the defeatists!

Odd, inappropriate and plea bargain...

Congressman Allen West is a tea party activist and a nutcase. I think it's probably possible to be involved in the Tea Party without being crazy, but the leadership is either incredibly venal -- Dick Armery comes to mind --  lobotomized or plain old batshit crazy. So, when Representative West was quoted as saying that he was going to resign from the Congressional Black Caucus because a leader made remarks comparing the Tea Party to lynchmobs, he surprised the hell out of Crusader AXE. Allen West has less in common with the Congressional Black Caucus than I do with the Ulster Volunteer Force or the Russian GBLT Federation of the Communist Party. And, he's far less tolerant of them than I would be of those guys. The similarity between the two situations is pretty clear -- he's Black so he's in the Black Caucus; I'm Irish and my family is originally from Ulster, pre-Cromwell; I'm white, and the imaginary GBLT Federation would be white, and I'm white. That must be the logic...

Frankly, the guy violated the Law of Land Warfare and got about the same deal Ollie North did; there are risks in observing the Geneva Convention which is what makes it hard. However, he had his men beat an Iraqi policeman and then he fired his pistol next to the guy's head. West was an artilleryman -- pull string, gun go boom. He's obviously not a dumb man. He can make all the weaselly comments he wants to, but Field Grade Officers don't get Article 15s unless they do something awful; this is an admission of some guilt. West got to keep his rank, full retirement and retire with the honor earned. No argument there. What I can see of the guy's career, he was a competent soldier commanding a battalion of cannon cockers who were probably being used as SWAT teams and backups. I believe he sincerely cared about his men more than he cared about himself. He reacted in a rough situation in a way that was seriously wrong, and didn't help. While I find the comments from his defenders that everything went to hell in the district after he was relieved of command, that was in 2003 -- everything fucking thing in Iraq went to hell in 2003. Everything.

Now, West got a General Officer Article 15. This is non-judicial punishment -- not a criminal conviction-- but it is punishment in lieu of a court martial. It is in fact a plea bargain. Frankly, he could have been hammered -- hard time in Leavenworth -- had he taken the court martial. More likely, he would have been forcibly retired as a Major instead of a Lieutenant Colonel, which is a significant difference in pay. There's also the fact that he'd have had a federal conviction on his record. Felons can't be Congressmen. 

Well, I haven't heard anything sensible come out of this guy; he represents what happens when people vote their emotions -- "I'm mad as hell, keep your big government hands off my Medicare and Social Security! " instead of some level of reason. Allan West is typical of a type of Republican; the odd thing is that he's Black, but that isn't too terribly odd really. The guys in the Ulster Volunteer Force are Irish, after all. 

Al Sharpton's new show has some interesting things happening on it. Sharpton definitely shows that it is possible to change and grow; he also shows the difference between authenticity and hype really well. I haven't really made up my mind about the guy yet, but he said of another situation that "It's like ME going to a Tea Party event and drinking coffee. It might be delicious, but it would just be inappropriate."  

That sums up so much. Allen West is a scary representative, but he doesn't represent the Black Community...and it's probably in the best interests of both to end this inappropriate relationship. I can only hope that some of his other antics will lead his constituents to come to their senses and end their inappropriate relationship with the guy in November 2012; after that, he can go make model tanks and hang out at the VFW telling war stories. Or, sell insurance. Or, work for Ollie North. Hell, let him manage Christine O'Donnell's campaign for Sainthood. Just get him and his ilk out of Congress...

Eating the shoes of Bill O'Reilly could cause hepatitis

Or, at least e coli...but it's a really safe bet. A lot of folks of my ilk really dislike Ben Stein. Well, I've never cared for his TV persona, but I've read his work in places as odd as the American Spectator and the New York Times Business Pages. When he's right, he's very right indeed -- he's knowledgable, smart and witty. Unfortunately, he's a Repubican pundit and that gets him into places he's really entirely too smart to be. Unlike his fellow Nixon apparatchik Pat Buchanan, he isn't able to sustain stupidity in the face of reality or facts. That's pleasant in a pundit -- in some ways, he's a middle-aged or older conservative male heterosexual Rachel Maddow. If something is idiotic, he says it's idiotic. If he's wrong, he admits it. 

So, when Stein calls out Bill O'Reilly on the Fox News version of economics theory, it's news. And, worth considering. Although he might sound like either Warren Buffett or Lawrence O'Donnell to the unitiated in this exchange, he's actually proposing a pro-economic growth policy based on balancing budgets through increased revenue. Stein has enough historical perspective to know that his old boss would never have let taxes get this out of whack; he understands that the first principle of balancing budgets is the Willie Sutton approach -- rob the banks because that's where the money is. Tax the rich because they have the money. Why is this so hard? 

Stein has never been a big fan of Ayn Rand, and that's a saving grace in my minds. I happen to think that the sum of western philosophy and culture is a rejection of Ayn Rand and the Objectivists. The greatest good for the greatest number of people is a very conservative principle; Rand and her devotees are really more screwed up than the communists and socialists and liberals they excoriate; they take an impossible position and then just assert based on Atlas Shrugged that it's true. Absurd, of course. Marx and Engels added mathematics to Hegel, and that got weird, and the Soviets developed an incredible capability for trying to use dialectical materialism to explain things that didn't have anything to do with dialectical materialism. That was stupid...but not so stupid as asserting blindly that the rich are the creative people. Yeah...when Gates and Allen invented our modern world by inventing DOS, they were a couple of well-off kids who could afford to drop out of Harvard for a while and screw around. They weren't rich. Part of the problem with the economy is that in order to make anything happen, it seems that you have to be rich or in IT, preferably both. This anchors a lot of potential creativity and innovation and growth and progress to a bedrock of denied potential. 

I can understand people not wanting to pay taxes; certainly, Ben Stein can understand that as well. However, the idea of raising taxes on the rich is something that he and Warren Buffett and a lot of people have come to not because they've suddenly become bleeding heart liberals engaged along with Crusader AXE in class warfare; it's because they understand applied mathematics and economics. 

Under the Clinton administration, taxes were at a top marginal rate of 38%; that was probably about right given the economic realities at that time. When Bush bet on the come in 2001 and lowered taxes, he changed the economic reality for the worse. What the hell, let's just say push it to 40% on income in excess of a half million and tax capital gains as ordinary income. 

Now, under that firebreathing, communist class warrior Dwight Eisenhauer, the top marginal tax rate was 91%. So, ny off the cuff communist proposal varies from Ike's by minus 50%. 

Bruce Bartlett is a conservative commentator who during the Bush administration came to the same conclusion. There are lots of Republicans who have come to the same conclusion; they just are afraid to say anything at this point, least Bachman-Palin-Perry overdrive stomp and bitch slap them into oblivion. But Democrats of all stripes, colors and affiliations -- progressives, Blue Dogs, various caucuses and President Obama-- need worry less about the Bippy wing of the Republican party than about the people they represent. 

However, given the Citizens United decision that allows corporations to give as much money as they want because, well gee, BOA is a person too and has free speech and freedom of assembly and gay marriage and all that stuff, screws a lot up. Frankly, I'm not sure whom a lot of Democrats represent but I suspect that the bills are paid by a lot of the same people and organizations as the Republicans. And that is not a good thing...and, Stein gets that. 

Moral Covalence

the excerpted passage in this post has got to be the silliest damn thing I've read in a long time.  the President of Iran wants to know what America is doing with its flash mob problem?  totes lulz.  leaving aside the hilarious notion that our nation is about to erupt. . .lulz. . .because Congress done run oft and fucked up our credit score by. . .not paying the national car loan, or something, when the mortgage is being dropped on small children in Afghanistan.  zomg.  

America ain't going to riot any time soon, ya'll.  the flip side of that coin however, and more plausibly. . .is that America will ready itself to combat such an "uprising":

Could Camden burn? Absolutely. With a tiny force of cops who know the city, abject poverty, no industry, a non-functional school system, the only choice new police chief John] Timoney will have (and he'll like it, he's practiced in Philadelphia) is thug policing. Which never works for long. It will only take one cop, one misstep, and Camden will destroy the little that is left of it. And Philly will see the flames across the river.

and we all know what the crazy niggers`ll do once they see those flames!  where was I.  just look at how quickly America's Secret Iranian Influenced Inspired Secret Prison in Gitmo went up. . .but no, America doesn't imprison and torture people that espouse views counter to America's Official Religion. . that would be. . .heresy.  there is a degree of spontenaity and chaos with flash mobs, and to be sure, they're unbridled, kinda scary - but at least invigorating - I mean fuck, when was the last time Americans were truly scared for their lives?  every day on the streets of Philly?  come now.  that's hysterical.  histrionic even.  9-11 was a drop in the bucket for some countries we fuck up on a weekly basis.  we need more of this flash mobbery then.  I say this bitterly, of course.  I'm only half joking.  and I suppose this tells you where I'm at when I see the worried words come across the digital ink, but I fear less for my safety and those in my community's safety at the hands of the "mob" than I do for those in the mob being "handled" by Law Enforcement.  but I suppose I'm not a serious person, on a crappy blog on the internet, so this is for my own enjoyment that I write this.  

anywho, this is fucking funny:

 

- `fun out

Christian leaders do what Christian leaders are supposed to do...

An Episcopal bishop, a Methodist bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop, all based in Alabama, sued on the basis that the new statute violated their right to free exercise of religion, arguing that it would “make it a crime to follow God’s command to be Good Samaritans.”

“The law,” said Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, “attacks our core understanding of what it means to be a church.” -- Campbell Robertson, NY Times, 8/11/2011.

Well, as Ringo says when he sees what he thinks is Wyatt Earp walking toward him at the dramatic climax of Tombstone, this is a surprise. 

Crusader AXE has made no real secret of his attitude toward religion in the US or toward the religious.When Howard Dean, the last leader of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party, said that the Democrats needed to focus on issues of justice and common good, he labeled the Republicans the party of "god, guns, gays and abortion" in terms of their core issues. Now, when the AXE was just a hatchet and my brother Defeatists were just sperm and eggs floating in the visceral fluids of their various parents, Christian Leaders in the United States actually stood for something...Daniel Berrigan, SJ; Phillip Berrigan; Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King; Reverend Ralph Abernathy; the Sanctuary Movement; the Anti-war movement; Cesar Chavez and La Raza. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers Movement. Pope Paul VI and John Paul II published encyclicals that condemned out of control capitalism, greed and the failure of western society to live up to the standards of the New Testament. 

But, if the New Testament preaches a doctrine largely of social justice, care for the poor and the duty to be good Samaritans, the focus of traditional religious institutions in the US and in much of the world shifted toward concern about periperal issues -- the Gods, Guns, Gays and abortions. In Catholicism in particular, the focus shifted toward protection of an internal culture not all that different than that of The Family in this country with a goal of preserving a secet culture of privilege and abuse by the powerful by focusing on the transgressions of the weak. A pederast priest wasn't evil; no, the child he abused was the evil, the seducer, the temptation of christ. What appeared to be an Irish anomoly -- archbishops with families on the side and sanctimony served up front along with the communion wafers -- turned out to be the sunny side of a system of abuse, exploitation, coverup and concealment. Jesus probably wept over a lot of things; it is worth noting that the people Jesus really had issues with were bankers, wealthy exploiters of the poor and weak, and the religious hierarchy of his faith. We know of one time when Jesus got really angry and lashed out. The cleansing of the temple. I'm guessing in the comfortable parishes of Orange County and suburban Columbus and Indianapolis that text is seldom chosen. That is a shame. We know only a few that Jesus condemned -- those who hurt children, the rich, and the religious hierarchy. If in a parable he was seeking a subject who was clueless, corrupt, selfish, sanctimonious, abusive or evil, he chose the rich, the Pharisees and the Saduchess. Not the Romans, not the gossiping fishwifes on the sea of Galilee, not the whores, publicans, thieves, tax collectors -- the priests, the temple bureaucrats, the establishment, the wealthy. 

So, while I've been disappointed by the role of religion in American life, where people largely seem to be more interested in Leviticus and Revelations than the Beatitudes, the Passion and Death of Jesus and the spreading of the Good News of brotherhood, shared sacrifice, social justice and charity for all, I am surprised to note that in Alabama, the faith community may actually have decided to stand with the lambs of god as opposed to the butchers, with the Good Samaritans as opposed to the Pharisees and Levites and the Rich. 

Alabama and Georgia as well as Arizona have all implemented legislation based on the idea that they are being overrun by illegal aliens; now, they're having to deal with a certain amount of reality. Most Americans don't want to hoe cotton or pick lettuce and strawberries with short handled rakes in the intense heat of this summer of climate change and warming. So, if you drive out the illegal immigrants, the crops don't get picked and the food rots in the fields. While this might actually be good organically for the ground, it's not a good thing for the economy. For the farmers. For the consumer. 

But, the law itself is pretty draconian. The sanctuary movement in the southwest was based on radical civil disobedience. If I'm going to help an illegal Salvadorian immigrant in Tucson, Reagan's version of compassionate conservatism made it a crime. If I fed the poor, give water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, shelter to the homeless, I was a criminal. The Bishops and Catholic hierarchy in the southwest endorsed and many churches practiced Sanctuary. They'd feed, clothe, shelter and get medical aid for those who came to seek help. They did this knowing that the authorities were taking down their names. They were successful to a large extent, in Arizona and Southern California and New Mexico in publicizing and mitigating the plight of those who were being blamed for being poor, hungry, alone and afraid. 

Now, in Alabama, the Christian wing of the Christian Religion is responding to the same sort of evil and doing it in style. Individual ministers and priests are preaching the evil of the law; but three bishops -- a Methodist, an Episcopalian and a Catholic -- are suing the state of Alabama for interfering with their right to exercise their religion. This is the state where clowns got attention in 2010 for channeling the ghosts of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in support of the Tea Party and radical nonsense; where it actually seemed possible that a clown in a cowboy hat riding around complaining on his horse and shooting at people defacing his campaign signs wasn't in danger of being locked away for his own protection and that of the local community, but elected to public office. 

So, in such an environment, for the faith community to throw off it's doctrinal slumber and focus on the periperals as opposed to the brutal, exploitative and greed-drenched reality of the world that they inhabit and have a duty to renew is worth noting and remarking on. Jesse Ben Joseph would be proud of these guys and I suspect gals since the Episcopalians and Methodists do have ordained women clergy. Hopefully, they can inspire their congregations. I'd say that the odds are about 60-40 against, but what the hell -- the alternative is what we have, and it's nice to know that someone else thinks it's unacceptable. 

In the corner of the barroom
Lives the ghost of Langston Hughes
He’s takin’ notes and smokin’ cigarettes
Sippin’ slowly on his booze
Got them goin’ nowhere blues

And on the stage beneath the spotlight
Woody Guthrie sings the news
He’s always ready for the good fight
Never thinkin’ that he’ll lose
Got them goin’ nowhere blues
Through the back way in the alley
Sellin all you should refuse
Looks like Jane has finally given in
Hey, what the hell it ain’t no use
Got them goin’ nowhere blues

Out the front around the corner
Martin Luther shines your shoes
He’s preachin’ justice and equality
I guess Martin’s payin’ dues
He’s got them goin’ nowhere blues

On the other side it’s a free ride
You’ve got money you can burn
When the ground shakes and the earth breaks
Which way you gonna turn
Are you ever gonna learn
In the poolroom on the table
Swillin’ wine and smashin’ cues
They locked him up last night for fighting
Cesar Chavez blew a fuse
He’s got them goin’ nowhere blues

All the members of the union
All the farm and labor crews
They used to be meet here by the dozens
They disappeared in ones and twos
Got them goin’ nowhere blues
So you wonder why they come here
They come here to look for clues
Passin’ time until they live again
To fight these going nowhere views
Leave these goin’ nowhere blues
To fight these goin’ nowhere views

--Robert Earle Keen

Something is happening here and you don't know what it is...

Oh, we got another one, just like the other ones
Another bad ass, another trouble-maker
I'm scared, ain't you boys scared?
I wonder if he's gonna show us what bad is?
Boys, we got a man with a dog collar on
You think we oughta throw ol' Spike a bone?

Hey Spike what do you like?
Hey Spike what do you like?

Here's another misfit, another Jimmy Dean
Bet he's got a motorbike,
What'a y'all think?
Bet if we be good we'll get a ride on it
If he ain't too mad about the future --
Maybe we oughta help him see
The future ain't what it used to be

Hey Spike, you're scarin' my wife
Hey Spike what do you like?
Please Spike, tell us 'bout life?

--Tom Petty

 I'm not sure which irony captures our world's banal yet insane vibe better -- Mahmoud Achmajenabad lecuring the UN on the hypocrisy of ignoring the riots in the UK or Michele Bachmann flitting down the aisle of her private plane with a wicker basket of snacks and hand sanitizer for the press. While Bachmann is more physically attractive than Achmajenabad, he's more substantive. Kinda, sorta...although I admit that complimenting a world leader by saying he's more substantive than Michelle Bachman is a pretty backhanded bitch slap of a compliment. So, I'll go with the Iranian jerkoff in this case...

The UK is an interesting mix of soccer hooliganism and class warfare working it to a techno-rap soundtrack. Austerity doesn't work to handle recessions, and the combination of class, poverty, and hopelessness really goes a long way toward providing a spark to a pretty combustible situation. Wisconsin was about taking someone's rice bowl; this is a tad more existential, a bit of "What are you rebelling against?" "Whaddaya got?"

Achmajinewhatthefuck has a pretty valid point. And, frankly, just because you're Christian and western and democratic doesn't exactly equate to not totalitarian. It's a pretty faulty syllogism -- All Men are Mortal; Michelle Bachmann is a Mortal; Michelle Bachman would look good in Spandex...and a dog collar.

Now one of our brothers overheard a conversation between a couple of Brits and an American who responded to their concerns about what was happening at home by saying that "It couldn't happen in Indiana because the guy behind the counter would have a shotgun. As for the couldn't happen in Indiana thing, there is some truth to it...diets high in high fructose corn syrup do produce a certain amount of passivity. As does Indiana in general...But, on the other hand, it's wise to remember that if you point a gun at 50 people with rocks and clubs, there's a good chance that when it's done, you'll be among the dead and someone else will have your gun...money...car keys...liquor...food...girl...lottery tickets...Big Gulp...

 

It's worth remembering that the UK riots started in response to cops killing a kid in a ghetto. When people protested, the cops over-reacted, and hilarity ensued... with more to come until somebody gets their head out of their fourth point of contact. 

 

That's what sustained me in my time of troubles...

Well they blew the horns
And the walls came down
They'd all been warned
And the walls came down

They stood there laughing
They're not laughing anymore
The walls came down

Sanctuary fades, congregation splits
Nightly military raids, the congregation splits
It's a song of assassins, ringin' in your ears
We got terrorists thinking, playing on fears
Oh

Well they blew the horns
And the walls came down
They'd all been warned
But the walls came down

I don't think there are any Russians
And there ain't no Yanks
Just corporate criminals
Playin' with tanks

``Michael Been

The Standard and Poor's downgrade produced some really interesting reactions and now everyone is waiting for the "Markets..."to render a verdict. First of all, the rating agencies are fairly bizarre organizations to begin with and really are focused primarily on the ability to pay the debts of the various borrowers. The downgrade represents an analysis not of our cash flow which is artificially constrained by politics and Teapublican idiocy but of the poltical and Teapublican idiocy. There were lots of dorks screaming that this problem didn't matter, who cares if they downgrade the credit rating-- if the Teapublicans screamed loud enough, they were going to be heard by the people they really didn't want to listen. And, given their stridency and lack of concern with basic math, science, history or economic theory, there's no reason to be amazed or suspect that they are lying...they are true believers in the flat, hollow middle earth they populate. Hell, Rick Perry got a D in Economics 101...which means what he remembered then, he either got wrong, misunderstood or forgot. Life is funny that way, you get asked a lot of things that you've either forgotten or if you remember, have changed...

So MickiBee's calling for Timothy Geitner's head is a really strange example of how far she is from reality. Geitner said this could happen if they didn't resolve the issue, pointed to how to resolve the issue, and everybody sat on their hands about resolving the issue. Until finally, they crafted a real dog's mess of a solution. Yeah, Hope and Change. Hope can be very passive and pietist, but change ultimately requires balls. 

If Batboy Obama really wants to fix this, the first thing he needs to do is to direct the Attorney General to sue Congress over the legality of the debt ceiling. Pelosi is on board, Geitner is on board, I suspect a lot of people -- Democrat, Republican, Independent -- are on board. Have the FBI bust Clarence Thomas for human trafficing and appoint someone rational to the court. Arlen Spector comes to mind. If not, at least assert that in the future, the President of the United States will inform Congress on the first day of each quarter what the debt ceiling will be at the end of the quarter baring cuts and revenue gains. And, state that he will veto any cuts not matched with revenue...

Now he won't do that. The Times had a great OP-ED this morning by author Kurt Anderson. Earlier this week there was some discussion of the use of the madman theory in negotiations on the OP ED page. Anyone who has negotiated effectively has either seen this in action and responded appropriately or has exercised it. It is not my favorite theory as a general rule, but it can work especially if you're serious.. Basically, you threaten to blow up the world if and if you don't get your way. Reasonableness doesn't work in response to the madman strategy -- you either call the bluff, or you cave. Obama responds not to the madman strategy but to the possibility of the madman gambit and concedes upfront that he's going to be responsible because...he doesn't have any other moves. 

In other words, we are taking broken supersoakers to a knife fight. As Ted Cassidy put it so memorably, there are no rules in a knife fight. The Teapublicans have made this not a negotiation to find a common ground but simply a knife fight. We are led at the moment by a lousy negotiator who fails to get it...like Lord Raglan confusing the Russians in the Crimean War with the old enemy, the French who were now his allies, Obama is acting like he's dealing with Howard Baker and Everett Dirksen and Dwight Eisenhower. Problem is, he's dealing with totally insane, unaware, crazy people. He's not talking to Neville Chamberlain, he dealing with Pol Pot and Attila the Hun. 

From the column: 

I had breakfast this week with one of Hollywood’s most ferocious, self-confident and successful doers of deals...l steamed about what an unforgivably lousy negotiator his president had been...According to my Hollywood supernegotiator friend, Obama should’ve stopped right there — or, even better, followed up with that standard ambiguous saber-rattling line: “No option is off the table.” Raising the possibility of unilateral executive action would’ve strengthened his hand against the Republicans. Instead, Mr. Transparent and Reasonable instantly ruled it out in the weakest way possible: “I have talked to my lawyers. They are not persuaded that that is a winning argument.” My friend recited the president’s surrender sentence incredulously, slipping an obscene seven-letter gerund in front of lawyers. Since the Republicans were threatening to go nuclear in unprecedented fashion, why didn’t the president at least threaten to use his unprecedented nuclear option to stop them?...In other words, it’s a pity Barack Obama isn’t more like Richard Nixon...President Nixon famously tried convincing the Communists that he might literally go nuclear if they didn’t behave. “I call it the Madman Theory,” he explained to his chief of staff. “I want the North Vietnamese to believe that I’ve reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war.” Of course, a lot of us swooned over Obama partly because he seemed so prudent, straightforward and even-keeled. But now, with Republicans spectacularly applying the Madman Theory for the first time in domestic politics, Obama’s nonconfrontational reasonableness isn’t looking like such a virtue...

The idea of Nixon — Nixon? — as a de facto liberal provokes cognitive dissonance, especially among people over 50. Facts notwithstanding, they refuse to buy it, as if they’ve been fooled by a parlor trick. But the only trick involved is judging Nixon circa 1970 by the ideological standards of 2011. (AXE Emphasis Added) My late mother, who voted for every Republican presidential candidate from Wendell Willkie through George H.W. Bush, became a Democrat in her 70s... She voted five times for Nixon, whose Madman Theory was a tactical posturing ..he was an unhinged, reckless fanatic itching to wreak havoc. But a national Republican Party dominated by actually unhinged, reckless fanatics itching to wreak havoc in America? I think that would’ve shocked her. I think it probably would’ve even shocked Nixon. (AXE Emphasis -- Yeah Buddy...)

While the author makes Nixon seem a lot more benign than he was at the time, he really has a point. George Wallace used to make a lot of people applaud by screaming that there wasn't a "dimes worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans..." Well, he was right. The difference between Nixon and Humphrey, Nixon and Kennedy, Stevenson and Eisenhower was pretty small compared to the cultural, political, ideological and ontological differences between the parties today. Seriously, when Bachmann stares off into the distance for a few seconds, is she communing with her alien overlords or listening to hymns in her head?  

Now, the best strategy going forward is to have the President turn into national Paterfamilias and call these people what they are -- crazed ideologues. Screw fairness, good faith and finding a middle ground. Between nuclear annilhation and corporate enslavement, there is no middle ground. Barrack Obama needs to be as audacious as he claimed to be. And, somewhat fearless -- when you're surrounded by trolls, orcs and dragons massing to destroy everything you hold important, it's time St Crispian's day and valor. If you want these bastards to destroy the commonwealth, keep on reasoning with Orcs, Trolls and Dragons. 

One classic definition of insanity is continually doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Barrack Obama is either in denial of reality -- the fuckers are this crazy -- or is insane. Somebody -- Biden, Pelosi, Michelle, Malia -- needs to kick him in the ass and make him realize that it's not going to get better without changing what he's doing. 

 

This is a Communist Music Blog...

Somebody posted this to my Facebook Page, and I was happy. 

Steve Earle has commented about how much commie-pinko stuff you can get away with in country and bluegrass music. Add southern rock to that list. Music is subversive at it's best...

For your listening pleasure, here is a complete show from the Drive By Truckers...nough said. And, I hope it crashes typepad.

We're baaaaacccckkkk...and Krugman nailed it!

It's always struck me as silly to apologize for someone else's screwup. However, we've been down for a few days because the hobbits at Typepad decided that we probably were a blog consisting of spam. Seriously...we might be full of shit, but except for Captain Capitulation who has been known to fry spam and feed it under the guise of political philosophy, no spam is consumed in the making of this blog. Some of the comments are probably spam because robot maketing seems to rule the world. Sorry 'bout that...anyway, this has previously been up over at Veterans Today, but for those of you of find some of my compatriots obsessions over there scarier than my musings about hobbits or Mr Fun's thoughts on evolution, here we are...

In addition to columns, books, text books and lecture notes, Paul Krugman has a blog through the Times. He uses it to try out themes and ideas, and in a more informal way than the columns. However, I don't think this needs any great editing, just more elaboration.

I’ll need to write up my thoughts here at greater length, but let’s just say for now that what we’ve witnessed pretty much throughout the western world is a kind of inverse miracle of intellectual failure. Given a crisis that should have been relatively easy to solve — and, more than that, a crisis that anyone who knew macroeconomics 101 should have been well-prepared to deal with — what we actually got was an obsession with problems we didn’t have. We’ve obsessed over the deficit in the face of near-record low interest rates, obsessed over inflation in the face of stagnant wages, and counted on the confidence fairy to make job-destroying policies somehow job-creating.

The editor at Veterans Today sent out a note asking that the various staff writers think about what the debt deal will do to veterans. Well, since Vets as a group fall into an interesting conundrum -- joblessness and homelessness and lack of medical insurance and suicice rates higher to minorities who've been slammed despite being just "loved" by the country, I suspect that we can use them as a microscope as to what this deal is going to do. 

If you are a homeowner, you're not going to see any assistance. I was talking to an attorney yesterday who used to represent mortgage companies and banks, and is now on the other side after a bit of a crisis of conscience. "The banks got tons of money, and they were allowed to re-write the rules to make it easier on them to screw the consumer..." So, don't expect new programs, don't expect actual results from the current programs. Since Fannie, Freddie,and the FHA are under attack, expect VA loans to be undermined as well. This was tried during Bush II, part II, when some congressional Republicans were advocating that vets only be allowed to use VA loans twice, because letting them use it more than that was letting them be greedy...yeah. I've bought three homes using my GI Bill, all after moving because the Army moved me...

If you're unemployed, expect to stay that way. The idea that the rich are job creators is absurd, of course. The rich are powerful, and they want to get rich. If they can make money by expanding their businesses, they will. If they can make money by off-shoring jobs, replacing workers, busting unions and on and on and on, they will. In a situation of limited demand, large inventories and excess capacity, they're going to stand pat, or even downsize. That's the way business and capitalism works. Lawrence O'Donnell said last night that there's good capitalism and there's bad capitalism; there's good socialism and there's bad socialism. When they work together in a mixed economy -- which like it or not, any modern economy is going to be mixed between state and private interests -- they can produce marvelous results. Good or bad. But expecting capitalism to do things that have nothing to do with the growth of capital is stupid. It's like expecting to get milk from a snake. You can get something, it will just not be milk. 

If you're trying to go to school, and need loans, well, you're screwed. The newest GI Bill is great of course -- I am envious although grateful for my Vietnam era GI Bill -- but it's in danger of not being fully funded. The VA is making strides, but those strides require spending. Spending requires money. Money is something that the idiots in control of the House and the Senate -- King Turtle Rules! If you can say no, you can accomplish a lot of things, largely obstructionist and evil in this case. Mitch McConnell is a fair smarter version of the leader of the Knights Who Say Ni! only he can't be placated with a shrubbery.

Want to retire? Probably going to not be a dream retirement. Granted, a lot of us are taking unplanned, unwanted early retirement because of unemployment, but folks with jobs who are getting close are often either afraid to retire thanks to all the fear mongering about things that aren't real, and with Social Security and Medicare under constant attack as entitlements, we're probably going to see even more issues that make people hesitate. You probably can't sell your home for enough to do anything else with like buy another home in Boca Raton. Or Catfish Guts Mississippi, for that matter. 

Vets represent the cutting edge of traditional American values -- and, they will be screwed by the inevitabilities of the debt deal. Hopefully, the Progressive Dems will find a theme  that can resonate on the bumper sticker and the talking points and the cable news shows and the internet. "Bohener is a boner!" is probably not going to do it, I guess. How about "Say no to economic terrorism!"

There was another interesting piece in the Times today. It isn't all that terribly surprising to me, but it is something that we ought to consider. We forget it in the face of the whole "best and brightest" thing. Obama just isn't crazy enough for these guys. Bill Clinton had a lot of issues, and he was fairly effective. GW had issues and he was effective. Ronald Reagan had lots of issues and he was effective. Carter and Ford didn't have a lot of emotional or psychological issues and they were effective. On and on and on and on...Socrates still rules philosophy, and he was a crazy old coot a good deal of the time. Bill Gates is a high functioning autistic and look at what he's done. 

The author, Nassir Gamehi, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts Medical School, hypothesizes this, comparing and contrasting the success of Roosevelt in his administration in doing great things, and Obama's inability to get beyond the nonsense thrown up in his path. 

The difference between the two leaders may exemplify a general rule, the inverse law of sanity: mentally healthy leaders, successful in quiet and prosperous times, often fail in times of crisis; in contrast, our greatest crisis leaders frequently are mentally abnormal, even mentally ill.

Or, as Alice Roosevelt Longford wrote about her cousin, "A third rate mind with a first rate temperament." Anyway, being brilliant and having a sense of proportion and irony is not a bad thing in a leader. But, you need to have a spark of madness to act in a way that confounds the opposition and inspires the base. That's why people listen to Bachmann and Palin and McCain but aren't able to deal with Romney. 

Worth considering.