Saturday, July 12, 2008

Weekend



It was an interesting week for news. The fisa vote was a the big story to me. A shame on this country and a true danger going forward. Barack Obama did not move to the center with this vote, he took a giant swing to the authoritarian right. That is part of what pisses me off about the “liberal media”. Move to the center!? What the hell!? Warrantless wiretaps, basket wiretaps, corporate immunity. When did any of that become the “center”? Bullshit. I am so tired of being told up is down and down is up that I could scream. And often do. I'm figuring he will be more willing to listen to our complaints than McCain ever would so I will still vote for him. This has nothing to do with party, this is right and wrong and I hope Obama is ready to feel the heat on this.

More on torture and Gitmo coming out. Not a lot many didn't already know but I am sure it will be shocking to some. Like, over half of them had no connection to terrorism. Those that wonder what happened to our position of respect and leadership need look no further than this war and our decisions on how to prosecute the challenges of terrorism. Nobody is ready to follow us or our example. I can't say I blame them. I wouldn't want to either.

Glenn Greenwald has been one of my recommended daily reads for sometime now and he still is able to put it succinctly:

There are two choices and only two choices for every country -- live under the rule of law or live under the rule of men. We've collectively decided that our most powerful political leaders are not bound by our laws -- that when they break the law, there will be no consequences. We've thus become a country which lives under the proverbial "rule of men" -- that is literally true, with no hyperbole needed ......

.....Our political and media elite have acquiesced to all of this when they weren't cheering it all on. Those who object to it, who argue that these abuses of political power are dangerous in the extreme and that we cannot tolerate deliberate government lawbreaking, are dismissed as shrill Leftist hysterics. ...

.....Yes, I'm well aware that the U.S, like all countries, was deeply imperfect prior to 9/11, and that many of the systematic excesses of the Bush era have their genesis prior to 2001. The difference (a critical one) is that what had been acts of lawbreaking and violations of our national values have become the norm -- consistent with, rather than violative of, our express values and policies.

...Those who have spent the last seven years scoffing at Unserious, Hysterical objections to Bush lawlessness are the very people who have created this climate that they will now pretend to find so upsetting. The "rule of law" isn't some left-wing dogma that is the province of Leftist radicals and hysterics. It's the cornerstone of every civilized and free society.

That there would even be debate on most of this saddens me greatly. We are way past the canary in the coal mine.

The banks and even Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at danger of default. Past the canary in the coal mine. Many people said they weren't sure if we could last another 4 years with Bush. If those darned liberals won't have come up with the fdic a whole bunch of people mighta just got robbed. I haven't figured out who it was yet but I'm sure somebody did. Glad it wasn't people with under 100 thousand.
I think(hope) more people are seeing what we are talking about. To vote McSame would be a suicide mission in my book.

At the G8 Summit Bush, as he prepared to fly out from Japan, told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
I agree with the Dixie Chicks who didn't want to be known as THAT kind of Texan, I am ashamed this guy comes from the United States.

The Oil Barons told us how much they have us over a barrel so let them do whatever they want.
Here are some people willing to say no and actually lead toward a better future instead of a tormented one. Apollo Alliance.

OK, Good news....Iraq is asking for a time table for our withdrawal.
Iraqi politicians are being vocal about the readiness of the Iraqi forces, telling the Americans that they can resolve their internal disputes on their own, without a U.S. presence in their midst.
You know what that means? We win! Time to come home. We Win!

Why they are even handing out money! Really! Those damned Socialists! What have we created!?

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ron, have you noticed this.

Larry in New Mexico

11:44 PM, July 13, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wasn't happy with Obama's FISA vote, either, but I see that he has to get those swing voters and the ones who are still swayed by this sorry excuse for an Administration's fear mongering. "Centrist" has now become conservative, maybe very conservative because the lunatic far far rightwing is in charge of the GOP and the country, apparently.
I think Barack has to get elected any way he can. Once elected, he call for an investigation and we can still bring criminal charges against anyone who has violated the FISA laws and our Constitution, including (and I hope, especially) Cheney. Keith Olbermann of "Countdown" has suggested as much.
It is stupid that Bush thinks he can get away with saying that the Iraqi Prime Minister's statement about a timetable was badly translated or twisted, but the Limbaugh acolytes in the media will be repeating this line for a long time to come and the sheep will surely believe it because they are apparently all brainwashed or braindead.

Mara

4:47 PM, July 14, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Larry,
Re: the article on oil exportation, this is not a surprise to me, especially if those consumers will be paying higher prices than Americans. It is not a surprise to me, either that the oil companies and the oil men who are running the country (into the ground) would still be crying that they need to drill for more crude domestic oil and the environment be damned. Their bottom line is profit and beyond that they pretty much don't care about anything else, including the truth.
The truth is that Europeans and others have been paying high gas prices for many more years than we have. Many of these people use public transportation, carpool, and use bikes to get back and forth and, thus, conserve fuel. It is likely when the energy crisis is solved, it will be by the Europeans or Japanese who will devote more time, money, and effort to the problem because they will not have been held back so much by greedy American corporations only interested in selling as much fossil fuel as possible at high prices while being subsidized by the government and getting huge tax cuts.
I think many Americans are spoiled and selfish. They should stop whining about high gas prices as long as they insist on driving everywhere in huge 4-door pickup trucks and Hummers. I have no sympathy for these people, and they just make the problem worse for those who do practice energy conservation.

Mara

4:07 PM, July 15, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a shame on our country? Well, yes it is, although I understand why Barack felt he had to vote this way when you consider how anyone who does not go along with Cheney/Bush gets labeled as an Al Qaeda supporter who hates America and our freedom.
What I consider a shame on our country is that the polls are still so close. Why are these idiots who are supporting McCain still supporting him unless they are filthy rich and will benefit from yet more tax cuts for the elite? The elite meaning
Cindy McCain, for one, whose wealth the media isn't crowing about every minute like they did Teresa Heinz-Kerry's inherited (from her late REPUBLICAN husband) money.
Speaking of shame on our country- I am still reading "And the Band Played On" and am despising Reagan more and more every minute, not to mention the competetive American researchers, Ed Koch and
Mario Cuomo (both Democrats), the other corrupt uncaring politicians, UCLA's academic dittoheads who cared more about university procedures re: federal money for research grants than about finding the virus that caused the disease, the militant gays who were in denial about how it was spread, the greedy blood industry and bathhouse owners, and the media that was almost as worthless as it is today.
By the end of 1984, AIDS had spread to 44 states, 5000 people (in the U.S. only, I think) had been diagnosed and almost 2,300 had died of it. Because it was an election year, Reagan who wouldn't even talk about AIDS let alone decently fund research/health care, services, and AIDS education had his sorry excuse for a HHS Secretary give the credit for the discovery of the retro-virus to Robert Gallo when, in fact, French scientists had discovered LAV a year before. Gallo won the Nobel Prize, of course. This is just one more reason Europeans call us "Ugly Americans". Reagan got re-elected and it took Rock Hudson making a public announcement before the worthless media really did much besides print stories about the straight hemopheliacs and transfusion recipients who got sick. In other words, when it was just a "gay disease" it was all right to ignore it and not make the Administration elected by so called "Christians" who called AIDS a curse from God (He/She does not want the credit for AIDS, I'm sure) do something about the epidemic that killed tens of thousands of people within a relatively short period of time. It was perfectly fine to let that warmongering senile (?) old man spend billions on WMDS and tax cuts for the rich instead of health care for Americans.
That is a national shame that far far surpasses Obama's FISA vote, and if a new epidemic should occur under Cheney and his puppet President, God help us all!

Mara

5:29 PM, July 20, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is this a blog or a blah-g? Where is everyone lately?

3:56 PM, July 23, 2008  

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