If President Obama doesn't go Big and dictate the terms of the debate over the next year, we will be treated to wall-to-wall House insanity. The rules I wrote about the other day are actually even stranger and Congressman Ryan will assume more power than any other Budget Chairman in history. The pledge of Gentleman John Boehner is to get federal funding back to the 2008 levels--without any cuts to defense, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The genius tasked with accomplishing this is Ryan. Also, add the proviso that there can be no tax increases of any sort. And even throw in the new condition that Republicans do not have to accept the figures from the CBO, which dictated the limits on Democratic legislation for the past two years.
Progressives should throw some spanners in the works in the House. Since every bill is supposed to be evaluated in terms of its constitutionality and that criteria is determined by the doctrine of original intent, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul should team up and question the constitutionality of defense appropriations for a standing army,(which was not envisioned by the Founding Fathers), appropriations for the CIA and the intellgence community, and, of course, funding for the FBI. I would love to see the Tea Baggers argue their way out of those objections.
Congressman King from Iowa vows to investigate the "reparations" of the Pigford II settlement. This could turn out to be educational for the American public to learn about how black farmers were disenfrancised. Luckily for the administration, the FBI has the accounting of Pigford I, which showed only 3% fraud, a remarkable record for a government program. King also wants to hold hearings on ACORN because a large percentage of teabaggers really believe ACORN stole the election for Barack Obama. I wonder if King will investigate ACORN man of the Year in 2008--Senator John McCain. Also, King is hung up about the New Black Panthers and why the DOJ threw out the voter fraud case against them. I get the sense that King has a thing about blacks. Of course, the secondary target in these investigations is Eric Holder, who has been very nonchalant about the prospects of testifying everyday. He cites his experience during the House's impeachment attempts against Clinton.
The other Congressman King from New York vows to investigate radicalism among American Muslims. This is sure to have wall-to-wall coverage on Fox News. I guess King has a thing about Muslims.
Rep. Issa wants to start his investigations into the Countrywide Mortgage scandal. The conservative view is that the sub-prime mortgage fiasco was the fault of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and encouraging mortgage lending to minorities. He vows to move on from there. One of the key objectives for House Republicans is to "prove" Republicans were not responsible for the economic collapse of 2008. What's so interesting so far is that the GOP has not suffered any consequences for their very real role in the economic collapse.
Rep. Issa and his GOP cronies also want to investigate the vigor with which the Obama DOJ defended the DOMA Act, which had been declared unconstitutional by a Reagan-appointed judge--which never gets mentioned by the new GOP. The House Republicans believe this will buy off the anti-same sex marriage crowd. We should have a decision soon on California's Prop 8.
There will be a Battle Royale over the EPA regulating green house gases and carbon emissions. The House Energy Commmittee has already vowed to not only challenge the EPA but also will hold hearings to debunk the science of climate change. This is a payback to the Koch Brothers, who fund every climate change denial program in the United States, without exception.
One of the coolest sleights of hand of the new GOP leadership is that they don't have to account for the increase in the deficit if they modify any of Obama's plans like healthcare. This gets them off the hook. The Republican plan proposed during the healthcare debate actually increased health costs in general and the government deficit specifically and covered considerably millions less people. In the new regime, they don't have to account for this.
For those who remember separate bathrooms in the pre-civil rights days, this year will see a return to that time when teabaggers propose separate bathrooms in the military for straights and gays. There has already been a trial balloon sent to the Pentagon on this. To their credit, they shot it down. But this should be interesting.
On Foreign Affairs, we should expect the new House to be seditious. There will be an attempt to actually pressure the Obama Administration to stay in Iraq longer than this summer. Also any pressure put on Israel to move to a two-state solution will be roudnly denounced by the House. Also, we should expect a full-court effort to strip the budget of foreign aid at the levels requested by the Administration and any funding for multilateral efforts of cooperation.
2011 will also see a wholesale attack by states on pensions and the social welfare system and educational systems. Even Jerry Brown has said he has to cut California's educational budget another 25%. The new Republican governors already have launched their initiatives to cut government employees, end pensions and to cut ties to federal government programs like Medicare. At least Jerry Brown is going to ask for tax increases, has launched an effort to form the new health insurance exchanges mandated by the new law and embraced the high-speed rail efforts of the Obama Administration.
The states will provide more nonsense than one can imagine. Arizona's new immigration law has over 24 new copies being introduced around the country. Unfortunately, handicappers believe at least six of these will pass. Also,the anti-abortion crowd believes their last chance is to introduce "Personhood Laws", which would severely restrict abortion and contraception. One such law lost in Colorado but a slew of them are being introduced in the South. Also several states are introducing laws not to participate in the federal healthcare reform. On the other hand, states like Vermont are actually moving to expand healthcare coverage.
Two days ago, CNN conducted a poll on whether you want the Obama policies to succeed or fail. 67% of Americans want them to succeed. 67% of Republicans want them to fail. The contrast is stunning. It seems that Obama has started to get independents back into the fold.
Even on things like healthcare,it has been widely touted that only 43% of Americans support the new healthcare program, while 57% oppose. Sounds great until you see that 13% who oppose didn't think it went far enough. So we will have to see how the House monkeying around with the bill affects public opinion.
The new House doesn't start with enormous support. Today, Congress has an 8% approval rating and Obama is still in the high 40s. President Obama is still at least 3 times more popular than Gentleman John Boehner.
In the freakshow department, Andy Martin, anti-semitic Birther, has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President. Meanwhile, Neil Abercrombie, the new Democratic Governor of Hawaii, vows to silence the Birthers. He finds their treatment of the President outrageous and wants to fight them. Why? Well,he was in Hawaii when President Obama was born and he knew both his parents and is mad as hell about the birthers' insult to Hawaii.
Showing posts with label Birthers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthers. Show all posts
Friday, December 31, 2010
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Conspiracy's End
I love conspiracy theories. They are a form of gnostic knowledge about our political universe. Conspiracy theories are not disturbing; they are re-assuring, making sense of what doesn't. You can almost say that conspiracy theories are symptoms of our thirst for meaning. The reason our political hopes and dreams are thwarted is because there are larger forces and entities controlled by sinister personalities who really control the world and manipulate reality to their wants. You could even develop computer programs to generate conspiracies. I confess I subscribe to conspiracy theories, I like them. But this week has been a deflating one for all of us.
The assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother Robert and Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. shaped my generation and ushered in an age of upheaval in our politics. Shortly after the assasination of her husband, Mrs Jackie Kennedy opined," How awful is it that Jack was killed by some little Communist shit?" And we have all dutifully fell in line trying to make it that he wasn't. The killing of the President has produced whole libraries of alternative theories, films and pieces of good to great literature. We have Oliver Stone's JFK, which posits the assassination was an inside job by the shadowy world of the spooks and military because President Kennedy wanted to end the Vietnam War, which we now know he did. Charles McCarry wrote a wonderful spy novel Tears of Autumn, which posits the Kennedy assassination was the product of Indochinese heroin dealers linked to the Diem family, who hired a French assassin. James Ellroy in Ten Thousand Cold Men writes with his full amp style of a complex plot involving Howard Hughes, CIA personnel and the mafia. Non-fiction books link the Gambino family, Jimmy Hoffa and the New Orleans mob into a fantastic, yet plausible plot of revenge for a series of perceived slights and wrongs. Conservatives speculate about the role of Fidel Castro and cite LBJ's dark interview near the end of his life, saying "We were running Murder,Inc. down there (in Cuba), anything could have happened". Much to my dismay, Norman Mailer, whom we could trust in these dark matters, wrote Oswald near the end of his life, basically confirming Jackie's original statement. But I thought Mailer had sold out to the spooks so he could finish the next volume of Harlot's Ghost, his epic novel about the CIA.
I think we now have an answer. Ted Kennedy's memoir True Compass has finally been published. If you grew up by the ocean, the passages that are most poignant concern his love of sailing on the sea, his memories of fleeing land after Bobby was killed and sailing from the Cape to Maine to be together with the sea and sky, as well as some of his last journeys out in his sailboat. In Washington, we have always heard that Ted knew about Jack's assassination and that before he died the truth would come out. I take it his account in the memoir was his truth. Chosen by the Kennedy family to meet with Earl Warren, since Bobby was engulfed with grief, he met with Chief Justice Warren. The debriefing took over five hours and Earl Warren filled Ted on all the details of the Commission's work including a critique of its shortcoming. In the end,writes Ted Kennedy the Commissions got it right. Later LBJ collared him and said it was the FBI's fault. They have interviewed Oswald and had him under surveillance but they failed to prevent the assassination. Unfortunately, the words as he wrote them ring true as the deaths of his brothers haunt the first half of the book and I think, knowing of his own impending death, he would have left another "truth" if he knew it.
The other event of my generation was Watergate, an episode in our history,along with the "secret invasion" of Cambodia, which broke the faith of a generation in the institutions of government. Another library has grown up around this third-rate burglary. Richard Nixon feared that DNC chairman Larry O'Brien, a lobbyist for Howard Hughes, knew about Hughes' on-going financial support of the President and would spill the beans and Nixon had to find out what O'Brien knew. The CIA and the military knew that Nixon wanted to re-organize the entire executive branch (see Dick Cheney) and they feared what he was up to with all the back channel negotiations going on with Moscow, the Vietnam Peace Talks and China so they got a bunch of former CIA hands to botch the operation to frame Nixon. Ted Kennedy himself plotted the overthrow of Nixon by planting Archibald Cox at the Justice Department so as to provoke the firings of the Special Prosecutor and set up a firestorm that would lead to Nixon's impeachment. Gordan Liddy speculated that Nixon had nothing to do with any of this. It was all John Dean's fault. Dean was dating Maureen, his soon-to-be wife, who Liddy speculates was working for an escot service. Dean knowing that Spencer Oliver, whose office was actually bugged, procured women for visiting Democratic officials to Washington, would have records about these transactions. So Dean ordered the break-in to destroy records that would be damaging to his wife's reputation and then snicked on President Nixon. After a ten-year lawsuit, this line of the Watergate story proved false and Liddy lost in court to Dean. So we are left the questions: Did Nixon order the break-in?--he said for years he didn't; what were they trying to find?; and what's on the 18 and half minute erasure of the tape?
And now we know and it's a bummer. John Dean in revising his old book Blind Ambition uncovered what people were looking for. Richard Nixon had just returned from China, which he considered his greatest triumph, only to be confronted with allegations by Democrats that the anti-trust suit against ITT had been dismissed because of bribery. Nixon furious that his greatest moment had been upstaged heard that there were allegations about kickbacks involved in the Democratic convention scheduled to take place in Miami. He loudly complained he wanted this information so the White House could use it against the Democrats. Hence the political arm of the White House went to work and bugged the wrong guy's office. They were supposed to bug Larry O'Brien's office and get papers documenting the kickback scheme. But then they were blown and Watergate for all its metaphorical power over all these years really was a third-rate burglary and Richard Nixon really didn't order the break-in. And the whole iss of bribes over ITT is false, also. And there were no kickbacks involved in the Democratic Convention either. And George McGovern did not receive campaign funds from Fidel Castro as one of the Watergate burglars claimed.
In the next two years with the advance of technology, acoustic scientists believe we will be able to reconstruct the erased 18 and a half minutes. I'm sure they will be disappointing.
Now the conspracies lack the panache of those in the past. We are left now with Orly Taitz and her band of wingnuts and 9/11 truthers arguing that our President was born in Mombassa, Kenya (the city was then in Zanzibar) despite his mother never having been in that country. The court rejected her latest lawsuit and threatens to fine her $10,000 and a lawyer in Ohio is suing to have her disbarred. Conspiracies are not what they were.
Conspiracies do exist, of course. But the most dreadful thing is that inexplicable and horror events happen, which are deprived of any serious meaning because of the basic ineptitude of human beings. We are much more the objects of chance, whimsy and fate than we want to believe.
The assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother Robert and Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. shaped my generation and ushered in an age of upheaval in our politics. Shortly after the assasination of her husband, Mrs Jackie Kennedy opined," How awful is it that Jack was killed by some little Communist shit?" And we have all dutifully fell in line trying to make it that he wasn't. The killing of the President has produced whole libraries of alternative theories, films and pieces of good to great literature. We have Oliver Stone's JFK, which posits the assassination was an inside job by the shadowy world of the spooks and military because President Kennedy wanted to end the Vietnam War, which we now know he did. Charles McCarry wrote a wonderful spy novel Tears of Autumn, which posits the Kennedy assassination was the product of Indochinese heroin dealers linked to the Diem family, who hired a French assassin. James Ellroy in Ten Thousand Cold Men writes with his full amp style of a complex plot involving Howard Hughes, CIA personnel and the mafia. Non-fiction books link the Gambino family, Jimmy Hoffa and the New Orleans mob into a fantastic, yet plausible plot of revenge for a series of perceived slights and wrongs. Conservatives speculate about the role of Fidel Castro and cite LBJ's dark interview near the end of his life, saying "We were running Murder,Inc. down there (in Cuba), anything could have happened". Much to my dismay, Norman Mailer, whom we could trust in these dark matters, wrote Oswald near the end of his life, basically confirming Jackie's original statement. But I thought Mailer had sold out to the spooks so he could finish the next volume of Harlot's Ghost, his epic novel about the CIA.
I think we now have an answer. Ted Kennedy's memoir True Compass has finally been published. If you grew up by the ocean, the passages that are most poignant concern his love of sailing on the sea, his memories of fleeing land after Bobby was killed and sailing from the Cape to Maine to be together with the sea and sky, as well as some of his last journeys out in his sailboat. In Washington, we have always heard that Ted knew about Jack's assassination and that before he died the truth would come out. I take it his account in the memoir was his truth. Chosen by the Kennedy family to meet with Earl Warren, since Bobby was engulfed with grief, he met with Chief Justice Warren. The debriefing took over five hours and Earl Warren filled Ted on all the details of the Commission's work including a critique of its shortcoming. In the end,writes Ted Kennedy the Commissions got it right. Later LBJ collared him and said it was the FBI's fault. They have interviewed Oswald and had him under surveillance but they failed to prevent the assassination. Unfortunately, the words as he wrote them ring true as the deaths of his brothers haunt the first half of the book and I think, knowing of his own impending death, he would have left another "truth" if he knew it.
The other event of my generation was Watergate, an episode in our history,along with the "secret invasion" of Cambodia, which broke the faith of a generation in the institutions of government. Another library has grown up around this third-rate burglary. Richard Nixon feared that DNC chairman Larry O'Brien, a lobbyist for Howard Hughes, knew about Hughes' on-going financial support of the President and would spill the beans and Nixon had to find out what O'Brien knew. The CIA and the military knew that Nixon wanted to re-organize the entire executive branch (see Dick Cheney) and they feared what he was up to with all the back channel negotiations going on with Moscow, the Vietnam Peace Talks and China so they got a bunch of former CIA hands to botch the operation to frame Nixon. Ted Kennedy himself plotted the overthrow of Nixon by planting Archibald Cox at the Justice Department so as to provoke the firings of the Special Prosecutor and set up a firestorm that would lead to Nixon's impeachment. Gordan Liddy speculated that Nixon had nothing to do with any of this. It was all John Dean's fault. Dean was dating Maureen, his soon-to-be wife, who Liddy speculates was working for an escot service. Dean knowing that Spencer Oliver, whose office was actually bugged, procured women for visiting Democratic officials to Washington, would have records about these transactions. So Dean ordered the break-in to destroy records that would be damaging to his wife's reputation and then snicked on President Nixon. After a ten-year lawsuit, this line of the Watergate story proved false and Liddy lost in court to Dean. So we are left the questions: Did Nixon order the break-in?--he said for years he didn't; what were they trying to find?; and what's on the 18 and half minute erasure of the tape?
And now we know and it's a bummer. John Dean in revising his old book Blind Ambition uncovered what people were looking for. Richard Nixon had just returned from China, which he considered his greatest triumph, only to be confronted with allegations by Democrats that the anti-trust suit against ITT had been dismissed because of bribery. Nixon furious that his greatest moment had been upstaged heard that there were allegations about kickbacks involved in the Democratic convention scheduled to take place in Miami. He loudly complained he wanted this information so the White House could use it against the Democrats. Hence the political arm of the White House went to work and bugged the wrong guy's office. They were supposed to bug Larry O'Brien's office and get papers documenting the kickback scheme. But then they were blown and Watergate for all its metaphorical power over all these years really was a third-rate burglary and Richard Nixon really didn't order the break-in. And the whole iss of bribes over ITT is false, also. And there were no kickbacks involved in the Democratic Convention either. And George McGovern did not receive campaign funds from Fidel Castro as one of the Watergate burglars claimed.
In the next two years with the advance of technology, acoustic scientists believe we will be able to reconstruct the erased 18 and a half minutes. I'm sure they will be disappointing.
Now the conspracies lack the panache of those in the past. We are left now with Orly Taitz and her band of wingnuts and 9/11 truthers arguing that our President was born in Mombassa, Kenya (the city was then in Zanzibar) despite his mother never having been in that country. The court rejected her latest lawsuit and threatens to fine her $10,000 and a lawyer in Ohio is suing to have her disbarred. Conspiracies are not what they were.
Conspiracies do exist, of course. But the most dreadful thing is that inexplicable and horror events happen, which are deprived of any serious meaning because of the basic ineptitude of human beings. We are much more the objects of chance, whimsy and fate than we want to believe.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Saturday Afternoon--Shards of Summer
President Obama pushed Gibbs out of the way and gave his own Friday press briefing recapping the progress toward Health Care reform and promises that his plan will not affect the deficit. he seems to have some fire over from his trip to New Jersey and the NAACP speech. Luckily for him the new Congressional Budget Office report backs him up and supports the House bill. Blue Dog Democrats wanting to postpone the health reform are going to be disappointed.
Senator DeMint of South Carolina declares this "Obama's Waterloo" and if health care reform is stopped, it will break his presidency. Which would lead 3 1/2 years left. And then what wait for the Republicans to conjure up some ideas? The awe-inspiring lack of any consideration for the public good still amazes me about the Obama-era Republicans.
Meanwhile Dick Lugar was the first Republican to announce his support for Sotomayor--Mel Martinez and Olympia Snowe were soon to follow. So, it's 63 so far and at least 1 Republican has to vote for her on the Judiciary to get the nomination to the floor. I think Grassley and Hatch will go for her. I am tired of hearing how the Republican strategy was to set the markers for the next nominee, not Sotomayor, who I insist is a moderate. I am more convinced than ever Obama should invite a donnybrook for the next nominee and name Laurence Tribe--with both men recognizing it might be a losing struggle. At least we might have hearing where constitutional issues might be openly debated--and it would be worth it. Tribe would probably not be long on the court but I would pay to hear a debate between him and Sessions.
The Obama era has not been kind to the Free Republic. Several bloggers have made the news--the Holocaust Museum killer, the Pittsburgh cop killer and the killer of Dr. Tiller. A few comments had brought the Secret Service around. Sarah Palin quits--despite the false bravado on the website about what a righteous move this was. Mitt Romney supporters purged and the quest to exterminate the RINOS continues. Now Jim Robinson has called for a revolution and armed resistance if----health care reform is passed. A curious thing since both he and his wife are wheelchair bound. Medicaid, Tricare --they must have something that the rest of don't have. For years I have been a lurker at the site and lament this descent into a certain lunacy. Before other sites covered certain topics on the right they did without the heightened religious content and now the vitriol over Obama.
Birthers are now being covered on television as sort of the Moon landing deniers and 9/11 truthers. The Young Turks this week covered the great Obama birth certificate flap with their sense of humor--they even showed a tape of the original certificate--creased with all the appropriate seals and signatures. They even quoted the harassed Hawaiian government officials about "how many times do we have to say it is authentic and he was born in Hawaii". Birthers made it on the Worse Persons of the World for encouraging serving military men to join in their suits to avoid service in Afghanistan. Another federal judge had to rule against an Army Reserve Major who protested his impending call-up--he volunteered after signing on as a plaintiff to this case--alleging Obama was not eligible to be Commander-in-Chief. After declaring a victory of sorts, when the case went against him and his lawyer and the military withdrew his call-up, CENTCOM had to make announcement calling their calls ridiculous.
Not to be outdone by Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh seems to be stirring the racial war pot himself. Frankly, I haven't seen blacks getting much advantage from the Obama Administration and especially during this depression. I'm wondering where the great grievances of Rich White Men are coming from. Even with a surtax for health reform, both men will be earning in a month more than the average American couple earns in a year or two. I think it's unseemly for the very wealthy to be bitter and angry. As the Bible says, From those who have received much, much is expected.
The gnostic cult here in D.C., the Family seems to be breeding more adulterers by the minute. Former Republican Congressman Pickering of Missippi apparently joins the list with Sanford and Ensign of those with Family connections who seemed to have gone soft on some of the 10 Commandments. His wife is suing the mistress for causing "alienation of affection"--I like that. Apparently, Pickering actually conducted the affair in the "C" Street house itself. It's cool to be one of God's Chosen--the rules don't apply. Meanwhile Gov Sanford seems to have misused state funds to facilitate his love affair--he at least fell in love.
Obama needs to go for the gold on health care reform right now or it will slip,slide away and , for get the political consequences, the economic effects will be devastating. With unemployment rising, those without health insurance increases, personal bankruptcy increases and the impact on the national deficit increases. The only other domestic reform Obama will be able to get out of Congress will be Immigration Reform. The Republicans know that health care reform, immigration reform and their opposition to Sotomayor and they are doomed. That's why Republicans are fighting tooth and nail over these things. Party uber alles--country last.
Senator DeMint of South Carolina declares this "Obama's Waterloo" and if health care reform is stopped, it will break his presidency. Which would lead 3 1/2 years left. And then what wait for the Republicans to conjure up some ideas? The awe-inspiring lack of any consideration for the public good still amazes me about the Obama-era Republicans.
Meanwhile Dick Lugar was the first Republican to announce his support for Sotomayor--Mel Martinez and Olympia Snowe were soon to follow. So, it's 63 so far and at least 1 Republican has to vote for her on the Judiciary to get the nomination to the floor. I think Grassley and Hatch will go for her. I am tired of hearing how the Republican strategy was to set the markers for the next nominee, not Sotomayor, who I insist is a moderate. I am more convinced than ever Obama should invite a donnybrook for the next nominee and name Laurence Tribe--with both men recognizing it might be a losing struggle. At least we might have hearing where constitutional issues might be openly debated--and it would be worth it. Tribe would probably not be long on the court but I would pay to hear a debate between him and Sessions.
The Obama era has not been kind to the Free Republic. Several bloggers have made the news--the Holocaust Museum killer, the Pittsburgh cop killer and the killer of Dr. Tiller. A few comments had brought the Secret Service around. Sarah Palin quits--despite the false bravado on the website about what a righteous move this was. Mitt Romney supporters purged and the quest to exterminate the RINOS continues. Now Jim Robinson has called for a revolution and armed resistance if----health care reform is passed. A curious thing since both he and his wife are wheelchair bound. Medicaid, Tricare --they must have something that the rest of don't have. For years I have been a lurker at the site and lament this descent into a certain lunacy. Before other sites covered certain topics on the right they did without the heightened religious content and now the vitriol over Obama.
Birthers are now being covered on television as sort of the Moon landing deniers and 9/11 truthers. The Young Turks this week covered the great Obama birth certificate flap with their sense of humor--they even showed a tape of the original certificate--creased with all the appropriate seals and signatures. They even quoted the harassed Hawaiian government officials about "how many times do we have to say it is authentic and he was born in Hawaii". Birthers made it on the Worse Persons of the World for encouraging serving military men to join in their suits to avoid service in Afghanistan. Another federal judge had to rule against an Army Reserve Major who protested his impending call-up--he volunteered after signing on as a plaintiff to this case--alleging Obama was not eligible to be Commander-in-Chief. After declaring a victory of sorts, when the case went against him and his lawyer and the military withdrew his call-up, CENTCOM had to make announcement calling their calls ridiculous.
Not to be outdone by Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh seems to be stirring the racial war pot himself. Frankly, I haven't seen blacks getting much advantage from the Obama Administration and especially during this depression. I'm wondering where the great grievances of Rich White Men are coming from. Even with a surtax for health reform, both men will be earning in a month more than the average American couple earns in a year or two. I think it's unseemly for the very wealthy to be bitter and angry. As the Bible says, From those who have received much, much is expected.
The gnostic cult here in D.C., the Family seems to be breeding more adulterers by the minute. Former Republican Congressman Pickering of Missippi apparently joins the list with Sanford and Ensign of those with Family connections who seemed to have gone soft on some of the 10 Commandments. His wife is suing the mistress for causing "alienation of affection"--I like that. Apparently, Pickering actually conducted the affair in the "C" Street house itself. It's cool to be one of God's Chosen--the rules don't apply. Meanwhile Gov Sanford seems to have misused state funds to facilitate his love affair--he at least fell in love.
Obama needs to go for the gold on health care reform right now or it will slip,slide away and , for get the political consequences, the economic effects will be devastating. With unemployment rising, those without health insurance increases, personal bankruptcy increases and the impact on the national deficit increases. The only other domestic reform Obama will be able to get out of Congress will be Immigration Reform. The Republicans know that health care reform, immigration reform and their opposition to Sotomayor and they are doomed. That's why Republicans are fighting tooth and nail over these things. Party uber alles--country last.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Saturday Rants
The repression has been in full force this morning. If you want to see a protester die before your very eyes,Nico at www.huffingtonpost.com has posted an Iranian woman shot and dying. Mousavi has announced he is ready for martyrdom. And the Iranian regime claims a suicide bomber has blown himself up at the Khomenini memorial but curiously there is no evidence of this. Christiane Amapour claims the MEK engaged in the attack but the last time we heard this the Iranian regime blew up one of the oldest mosques themselves and blamed the group for it.
While important things are happening around the world, Joseph Farah of www.wnd.com posts the very important investigative report that demonstrates that Barack Obama had at the age of 11 a relationship with the SDS and Bill Ayres through a Unitarian church in Hawaii. Some of us remember in the anti-Vietnam war days the Unitarians were hosts to many anti-war activities,including draft counseling. But then again--maybe Farah meant Obama knew Lew Ayres. The last known photo of Barack Obama at 11 showed him body-surfing with his grandfather. Maybe it was his grandfather who had the relationship.
Farah also brags about how he conned $75,000 from unsuspecting donors to purchase billboards asking "Where is your birth certificate?" Why ,I ask ,isn't the RICO act used against this and the legal cases brought on the whole eligibility issue? This is a money making venture--pure and simple. If we even go further, why not crack down on the NRA and others who claim Obama is going to take away their guns? We all know and as gun lobbyists have been telling us for years that this is all about making Wayne La Pierre more money. I even think Bobby Rush is on the NRA payroll to introduce legislation against assault rifles just to gin up the money-making machine. There is even less sentiment for gun-control legislation than at any time since the 1990s. The only ones profiting by this are gun manufacturers, the NRA and ammunition people.
Senator Ensign of Nevada , a member of the Christian group Promise Keepers, didn't keep his promise when he had an affair with the wife of a campaign worker. It seems this has only come forward because the couple had problems with their mortgage and wanted to hit up the Senator for some loot. Senator Ensign is a roommate with Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who is also a Promise Keeper, and who knew about the affair for the past 18 months. It seems Coburn, one of Obama's best friends (go figure), believes his friend should be forgiven. Unfortunately, the episode re-raised the issue of Senator Diaper Dan Vitters and his escapes with the D.C. madam. It seems he may face a serious Democratic challenge and also a primary challenge by porno star Stormy Dawn.
Does anyone care about Letterman's jokes about Sarah Palin? It wasn't in bad taste--it was just the joke didn't work. To understand, you had to be aware of Bristol Palin's sexual habits and Yankee's Alex Rodriquez sexual appetites. And the timing didn't work. Forget about Palin's complaint it was about her daughter named Willow. The Freepers managed to whip up a crowd of 20 demanding Letterman be fired. And Cindy McCain--after sending photos of Navy beefcake exrcising on her beach--twittered that Letterman had gone too far. But, as we do know, the road to the White House ran through Letterman's studio and McCain's snubbing him cost him Indiana.
Has anyone caught the House hearings on health insurance? There is something called rescessions (?), which means that a health insurance company can negate a policy for certain types of illnesses. In the hearings, health insurance companies said they had a logrithm they use to determine this issue--even though the committee couldn't get them to submit the formula. It seems there are some 1,500 to 2,000 illnesses, which trigger insurances being cancelled. From what I heard, these included breast cancer, ovarian cancer and brain cancer. This means that if the patient starts treatment for these illnesses health insurance companies are likely to stop coverage, sticking the person with the full bill. Any wonder why people say all of us are a single illness away from bankruptcy?
The Republicans unveiled their exciting health insurance plan this week. It was the same idea as their stimulus plan--four pages with no numbers. They could not answer what their plans were for insuring the 50+ million uninsured Americans. I am increasingly getting the idea that Republicans no longer have any sense of the general welfare or the public good.
But the Democrats are only marginally acting any better. The whole health reform plan is now looking to be a new TARP program for the health care industry so that it doesn't go the way of GM. Mandatory purchase of health insurance for another 50 million people--that's good business. Senator Baucus, who is bought and paid for by the insurance companies, and Tom Dashcle basically said a public option is off the table. My suggestion to all congresscritters who feel this way is to voluntarily give up their own public option plans and pay for private insurance themselves. If you check with any federal employee, the so-called public option is simply a menu of private choices you can choose from and that choice as well as the large pool of employees force private insurers to be competitive. Hardly a revolutionary concept.
People are beginning to show concerns about the government deficits and this is beginning to slow support for health care reform. The $11 trillion of deficits left over from the Bush Administration and the few trillion from the Obama programs damper any enthusiasm for more dramatic changes in the economic situation and any new government programs. Senator McCain was already screaming about $1 trillion being spent for health reform over the next 10 years--a number easily accomodated by cuts in the Defense budget. Also, if we hadn't invaded Iraq we would have a national health care system--think about about.
But the deficits pose other types of problems--how to keep selling U.S. Treasuries to foreign markets, particularly the Chinese. Someone writing in the Daily Beast wrote that Obama should take the initiative and submit legislation that says that when unemployment dips below 5%,about half where it is now, then the U.S. could not have a deficit more than 3% of GDP, which is said to be acceptable. If the debt level goes above this, then it would take 60 votes in the Senate to override this. It's sort of like a modified Gramm-Rudman, where you either have to cut programs or raise revenues, which we used to call taxes. Since we need deficit spending now to try and mount some economic recovery, it's not realistic to address now and the Republicans will try to run with this even though they know in their heart of hearts it doesn't make any immediate sense. Obama could simply take this off the table by urging such a bill now before other initiatives are dragged under by this public concern.
My last thought in my rantings is this: After seeing the handsome men and beautiful women during this last week demonstrating in Iran, could anyone really believe the United States could fight a war against them?
While important things are happening around the world, Joseph Farah of www.wnd.com posts the very important investigative report that demonstrates that Barack Obama had at the age of 11 a relationship with the SDS and Bill Ayres through a Unitarian church in Hawaii. Some of us remember in the anti-Vietnam war days the Unitarians were hosts to many anti-war activities,including draft counseling. But then again--maybe Farah meant Obama knew Lew Ayres. The last known photo of Barack Obama at 11 showed him body-surfing with his grandfather. Maybe it was his grandfather who had the relationship.
Farah also brags about how he conned $75,000 from unsuspecting donors to purchase billboards asking "Where is your birth certificate?" Why ,I ask ,isn't the RICO act used against this and the legal cases brought on the whole eligibility issue? This is a money making venture--pure and simple. If we even go further, why not crack down on the NRA and others who claim Obama is going to take away their guns? We all know and as gun lobbyists have been telling us for years that this is all about making Wayne La Pierre more money. I even think Bobby Rush is on the NRA payroll to introduce legislation against assault rifles just to gin up the money-making machine. There is even less sentiment for gun-control legislation than at any time since the 1990s. The only ones profiting by this are gun manufacturers, the NRA and ammunition people.
Senator Ensign of Nevada , a member of the Christian group Promise Keepers, didn't keep his promise when he had an affair with the wife of a campaign worker. It seems this has only come forward because the couple had problems with their mortgage and wanted to hit up the Senator for some loot. Senator Ensign is a roommate with Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who is also a Promise Keeper, and who knew about the affair for the past 18 months. It seems Coburn, one of Obama's best friends (go figure), believes his friend should be forgiven. Unfortunately, the episode re-raised the issue of Senator Diaper Dan Vitters and his escapes with the D.C. madam. It seems he may face a serious Democratic challenge and also a primary challenge by porno star Stormy Dawn.
Does anyone care about Letterman's jokes about Sarah Palin? It wasn't in bad taste--it was just the joke didn't work. To understand, you had to be aware of Bristol Palin's sexual habits and Yankee's Alex Rodriquez sexual appetites. And the timing didn't work. Forget about Palin's complaint it was about her daughter named Willow. The Freepers managed to whip up a crowd of 20 demanding Letterman be fired. And Cindy McCain--after sending photos of Navy beefcake exrcising on her beach--twittered that Letterman had gone too far. But, as we do know, the road to the White House ran through Letterman's studio and McCain's snubbing him cost him Indiana.
Has anyone caught the House hearings on health insurance? There is something called rescessions (?), which means that a health insurance company can negate a policy for certain types of illnesses. In the hearings, health insurance companies said they had a logrithm they use to determine this issue--even though the committee couldn't get them to submit the formula. It seems there are some 1,500 to 2,000 illnesses, which trigger insurances being cancelled. From what I heard, these included breast cancer, ovarian cancer and brain cancer. This means that if the patient starts treatment for these illnesses health insurance companies are likely to stop coverage, sticking the person with the full bill. Any wonder why people say all of us are a single illness away from bankruptcy?
The Republicans unveiled their exciting health insurance plan this week. It was the same idea as their stimulus plan--four pages with no numbers. They could not answer what their plans were for insuring the 50+ million uninsured Americans. I am increasingly getting the idea that Republicans no longer have any sense of the general welfare or the public good.
But the Democrats are only marginally acting any better. The whole health reform plan is now looking to be a new TARP program for the health care industry so that it doesn't go the way of GM. Mandatory purchase of health insurance for another 50 million people--that's good business. Senator Baucus, who is bought and paid for by the insurance companies, and Tom Dashcle basically said a public option is off the table. My suggestion to all congresscritters who feel this way is to voluntarily give up their own public option plans and pay for private insurance themselves. If you check with any federal employee, the so-called public option is simply a menu of private choices you can choose from and that choice as well as the large pool of employees force private insurers to be competitive. Hardly a revolutionary concept.
People are beginning to show concerns about the government deficits and this is beginning to slow support for health care reform. The $11 trillion of deficits left over from the Bush Administration and the few trillion from the Obama programs damper any enthusiasm for more dramatic changes in the economic situation and any new government programs. Senator McCain was already screaming about $1 trillion being spent for health reform over the next 10 years--a number easily accomodated by cuts in the Defense budget. Also, if we hadn't invaded Iraq we would have a national health care system--think about about.
But the deficits pose other types of problems--how to keep selling U.S. Treasuries to foreign markets, particularly the Chinese. Someone writing in the Daily Beast wrote that Obama should take the initiative and submit legislation that says that when unemployment dips below 5%,about half where it is now, then the U.S. could not have a deficit more than 3% of GDP, which is said to be acceptable. If the debt level goes above this, then it would take 60 votes in the Senate to override this. It's sort of like a modified Gramm-Rudman, where you either have to cut programs or raise revenues, which we used to call taxes. Since we need deficit spending now to try and mount some economic recovery, it's not realistic to address now and the Republicans will try to run with this even though they know in their heart of hearts it doesn't make any immediate sense. Obama could simply take this off the table by urging such a bill now before other initiatives are dragged under by this public concern.
My last thought in my rantings is this: After seeing the handsome men and beautiful women during this last week demonstrating in Iran, could anyone really believe the United States could fight a war against them?
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Crack-Up Continued
A CNN poll has 79% of Americans believing Obama did well on his first overseas trip and that he improved our image abroad. The President holds a 65% approval rating this week. He managed some significant policy achievements at the G20 Summit in London and also laid out his Afghanistan policy before the NATO countries with some hesitancy shown by the European countries. A meeting with his Russian counterpart produced a willingness to negotiate a new arms reduction treaty and his Prague speech laid out a vision to eliminate nuclear weapons. He concluded the trip with an appeal to Turkey, who at least privately has expressed relief that the American Administration has changed. The one negative of the week was the launch by North Korea of a missile that could carry nuclear weapons.
But these events seemed not to have touched parts of our political system. One can argument about the President's tone, the fruitfulness of his meetings and even the rhetoric he used in his major speeches. But that's not what we heard.
Instead, Michell Bachman warned her constituents to be armed and ready for revolt. Yesterday,she warned that President Obama intended to turn the expanded AmeriCore program into re-education camps.
New Gingrich with an eye to the 2012 Republican presidential nomination echoed former Vice President Dick Cheney by saying that President Obama made us less safe as a nation. Newt promised he would have intercepted the North Korea missile. What would have happened if the U.S. missed? Then Newt warned us about electronic pulse weapons being developed. How many threats, Newt, are we supposed to be afraid of at the same time?
Rudy Guiliani, America's Mayor, blasted President Obama for not speaking about Islamic terrorism in his talks abroad. And it was the diplomatic language President Obama used toward the Muslim world that seemed to set the Republicans off. Frank Gaffney speaking on a major television station, not Fox, claimed that the way President Obama spoke to the Muslims was a coded language saying that he, Obama, would introduce Sharia law.
Sharia law got alot of bang for its buck this week. President Obama's nominee for the lawyer to the State Department, the scholarly Dean of Yale Law School Harold Koh, was attacked in the New York Post, Fox News,the National Review, for advocating Sharia Law. Consequently, Republican Senators have placed a hold on his nominee despite Ted Olsen's defense of Koh's integrity and scholarship in the days Koh served in the Reagan Administration.
But Republicans also put a hold on Dawn Johnsen's nominee as chief of the Office of legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. Johnsen has actually held the post before during the Clinton Administration. Her crime was publishing articles depicting her negative opinion of the torture memos by Johnny Yoo.
Both Koh and Johnsen's nominations are held up by the Republicans to coerce the Obama Administration from releasing the second tranche of torture memos as promised. Previews of these memos indicate they are darker than the first, which were alarming enough in that they claimed the President had the power to suspend several articles of the Bill of Rights and to allow the U.S. military to conduct search and seizures in American homes without warrants.
A man convinced that President Obama would seize all Americans' guns, an idea promoted by the NRA, the rightwing websites and some talk show personalities shot and killed four policemen in Pittsburgh. The man had been a blogger on racist and neo-Nazi websites and claimed all the media and financial institutions were run by a zionist conspiracy. Glenn Beck, the Fox television personality most vocally identified with warning the public about the Obama gun seizure policy denied culpabilityfor the man's attacks on the policemen, saying he only provided information on the worst case scenerios, while the man himself was a nut. he went on to say that there would be unrest in the country because people were fed up.
Beck's companion on Fox, Sean Hannity, selectively edited President Obama's speech to Europeans where Obama mentioned America's occasional haughtiness in foreign affairs without showing Obama's criticism of "insidious anti-Americanism". The Newt popped up again to claim that Obama's foreign policy was like Carter's fantasy world.
This type of rhetoric has escalated several fold since the fall rallies of the McCain-Palin campaign. Is this a diversionary tactic so we don't recognize that the Obama budget swam through both the House and the Senate? Is this nuttiness meant for us to forget that the Republican counter-budget released on April 1 was a joke and was perceived as a joke by everyone inside the Beltway? Or are these people purposely trying to stir up hatred of the President in order to provoke an attack on him? It certainly is not the language of dialogue or constructive opposition. It feeds the dark paranoid bottom-feeders in our political culture.
On a more fun note, the "birthers" held a conference here in Washington to probe the "profound" mystery of the President's birth. To protest the state of Hawaii's less than cooperative attitude to the birthers requests for information, the crowd has called for a worldwide boycott of Hawaii as a tourist destination.
But even more fun is the whole Palin family. Todd's sister got nailed for breaking and entering in a house. Levi, Bristol's former fiancee, went on television to talk about having sex with her in Sarah's house and asserting that Sarah had to know. This provoked the now predictable attacks from Governor Sarah that Levi lied. The Queen of the North will soon get even with a book rumored to be searching fro a seven-fgure advance--certainly a reasonable sum in a time of a deep recession. Sarah again provided much needed entertainment by slamming the McCain campaign for not having anyone around with whom she could pray.
And finally as we head toward Easter, some evangelicals are challenging the whole premise of the religious right saying that they would be more persuasive if they simply acted as Christians and stayed out of politics. Amen, Brother.
But these events seemed not to have touched parts of our political system. One can argument about the President's tone, the fruitfulness of his meetings and even the rhetoric he used in his major speeches. But that's not what we heard.
Instead, Michell Bachman warned her constituents to be armed and ready for revolt. Yesterday,she warned that President Obama intended to turn the expanded AmeriCore program into re-education camps.
New Gingrich with an eye to the 2012 Republican presidential nomination echoed former Vice President Dick Cheney by saying that President Obama made us less safe as a nation. Newt promised he would have intercepted the North Korea missile. What would have happened if the U.S. missed? Then Newt warned us about electronic pulse weapons being developed. How many threats, Newt, are we supposed to be afraid of at the same time?
Rudy Guiliani, America's Mayor, blasted President Obama for not speaking about Islamic terrorism in his talks abroad. And it was the diplomatic language President Obama used toward the Muslim world that seemed to set the Republicans off. Frank Gaffney speaking on a major television station, not Fox, claimed that the way President Obama spoke to the Muslims was a coded language saying that he, Obama, would introduce Sharia law.
Sharia law got alot of bang for its buck this week. President Obama's nominee for the lawyer to the State Department, the scholarly Dean of Yale Law School Harold Koh, was attacked in the New York Post, Fox News,the National Review, for advocating Sharia Law. Consequently, Republican Senators have placed a hold on his nominee despite Ted Olsen's defense of Koh's integrity and scholarship in the days Koh served in the Reagan Administration.
But Republicans also put a hold on Dawn Johnsen's nominee as chief of the Office of legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. Johnsen has actually held the post before during the Clinton Administration. Her crime was publishing articles depicting her negative opinion of the torture memos by Johnny Yoo.
Both Koh and Johnsen's nominations are held up by the Republicans to coerce the Obama Administration from releasing the second tranche of torture memos as promised. Previews of these memos indicate they are darker than the first, which were alarming enough in that they claimed the President had the power to suspend several articles of the Bill of Rights and to allow the U.S. military to conduct search and seizures in American homes without warrants.
A man convinced that President Obama would seize all Americans' guns, an idea promoted by the NRA, the rightwing websites and some talk show personalities shot and killed four policemen in Pittsburgh. The man had been a blogger on racist and neo-Nazi websites and claimed all the media and financial institutions were run by a zionist conspiracy. Glenn Beck, the Fox television personality most vocally identified with warning the public about the Obama gun seizure policy denied culpabilityfor the man's attacks on the policemen, saying he only provided information on the worst case scenerios, while the man himself was a nut. he went on to say that there would be unrest in the country because people were fed up.
Beck's companion on Fox, Sean Hannity, selectively edited President Obama's speech to Europeans where Obama mentioned America's occasional haughtiness in foreign affairs without showing Obama's criticism of "insidious anti-Americanism". The Newt popped up again to claim that Obama's foreign policy was like Carter's fantasy world.
This type of rhetoric has escalated several fold since the fall rallies of the McCain-Palin campaign. Is this a diversionary tactic so we don't recognize that the Obama budget swam through both the House and the Senate? Is this nuttiness meant for us to forget that the Republican counter-budget released on April 1 was a joke and was perceived as a joke by everyone inside the Beltway? Or are these people purposely trying to stir up hatred of the President in order to provoke an attack on him? It certainly is not the language of dialogue or constructive opposition. It feeds the dark paranoid bottom-feeders in our political culture.
On a more fun note, the "birthers" held a conference here in Washington to probe the "profound" mystery of the President's birth. To protest the state of Hawaii's less than cooperative attitude to the birthers requests for information, the crowd has called for a worldwide boycott of Hawaii as a tourist destination.
But even more fun is the whole Palin family. Todd's sister got nailed for breaking and entering in a house. Levi, Bristol's former fiancee, went on television to talk about having sex with her in Sarah's house and asserting that Sarah had to know. This provoked the now predictable attacks from Governor Sarah that Levi lied. The Queen of the North will soon get even with a book rumored to be searching fro a seven-fgure advance--certainly a reasonable sum in a time of a deep recession. Sarah again provided much needed entertainment by slamming the McCain campaign for not having anyone around with whom she could pray.
And finally as we head toward Easter, some evangelicals are challenging the whole premise of the religious right saying that they would be more persuasive if they simply acted as Christians and stayed out of politics. Amen, Brother.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Birthers Get Foiled
The U.S. District Court for the District of Coumbia decided one of the birther cases put forth by a retired Air Force colonel named Gregory Hollister and it wasn't pretty. Birthers are now arguing that Judge James Robertson, who penned the position should now be impeached. The case against one Barry Soetoro, one of the clever names of the birthers for Barack Obama, didn't quite go as planned as the Judge admonished the plaintiffs at least twice during the proceedings about their claims.
Here's what Judge Robertson argued: "This case, if it were allowed to proceed, would deserve mention in one of those books that seek to prove that the law is foolish or that America has too many lawyers with no enough to do. Even in its relatively short life the case has excited the blogosphere and the conspiracy theorists. The right thing to do is to bring it to an early end." And that's just the opening paragraph.
The Judge goes after the "real plaintiff" Philip J. Berg, who he says argued the case in Pennsylvania in front of a judge who wrote a scholarly opinion about Berg's claims and dismissed them. He also outlines the legal arguments of the lawyer John D. Hemenway, which he had already proclaimed "frivolous".
Judge Robertson claims that "any attempt to sanction (Berg and another lawyer) them for the misuse of the public and private resources that have had to be devoted to this case would only give them a forum to continue their provocation." He does reserve his wrath for John D. Hemenway, who was "enlisted as a footsoldier in their crusade"" and is directly responsible to this Court for the pleadings that have been filed on behalf of the plaintiff".
The Judge then lays the hammer down. "Because it appears that the complaint in this case may have been presented for an improper purpose such as to harass...the accompanying order of dismissal requires Mr. Hemenway to show cause why he has noted violated " the rules of the Federal Civil Procedure against frivolous lawsuits and "why he should not be required to pay reasonable attorneys fees and other expenses to counsel for the defendants". Boom.
However, that hasn't stop the Birthers, who claim Roberston appointed by President Carter was a Democrat and so make up your own story. Now the Russian woman,Mrs. Orly, who got her law degree in correspondance school, is recruiting serving federal employees to be plaintiffs in similar suits.
As I have said to many conservatives who embrace this case, you have to prove Barack Obama's mother was not an America. All the rest is drivel. The sad fact of these cases is that they are fund-raising exercises against unwitting saps.
Here's what Judge Robertson argued: "This case, if it were allowed to proceed, would deserve mention in one of those books that seek to prove that the law is foolish or that America has too many lawyers with no enough to do. Even in its relatively short life the case has excited the blogosphere and the conspiracy theorists. The right thing to do is to bring it to an early end." And that's just the opening paragraph.
The Judge goes after the "real plaintiff" Philip J. Berg, who he says argued the case in Pennsylvania in front of a judge who wrote a scholarly opinion about Berg's claims and dismissed them. He also outlines the legal arguments of the lawyer John D. Hemenway, which he had already proclaimed "frivolous".
Judge Robertson claims that "any attempt to sanction (Berg and another lawyer) them for the misuse of the public and private resources that have had to be devoted to this case would only give them a forum to continue their provocation." He does reserve his wrath for John D. Hemenway, who was "enlisted as a footsoldier in their crusade"" and is directly responsible to this Court for the pleadings that have been filed on behalf of the plaintiff".
The Judge then lays the hammer down. "Because it appears that the complaint in this case may have been presented for an improper purpose such as to harass...the accompanying order of dismissal requires Mr. Hemenway to show cause why he has noted violated " the rules of the Federal Civil Procedure against frivolous lawsuits and "why he should not be required to pay reasonable attorneys fees and other expenses to counsel for the defendants". Boom.
However, that hasn't stop the Birthers, who claim Roberston appointed by President Carter was a Democrat and so make up your own story. Now the Russian woman,Mrs. Orly, who got her law degree in correspondance school, is recruiting serving federal employees to be plaintiffs in similar suits.
As I have said to many conservatives who embrace this case, you have to prove Barack Obama's mother was not an America. All the rest is drivel. The sad fact of these cases is that they are fund-raising exercises against unwitting saps.
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