Twisting With Hamid the Night Away, Rocky Mountain Highs

Kathleen Parker
Dana Milbank
Andrew Kramer

"The debate over whether Americans ought to have the right to be stupid -- or to make other people seem more interesting -- continues apace after 40 years of the (failed) "war on drugs." - Kathleen Parker

"The United States has the most privatized health-care system in the advanced world, and also the least efficient."  - Paul Krugman

The big story today is that the runoff election will happen in Afghanistan. No big deal, we have them all the time. But its a big deal in a country rated as having the fifth most corrupt government in the world. Senator John Kerry spent the last five days working on Hamid Karzai to accept the election committee's findings and have the runoff. I think Kerry threatened to bring his wife and move in with Karzai until he changed his mind... The unsettling part is how Kerry and Hillary Clinton had to buddy up to Hamid and confess their own electorial defeats and in Kerry's case, allegations of fraud in Ohio. Hey, don't feel bad about being a loser...

The UN had to be embarrassed into action, when an American whistleblower was fired after he accused his boss of withholding information of fraud, afraid to confront Mr Karzai. Then, pressure was on the Afghani election committee to accept the UN recount. The Obama administration favored creating a coalition government, with Karzai sharing with his hated rival, Abdullah Abdullah, but it has been pointed out that it is against the Afghan Constitution."Mr. Abdullah said he had received a telephone call Tuesday from President Obama. He said President Obama congratulated him on the results and thanked him for his conduct during the election. But he said the president did not ask him to join in a coalition with Mr. Karzai. “I am not under any pressure from the international community for any scenario,”

The real problem will be to get involvement in the runoff by the population. Its hoped that this would re-establish faith in the government as a democratic entity, when most people see it as a means to corruption, bribery, and amassing wealth illegally. Yeah, they pretty much have it right. Nobody has asked people in the villages what they think except for some soldiers, and nobody has bothered to ask the soldiers what they think about the war, so we have a rather large group of opinions that are being ignored. As always... It remains to be seen if the UN will monitor the runoff elections, the Afghan election committee may not allow it. Mr Karzai has appointed almost all of the committee members, so he has a stake in local control. In solidarity with the Afghan people, I propose that Mr Karzai duct tape his brother to a chair and televise it for the length of the election. It may do the most to legitimize it, and I propose a campaign slogan: Too Legit to Sit...

Its interesting that most of the constructive diplomatic work has been done by John Kerry, Jim Webb, Bill Richardson, and Bill Clinton instead of the special envoys and ambassadors. It's good these people have created special relationships that we can take advantage of. They are all Democrats, perhaps we can find some Republicans who have forged a special bond with other right wing dictators and take advantage of them, in the spirit of bi-partisanship, of course.

rocky mountain high, Colorado...
Guess I'm going to have to change what I write about and apply for a new job at the paper Westworld. They are going to hire a critic of the medical marijuana dispensaries that are popping up all over the state. This will be a popular column, especially after the Federal government publicized its new wide stance of tolerance towards the medical marijuana industry. I'm waiting for the special Consumer's Digest issue, with their Pot Poll...

I've actually been toying with the idea of becoming a user of medical marijuana. I have consistent lower back pain 24/7, and now the cortisone injections I had several weeks ago are wearing off. It was nice to have had the pain lessened, I walked straighter, took stairs more confidently, and my grumpiness took on a silver lining. The only other thing that helped was smoking some marijuana before I went to sleep before I discovered tramadol, a non-narcotic pain reliever. But in the interests of journalism I could convert back, pun intended.

The Colorado Attorney General is worried that the rise of marijuana dispensaries is causing a rise in crime, and that they are turning to the dreaded Mexican drug cartels to restock supplies: "Still, in an attempt to undermine what Kriho sees as scare tactics, Cannibis Therapy Institute is encouraging caregivers to take a new pledge -- to Always Buy Colorado cannabis.


According to Kriho, Mexican cannabis is a snap to identify. "They compress it into large bricks," she says. "You can tell the difference immediately." Moreover, she argues that alleged shortages are fictional. "I just talked to a dispensary owner in Nederland, and he said there's actually a surplus at this point. It's harvest season, and everybody's harvested their outdoor crop. He said he's had people coming in to try to sell him locally grown cannabis."


Given this evidence, Kriho believes "the attorney general and the DEA are working off the fear factor, trying to make the public afraid of problems that don't even exist at this point." Sometimes, being patriotic to your home state seems like the right thing to do... Support here for medical marijuana comes from all sides of the political spectrum, even from those who have never inhaled. Personally, if it can help those who suffer from acute chronic pain, then let's give the stuff away for free. If you have ever been in a hospital setting where people are literally crying out because they are in pain, it strains the limits of compassion. And if it could be an alternative to getting those people in the hospitals addicted to morphine and other, stronger painkillers, let's use it in as many theraputic settings as possible. Just keep it away from your kids...

Secret Service Complaints, Nefertiti or Bust, Our Own Townhall Meeting

Glen Butler
Eugene Robinson
Dana Milbank
Steve Coll

"In the current media environment, where it's more important to have it first than to get it right, it won't be long until the next mix-up." - Dana Milbank

“Something that we believe in very firmly and basically what we should be saying is that there are rules that you need to get into the country, go [through] the right door, fill out the right form, have some apple pie, hum a few bars of the Star Spangled Banner and get to work,” - Michael Steele

Other than sports, whenever Colorado makes national attention in the news, it's always something embarrassing. The latest scam is about the hoax of Balloon Boy and his family. Even Eugene Robinson writes an opinion on it in the link provided above. Dana Milbank reports on another scam that made the headlines before it was exposed, and Glen Butler and Steve Coll write about Afghanistan.

We are hearing a lot more about Afghanistan lately, as the news media continues pulling out of Iraq and sending their troops of reporters to Kabul to set up shop. Some good journalism is coming out of it, like the story of David Rohde a reporter who was kidnapped by the Haqqani Taliban network. Oh yeah, of course Karzai accepted a run-off election. It's either that or get deposed...

‘You Have Atomic Bombs, but We Have Suicide Bombers.’ - Haqqani Taliban to David Rohde

renaissance, rosebud, and radiance...
Now that we have determined that race is not a factor in politics, just philosophical differences, and that the right wing faction has always been more civil and polite than the left, we are left with the conundrum of an unprescedented rise in death threats to President Obama, whose code name is Renegade.  The Secret Service argued in a budget request before Congress, that it was being overwhelmed by the amount of threats and new race hating groups that have been formed and it tries to keep track of. Its original mission was to go after counterfeiters, and now: "The job of protecting presidents started in 1894 with Grover Cleveland, who was guarded part time. That role expanded after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, and it became a crime to threaten the president in 1917. Today, guarding the president and other top officials accounts for most of the Secret Service’s budget, which totals about $1.4 billion per year and continues to grow."


I remember a long, long time ago, when I was a Union goon and working security for a speech by Jesse Jackson at our civic auditorium. The Secret Service guys there were a mixture of men my age and young ones that looked to be still wet behind the ears. I noticed that they all wore pins with different colored stones  on their lapels, and the guy in charge told me that his red one meant that he was in charge.

 I turned to one kid who couldn't be a day over 18, and asked him if his blue stone meant that he was a Junior G-Man, and if he wanted to trade it for something. When I was a Boy Scout we used to trade patches every chance we could get. He became red in the face, and to our amusement, stuttered out that NO! It meant that he was on the bomb squad! So, ya learn something new every day... Anyway, the Service wants lots and lots of money for new computers to track the wackos, their old mainframe is having fits, and the right wing is adding a new definition for the word civility...

Queen Nefertiti or bust...
Hosni Mubarak is 81 and not in the best of health. He has not said if he is going to run for Egypt's Presidency again, but many people feel that he is grooming his son to take over. A group has started opposing this, their name loosely translates as what gives you the right? The founder, Ayman Nour, says that: "Our constitution is for a republic not a kingdom, this is a campaign to confront this irregular... illogical state where a president-in-waiting is practising all the duties of the president already."

Egypt is stepping it up in the culture wars. A few weeks ago, their Minister of Culture failed get the position of cultural director at the UN. He was bitter about it, and whined and complained to anyone who would listen, and probably many who didn't want to listen... Now Zahi Hawass, the Minister of Antiquities, has been getting aggressive against those countries who voted against his boss. He is currently demanding the return of the 3.500 year old bust of Nefertiti that Germany has had since 1913. Hawass said: “If she left Egypt illegally, which I am convinced she did, then I will officially demand it back from Germany.”

Also: "Days after Mr. Hosny’s defeat, Mr. Hawass accused France of stealing antiquities — including five painted wall fragments dating from the Pharaohs that ended up in the Louvre in 2000 and 2003 — and insisted that they be returned. After Egypt threatened to suspend cooperation for exhibitions organized with the Louvre as well as any work done by the Louvre on the pharaonic necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, France’s culture minister said his country was ready to return the antiquities if they were stolen."

So all this may be due to being a poor loser, but it also highlights the problem countries with a long history and chock full o' artifacts have in trying to get them back from the museums who probably paid millions of euros to the people that smuggled them out. When I was in Luoyang, China, there were huge carvings of Buddhas on the cliffs, 20-30 feet tall. Some representative for a museum had sawn off a couple of the faces and taken them back to the Midwest. It was a travesty, and so far China hasn't made the demands and threats for return that Egypt has. Even thogh motivated by sour grapes, I hope that meaningful antiquities make it back to their homes. Or made into a vast amount of replicas to be sold at a store near you...

you lie locally...
My local House Representative Doug Lamborn had another townhall meeting recently, on health reform. He is a right wing type of conservative, so the topic would be no health reform. If he is against it, why in the world would he hold these meetings? At least he has been getting a dose of what the Democrats experienced this summer, when part of the audience would shout "you lie!" at most everything he said: "At several points, the shouting got so intense that Lamborn could not be heard, even with the advantage of a microphone and loudspeakers. He kept his composure but interrupted his presentation occasionally to ask for courtesy."


The people interrupting Doug were not young radicals, rather they were older women, who got into shouting matches with older women from the opposite ideology. The police were there, but wisely did nothing to interrupt the festivities. Sometimes I get so proud of where I live... (tear up) sniff...sniff...

Iran Blames Everyone, Karzai is Pissed, More Muslims in the House

Paul Krugman

"Administration officials are furious at the way the financial industry, just months after receiving a gigantic taxpayer bailout, is lobbying fiercely against serious reform."  - Paul Krugman

drug running for the border...
The paranoid and fake Iranian government have adopted a two-pronged strategy in spreading the blame for the deaths of 6 Revolutionary Guards and 36 civilians who were the victims of a suicide bomber in the south. First: "Iran's president has accused Pakistani agents of involvement in a suicide bombing in south-east of the country targeting a group of the elite Revolutionary Guards force. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Pakistan to arrest the attackers, who he said had entered Iran from Pakistan." The second blame goes to the ever-faithful meddler, the US: "In his first comments on the bombing, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini also blamed the United States."This terrorists crime revealed the evil face of enemies of security and unity who are supported by intelligence organisations of some arrogant governments," The Aytollah reminds me of Rush Limbaugh whenever he talks about others, yet really is talking about himself. The phrase about arrogant governments is supposed to refer to the US, but is more revealing when the psychology of transference is used as a metaphor for his own government. I wonder if the Ayatollah has a source for Oxycontin?

This act of violence may not be related to political gains, so much as it had threatened the drug smuggling trade. Drugs are smuggled from Afghanistan, through Iran in convoys, and on towards western europe. The meeting being setup by the Revolutionary Guards had as its ultimate goal of stopping and breaking up the smuggling routes. Iran has also seen a rise in drug use, one that they don't like to publicize. The ethnic Baluchs who live in southern Iran also have a large presence in Pakistan, mostly in the province of Baluchistan. Iran is claiming that agents connected to the Pakistani intelligence service sneaked across the border and sent the suicide bomber to upset the delicate balance that was being achieved in the area by the Guards. The answer is probably all of the above.

Iran is planning on sending a delegation to Islamabad to prove their allegations. Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, and the US will have to be content with "clues" of their involvement given by professors at the University of Tehran...

watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat...

Another angry head of state is poor old Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. The UN has said that there was enough fraud in the election that his total is under 50%. The options open to him are: having a re-run with him against his top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, or forming a government where they both share. Mr Karzai would like the UN to butt out, so he can and his friends can continue to make money by graft and squirrel it away in Swiss bank accounts, preferred by corrupt leaders everywhere.

The US is adding further pressure by saying that they don't want to send an extra 40,000 troops and 50,000 contractors for support until the Afghan government is stabile. It also would help if it weren't antagonistic, and somewhat more honest. so as to provide less of a glaring contrast to the Talibans. It all comes down to if the Afghan election committee accepts the UN tally results or not. If it does, another election must be held in two weeks. If it doesn't, well, we continue on into the Twilight Zone...

four flew over the cuckoo's nest...
This is such a non-story, but it is amusing, in a sick, right wing, ignorant kind of way. Several days ago, four Republican members of the House accused the Muslims who worked as interns there of being spies and subversives. They base their accusations on the book Muslim Mafia, which none of them had read. The books describes: "... an undercover exposé even more daring -- a six-month penetration of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations that resulted in the collection of thousands of pages of smoking-gun documents from this terror-supporting front group for the dangerous, mob-like Muslim Brotherhood." Unfortunately, the author loses some credibility when he has publicly stated that Obama is a Muslim. Under that criteria, we're all Muslims now... We've had a history of russian spies in the State Dept, Jewish spies on Capitol Hill, why not Muslim spies now? Some of the allegations made in the book sound plausible, but it becomes tainted again by the foaming rabidity of the right wing views of the Hoover Institute.

Reps. Paul Broun (R-GA), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Sue Myrick (R-NC), and Trent Franks (R-AZ), were going to ask federal authorities for an investigation and the Sergeant at Arms for the House to launch an inquiry. So far, none of the four has done diddly and refused to answer questions posed by reporters: "The offices of three of the four Republicans did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the national security risk of waiting to launch an investigation.


Sara Mueller, deputy press secretary for Shadegg, told us: "Unfortunately, the congressman can't comment on that at this time. " Ahh, the words of wisdom coming from Arizona's elected reresentative... another GOP slogan?

Blowing Up in Baluchistan, Shootout in Rio

Jonathan Alter
David Frum
Bono

"But Republican ways of thinking have infected the minds of too many Democrats. More than a few have fallen into the GOP habit of selling out to corporate interests, pandering to banks, and reflexively assuming that just because the Pentagon recommends escalation in Afghanistan, it must be necessary."  - Jonathan Alter

"Because the world sees that America might just hold the keys to solving the three greatest threats we face on this planet: extreme poverty, extreme ideology and extreme climate change. The world senses that America, with renewed global support, might be better placed to defeat this axis of extremism with a new model of foreign policy."  - Bono

beware the baluchs...

Here's a news item that I view with mixed emotions. In southern Iran, a suicide bomber has killed 11 of the elite Revolutionary Guard, including two of its top commanders. 31 others were harmed. A local ethnic Sunni group called the Soldiers of God claimed credit.

The official government response is to turn the incident into political spin: that the Saudis and Americans support them, and that it will be difficult to trust the Americans in any future negotiations. But there has long been a history of clamping down on the ethnic minorities in this region, Iran has also blamed Pakistan for supporting the Baluchs, who are also located in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and pretty much ignore official borders. Iran finds it hard to believe that not everyone supports their glorious Revolution, which has become a myth that the old people bask in.

The ironic part is the Revolutionary Guard was in the process of getting all sides in the area to sit down and air out their grievances. Instead, the Guard will now come in and try to wipe out all Sunni opposition. I can hear the conservative hawks in the US saying, yes, that's how you treat those running dogs, want a trip to Afghanistan?

It may be true that my enemy's enemy is my friend, but its also true that we have become so jaded and cynical from the constant reports on bombings, that we have forgotten the real tragedy lies in the innocent lives that are lost as fodder for these religious wars. I'm waiting for these persecuted ethnic minorities to take up the American strategy and open up casinos on their land. Anyone up for lunch at the Baluchistan Hard Rock Cafe?

its just something to do with the night...

Now that Rio de Janeiro has won the 2016 bid for the Summer Olympics, the hard task ahead of them is to urb the rampant drug gangs, who make the Mexican Mafia look like Cub Scouts. Right now, the police are too weak to have a real presence in the slums, so its every man for himself after the sun goes down. This Weekend, a police helicopter that was monitoring a shootout between rival gangs was shot and had to crash land in a nearby football field. Even though the cops were finally sent in around 5 am, shooting and the finding of dead bodies continued throughout the day.

The Brazilian strategy isn't to clean up the slums and help these people work towards a better life. They'll do what little they can until 2016, then flood the streets with 40,000 extra cops. They had 15,000 extras in 2007, when Rio held the Pan-American games without any major incidents. On the plus side, I wonder if the Samba will be added to Olympic competition...

OK, I was joking about the Mexican Mafia, they really are much worse, ruthless, amoral, and blood-thirsty than any other gangs in the Americas. Not content to just shoot and kill their rivals, recently 9 bodies were found in 18 bags in an abandoned pick up, with a warning note from the La Familia drug cartel: "La Familia doesn't kill innocent people - those who die deserve to die," 11,000 people have died in these wars since 2006...



this just in from Colorado: it was a hoax. Well, duh...

 "If nothing else, we've had a fascinating hour and a half with no commercials, watching a beautiful day in Colorado." - Fox News Channel's Shep Smith

Iraq Contracts With China and Britain, Dancing With the Detainees

Kathleen Parker
Steve Coll
Daniel Gordis
Rush Limbaugh

"On any given day, life in the nation's capital feels like being trapped in an "Animal House" sequel -- with less-funny people."   - Kathleen Parker

"If we stopped today, this legislative session would have been one of the most productive in a generation -- if we just stopped. But we didn't want to stop," - Barack Obama

In a previous post I had criticized Rush Limbaugh for some of the racist statements he made. The quotes I presented were taken from the transcripts of his radio show and one source that he had said on network television. On Wednesday Mr Limbaugh was dropped as a potential investor in the St Louis Rams, who aren't even for sale yet. The Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox, let him make his defense. I provide the link above.

If you are learning debate, his article is a good example of defending himself by attacking others. If you are studying logic, it is a case study of logical fallacy. Rush has such a big ego that he never does anything wrong or insensitive, and every criticism of him is an attack on American conservative values. He is the ultimate victim here, under attack by the cultural elite, and you should take it personally: "If somebody calls you a racist, tell them, 'I know what you're trying to do -- you're trying to get me to shut up.' Then tell them you're sick and tired of their holier-than-thou arrogance and condescension."

It will be a few years after he goes off the air and can slow down his adrenaline-addicted brain cells by watching a few sunsets, only then he might develop some introspection. Until then, enjoy the show...

Iraqi oil leases...
I have been wondering why the Iraqi's hired a British firm to provide security for its southern oil fields, as opposed to hiring American. I thought it was because Iraq had bad experiences with American security forces, and the Brits conducted themselves in a more professional manner. The Iraqi government doesn't want any destruction of the oil fields, fearful if anyone decided on a suicide bombing, which could have devastating results.

All of the above may be true, but today Iraq announced that Britain and China agreed to develop the reserves in Rumaila on 20 year contracts, one of the largest undeveloped oil fields in the world. Iraq had held an auction back in June, but most companies retracted their bids because the terms were too restrictive, and it didn't look favorable for the next auction, so this is a compromise for both sides. I don't know if Iraq still demands that 85% of the employees be Iraqi. Meaning that they will have to be trained and educated because Iraq doesn't have many engineers or a large enough educated base to go in and work there. It's sad that the US had to spend more time reacting to insurgents than rebuilding the country, though we did build one of the largest embassies in the world, even if it's mostly empty and parts have never been used. Personally, I don't even comprehend how our soldiers can live and function in 145 degree heat and wear the heavy protective gear they have to have. A friend, who has been stationed there, said that you can get used to it; at night, when the temperature drops to 120, it feels so cool by comparison... And China will add it to its portfolio and plans to take over the world...

welcome home, stranger...

Yet, all is not rosy and comfy in the relationship between Britain and Iraq. Britain recently decided to send some of the people in their country seeking asylum back to Iraq. 39 people were on a plane that landed in Baghdad, but only 10 left the plane. And the 10 who left said that they were forced off: "They forced 10 of us to get off in Baghdad. They said the British embassy would help us, but they just gave us $100 and left us..."I'm too scared to go to where I used to live. Everything they told us is a lie."

The other 29 stayed on the plane because they could not prove to the Iraqi officials that they truly were Iraqis, and are now back in Britain staying at a lovely detention center, which may be Britain's answer to Guantanamo. It seems they Brits are more likely to grant asylum if you claim you are fleeing Iraq than most other countries. They might be able to go back to Iraq if they can prove they are oil field technical engineers...

late night political jokes:

"Well, the big story out of Washington is this healthcare bill passed the Senate Finance Committee by a vote of 14-9, I believe it was. The Bill cost over $800 billion. And that's just what lobbyists had to give to members of Congress." --Jay Leno

"The good news is we'll probably have some kind of improvement in our healthcare system. The bad news is it won't be in our lifetime. It will never happen." --Jay Leno

"And the Fox News White House correspondent, a man named Major Garrett, has the swine flu. President Obama has ordered Fox News quarantined for up to five years, as long as it takes!" --Jay Leno

"And, of course, the Republicans still can't believe that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. And the Democrats can't believe that Sarah Palin wrote a book. So, it's even." --Jay Leno

"And for the first time in a year, the Dow closed above 10,000. You know what that means? More AIG bonuses!" --Jay Leno

"And the Department of Homeland Security announced that instead of putting illegal immigrants in jail, what they're going to do is let them stay at converted hotels. Let me explain how this works. If you're a homeless American whose house has been foreclosed on, you're desperate for shelter, here's what you do. You sneak across the boarder to Mexico, you walk back in; the government puts you up at the Sheraton. Fantastic deal." --Jay Leno

"And over the weekend, they held a big gay rights march in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousand of gay Americans of all political persuasions filled hotel rooms in D.C. Actually, it was just the Democrats in the rooms. The Republicans were still in the closet." --Jay Leno

"Health care has now passed the Senate Finance Committee. So now here's what the Republicans are going to do to try and kill the health-care bill. They're going to go into filibuster where the guy gets the floor and he just keeps yacking and yacking and yacking and yacking and yacking. And people get tired and go home. Hey, wait, that could happen right now." --David Letterman

"John McCain's going to do the filibustering and he's going to talk about his collection of big band records." --David Letterman

"Yesterday, the Democrats' health-care bill made it past the Senate Finance Committee, in a 14-9 vote. Sorry if I spoiled the ending for you guys. I know a … lot of you probably TiVo C-SPAN." --Jimmy Fallon

"But yes, that's what happened. Republican Senator Olympia Snowe broke ranks with her party and voted for the Democrats' healthcare bill. She's been missing ever since." --Jimmy Fallon

"I'm so excited, because I had Olympia Snowe on my fantasy Congress team. I'm like, 'Yeah! Score, man!'" --Jimmy Fallon

"But even though the bill passed, President Obama said that now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back, mostly because you might pull a muscle. He says, 'Wait until you actually have health insurance before you do anything.'" --Jimmy Fallon

Obama Avoids Second Line, Meghan McCain

Paul Krugman
David Brooks
Dana Milbank

"But all they seem to have killed with their cries of “socialism” and warnings about “death panels” is their own credibility."  - Paul Krugman

"But worst of all was the way he seemed to dismiss the idea that his administration could and should be doing much more."  - Eugene Robinson

"In fact, the only one who doesn't seem to have a plan for the conflict is the one who matters most: President Obama."  - Dana Milbank

let's hope he enjoyed the gumbo...
Like so many other people, I was disappointed by President Obama's too brief stay in New Orleans, before he left for war-torn San Francisco. His speech was filled with platitudes but gave no specifics or timetables for an accelerated recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Eugene Robinson has pointed out that New Orleans doesn't even have one full-time working hospital yet.

Harry Shearer, in the Huffington Post points out that: "The "damage" was not caused "just by a disaster of nature" at all; two independent engineering reports (the ILIT report from UC Berkeley and the Team Louisiana report from LSU) agreed that the damage was caused by the catastrophic breaching, in more than fifty locations, of an improperly-designed and built "hurricane protection system" (derided by its own builder, the Corps of Engineers, as "a system in name only"), under storm surge pressure considerably weaker than the system was supposedly designed to withstand." Unfortunately, the Army Corps of Engineers are also trying to fix the mess they created, and once again doing it poorly. They have installed "temporary" pumps that don't work, while trying to intimidate their critics. Maybe their motto should be changed to: To Fail and Serve...

To be a little fair, there were four Cabinet members who spread out and did photo ops around town. Janet Napolitano has been to New Orleans at least 3 times, and seems to have the best handle on the situation. Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal got some face time as they were driving to and from events, and did some serious talking: "Jindal said getting federal dollars to cover increased Medicaid costs, speeding the construction of hurricane-protection barriers and financing the proposed Louisiana State University teaching hospital will be his top priorities when he and Obama meet for only the second time since the president took office in January. "When you talk to the president of the United States, you want to be sure that you summarize the top-line issues," Jindal said."

A local blogger at Cliff's Crib seems to give Obama the benefit: "If can make sure that the Corps of Engineers completes all of their levee projects and somehow we can get new school buildings and a medical facility or three opened from Washington D.C then he doesn’t have to worry about coming back anytime soon. Let’s see what happens in the next few months and maybe after we get our new mayor and new city council we can invite him back to stay a day or two."

Personally, I would have stayed for several meals of gumbo and a muffaletta, listened to some jazz and blues... But Obama needs to concentrate more on fulfilling his campaign promises because he's beginning to disappoint even moderates like myself. I would be taking a more hands on approach to the bigger issues, letting Congress duke it out over health care creates a frustrating morass. It's entertaining to watch, but you have to be in the mood for all of those self-serving soundbites on the news each day.

conservative sheik chic tweaked...
I wanted to find a way to print Meghan McCain's controversial Twitter pic, the one she has gotten so much flak over. It was a picture she took of herself at home, wearing casual sweats and a tank top. But it was deemed risque by many older conservatives, so much so that she is considring dropping her Twitter account.


I'm too old to Twitter, barely understand Facebook, and I think I'd be labeled a dirty old man if I attempted My Space, where many kids under 15 lie about their age in order to make their own page. Anyway, with women and young adults leaving the Republican Party, they really can't afford to be be attacking those who are the future: "the Republican Party has a big problem with the youth vote, and Ms. McCain, daughter of former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, is at least trying to remedy that among her generation, the 20- and 30-somethings sometimes called the “Millennial Generation.” I really hate that, the Millennial Generation. It's made up by some guy in a think tank who's evidently not allowed to swim in the ocean or even go outside for fresh air... Oh yeah, and stop calling her a slut.

I like Meghan, enjoyed visiting her website while she was campaigning for her father, and like it that she is having fun blogging, twittering, facebooking, and writing for the Daily Beast. Unlike the Cheney daughters, who are trying to cash in on their bitter 15 minutes by manipulating their father, Meghan is trying to communicate with her peers as well to a bewildered older generation. Each generation grows up more tolerant of the bugaboos that gets their parent's underwear all twisted. My sister's 11 year old granddaughter, who's other grandparent is a Jehovah's Witness, doesn't see why people are so prejudiced against gay people, and this is before she truly understands the sexuality part of the equation. Currently, about 27% of those young adults who were straw polled during the last election said they were Republicans. Conservatives,  a few years from now, if they haven't all been hit by moooving trains, will be more moderate in their views. I wonder what issues they will be tea-bagging over...


Will Colorado's Boy in the Balloon turn out to be like the Man in the Mirror? I smell another reality show being pitched by his parents, who got a taste from being in an episode of Wife Swap... It will be one way to pay the bill from the state for all of the personnel and helicopters used to find a boy who actually was hiding in the attic, or so the family says...

Rigged Russian Elections, Rev Moon Steps Down, More Islamic Spies on Capitol Hill

David Ignatius
Dexter Filkins

"Well, I'm the cow on the tracks".  - Michael Steele

"We will not sit in a room with fraudsters. We are leaving the room!
Hillary Clinton spoke in Russia, encouraging The Russian government to be more open and transparent, because we certainly aren't getting it at home. Perhaps emboldened by her presence and her words, members of opposition parties walked out of the Russian Parliament in protest over the recent local elections, which they say were fraudulent because: "Official results showed PM Vladimir Putin's United Russia party winning nearly every poll by a wide margin. Some 135 out of 450 MPs walked out of parliament - the Duma - in a rare show of anger against the Kremlin." Now we know some of what the Iranians are trading to the Russians - badly rigged elections. I don't know who is the richer and more obsessive megalomaniac: Vladimir Putin, Silvio Berlusconi, or Rupert Murdoch.

In a recent Gallup Pole, Hillary has gained in popularity, a 62% rating over Obama's 56%, so her world hopping and speeches must be hitting a chord back home...

just a james dobson wannabe...
Speaking of oddities and meglomaniacs, the owner of the Washington Times, and financial contributor to the Bush family, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon is getting old. He has performed his last mass wedding of 10,000 arranged marriages and has stepped down as an incarnation of Jesus Christ, passing the torch to his daughter and three sons.

I remember years ago when his religious organization first came to the US. He had European teenagers walk door to door asking for handouts that they were supposed to live on as well as give back to him a major portion.

Then, he had the idea of creating religious communities similar to what Rajneesh created in Oregon. The idea was to have small groups go from town to town inviting people back to their house for a dinner. Then everyone participated in singing songs where they created their own lyrics to popular artists like Bob Dylan. When the singing was over and the hot dogs consumed, the leader asked the group, do you know why I'm so happy? To find out, you were invited to the rural community where they attempted to use proven brainwash and mind control techniques to get you to stay and become just as happy and dedicated as they were. It was an intense experience, but I preferred my own meditation and tai chi instead, decided not to join in on the fun...

Since then the Moonie organization has disbanded in favor of the more current version, and the Rev Sun Moon was charged with tax fraud, so h hasn't been able to come back to the US. His religious organization was infiltrated by Korean intelligence officers, and when George HW Bush was briefly director of the CIA, knowingly allowed them to operate in the US. Moon's organization was also accused of trying to infiltrate Capitol Hill by getting their members hired as staff to targeted Congressman.

Deja vu: this morning, an Islamic non-profit group has been accused by four Republican senators for attempting the ssme thing: "In an unusual announcement this morning, four conservative Republicans — Reps. John Shadegg (Ariz.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Trent Franks (Ariz.) and Sue Myrick (N.C.) — formally asked the House Sergeant at Arms to launch an investigation of the Center for American-Islamic Relations. They accused CAIR, a non profit group, of trying to infiltrate Capitol Hill with interns and staffers. Shadegg said Wednesday that CAIR is an organization that “members of Congress should be aware of and that should be investigated by the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service.”

Unfortunately, this appears to be a blatant attempt at promoting a newly published book written by an anti-Islamic activist, which is a polite term for wacko... The author is: "Dave Gaubatz, an anti-Islam activist who wrote last year that “a vote for Hussein Obama is a vote for Sharia Law.” CAIR is a lobbying group, that like all lobbying groups, seeks to influence legislation. Your decision to make if that constitutes spying. I hope so, then we can ban all lobbyists as spies and render them to secret prisons in Afghanistan and Egypt...

"I've felt like a pansy, I guess, and this made it feel like I was actually doing something again." - Jeff Flake