Leadership

I was watching the NewsHour tonight and Kyl-R AZ and Menendez-D NJ, were talking to Lehrer when Kyl, at one point, told Jim and Bob that Bob's amendment wasn't going to pass. Very matter of factly as if Kyl were in charge of the committee or the Senate itself.

A more apt DEMONSTRATION of why the Democrats should not work with Republicans I could not think of.

Why are the Democrats working to give Republicans victories for their 2008 campaigns? Why is Obama saying in that last debate that George Bush has done some good things?

Why are the Democrats so god damned stupid when it comes to politics?

I guess it takes a long time to hone political skills, but c'mon, people, this is ridiculous. We're so tied up in trying to do the "right" thing, like this immigration bill, that we fail to do the right thing, and the right thing, as the blogs have been saying from day one, is to oppose the Bush Administration and the Republican Party. It's really that simple. We don't need bipartisan, we need a party that DEMONSTRATES our principles of fairness and equality and freedom, of acceptance and diversity and recognition that someone else may have a better idea, or that their way may be just as good as your way even though different, that life isn't fair but that if we work together or support each other it's a lot easier to bear.

Is it fair that Steve Gilliard is dead at the age of 41? I don't think so, yet the support of the blogosphere will sure help Jen and Steve's family deal with this tragedy. I'll bet his folks had no idea how many people he's touched in his too short time, and it has to be of some comfort to know your kid did pretty good with the time he had.

I'm pretty much done with the Democratic Party for now, until they start doing the right thing, or until Al Gore gets into the race for the White House. Because when he does, and the best thing about it, is that he won't really need the Democratic Party, the DLC, the useless consultants like Shrum and Carville (the snake who signed Scooter Libbys appeal letter with his compassless wife)(sorry snakies) and Brazille, ABC or CNN, none of them, because he's going to have an army of volunteers and supporters unlike any candidate we've ever seen.

Until then, good luck with that cuddle up to the Republicans Democrats, whatever you do, don't kick them when they're down, by all means give them a hand up, heck, bend over and pick up the shiv they were going to stick you with and hand it to them and then turn around for them, yeah, that strategy always works.

Fantasy Land

Joe Klein wants people to be nice to David Broder and discuss Broders editorial on it's merit, so says bigger bloggers than I.

The problem being that his eds have no merit, except as a window on the delusions of the DC Beltway crowd, people like Klein and Broder and what not other rag tag riff raff Dowds and Sally whats her name that make up our Conventional Wisdom.

So I sent him a note, I tried, as always in respect of his old age, to keep the vitriol at a minimum.

"Iraq War at an end?"

The widely trusted Gen. Petraeus? That's the tip off that you're talking out of your imagination again David. We don't know the good General from David, do we? Of course you Beltway folks know him oh so well, right, but David, you know that DC is just a speck of the population of this country, so widely is a relative term, don't you think?

But on to the meat of my missive. Dude, you just live in a total fantasy land don't you. Haven't you heard Bush repeat ad very nauseum that we aren't leaving Iraq while he's President? Don't you understand the Korea metaphor? What part of "leaving it for the next President" don't you get?

Centrists exert leverage? All 8-12 of them? And John Warner, has he yet done any more than sputter some protest than fall directly into the Bush line on vote after vote after vote after vote? Ken Salazar, the rookie turncoat from Colorado, you think he has any heft with the Democratic Party?

Bush wasn't cool to the Baker-Hamilton recommendations, he said they were a good start, then proceeded to ignore and reject every aspect of them out of hand. That isn't being cool to something, that's spitting all over the plan and its progenitor's.

But I guess in the Purple Fantasy Land you live in, that calculated disrespect means something else. I suppose that's how you can sleep at night, by living in a world so far removed from the reality that everybody else, mostly, lives in.

Give it up Broder, you're not unlike the pathetic and delusional people like your brilliant friend Paul Wolfowitz, except that you have no power and no impact whatsoever on the events of this day and on this miserable and misbegotten administration you find so comforting and competent.

Centrists and leverage, there's a breakfast combination you don't see every day!

I'm sorry, but Bush isn't leaving Iraq unless we somehow force him to, maybe a revolt of the military, maybe a sign from the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the United States Senate, for the greatest part, is fully infected with the disease that Al Gore is talking about, what Jimmy Carter called a malaise, what explains the desperate grasping at things that give so called meaning to our lives, like god, or money or i-pods or more and more material crap, this endless and frantic soccer mom mentality of running your kids from one event to another and having no time to spend together as a comminity, be it a family or a neighborhood or social gathering to exchange ideas of import and substance with our fellow human beings.

What did Bob Simon say to Bill Moyers, he was too afraid to speak out on the shoddy intelligence, the gaping logic holes, the false premises of Iraq as terror master that led us to this pass today, too afraid to lose his precious job of news reader because, I don't know, he would've died or suddenly had no value as a human being if he didn't have that wonderful particular job?

And I wonder how it is that these raging idiots and fools and woefully uneducated people like Bush and Goodling and Doan and Cheney and DeLay and Wolfowitz can beat the tar out of the Democrats for the past 7 or 27 years?

Missing from the Health Care Debate

One thing I've noticed that seems to be absent from all the grand and wonderful solutions to our "broken" healthcare system and the "debate" it is generating (yeah, go ahead and laugh, I saw some debate on the NewsHour, so there).

Can anybody guess?

Give up?

How about, the knife in the back Insurance Companies?

Employers pay into a pool, or provide their employees coverage. Employees pay, the Government pays, employers pay, everybody pays. And who do they pay to?

Why, yes, the knife in the back Insurance Companies.

Employers pretty much hate paying for health insurance, why should they pay for their employees or their sick kids, after all, they aren't their kids, are they? They never call out sick, why should their employees? Never mind that healthy people work harder and longer and more productively, the same if their kids are getting cared for when they're sick or injured. No. it seems like it's always better to try to weasel out of paying for anything if you can, even if it does benefit your company in the long and short run.

And what has always puzzled me, is why business votes for the Republicks on this issue. Do they enjoy paying those premiums? Do they enjoy all of the paper work, researching better or cheaper plans every year, all of the time and money that goes into the whole insurance process? You wouldn't think so, but somehow, that's what they do.

And all this while, the insurance industry just rakes the profits. And does everything in their power to stop the notion of universal health care, of Medicare for everybody. Because, of course, if that were to happen, profits would dry up to bare levels, their investment monies would go away and they would become weak and no longer the feared decider of our fates.

Got a pre-existing condition? Fear your insuror. Wrong disease, or taking the wrong drugs? Bow down to the insuror. Have a favorite care giver who really knows his/her stuff, who knows you as a patient and a person, your history and your prognosis, who's seen up your ass and saved your life because of it? Better hope your employer doesn't change plans, or you can always pay the higher premium and still see your favorite doctor.

So far, what little I've heard of Obama's plan, and all the others, employers and patients make all the sacrifices, and nothing is required of the insurance industry, except to take your premium dollars.

And that is what is wrong with all of the proposed solutions. One party gets all of the benefits and gives up nothing in return.

It's like the time when these 7 Democrats went into this bar after a long day herding cats. Tired and thirsty, they bellowed for beers and whiskey. The bartender said, "sorry boys, all I've got is this here sarsaparilla and this Shirley Temple drink."

"Shirley Temple and Root Beer?!!?!" cried the catpokes, "are you out of your developmentally disabled disease vectored head? Scotch and Guinness or we'll take our business elsewhere."

Such unanimity couldn't be abided by the barkeep, he laughed and said, "go ahead, take your business somewhere else. Where you going to go, to the local gin mill and micro brewer? And risk getting their filthy common germs on ya? No, go ahead, leave if you must, but it's naught but Pink Drinks for you, not even the sarsaparilla is on the bar now."

The angry Dems got up and left, reluctant to pass on the glistening pink glasses lined up at the bar, but soon enough they all left. 2 minutes later they were back.

"The moonshiner was making a run, we couldn't wait for him to come back, so we'll take your Shirley Temples, but the next time, we really mean it when we say we're going to the competition. Really."

Fire Fighting in the US

Somebody is finally going to look at the consequences of building in wilderness areas, and the expectation that maybe the fire departments shouldn't be killing themselves to protect somebody's house that probably shouldn't be there in the first place.

A blaze that killed five federal firefighters last year has emboldened those who question the cost of saving the ever expanding number of homes on the fringe of wilderness.

From the report on the firefighter deaths: The Twin Pines community is identified in the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce (MAST) Report as a very high to extreme threat area for potential destructive impacts from wildland fire due to physical orientation, surrounding dense chaparral/Manzanita, exposure to upslope winds, and alignment with potential Santa Ana winds. We're building in places just asking for trouble, with no regard for the consequences to those expected to safeguard that dream home mountain retreat. And people die, good people, for someone else's property. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Let me add this. Mixed in with the bravado and Smokey the Bear and the Machismo and what all else, every time the reporters talk about fires, they use the same, wrong, language.

A fire engulfed Griffith Park on Tuesday, destroying about a quarter of the hilly urban refuge before being brought under control Wednesday night.

Somehow or other, a fire laid seige to a town. It's like when you declare war against a tactic or emotion. It doesn't help or clarify or explain, it just sensationalizes without informing. And that is what is wrong with the news media. Fires don't destroy land, they're a natural part of the cycle of things. Houses and buildings get destroyed, but time after time after time the teevee especially, talks about the acres destroyed, when fire is a needed part of a healthy ecosystem.

And it's this ignorance and sensationalism that cheapens and weakens our discourse in this country, that keeps us from doing the right thing in so many cases, like in Iraq.

Immigration, Some Deal

Just pretend that you, dear readers, are told that you can keep your job, that doesn't pay all that great and has no real advancement opportunity, but you'll have to pay "the man" 8 grand in fees and fines, and you have to leave the job after 2 years and sit out for a year before you can go back to work.

But the incentive is that you'll get to vote against the GOP 5, 10, or more, years down the line, get to pay income tax, and so on.

Never mind any of the other provisions in the bill, tell me how that part of it is going to work?

Because immigrants and illegals aren't here to get citizenship, they're here to work, because their own countries are so fucked up they can't get decent jobs there.

Whatever your feelings about illegal immigration, and the Democrats misread the anger a lot of people have towards illegal immigrants, its real and very palpable, I know, I'm living and working in the middle of it, until the problems that drive these people to look for work here are addressed, no ridiculously convoluted immigration bill is going to work. Enforcing laws on the employers isn't going to fix it, building bigger fences isn't going to fix it. Getting Mexico to get their shit together and create decent jobs and opportunities there, will fix it to a large part.

Until then, I expect to see Democrats get beat up over championing decency and fair treatment for illegal workers in this country ad nauseum.

Food

Why are we buying basic food products from China? Food products we produce in this country in large quantities, like wheat gluten?

Citing advice from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Nelson said any melamine the fish consume is likely to pass out of their systems in a matter of days, won't accumulate in their bodies, and poses no danger to people who might eat the salmon, which wouldn't be consumed until after returning from the sea years from now.

I trust the FDA, don't you? They would never put politics ahead of food or drug safety, would they? No, not George Bush's FDA. A quote from the first one, read the second link about silicone breast implants, VIOXX and Kessler.

Despite recommendations from FDA and independent scientists that the drug was appropriate for [s]ale OTC, the FDA declined to approve it. Virtually everyone involved knew this was a political pay-off to Bush's right wing conservative base. So the FDA is being sued by the Center for Reproductive Rights. As part of this suit, the CRR's lawyers have been taking depositions of FDA officials. On Thursday it was to be Crawford's turn.

[But on] Wednesday Ms. [Barbara] Van Gelder, who is his personal lawyer, asked for a delay, saying she would instruct him to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights.

Cause he was being investigated for criminal charges of selling stock of companies he regulated.

Why is the Bush Administration still in office? When every branch they run is corrupt and just a tool for the corporations, run from the top as long and as hard as they can get away with it? Thats what's happening at Justice, that's what's happening at FEMAS or HSD, at the FDA, Interior, Defense, well, I guess Frank Rich wrote about it today too, hopefully somebody has broken the barrier to share.

Missing

If 10,000 Americans went missing, say since 9/11/01, do you think anybody would care? Do you think the press might launch a real investigation? Do you think that if it was suspected that it had something to do with the Bush Administration and/or one of their allied groups, like their religious believers, like Dobson and Robertson, and/or Blackwater type groups, the American People might wish for a different Administration, an end to the influence of their proxies like the Shia, er, Pat Robertson or the Sunni, oops, Blackwater, and the departure of these forces from our midst?

Probably how the Iraqi's feel.

Here's an idea

Ms. Duckman left me this note yesterday, it sounds far too sensible, but hey, it could happen, right?

I have an idea. Why don’t we get the GOP (the rich ones that benefited so much from the tax cuts) to show some of that “compassion” they’re so proud of bragging about and help Kansas and New Orleans by actually giving their money to the victims of those disasters.

Just think of it, they could also send their company employees and equipment and use their own “expertise” (CEO knowledge) to do the work.

Just think of it! They could increase their sinking poll numbers overnight, if not in 18 months for the elections. They could actually keep those areas safe and secure from the Global Terrorists!

The National Guard in those states really could use some more resources, not to mention local hospital, fire, police, schools, justice, etc.

Do you think it could work? Hell yes!

Do you think they’ll do it?

Or better yet-what about all those rich Dems that benefited from those tax cuts? They may even be worse.

Leaving the Dems out of it for a moment, I just don't think that the people who are looting this country blind and broke are overly interested in helping anybody out. That's what you get for living in Kansas, they'll tell you.

Or you could take Colbert's attitude. I think he can explain it better than anyone. And he's so very clean and everything. Humble and modest too.

An Inappropriate President

Even when its not politics or policy, but fulfilling his ceremonial functions as Head of State, George Bush is an embarrassment and unsuited for the job.

Not having enough sense, after all his years around Presidents and heads of State and as President (gulp), the fool still has to be forced to do the right thing.

What does that tell you about his sense, and his understanding of his job?

Worst. President. Ever.

The Bush Federal Government at Work

And yes, I know, it probably wouldn't be much different if Kerry were President, but he isn't, and that miserable failure is, so, I love the logic that permeates the Bush Administration Executive Branch.

Via Raw Story writer Miriam Raftery, we get this story from the WaPo on Bush keeping us safe.

Hey look, they're only chickens, you don't eat chicken every day do you, it's only 5 percent of their food that was contaminated and chances are you won't be eating those particular lucky chickens anyway.

Sure, we're going to destroy, that's kill in non Bush speak, 100k chickens still alive, but, hey, nothing to worry about. As for the 2.4 million already on the market, well, best of luck to you.

That small fraction, and the fact that people, unlike pets, do not eat the same thing day after day, suggests that consumers who ate contaminated pork or chicken would probably have ingested extremely small doses of melamine, well below the threshold for causing health effects, officials said. Experts conceded, however, that they know little about how the toxin interacts with other compounds in food.

Do you feel the confidence growing? Nothing to see here, move along people.

And isn't this just another argument for the grandness of globalization? And could somebody please explain to me why it is that the United States of America, the greatest producer of wheat and corn and soy, is importing this crap from China?

Could our oil addiction be spilling over to the food supply, causing our farmers to sell our food to ADM for them to make ethanol instead of feed products? Could that be why we import food products from China, melamine poisoning central, bird flu central, SARS central, lord knows what other diseases central?

And while you're explaining that one, explain to me again how George Bush is keeping us safe from the imaginary monsters in the closet as opposed to the very real monsters running loose on Wall Street.

Blackwater Opposition Grows

Jeremy Scahill is in San Diego talking up his book about Blackwater, and he'll be in La Mesa tonight at the joint La Mesa Foothills/East County Democratic Club meeting talking some more.

Even though the State Convention failed to pass a resolution opposing Blackwater and any other private armies from building in California, the subject is on the floor, and will be discussed at the LA County Democratic Central Committee meeting coming up in a few weeks.

From Scahill's Tuesday talk, consider this report from the UT, my bolds throughout.

Scahill told the audience that Blackwater is one of 180 private corporations working in Iraq, making this conflict the most privatized war in the nation's history.

“When the Bush administration failed to build a coalition of willing nations, they built a coalition of billing corporations,” he said.

Despite the increasing opposition to Blackwater's plans, Gordon Hammers, chairman of the Potrero planning group, said he is even more convinced that the training center will be good for the community of about 850 people.

In December, the Potrero planning group voted 7-0 for preliminary approval of Blackwater's plans. Since then, opposition to the project has intensified. More than 360 residents have signed a petition opposing the training center.

Nearly half the town oppose the mercenary camp, yet one guy with money thinks it'll be great for the town. Most likely because what's good for Gordon is good for Potrero. That's how conservatives think. Hopefully Hammers will walk the walk, and move to as close to the camp as possible so he can experience firsthand all the goodness a bunch of mercenaries shooting guns and driving defensive training courses and helicopter assaults and night operations can provide.

I Think They Call It Plausible Deniability

(Headline fixed, thanks for correcting my spelling, y'all!)

Murray Waas somehow has dug up some damning documents from the Justice Department, you may have heard.

Let me add this. It gives Gonzales the ability to say with a straight face that he knew nothing about the firings, he just approved the decisions made without being a part of them. He didn't know anything, which is why he can't remember anything when questioned.

But ask yourself this, if you had a manager working for you who had no clue about what was happening in his office regarding personnel, would you keep him on, or fire his sorry ass and let one of the people doing the work take over. And that raises another question.

What does Gonzales do with all of that taxpayer money he gets from his salary? People issues always take up a lot of management time, that's really what managers are there for anyway, right, making sure people show up to work and work within the rules. And planning strategy and monitoring the activities of the department. So what the hell does that useless man do with his time?

Somebody needs to ask him that question.

Bill Moyer Returns

I got home from work last night, turned on the teevee to see if there was anything fun on C-SPAN, but Moyer's new show was on first, and that's as far as I got.

Just in time to see Moyer's carefully and respectfully questioning "The Media" about their failed coverage of the propagandizing the cause for a war with Irak (Timmeh).

When you go back and think about it, how and when did Iraq get into the dialogue anyway? When did we go from getting the terrorists to obsessing over Hussein's intransigence, his drive towards NBC's (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, aka WMD's).

When the Beltway, Teevee media kept reporting what the White House was telling them without question. And Moyers gets those guys to expose their cowardice, their laziness, and their selfishness, every single one of them. Bob Simon, Tim Russert, Walter Isaakson, Dan Rather, all too scared of Bush and his Bullies Rover and Big Time to do their jobs.

"We might have gotten fired" or "the people would rise against us" or "our corporatations would lose access and money money money" they whined. Simply overlooking that if they had reported the truth, the facts, the relentless and never ending lies, if they hadn't buried the precious little important stuff they did report on page 18 and such of their papers or after the funny cat video, then maybe the American People could have figured things out instead of getting swept up in a war fever thanks to the utterly one sided propaganda of the Bush Administratin and the Big Time Media.

Yes, you need to watch the video. Moyers destroys them all very politely, pointedly, yet he asks the questions and gets answers that no invective blogging would ever get. He shows those fat cat and useless media tools exactly how you balance being on the inside and asking tough questions, he shows Tim Russert precisely, by demonstrating on ol Timmeh, how he should be doing his job, still keeping access, but actually holding up the powers that be to the light of truth.

Well done.

On the Defensive?

Just read this piece from the Huffington Post via TPM.

How excited were we to have our first opportunity ever to talk directly to the Bush Administration about global warming.

We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.

I just can't let that pass, because it tells so much about the way things have turned for the Bushites. Turned towards the good for the country. Because 2 years ago, we would never hear about such an exchange. And Rover would never have been so nasty in public either. The rich and powerful don't respond to the will of the amorphus "people." They respond to power. He's wrong, of course, as his salary does come from the US Treasury, of course how much money he's making on the side remains to be seen, maybe White House advisor is a side job for him, eh?

As Josh has noted earlier, Abu's testimony didn't do anything for the White House, I was listening to the testimony this morning when Sen Feinstein asked him who made up the List, because somebody had to put the names down, and since Gonzales couldn't remember but said it wasn't him, and since Sampson testified that he was an aggregater but never put anybody on the list, and Battle knew nothing about it, attention has to swing to the White House for authorship.

And that can't make Karl too happy. And it's long past time for the country to see that odious man under the glare of the camera lens, long past time. That's part of what sank McCarthy, it didn't do Nixon much good, and it should have buried Bush after the first debate with Kerry, so seeing Karl in all of his glory should just about seal the deal, I'm thinking.

Why, you ask? Because Karl isn't Karl when he's being Karl, if you follow me. He's being himself when he's manipulating and managing somebody else. That won't work when he's the one under the lights, now will it?

They're Not Indispensible

Two men, same story. Both soft spoken to the point of insipidness. Both feckless, fawning, toadies to the Bush/Cheney Axis of Venal. Both consider themselves as more important than the institutions they serve.

Says Bush's favorite death enabler, “I am committed to working with you in trying to restore the faith and confidence you need to work with me,” as if keeping his job was the main thrust of the hearings.

Says the neo-con warmongering ideologue, [l]ook, I believe in the mission of this organization, and I believe that I can carry it out. I've had many expressions of support, as well as the things that you referred to. I come back to what we agreed to in that communique, which is that we need to work our way through this, because it's more important for him to stay on as Bank President then it is to restore the credibility of the Bank. Really. Look, it's been a painful time for Paul. He said so himself.

Not only was this a painful personal dilemma, but I had to deal with it when I was new to this institution, and I was trying to navigate in uncharted waters.

Yes, that's right, ladies and germs, it hurt him deeply to get his girlfriend a big fat raise and a nice position out of his spit shined hair. Jeebus.

Gonzales, of course, takes the cake. In this version of the AP story they quote this gem: "The notion that there was something that was improper that happened here is simply not supported," Gonzales said, but, as they also noted in the article, you have to wonder how he would know that, given the [s]eventy-one times he fell back on faulty memory, saying he could not recall or remember conversations or events surrounding the firings.

After weeks of highly intensive "preparation" (another instance of a word reaching new heights of redefinition by the Bushites) this was the best that Gonzales could come up with? I still don't effing remember? In a normal world such a miserable memory would be cause for the removal of such a manager as simply intolerable. In the real world you don't become a powerful manager by being unable to remember the details and content of important meetings, it just doesn't work that way.

So clearly there is something else to this. Part of the strategy to impede, stall, and delay, justice and any rollback of the multi headed Bush/Cheney/Corporate/Neo-Con agenda, and part to keep in place those people who will carry out said agenda as long as possible. Look, there are plenty of people who could preside over the World Bank as well as and even better than Wolfowitz. Likewise for Gonzales. (D'oh, ya think?) But how many would carry out the corruption, the protection, the delusions, the coverups, and the abuse of those institutions for benefit of the Axis of Venal like Abu Gonzales and Wolfie?

The World Bank doesn't have a mechanism for removing the President. But they don't have a mechanism for NOT removing him either. So here's a suggestion. Get together, agree that he's a blight and an embarassment and a pox on their credibility, and fire his ass.

Congress does have a solution for Gonzales. Monday, the House should begin impeachment proceedings against him, then impeach him, then send him over to the Senate, where they can convict him for lying serially to Congress and obstructing justice and perjury.

Then let's see Bush pick replacements with integrity. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha ha!!!!

For Blacksburg

Darkness, Darkness
Be my pillow
Take my head
And let me sleep
In the coolness of your shadow
In the silence of your deep

Darkness, Darkness
Hide my yearning
For the things I cannot be
Keep my mind from constant turning
Toward the things I cannot see now
Things I cannot see now
Things I cannot see

Darkness, darkness,
Long and lonesome,
Ease the day that brings me pain.
I have felt the edge of sadness,
I have known the depth of fear.
Darkness, darkness, be my blanket,
Cover me with the endless night,
Take away, take away the pain of knowing,
Fill the emptiness of right now,
Emptiness of right now, now, now
Emptiness of ri-ight now.

Darkness, darkness, be my pillow,
Take my hand, and let me sleep.
In the coolness of your shadow,
In the silence, the silence of your deep.
Darkness, darkness, be my blanket,
Cover me with the endless night,
Take away, take away the pain of knowing
Fill the emptiness of right now,
Emptiness of right now now now
Emptiness of right....
Oh yeah Oh yeah
Emptiness, emptiness
Oh yeah


Poem 58

The way you talk
The things you've done
Make me wish I
Was the only one
Who could ever have made you laugh now
Could have made you
Made you want to cry
To have been there the day
You first whispered "I love you"
Yes I love you

When you discovered
All those new things
And when you first
First met the world
When you felt beautiful
And you said hello
To everything you saw
If I could have been all
So I could have known you all those times
I love you
Yes, I love you
Yes I do

Jimi Hendrix said that Terry Kath played better guitar than he did. I dunno, but he certainly takes your breath away on that song.

My condolences and thoughts to the people of Blacksburg.

What Bush Has Accomplished.

Watching CNBC this morning, they were talking about how the Market has hit a "New Seven Year High" and how great and wonderful that is.

Just to put that in some sort of perspective, what that really means is that under the Bush Administration auspices, the Market has rturned to levels that were last seen during the Clinton Administration. So basically, we're back where we left off under the leadership of the last President with a functioning frontal lobe.

Despite all of the record profits for the Exxon Mobile's and all, and I mean all, of the money that private equity firms have corraled from Bush's tax giveaways to the rich, we're as a nation of investors no better off then we were before this disastrous and deluded and wrong thinking presidency usurped their way into power.

Here's a decent business friendly run down of private equity firms, just note this tidbit:

The headlines about private equity have focused on the dollars rushing in. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts proposes buying Vivendi for $50 billion, a record-sized deal that would have been unthinkable just a year ago. Blackstone Group announces that it's raising a $20 billion fund, the biggest ever. Private-equity firms already own a growing stable of America's most famous companies - Hertz, Neiman Marcus and Toys "R" Us, among others.

Yes, private-equity deals are making investors rich. In the 12 months through last June, investments in PE firms returned 22.5 percent, vs. 6.6 percent for the S&P 500, says Thomson Financial.

Over the past ten years, the score is 11.4 percent a year vs. 6.6 percent; over the past 20 years, 14.2 percent vs. 9.8 percent. Those are significant differences, and some critics charge that huge fees and sweetheart deals with management are siphoning value from public shareholders.

That's what Bush has accomplished. He's enabled the transfer of vast sums of public equity and public earnings into the coffers of the rich and the richer. Never forget that fact.

Peeling Back the Web of Lies

You never know where an investigation is going to lead you, and this business about the USA's is a classic example of that.

What started out as a series of questions about the firings of a handful of US Attorney's has gotten out of the control of Rover and his team of bankrupt bullies. A bunch of people, including Republicans, have said that if they had told the truth from the beginning this would have all blown over in a week or two. Me, I'm not convinced of that, first of all, if it comes from the right it's a pretty much some flavor of lie, excepting the foma they would never use, second because I don't believe that they could just tell the truth.

Not because they're incapable of truth telling, a not unreasonable conclusion to arrive at, but because there is no acceptable version of the truth to this story that wouldn't have started this ball rolling, once the Democrats regained control of Congress. And why? Because the people they wanted to fire, specifically Carol Lam, were right in the middle of serious investigations that would require explanation from Congress. And telling them they fired her because they wanted to was not, and is not, cutting it.

But they had to fire her, because her road was going to end up in Dick Cheney's office, hell it already has, so they came up with a cover story to obfuscate, confuse, muddy the water is todays term, delay, trivialize, delay, and so on. Even if it costs them the Presidents favorite counselor, Alberto Gonzales, a willing sacrifice no doubt.

Ah, Dick Cheney, can't you just smell the sharp tang of petroleum products in the air at the mere mention of his name? Here's a reminder of what all of the actions of Bush/Cheney really boil down to, a story I don't recall seeing much, Laura Rozen linked it from her article above, but you really should read it to see our government in action. It has all the ingredients, and here's a taste.

"There were statements made: 'Don't bother the oil companies,' " Maxwell told the House Natural Resources Committee, which is investigating allegations of mismanagement in the royalty program run by the Minerals Management Service of the Interior Department.

[snip...]According to Interior Department data, enforcement revenue averaged well over $100 million a year during the 1990s, peaking at more than $331 million in 2000. In the six years since then, enforcement revenue has averaged about $46 million a year.

[snip...]The inspector general estimated that the Interior Department had reduced the number of auditors by 15 percent since 2000 and was completing about 22 percent fewer audits than it had six years earlier.

"It does appear that we're getting ripped off, plain and simple," said Rep Nick Rahall 2nd., a Democrat from West Virginia ...

The Interior Department is under fire for other problems in the royalty program as well. It is struggling without much success to correct leasing mistakes that could allow oil companies to escape $10 billion in royalties over the next decade or so.

And so the US Attorney investigation rumbles on, and now it has Rover in the crosshairs. for violations not directly related to the Purge, 5 million freakin e-mails????? Over 6 years, 50 people would average 45 e-mails every day of the year to write that much stuff. Peel the Bush White House onion and everything turns to ashes, lies and deceit. Everything. That story above, they were ripping off Indian Tribes too, you wonder who was involved in that? We don't need a special prosecutor, we need Elliot Ness to clean out this whole rat's nest of RICO violations. The Democrats need to start impeaching Bush's Patriot Act replacement USA's. They need to start removing Bush's appointees wherever they can, but Justice is the place to start. This simply cannot continue, we can't allow them to run out the clock. And don't think I'm criticizing Congressional Democrats at all, I'm not. I'm just saying what I think they need to do.

The thing that I fear, and you can see the media and rover setting it up, is that when the soulless Gonzales resigns to go back to spending time scrabbling in the dirt he "rose" up from, is that will be the end of these investigations.

Rover is setting up Gonzales, he being the perfect empty vessel following orders from his leaders, as the focus of all things evil in this White House. The media, being at turns complicit, lazy, shallow, insipid, and corporate, will certainly sniff at Gonzales' fall, then search eagerly for the first distraction to toss over his still warm carcass, but will Congress, the Blogs, and the Real Media do the same?

Not if I can help it, me and my legion of readers.

More US Attorney purge

Yes, I can't get enough of it, and so, dear readers, neither can you!

I just wanted to bring attention to this graph from Glenn Greenwald's piece yesterday. For all the apologists and trolls who think that having a Justice Department that you can't trust to do the right thing regardless of the political party being investigated, explain to me why, if this is a whole lot of nothing, why Gonzales and company can't cooperate with the Congressional investigators? [My highlights]

Much of the evidence is, admittedly, circumstantial, but that is so precisely because we have not yet had full hearings with the key witnesses/culprits and full disclosure of key documents. And the reason the pool of information is still so incomplete is because the White House, cheered on by the national media, has steadfastly refused to reveal what it knows (and what it did), choosing instead to hide behind precarious assertions of "executive privilege."

Just like the Libby trial and conviction, there's nothing here yet because the Administration is hiding, covering-up, and probably destroying, the evidence.

And that tells us why there's no there there, because they don't want us to discover the truth. It's just like the stupid Anna Nicole paternity thing, the guy trying to block the DNA testing did so because he knew he wasn't the father. It's really as simple as that. We all can understand some reluctance to air out dirty laundry on the part of normal people, but this intransigence goes way beyond reluctance. It's part and parcel of how the Bushites operate, and they do it for a reason.

Because their actions are not in the least bit concerned with the interests of the American People, with our Nation, our Laws, our Traditions, or our Founding Principles. It's all about keeping the power they essentially stole and using it to perpetuate their corporate and neo-con and insane fundie wet dreams. Plain and simple.

Demonstrating Values

Here's a post from DKos that bears repeating, it's something I've been saying for years. It's a modest proposal that works on several different levels at the same time.

Devilstower argues that the money being raised for the 2008 election, some $1 billion dollars is an early estimate for the presidential candidates, is not spent very efficiently. The law of dimishing returns and our experience tells us that the 7th phone call to vote for Bill Richardson, the nth repetition of the same commercial, the 49th flyer stuffed in the mail box and deposited directly into the recycling can have a marginal impact that belies their cost, and that a candidate would be smart to do something else with that money. And he's right, I've done phone banking, and people get tired of the repeat phone calls rather quickly, nobody reads the mail crap after a while, and the commercials lose their grip after a while.

So Devilstower suggests that the candidates give a tenth of their campaign contributions to charity. As a DEMONSTRATION OF THEIR VALUES, although he didn't say it that way, that's how I've been saying for years. Rather than give their money for endless and destructive teevee commercials that tell the voters nothing, give it to charity, and get free publicity for doing it, I mean, of course the teevee would cover John Edwards giving Katrina Reconstruction $5 million dollars, that would rebuild a couple of houses and roads in New Orleans, or Barack dumping $5 million into the coffers of the MLK Foundation, or whatever charity these people like.

And the best part of it? The Networks and Cable Companies get none of that money. The Networks and Cable Companies who have attacked and smeared and trivialized and denegrated and marginalized Democrats for the past 20 years or so, ever since the Big Corporations sold out to the tawdry lures of the GOP.

Yes, I think it's a grand idea, it doesn't need to be charity per se, it could be funding Yearly Kos, or a Blogger Conference on Ethics, or Air America, or to staff a Democratic Think Tank, or to Broadcast Al Gore's movie, whatever, the point being to DEMONSTRATE DEMOCRATIC VALUES without buying a bunch of air time from the same people trying to destroy our Constitution and freedom loving way of life.