayson was running for Congress, I remember thinking to myself, That Alan Grayson? The lunatic? It can’t be, I thought. I kept imagining trails of half-eaten sheep leading to his campaign appearances. But it turned out to be true. And when I checked, his platform turned out to be quite sane and even kind of interesting. Then he got elected and I suddenly started seeing his name attached to all of these calls for transparency, various crusades for FinReg reforms, etc.

And now every time I see Alan Grayson, he’s tearing some freaked-out bureaucrat a new asshole in the middle of some empty conference room in the Capitol somewhere. I see the looks on the faces of these poor souls and I know exactly what they’re going through. Which is just hilarious, frankly. Especially since these people all tend to deserve it, like this nebbishy little creep Alvarez quite obviously does.

Now for most of last year Grayson’s public appearances didn’t rate any higher than a five or maybe a six on the craziness scale, but he’s a definite seven in this clip, trending toward eight. Watch Alvarez look around nervously, like he’s not sure whether to say something about how out of control Grayson is. He’s looking around like he expects someone to come out with a butterfly net and capture Grayson, so he can get back to lunch. But no help comes. Very entertaining stuff.

P.S. I should point out — I’ve gotten a couple of letters on this already — that by crazy, I definitely mean Grayson sounds off his rocker when questioning Alvarez. Although the Fed is certainly guilty of almost everything Grayson accuses them of, the line of questioning is just bizarre. What Grayson does here is sort of like asking someone to just admit to being an axe murderer. Just admit it! Admit you murder people with axes. We all know what your denials mean! That said, this doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the suffering of Alvarez in this exchange.

. . . .From the LA Times, via Cesca:

The LA Times:

The legislators' reluctance to control premium costs comes despite the fact that they intend to require virtually all Americans to get health insurance, an unprecedented mandate -- long sought by insurance companies -- that would mark the first time the federal government has compelled consumers to buy a single industry's product, effectively creating a captive market.

"We are about to force at least 30 million people into an insurance market where the sharks are circling," said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat who served as the state's insurance commissioner for eight years. "Without effective protections, they will be eaten alive."

Healthcare reform with mandates but no cost controls or public option is a corporate takeover of American life. This is how we ought to be defining this. Max Baucus and his ilk are on the record in favor of such a takeover. If we're going to be mandated to buy insurance, which is a goal not without merit, then we need to have a public option so corporations aren't in total control of our health.

Put another way, education in America is compulsory within various age ranges state-by-state. Now imagine if there wasn't a free public school option and, instead, we were all required under penalty of law to send our kids to private schools where tuition is often prohibitively expensive.

. . . .And the Right Wing continues to implode, the war between Joe Scarborough and Glenn Beck continues to heat up:

There’s a civil war going on between two big-shot conservative talk-show hosts and the Republican Party is caught in the crosshairs.

This week, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called out Fox News’ Glenn Beck for hate speech. He gave 2012 hopefuls an ultimatum. “We’re going to have a conservatives’ honor roll on this show…,” he told the Morning Joe audience. “I’m talking to you, Mitt Romney, and I’m talking about anyone who wants to be president in 2012. … You need to call out this type of hatred.”

. . . But it continues unabated, Goebbles, err, sorry Beck, continues to command attention and is the mainstream media darling:

Beck has made no bones about his desire to shape the media's agenda. He's Fox News' Czar War commander in chief, lead ACORN crusher, resident conspiracy theorist, and favored "rodeo clown," all wrapped into one.

One would think that the mainstream media would be wary of covering stories promoted by a man who, while role-playing as President Obama, pretended to pour gasoline on the "average American" and asked Obama, "[W]hy don't you just set us on fire?" But one would be wrong.

Beck brought to us the 9-12 Project, which served as the inspiration for the 9-12 "March on Washington," when Americans tearfully came together as we did "the day after 9-11" ... to protest taxes, health care reform, government spending, and an African-American who has taken over the White House. Did the media sit out the story of tens of thousands of Beck and Fox News fans invading D.C. to protest these things? Nope. While Fox News claimed that media outlets "missed" the story of the 9-12 protests, as TVNewser.com noted, "those other networks were there" at the 9-12 protests. As Howard Kurtz wrote in The Washington Post, "[T]he other networks indeed covered the protest, which -- like similar demonstrations across the country -- were heavily promoted by Fox, especially talk show host Glenn Beck."

. . . And just what is it that Glenn Beck gives America that is such a precious gift? The AP reports that Bill Sparkman, the single father of two, the cancer survivor, the man who held two jobs; as a teacher and as a census worker, when found murdered in Clay County, KY with the word FED written on his chest; was hanged, gagged, bound and naked when the atrocity occurred to him in 9/12. I'm just so fucking thankful that there's people like Glenn Beck around to keep the real America safe. Quite honestly, I really do hope someone does the same thing to Beck, in front of his children, and tapes it.

. . . . .And the other candidate for giving an alien race a reason for wiping human existence from the galaxy, Rush Limbaugh on his radio program on Friday. (For those of you who have ties to the First Nations people, you'll get this one) -"There were what, 95 million of them? And there's what now, 4 million? We killed 91 million of them? Who cares? They've all got casinos, they're rich."

. . . .And that's how bad it really is.

. . . .We can salvage this shipwreck of a Nation. It will take all of us working together. It will take all of us understanding the concepts of the Great American Experiment, the political process of the Republic. It's amazing, I don't see eye-to-eye on every issue with my friends, but we respect one another's opinion, share information, share facts, and we don't talk over one another or at one another, we talk with one another. It's amazing what happens when a group of people who share the common goal of leaving a better country for their children and grandchildren can do when they sit down with one another as human beings, and realize that we each have power, and together, we are unstoppable.

. . . .I'm going to ask this of you for the next 30 days. Turn your TV off, turn your radio off. Start to use that beautiful mind that your Creator gave you, that your underpaid, underappreciated High School teachers tried to develop. If you hear something, if you read something, if someone sends you an e-mail that says "this bill will do this", or "this politician says this", I'm asking you to check it out. Check it out this way, use some of the following fact-based sites, who exist solely for the purpose of data and fact-checking.
- If whatever you've heard or read concerns a bill in Congress, use the following -
- Open Congress, it's non-partisan and devoted to a complete tracking of every bill in Congress, both houses. How a bill is developed, who is sponsoring it, what the riders are, what the discussion around it is.
- GovTrack, again non-partisan, non-commercial and open source; devoted to the same things, tracking Congress.
- Open Secrets, one of the most important ones, it tracks the lobbying money and campaign contributions flowing to your congressperson, and most of the time is a pretty good predictor of how they'll vote.
- Political Party Time, non-partisan, devoted to solely tracking political fundraisers, and letting you know exactly what parties your Representative and Senators are throwing for fundraisers and who is attending and how much money they're throwing at them to gain influence.

. . . .If someone sends something to you saying "this is so" or "that is so" or "the President/Senator/Representative said this" use the following:
- Fact Check, non-partisan, designed to separate fact from bullshit and fiction
- Snopes, devoted to the same thing.
- Politifact, devoted to getting to the truth, and separating out the lies that are spread.


. . . .I keep doing this not because I don't have faith, but because I do have faith. I have faith in the ultimate triumph of the spirit, intellect and heart of the American people. I have faith that the people I know want to leave something better for future generations, and know that something is terribly wrong, and want to do something about it. I do it because Paine and Jefferson were brilliant, unique singularities and were right.

. . . .I keep doing this because I don't believe in big imaginary friends for adults, I don't believe in alien conspiracies running the Government, I don't believe the Roswell bodies are at Wright-Patterson, I don't believe that a big portal will open up on Dec. 21, 2012, I don't believe that the spaceships will show up.

. . . I do believe that the people who have fucked everything up are greedy, avaricious human beings who have been able to steal from the American people, to harm them, who have run unchecked because no one calls it out for what it is. I believe that if we shine the light of day on it, if the people of this country have had enough, we can change it, and change it for the better.

. . . . I keep doing this because I do believe that people, human beings, unchecked will continue to do what they've done throughout history, and throughout the history of this country. Together, they will find the solutions and provide better for their children and grandchildren.

. . . .I believe in us, I believe in people. I believe in the beauty, power and grace of the individual.

. . . .I do this for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of knowing what they do, what they believe, what they know is right. I do it for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of faith, hope, love, hate, justice, war and peace.

. . . .I do it because I believe in justice, in all it's forms.

. . . .I do this everyday for the people and kids who are tattoed, pierced and inked and keep getting told to get "into the mainstream". I do this everyday for those guys who wear black that you don't understand, you just know there's something about them, and that when the chips are down, when you have to walk down a dark alley somewhere, and you know what's waiting for you at the end of it, and you can only take one person with you, that's who you want walking with you, because you know you'll come back out alive, and that guy doesn't care what it costs him.

. . . .I do this everyday for the outcasts, the misfits, the ones who don't fit and who will turn their back on you and walk away when you try to make them fit into a mold. I do it everyday for everyone who does it their way, knows that they're paying a high price for it, but the freedom is worth the cost.

. . . . I do this everyday for outlaws, cowboys, renegades, pirates and fallen angels. I do it everyday for the people who understand that rock and roll can save their soul, that redemption can be found in a 3-chord lick from a vintage Les Paul. I do it for the men and women who aren't afraid to turn it all the way up, who keep looking for an 11 setting on a volume knob that only goes to 10, who know that rock and roll's got nothing to do with age.


. . . .If right now, you're doing something you don't want to do, stop it. If you've surrounded yourself with people who want you to do or be something other than who you are, walk away. If you've got people around you who actually let it slip out that they think you "should be doing (fill in the blank here)" and it involves your life, your future, your existence as an individual, walk away, right now, and don't look back. You don't owe anyone anything. Live fearlessly. If the people around you can't accept it, can't accept you as you are, really are, they aren't and weren't friends anyhow.

. . . .Don't march to anyone else's drumbeat, don't drink the Kool-Aid, anyone's. Right, Left, conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, Christian, Buddhist, Pagan. Use your own mind, that's why you were given one. Examine, question, do what's right for you first, everything else will fall in place from there, quit looking for the path, you're already on it.

. . . .Come out of the gate each morning with both barrels blazing, pedal-to-metal, full-tilt boogie, all-in and balls-out, what's stopping you? Do you want to live forever? That'd be boring.

. . . .Got your back. somewhere out there in the night

. . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do. Seize the precious moments before they're ripped away from you. This rodeo is a one-way ticket and no one, absolutely no one gets out alive. There aren't a lot of second chances, and we don't get to dictate terms and circumstances of how the ticket gets punched. This ain't no dress rehearsal, and the curtain's gone up, it's real and right now. It's not about yesterday or tomorrow. It's about right fucking here, right fucking now. This, what you're reading, what you're hearing, is the proof, the words, the sounds and the sights of someone changing his own life and his own world and not being afraid to put it out there. What have you done for yourself lately and why are you waiting? Do it now.

The Desolation Angel
from somewhere halfway to Heaven, and just a mile out of Hell

You know someone like me, there's still a few of us left. If we have to, we'll stand at the gates of Hell and hold the last train home for you.