Limericks

MadKane expresses her feelings in a double limerick about Rush and Sanford called De-Moralized?:

Rush claims that Obama’s to blame
For Sanford’s disgrace and his shame:
The stimulus bill
Destroyed Sanford’s will.
Wow, even for Limbaugh, that’s lame.

When a Democrat strays — no excuse!
Just right-wing attacks and abuse.
But conservative sins
Are spinned — turned to wins.
Try to reason with Rush? It’s no use!

On the flip side, Obama's not good enough for people at the other end. Here's my limerick:

The Sideshow and Greenwald agree
Obama's like Bush, don'tcha see
They yearn for Kucinich
Like Popeye for spinach
Maybe he'll win one next century!

Yer Weekend Entertainment

I don't normally do this sort of thing, but this made me laugh so much I had to steal, er, share it. It's a letter to Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos. I should point out that the poll results on the original post indicate that nearly 20% of the readers think this letter is a fake, and the sad truth is that right-wingers are so insane that it's hard to tell what's a parody and what's not. Here's the letter, copied and pasted exactly as it appeared on dKos:

dear socialist fuckstick,

i am well awear of the fact that liberals are immune to logic and reason, but allow me to try to prove to you that you are communist scum thrugh something called the scientific method:

1 a) FACT: you suck obamas cock every chance youget. you defend everythign he does and says and you are nothing more than an apologist. this makes you complicit in obamas actions.

1 b) FACT: obama is a well known socialist. this is evident his policies and his love of SELFDESCRIBED COMMUNISTS LIKE BILL AYERS!!!! so dont thinkthat he can hide his true nature for much longer. he will eventully be exposed and impeached. SOCIALISM CANNOT WORK OR RUSSIA WOULD STILL EXIST AND THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE LOST THE COLD WAR TO REAGAN!!! retard.

1 c) you are thusly a pro forma socialist; whether you like it or not. logic dictates this.

(2) FACT: you, sir, are a illegal immigrant. i dont give two shits whether you are an american citizen or not: you came here on taxpayer expense and you continue to drain our limited resources. you should be ashamed and go back to guatemala or whatever fucking middleeastern asshole you came from and try to sell yor leftwing bullshit there.

(3) FACT: you are also OBJECTIVELY ANTIAMERICAN!!!!!!!! dont even try to deny this for there is ample prof: in 2004 you openly supported the murder of four brave american soldiers in falluja. you tryed to weasel out of your responsiblity, but you cant hide the fact that you hate america and american soldiers and you love al queda and other muslim terrorists who have killed THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS!!!! and will never stop unless they are killed. and whose going to kill them? you? LOL you dont even own a gun because you leftofascists want to repel the second amendent.

(4) FACT: it is clear that you are a socialist illegal immigrant america hater. there is prima facies proof as above. and if logic and science says you are scum then you are scum (remember global warming? no proof, just science and that makes it true for you liberals) no matter what you think. however, i dont think you are a homo, just a homo enabler.

this doesnt mean that we cant have common ground. if you stop publishing antiamerican communist screeds, then i will stop hating you. fair?

sincerely yours

glenn

Insurance

The only kind I want

Boondoggles

Some of you know that I'm a military man, an Air Force vet who, while hardly an ideal airman, is proud of the work I did in calibration at Air Force bases in Japan and Montana. I happen to love fighter jets and enjoyed working with F-16s, which are sleek and beautiful to behold bot in the air and on the ground. I also have a love of the great battleships, from the American Iowa class to the German Bismarck and the Japanese Yamato, the latter being the largest ever built.

And some of you may have been reading this blog long enough to know that I am not one who is squeamish about using military power if I fee there is a real threat involved. I was against the war in Iraq from the very beginning because (and to be as brief as possible) it was clear to me that it was completely unnecessary. It seems to me that the best way to defeat small bands of terrorists is by a combination of military intelligence, infiltration, and most important, setting a better example for the world so that people have no reason to become terrorists (though of course people driven insane by secular or religious propaganda will always find a reason to commit violence in the name of whatever cause). Anyway, my point is, I'm not a pacifist, never have been.

So it disturbs me a great deal when I read that Congress is threatening to over-ride a Presidential veto and continue the production of the F-22 Raptor, a plane even the Pentagon does not want. Now, the F-22 is also a beautiful airplane and perhaps the deadliest fighter ever made, but who exactly are we going to fight with it? Unless there are people in positions of power looking to start a major conflict, we don't need any more of these birds in the air (we have roughly a hundred or so active). And the charge that stopping production would cost jobs is ridiculous when you consider that many of the same congressmen that want to continue this boondoggle are against government spending for such things as high speed rail service. Weaponized Keynesianism, as Rep. Frank points out.

Being a veteran, as I said, I have had some firsthand experience with wasteful military budgeting and of course defense contractors have long been bastions of corruption: easy to do when you have people howling that if we cut a single penny from defense spending that nearly matches every other country in the world combined that the bad guys are gonna come over and rape your daughters or blow up your local Wal-Mart or whetever.

And once more I am at a loss to say what we can do about it. There's a lot of money involved here and the people who control it have no compunctions about killing anyone who gets in their way. Even, perhaps, Presidents. It's quite possible (though I am not making any claims) that President Kennedy was killed because he was intending to scale down the war in VietNam. All I know is, whatever the motives and morals of our soldiers and their commanders, the more weapons we have out there, the more people will feel inclined to use them. And being the biggest bully on the block just makes you a target.

Michael Jackson 1959 - 2009

He was the punchline to a lot of jokes, many in poor taste. He was also one of the hardest working child performers in the entertainment industry, something that probably led to his behavior later in life. Some people fervently believe all the nasty things that were said about him just because they have an irrational hatred of anyone who has wealth and fame that wasn't earned being a "bidnessman", that is, by scamming people. I for one tend to be very forgiving of people with true talent, just like a certain traveler in Greek mythology:

But Leodes ran forward and clasped Odysseus’ knees, and begged with winged words: ‘Odysseus, respect the suppliant at your knees: I ask for mercy. I swear I have never wantonly wronged a woman of your house, in word or deed. Instead I tried to restrain others from doing so. But they would not listen, or keep their hands from evil, and so through foolish wantonness they meet a cruel fate. And I, though I am only their innocent priest, will die with them. It is true one gets no thanks for good deeds.’

Resourceful Odysseus gave him an angry look and said: ‘If you were really their priest you must often have prayed that the day of my joyful return would be long delayed and that my loyal wife would go with you and bear you children. For that you will not escape a sorry death.’

With this he grasped the sword in his strong hand that Agelaus had dropped on the ground nearby as he fell, and struck Leodes hard on the neck, so that while he was still trying to speak his head bit the dust.

And now the minstrel, Phemius, Terpius’ son, whom the Suitors forced to sing, tried to flee his dark fate. He stood by the side door, with the clear-voiced lyre in his hands, uncertain whether to slip from the hall, and seat himself by the massive altar of Zeus, God of the Court, where Laertes and Odysseus had burned so many offerings, or whether to run forward and clasp Odysseus round the knees in supplication. He decided the better course was to clasp the knees of Odysseus, Laertes’ son, so he set the pyre on the ground between the mixing-bowl and the silver-embossed chair, and rushing forward gripped Odysseus by the knees, and entreated him in winged words: ‘Odysseus, respect the suppliant at your knees: I ask for mercy. Sorrow will come to you later if you kill a minstrel who sings for gods and men. I am self-taught, and the god has filled my mind with every kind of song. I am worthy of singing for you, as for a god. Don’t be eager to cut my throat. Telemachus, your brave son, is my witness, too, that I never came to sing in your house willingly, but the Suitors dragged me here by force of numbers.’

Royal Telemachus heard his words, and spoke swiftly to his father nearby: ‘Wait, don’t put an innocent to the sword: and we should spare Medon, the herald, too, who used to care for me as a child in this house. Unless that is Philoetius or the swineherd has already killed him, or he has met with you as you raged through the hall.’

Medon, the wise, heard his words where he lay, covered in a newly flayed ox-hide, trying to evade his fate, by cowering beneath a chair. He rose at once and threw off the hide, then dashed forward and clasped Telemachus round the knees, and entreated him with winged words: ‘Here I am, dear boy: stay your hand, and persuade your father to restrain his, lest he wounds me with that sharp bronze in an excess of strength, enraged by the Suitors who ravaged his house and foolishly denied you honour.’

But resourceful Odysseus smiled at him, saying: ‘Be calm! My son has saved you so you might know in your heart, and say to others, how much better it is to do good than evil. Now go outside, and sit in the courtyard away from the killing, you and the versatile singer, till I have done what I must in this house.’

-The Odyssey Bk XXII:310-377

Well, I Passed

I'm now a certified A+ IT technician.

That and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

Shallow Meanderings

An oldie but a goodie.

Godspeed, Mark Sanford

Laudable Fervor

In an editorial for the NY Times, Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review writes:

In their outrage over the Ricci verdict, I suspect, conservatives have gotten carried away by their laudable fervor against race-conscious policies. But we on the right, of all people, should know that not every wrong has a judicial solution.

The case in question involves a white firefighter in New Haven, Connecticut

who in 2003 passed a test to get a promotion, only to see the city throw out the test because black firefighters were not doing well on it. Mr. Ricci sued in federal court and lost.

Mr. Ponnuru is trying to appeal to the "better instincts" of his fellow conservatives, but as I see it, if the leadership of the Republican Party, aka "The Regional Party Of The Old Confederacy", their financial backers, and no doubt millions of their constituents had their way, they would turn every person of color (and probably every non-white person as well) back into slaves, and then fight with one another in an attempt to corner the market. That's probably the only "originalism" they're interested in.

WIndows 7

I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 from Microsoft and installed it on one of our refurbished machines (2.6G dual core w/ 1G RAM) and was very impressed. Ran very well. It has the ease of use of Windows XP plus some very nifty features. Glad to see they learned from the Vista disaster...

Health Care Horror Show

Of course, when the GOP and its financial backers use terminology like this, it's they who are scared. Scared the gravy train will be over.

Anyone who has a chronic illness or a catastrophic event knows exactly what profitized health care is all about. And it ain't their health. The insurance companies, who led the charge in defeating a national health care system last time, have had every opportunity to fix the system since then, to show people the wonders of the free market. Instead they showed what happens every time under the unregulated free market: when you give someone the opportunity to steal, they will steal. And because the politicians ride along on the same gravy train (under a nice socialized health care plan of their own, I might add), they're willing to tell any lie in defense of the system.

It's still in doubt whether we can get the kind of health care they have in places like Canada or the UK (which, I have read from blogs there, isn't as good as it used to be since the conservatives in their country have managed to whittle it down), it's possible nothing will change, as the money of the insurance companies, like the money of all the big corporations, is more influential than the votes of the citizens, who in theory are supposed to be the power behind the government.

All I know is that I have been uninsured for many years and the true test of any system will be whether I can walk into a clinic or a hospital and get the health care I need at a price I can afford. If that doesn't happen, then the money boys will have won, again.

Poll Pall

If the results of this poll are correct, then why is it that the teevee talk shows are almost entirely populated with Republicans?

Liberal media, my ass

Scamonomics

The entire economy is nothing but a scam. Insurance companies of all stripes take your money and do everything they can to avoid paying out. Manufacturing jobs, which used to be the backbone of our economy, get outsourced to other countries so that corporations, which in right-wing ideology are more important than human beings, get to pay their workers less (and care about them less) and not have to worry about their impact on the local environment. The tax burden falls increasingly more on the poor and middle class, so that the parasites at the top can reap all the benefits of our society while sharing little if any of the financial responsibility.

To repeat what I have said on numerous occasions, this is not healthy. To have so much wealth concentrated in the hands of so few people is only a recipe for disaster, and it's not even very good for the ones at the top. Liberalism, Socialism, and Communism arose as a reaction to this kind of ideology: if this "meritocracy" worked the way its proponents said it did, none of those "isms" would have arisen. And on those occasions where the people rose up and took over, the end result isn't necessarily better. I don't think the people of France were any better off under the Reign of Terror than they were under the monarchs, nor were the people of the Soviet Union or Communist China any better off than they were under the Czar or the Emperor.

What has to change is more than just our politics. We have a deep history of skepticism of government and a dislike of taxes that, while at times are healthy for a democratic society, have become paranoid obsessions that are hurting any chances to bring us back to more prosperous days and to form a more perfect union. And while it's certainly true that there's a lot of hostile and offensive propaganda being tossed about by people with selfish and destructive agendas of their own, they are only fanning the flames that already existed.

Our politics, ultimately, is a reflection of who we are. By that, I don't mean to imply that it's our fault entirely that things got the way they are, but in a larger sense it's our responsibility not to be swayed by propaganda. We all have prejudices, we're far from perfect, but it's up to us to overcome these weaknesses and become better individuals, and individuals who are a part of a greater community. And while there are always going to be people who will never see it this way, we can do a better job of making sure they're kept far away from any kind of real responsibility.

Barbarians Inside The Gate

Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, and Bob Herbert all had recent articles about right wing hate talk and how it incites people to violence. Which, in my opinion, it clearly does, though some try to sugarcoat it by saying that it's indirect. No.

Here's the sad truth: the hatemongers on radio and television (primarily but not exclusively FOX) are going to continue to be on radio and television because they are, and always have been, nothing more than propagandists for people who have their own agendas. There's far too much at stake for them to pull the plug now, and without any kind of meaningful campaign finance reform (not to mention the constant interference with free and fair elections), the politicians are still too beholen to these people to enact any serious reform.

As I have pointed out before, at Nuremberg we tried not only members of the Nazi government but also propagandists like Julius Streicher, who helped fuel the fires that led to the rise of the Nazis.

And at the end of that long and bloody war, which killed tens of millions of people, we treated those that persecuted it with far more civility than we have treated the prisoners at Gitmo and elsewhere, who are mostly just people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even the few higher-ups in Al Qaeda that we managed to capture posed no serious threat to us, and would pose less if we did as our leaders did back then, having the strength of their conviction to lead by example. Even Gen. MacArthur, elitist and conservative as he was, treated the Japanese with dignity and respect during our occupation.

Instead, we are a country that is getting dumber and meaner, and that suits the people who finance the propagandists just fine. A frightened, ignorant populace can easily be turned on each other or at a mysterious and faraway "enemy", distracting us all while they go about their agenda, whatever that might be, uninterrupted.

And I have no idea what to do about it.

Stimulus

Bureaucracy
You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

One of my fellow co-workers at Digital Workforce (I'll call him "Sam") is the recipient of newly-disbursed stimulus funds in the form of a summer job teaching an introductory class on computers for the Instituto Del Progreso Latino. According to my boss, and I haven't done research on this so I'm going to take his word for it for the sake of this article, President Obama is apparently upset that only 15% or so of the stimulus money has gone out, and what's happening to Sam is an example of why it's taking so long. The money has to make its way from the Federal bureaucracy down through state and local bureaucracies, each of which has its own outdated way of doing things, ways that as anyone can tell you don't change easily. Sam had to fill out a registration online which asked questions that had nothing to do with anything except that these were questions they have always had on forms. He is then required to fill out, by hand, the same information on paper forms, which will most likely never be looked at again.

In short, it's a huge waste of time.

Now, I have spoken in the past about my admiration for political machines and of course, being of a liberal mindset, I tend to be in favor of government in general and more suspicious of the motives of private industry. This doesn't mean, however, that I like the often confusing and occasionally self-defeating way we go about things. I want government at all levels to be as efficient as it can be, and while I realize that level of efficiency is a pipe dream, we can certainly do better than what we're doing now. That also, unfortunately, is a pipe dream.

I really don't have anything more to add to that, just wanted to make that simple point.

By the way, what gets me about the states-rights crowd is how they seem to be perfectly happy with the corruption and inefficiency at the state and local level (it makes the Feds look like saints by comparison). But then again, hypocrisy and conservatism seem to go hand in hand.