Is Obama On Vacation? EPA, Mr Lama Wants To Retire

Paul Krugman
Eugene Robinson
Dana Milbank

“The stimulus didn’t just waste your money; it planted the seeds from which the poisonous tree of death panels will grow.” - Mike Huckabee

"The president and his aides know that the G.O.P. approach to the budget is wrongheaded and destructive. But they’ve stopped making the case for an alternative approach; instead, they’ve positioned themselves as know-nothings lite, accepting the notion that spending must be slashed immediately — just not as much as Republicans want." - Paul Krugman

Force and direction of disasters in Japan

It's just the worst news, the earthquake and following tsunami in Japan. Over the weekend we'll find out how devastating it was, and hopefully, there won't be too many aftershocks, which can cause the most damage to buildings that have become fragile. This is the kind of disaster that people living on the West Coast of the US dread, you know the waves are coming, you just don't know how large they will be... Already, about 70 small craft have been damaged from surges entering into small craft harbors, another testimony to the lack of foresight and bad planning by the Army Core of Engineers... The pictures already coming in from the destruction on Japan portrays buildings broken into kindling, and thousands of people walking around Tokyo in shock...

I barely got to wax on yesterday over Rep Peter King's hearing, I had to take my sister to the doctor. But both Eugene Robinson and Dana Milbank do a great job dissecting any meaning from it, other than trying to slander the organization of CAIR, which seemed to be Mr King's not so secret objective. As Dana points out, at one point: "King joked that his hearing had been "attacked by everybody from CAIR to Kim Kardashian." If a young woman, who is not known for having any intelligence, and is known for having a big booty, takes the time to criticize you, then you must really be some kind of dumb-ass, Mr King...

What we are now seeing, with the unleashing of right wing craziness, are attempts to make changes according to their agenda, without bothering to use logic or attempts to make arguments to sway the public.

The House Panel on the EPA voted to strip the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions: "Republicans and their industry allies accuse the administration of levying taxes on traditional energy sources through costly environmental regulations, threatening the economic recovery and driving jobs overseas.


Many Republicans also argue that global warming is an unproven theory and that no action is needed to combat it, and they are backed by lobbies representing manufacturers; small businesses; agriculture; and the chemical, coal and oil industries; all of which have a big financial stake in hamstringing the E.P.A."

This won't become law because it also has to pass in the Senate, then the president must sign the bill, and he has said that he would veto it. But Obama has become pretty wimpy of late, by not sending a Federal mediator to Wisconsin, or sitting on his thumbs while Libya massacres its citizens, and especially in refusing to take any initiative in regards to climate and energy legislation: "As he takes heat from both sides, Mr. Obama is moving cautiously. Gone are his calls for sweeping action on climate change by putting a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions or a price on carbon dioxide.


Today, the president rarely utters the words “climate change” or “global warming,” and instead talks about expanding production from nuclear power, domestic oil and natural gas, “clean coal” and new technologies.


The president acknowledges that the window for comprehensive action on climate change in the United States has closed for the foreseeable future as a result of Republican gains in the midterm elections." Perhaps it is President Obama who needs to travel to Egypt and Tunisia for some inspiration, instead of sending Hillary...

The Dalai Lama has announced his desire to retire. I didn't know that Lamas can do that, do they have benefits or a retirement community somewhere? I know he must get tired trying to be nice to the Chinese government. When notified of his desire, they replied that it was just another one of his nasty tricks... It's bad enough that they have over-run his country, outlawed practicing his religion, put all of the old lamas in prison, and they have been hounding him to renounce his faith and give up his responsibilities...

Should we throw him a party? Get him a watch? How do you say thank you to one of the most unimpressive and inspirational men alive? What I would like to see now, is to have the Dalai Lama join Anthony Bourdain in his travels around the world in the television show, No Reservations...

The one-l lama,

He's a priest.

The two-l llama,

He's a beast.

And I will bet

A silk pajama

There isn't any

Three-l lllama.

                                                  -- Ogden Nash

Quick Rant Before Taking My Sister To The Doctor

Gail Collins
Dana Milbank
Gov Scott Walker

"In the United States Senate, failure is not an option. It is a requirement." - Dana Milbank

"A sizable chunk of this country seems to feel as though there is nothing so secure that it can’t be endangered by Obamacare. It’s only a matter of time before somebody discovers that giving everyone access to health insurance poses a terrible threat to the armed forces, or the soybean crop, or poodles." - Gail Collins

Gov Scott Walker and the wisconsin Republicans pulled a fast one on the out-of-state Democrats, by de-linking the elements containing collective worker's rights with all fiscal aspects, then running into the state house and voting to pass banning the collective bargaining rights. Of course, everything will stop until the courts look at this and see if it was done legally. Gov Walker is boasting that 25,000 jobs will be saved and created, without exactly explaining how it will work. Perhaps by taking one public employee's job, cutting it into fourths, where it now takes four people to do that one job at one fourth the payrate, without benefits...

This is being touted as a rousing success by right wing pundits. so look for similar bills being introduced in your neighborhood, along with a mandate for every citizen to buy and carry a gun, and some kind of flaky fetus's rights act that will limit abortion. Or, as Gail Collins points out, blaming everything on Obamacare... Lord, a right wing fanatic's work is never done...

I'm pretty wired up on caffeine, from watching Peter King's Homegrown Muslim Terrorist hearings on CSPAN3. Four hours of drinking coffee at the mention of terrorists or terrorism... And the whole thing was pretty much tame and a bust. The most inflammatory accusations came from Peter King after the hearing, saying how we should be suspicious of any PR announcement from CARE. Most of the time during the hearing was everyone thanking everyone else who was there from showing up... The most interesting testimony was from LA County Sheriff Baca, who said there is a difference in the way police and the intelligence community approach their work. Because the police have to work with organizations every day, and their officers get information in person, they usually feel their information is pretty trustworthy, whereas if we had to rely on what the intelligence community gathered, we would be in very bad shape...

The hearings did nothing to change anybody's mind, Representative King came off looking like an amateur, who talks the conspiracy talk, but cannot produce anything a weasel can sink its teeth into. I constantly wonder how these guys get elected, do the people in their districts do this as some kind of joke? Here I am complaining, when my own Representative is responsible for the witch hunt against NPR. NPR produces intelligent radio programs, which offends my Representative because he is a right winger who cannot write his own speeches and newspaper opinions, ever refuses to debate his opponents, relying on being the incumbent from the most conservative district in the US... Wait, wait, don't tell me...

Peter King Channels Joe McCarthy For The Rubes, Qaddafy Out To Crush Bank Clerks, Newt The Scoundrel

Eugene Robinson
Akbar Ahmed

"Gov. Scott Walker's dispute with Wisconsin's labor unions is making him unpopular with his constituents, who feel like he's attacking his own people. That's not good, because the only other guy doing that right now is Moammar Gadhafi." – Jay Leno

"Charlie Sheen said that he's now more popular than President Obama, at which point Mike Huckabee accused him of growing up in Kenya." – Jay Leno

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now wants to outlaw prostitution. Let's make politicians illegal and keep the hookers. At least they're upfront about screwing you." – Jay Leno

"Jessica Simpson’s various product lines are expected to gross over a billion dollars this year. How embarrassing is this for President Obama, that Jessica Simpson has a better business plan than he does?" – Jay Leno

"We were often asked by non-Muslims whether Muslims could be “good” Americans..." So, how paranoid do you want to get? It's obvious that Rep Peter King, the new Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, is trying to pull a McCarthy-type smear job on Muslim-Americans, and the hearings that begin tomorrow should be pretty contentious, with a lot of shouting back and forth. Oh, wait, I was thinking of the British Parliament... If the meeting is broadcast on CSPAN, I will watch it and get to play a drinking game. But I'll use my fresh-ground Balinese coffee instead of alcohol, take a swig every time King or one of his minions says something mean and lowdown nasty to the people he interviews...

Peter King like to banty about the phrase that over 85% of mosques in America hold extremist beliefs and preach jihad. It's a phrase he picked up 11 years ago, he cannot tell you where he got it from or back it up with anything real, so he is beginning his hearings on a piece of fiction, the kind of statements that the planners of the GOP agenda like to throw out in public and see if it resonates, along with Obama is socialism and that he was born in Kenya or raised in Kenya, or has Kenya on his mind...

And if you want to go one more step into the darkness, and believe that these hearings are planned by those who want to plant fear in our society, along with the attack on public employees and all collective bargaining rights and the destruction of our public school systems - all designed to created fear and chaos - here are the problems, we react in fear and agression, so that later they can come in and propose their solutions, many which have been sitting on the shelf for over 60 years... Mr King is a pawn, just like Scott Walker is, and his message is really going to be sent to the Muslims watching all over the world. So many Muslims already believe that the US hates Muslims, and that is why we went into and invaded two Muslim countries already, with Libya sitting there as a third. The ill will that Peter King generates won't affect attitudes inside the US very much, after all, he is a right wing wacko and therefore he is insane, but he will help solidify those beliefs already held, that the US does not like them and harbors no good will towards them...

I can't believe how the forces opposing Qaddafi in Libya are staying together. They are basically, a bunch of bankers and clerks roaming around in some SUV's with guns and a few shoulder-firing missiles, going up against a well-paid mercenary army with planes, bombs, tanks, and heavy artillery, and so far holding their own.

But time is against them. Unless they get more ammunition, and humanitarian aid like food for the areas they do hold, their coalition will break apart with feuding and being ground down by Qaddafi's forces. Britiain, France, Germany, and the US all have the same trepidation, the reaction of everyone in the area if they do step in and help, with the possibiliy of being dragged into something that could last longer than a couple more weeks.

The rebel leaders are up against the wall - as reported in the NY Times: “Instead of worrying about establishing a transitional government, all we worry about are the needs — security, what people require, where the uprising is going. Things are moving too fast.”


“This is all that’s left,” he said, lifting his cellphone, “and we can only receive calls.”

The question of the opposition’s capabilities is likely to prove decisive to the fate of the rebellion, which appears outmatched by government forces and troubled by tribal divisions that the government, reverting to form, has sought to exploit. Rebel forces are fired more by enthusiasm than experience. The political leadership has virtually begged the international community to recognize it, but it has yet to marshal opposition forces abroad or impose its authority in regions it nominally controls."

Depending on the way things turn out in Libya, I can see the next breed of car commercials by Land Rover and Toyota, the next time you are thinking of over-throwing an oppressive government, think Toyota ... or Land Rover, battle tested in the deserts of Libya, the choice of freedom lovers everywhere... I want to be paid for these ideas, you guys, I'm not flipping them out there just for the fun of it...

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and many women in Cairo got together to protest the lack of women in the Egyptian transitional government. It would be unfair if everyone else got some freedom and they remained oppressed. Unfortunately, someone forgot to send the memo to the young men and teens, who have been wandering the streets creating trouble for the last couple of weeks.

Several groups of women were accosted by roving groups of men, who ended up beating them, groping them, and shouting at them "You wander around by yourselves, you must be whores and we can do what we want with you." The women replied: "You didn't call us that when we were protesting at your side in Tahrir Square!" Because there have been no police around, they had to be broken up by soldiers. This violence towards, and lack of respect for women, will be the most difficult part for the men to change, it may take another generation or two... But, maybe this kind of behavior has to be outed in public, where the men cannot deny it happened, in order to bring it front and center for discussion and debate. Make the streets of Cairo safe for everyone at all times...


"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings."

 Here's a link to TPM and their story and video of Newt Gingrich lieing his face off on the Christian Broadcasting Network, saying that the reason he strayed and had affairs and did evil things, was because he loves this country too much!


"And as Gingrich told it, he sought God's forgiveness -- and as for the events themselves, they were driven by how hard he was working and his great passion for America.


"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," said Gingrich. "And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them.


"I found that I felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness. I do believe in a forgiving God. And I think most people, deep down in their hearts hope there's a forgiving God. Somebody once said that when we're young, we seek justice, but as we get older, we seek mercy. There's something to that, I think."

There's not much else you can say about Newt, other than he is a total hypocrite, trying to sell you items that are past their due date, and are beginning to stink. another reader of TPM researched and found this other quote of Samuel Johnson, which is not only appropriate here, but applies to the slimy Peter King, as well:

"A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace."

Gates Scurries To Afghanistan, Peter King Scurries To Homeland Security Committee Meeting

Paul Krugman
John Broder
EJ Dionne Jr

“We’ve got more diversity of a polarizing type. More minorities and women on the Democratic side typically, more older white men with small-business backgrounds in the G.O.P.,” Mr. Fazio said. “They can’t see eye to eye because they don’t see the same things.” - Vic Fazio

"Speaker John Boehner is casting himself as the reasonable man fully prepared to reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown. But he also has to satisfy a band of "wild-eyed bomb-throwing freshmen," as he characterized new House members in a Wall Street Journal interview last week by way of comparing them fondly to his younger self." - EJ Dionne Jr

“When there's no agenda and no real message what happens is you can't really have a message. You can put lipstick on a pig all you day long but it's still a pig, ..." - John Boehner

“This is not a decisionmaking trip,”

Last week drones killed nine boys by mistake in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus apologized over the weekend, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that it wasn't enough, what could he do to guarantee something like this wouldn't happen again... Today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, the official spin goes like this: "When the fighting season came to a close in Afghanistan last fall, commanders and politicians lauded gains against the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Still, they claimed the real measure of progress would be made when fighting resumed this spring and the military power of the Taliban became apparent.


Now that it is spring, Washington appears to be following up on that assessment. The primary goal of the trip is to get a better sense of how far the United States has come in the past three months, according to Mr. Gates's spokesperson. Gates is slated to meet with soldiers and travel to the volatile southern and eastern areas of the country, and bring his observations back to Washington."

The main problem we face is that after spending billions of dollars on education and training them, the Afghan military still cannot stand on its own. Karzai can bitch and moan all he wants, but if he wants to stay in power, he has to have the aid of NATO troops. As long as we use drones, manned by people in trailers many, many miles away, mistakes will be made. A former member of the Afghan parliament, Daoud Sultanzoy, put it like this: “The reality is this: The Afghan National Army, the Afghan national police, and other related security apparatus in this country are not yet cohesive enough to be called national entities. They still consist of regional and tribal entities. Even the command and control at mid-level in the police and Army, and NDS [National Directorate of Security] are politically oriented.” Now add to the fact that every civiliam's death just adds to an anti-American feeling of non-Muslims coming into their country and killing their children, despite that over 2/3 of the killing of civilians has been done by the Taliban... Ignoring the injunction in the Koran that Muslims should not kill their fellow Muslims, something that only a madman like a Qaddafi would conspire to do...


“we have, unfortunately, too many mosques in this country.”

This week the Homeland Security Committee is having hearings on the extent of terrorists among American Muslims, which seems to be a favorite bugaboo for its chairman, Rep Peter King. Evidently, because we have Muslims in America they must either be all terrorist sympathizers or Black Panthers, and should be investigated more thoroughly.

There is a weird anti-Muslim backlash growing in Europe and America. Russia associates them with Chechen rebels, Switzerland limits the height of the turrets on any new mosque, France bans the face veil and scarves for Muslim women in public. If I recall, three states in the US have passed bills not allowing sharia law to be used in any judicial arguments, and the actual Homeland Security has gotten over three times the amount of complaints about your neighbors than they used to get. People like Peter King, who are uncomfortable with anyone who does not go to their specific church, are afraid that the Muslims who have been living here and are now US citizens, secretly train their children to hate the US and to go on jihad like the Mormon church sends out missionaries...

The Daily Beast's Peter Beinert did a decent job telling why Mr King's focus is a tad inappropriate: "Actually, once upon a time, Republicans claimed that the accommodation and respect America offered people of all faiths was part of what they, as conservatives, championed. As recently as 2000, George W. Bush sought the Muslim vote by condemning religious profiling. As president, he backed government support for all manner of religious charities because he knew that if Christ redeemed lives wrecked by addiction and abuse, so did Allah. Peter King’s Islamophobia, in other words, does not merely threaten the values of secular liberals; it threatens the kind of American exceptionalism in which the GOP claims to believe. It undermines the claim that a religiously informed party need not be a religiously bigoted party. It undermines the claim that Republicans espouse a set of traditional principles, not a particular religious or ethnic heritage."

Basically, Peter King plans on calling on every person who expressed a negative opinion on having a mosque built near the ground zero spot in New York, along with some Muslims who say they have family members who have grown more radical while living here. He denies that he is trying to foment any kind of hatred and disharmony between religions, but we need to know the extent that young Muslim-Americans can become a liability to our safety.

The White House sent Denis McDonough to speak at a church in Sterling, Virginia, hoping to set the tone before the hearings and make them irrelevant: “We have a choice. We can choose to send a message to certain Americans that they are somehow ‘less American’ because of their faith or how they look... If we make that choice,” he added, “we risk feeding the very feelings of disenchantment that may push some members of that community to violent extremism. The bottom line is this. When it comes to preventing violent extremism and terrorism in the United States, Muslim Americans are not part of the problem, you’re part of the solution.” It may not fly with the younger crowd, but it could wow their stuffy, old parents... As for our young folk, I don't think for a moment they would be swayed by any of his arguments:

Some good news is that Nevada Senator John Ensign will resign and not run again for Congress. He acknowledged that his scandal over his affair with a friend and co-worker's wife had a part in making his decision. Another factor may have been his parents moving as far away from him as possible...

Some even better news is the city of Budapest, Hungary made Elvis Presley an honorary citizen. A bit late, but very cool. In 1956, the country tried to become independent, and failed. Presley paid tribute to the struggles of the Hungarian people during a January 1957 appearance on America's Ed Sullivan Show, and he dedicated the song Peace in the Valley to the revolutionaries who had lost their lives protesting their nation's Soviet rule just months before... do they have to change their national dish to bacon and peanut-butter sandwiches?

Women's Rights In The New Egypt, Pfc Manning Slept Here

Dana Milbank

"Sometimes dictators have good ideas.'' — Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle,

''I'm a huge supporter of women. What I'm not is a supporter of liberalism. Feminism is what I oppose. Feminism has led women astray. I love the women's movement -- especially when walking behind it.'' — Rush Limbaugh

''I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism. And I have a communications degree.'' - Sarah Palin

An overseas manager of malls has decided to get out of the US market before they go bankrupt, opting to close over 588 malls throughout the USA. We only have two malls in our town, and the one closing is the more profitable one, with Macy's, Dillards, and Hooters as anchor stores. This is happening just when the recent unemployment numbers came out, saying that private sector jobs were more than public jobs for the first in a very long time. Good to know that we are about to reverse that trend, and if a certain coalition gets elected to the city council, all of the schools will close and every child will have to be homeschooled... ok, I made that up, but these guys still want to slash the city budget until we're beyond dysfunctional. The only city workers will be the ones at the courthouse and at the police station, everything else will be privatized. The privatization will eventually cost us twice as much, as we will have to buy new city equipment to take back those jobs we lost to privatization, which will turn out to be twice as corrupt and dishonest and lacking in oversight, and eventually costing us  to resolve litigation...

Interesting article in the NY Times, about how women are struggling to be heard in the reforming of the Egyptian government: "Egypt’s popular revolution was the work of men and women, bringing together housewives and fruit sellers, businesswomen and students. At its height, roughly one quarter of the million protesters who poured into the square each day were women. Veiled and unveiled women shouted, fought and slept in the streets alongside men, upending traditional expectations of their behavior.


The challenge now, activists here say, is to make sure that women maintain their involvement as the nation lurches forward, so that their contribution to the revolution is not forgotten." there's not one woman appointed to the eight member group of legal experts advising the military on rewriting a new constitution. So, we get these really stupid clauses, like: "the Egyptian president may not be married to a “non-Egyptian woman...” They might be able to keep the right to drive a car at this rate, which even the women of Saudi Arabia don't have. A few months ago there was a protest in Riyadh, where lactating mothers chose to breast-feed their babies while driving, or being driven by someone other than their older brother or father. The authorities wisely let that protest happen without incident. Can you imagine the al Jazeera camera-work if the moral police started tearing out breast-feeding women out of their cars along the main boulevards in broad daylight? There would be protests in Saudi Arabia all right, but mainly ones of laughter...


The longer that people are still out protesting in Egypt, it will get more dangerous to be out in the streets, and violence will take hold. It's the danger that all of the violence from Libya may ignite the whole region, until a senseless bloodbath ensues, and already forces in Saudi Arabia are readying for just that kind of scenario. It would be pretty incredible, if the streets of Cairo, Damascus, and Beirut were all to become safe for women to walk at night. Could men become educated enough to give up that weird form of machismo, and treat all women like they were their sisters? Yeah, I doubt it, too, pass the kif pipe over here...

Wisconsin's governor Scott Walker, who may end up in the new film, Dead Walker Walking, has mailed off the pre-lay-off notices to public employees. Basically, they read: 'you're gonna be laid off soon if the Dems don't come back to Madison' with no real time-table attached. It has already been established that the bill that Walker wants to pass has nothing to do with balancing the state budget and that he only following the orders from his demon handlers...

Besides, if we really wanted to balance the federal budget, we don't need to debate or cut programs for a few million here and a few million there. All we have to do is get rid of every other intelligence and security department other than the CIA and FBI. Together, the sixteen redundant agencies have a budget of $1.2 trillion per year. While we're at it, stop granting government security contracts to mercenary outfits and individuals, it sure would save us some embarrassment in Pakistan and Afghanistan...

Our justice system needs an overhaul, it is breaking down awfully fast. It's one thing to be creative when bringing charges against someone who has committed a crime, but some of the charges that Eric Holder's Justice  Dept has charged Eric Loughner with border on the fantastical. Why mix solid indictments with sentences that are guaranteed to be laughed out of court?

Speaking of laughing all the way to court, the military jailers of Pfc Manning, who is being charged of downloading the wikileak files, is under a special 23 hour lock-down, where he is isolated from everyone else, with one hour per day where he can exercise by himself. When his lawyer told him that the reason the jail had him on this isolation watch, is because they were afraid that he was going to hurt himself. Manning replied, rather sarcastically, that gee, he could just as much damage to himself with the elastic from his underwear and the rubber from his flip flops. Fearing whatever gay ninja mind tricks he may have picked up in the Muddle East, Mr Manning now sleeps naked, and must present himself naked during morning inspection; I guess they check for bruises... Hey, he's not being tortured or anything like that... We really have a long ways to go to get these boys educated and up to snuff, the flunkies and sadistic ones get to stay behind and do guard duty...

A Bad Boy Of Our Own In Iraq, Rachel Maddow On Newt Gingrich Scam, Bradley Manning Nude In Jail

Eugene Robinson
Eleanor Clift, Daniel Stone

"A federal watchdog agency says that overlapping and duplicate programs waste billions of dollars each year. Congress is taking this study so seriously that they're ordering a second study to look into it." – Jay Leno

"Sarah Palin was so accomplished as Governor she graduated early." –Jon Stewart

David Letterman's "Top Ten Surprises in Moammar Gadhafi's First United States Interview"

10. Neither he nor Christiane Amanpour could pronounce each other's names
9. Asked for Lady Gaga's cell number
8. Condemned the Academy for not giving Best Actor Oscar to Jesse Eisenberg
7. Wanted to plug his latest project: 'Big Moammar's House'
6. Left early to attend Justin Bieber's 17th birthday party
5. Kept stopping to phone Mike Fancesca at WFAN
4. Explained how to do a hassle-free home perm
3. The freestyle rapping
2. Livid he wasn't chosen for next season of 'Dancing With the Stars'
1. Claimed to be a 'rock star from Mars riding a Mercury surfboard'

Sometimes I wish that I blogged about mediocre actors who have fried their brains on too much speed and alcohol, in the world of Hollywood it's too easy to find lost souls heading towards a train-wreck. At least they don't take a whole country down with them, in a real bloodbath like some horrible Greek tragedy... And now Venezuela's own Hugo Chavez has offered to mediate between the two factions, and the Arab League is actually taking him seriously!

There are a couple news subject that have caught up to what I have previously posted over the last couple of months. The first is in Eugene Robinson's article, linked above, about the Republicans dangerous switch from "jobs,jobs, jobs" during the last election, and now it's all about "cuts, cuts, cuts" which would eliminate hundreds, if not thousands of jobs. The second, is how the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al Maliki, is creating another dictatorship under our noses... "As protesters throughout the Arab world challenge their authoritarian leaders, Iraqis, government officials and regional experts see increasing signs that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is expanding his power, undermining the fragile democracy struggling to take hold here.


A ruling in January by Iraq’s highest court — sought by Mr. Maliki — gave him control of once-independent agencies responsible for running the country’s central bank, conducting elections and investigating corruption. A month after that ruling, two leading human rights groups reported that forces that report directly to Mr. Maliki, in violation of the country’s Constitution, were running secret jails where detainees had been tortured. And in July, Iraq’s high court ruled that members of Parliament no longer had the power to propose legislation. Instead, all new laws would have to be proposed by Mr. Maliki’s cabinet or the president and then passed to the Parliament for a vote. Political experts said they knew of no other parliamentary democracy that had such restrictions." I don't know if we are willingly turning a blind eye, or that our leaders are too distracted, or our military generals are too dumb to care, but we need to correct this or find ourselves invading Iraq again in a couple more years... Not only do we tend to back all of the dictators and bad boys in the world, but we help create them, too. Lest we forget, Saddam was an asset of the CIA when he was a young and hungry general...


I happened to watch the Rachel Maddow show last night, she is consistently one of the most intelligent and fun pundits on politics, and she had this wonderful piece on how Newt Gingrich has been scamming people for money for the last ten years, by almost, but never actually running as a candidate for President. It really is quite clever of Newt, and, hopefully, the link to Youtube will work below:

Never fear, the good old boys in the South are looking out for you. If you have even a teeny tiny bit of Islamophobia, you might consider moving to Tennessee, Missouri, or Alabama, all states that have introduced bills to ban the practice of sharia law in their courts. I know I'll feel safer sleeping tonight, dreaming also of Texas seceding from the Union...

Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker's histrionics over balancing the budget may land him in jail, or at least successfully impeached, especially if he goes through with sending out 1500 lay-off notices. Unfortunately, the courts no longer accept the excuse "I was only following orders..."

We know how childish the top brass of our military act, such a sad truth, and they have charged the flawed founder of wikileaks with over 22 charges and would like to see him in an American court. Now, the lawyer for Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of actually downloading the files, has claimed that his jailers made him stand naked in his cell yesterday for over seven hours: “This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification,” Mr. Coombs wrote. “It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated. Pfc. Manning has been told that the same thing will happen to him again tonight. No other detainee at the brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation.”

First Lt. Brian Villiard, a Marine spokesman, said a brig duty supervisor had ordered Private Manning’s clothing taken from him. He said that the step was “not punitive” and that it was in accordance with brig rules, but he said that he was not allowed to say more." Such bullshit, still coming from our military jailers. It's easy to see where the conditions for Abu Graib comes from, it's business as usual here in the US. Makes one wonder what conditions are like in an Afghan jail or one of our newest rendition sites that we are not supposed to know about...

Lastly, with the bad example the generals make for the troops, and the incredible leap in the number of amputees that are coming back from Afghanistan, has anyone made the link to the increasing rate of suicides by soldiers returned from combat?

Tuesday Rant, From Iran to Wisconsin, Scott Walker's Deal At The Crossroads

Dana Milbank

"Moammar Gadhafi said that Libyan protesters were all on drugs, and then he blamed it on Al Qaeda. Now, he's saying it's the fault of the teachers unions." –Jay Leno

"On a rambling call to a TV station, Gadhafi ranted about his enemies and blamed others for his problems. He said he feels fine and is ready to go back to work. He's now the Charlie Sheen of Libya." –Jay Leno

"The latest rumor is that Moammar Gadhafi is calling other countries to find a place to live in exile. So far, only Chile has offered to rent out an empty mine." –Jay Leno

"Sarah Palin is going to India to make a speech. She’s hoping to visit some of those Indian casinos she’s heard so much about." –Jay Leno

"Gas is so expensive now that BP actually started inspecting their oil rigs." –Jay Leno

When I was in elementary school, I remember that one of the big political debates was whether we should be giving money to other countries as foreign aid. Now, forty-some years later, it might be a good idea to look again at that policy. Now might also be a good time to revise our foreign policy regarding countries that have dictators in charge. Our policies have never had a moral basis, we have tried to keep it strictly business, what's good for our businesses that trade or manufacture in those countries.

But what happens if Qaddafi beats back the opposition and remains in charge in Libya? Do we continue to shun him when we had tried for 20 years to make him friendly to us? Do we apologize and send him some hallucenogenics for his water supply? MMmmm good, tastes just like Denver's water... Lord knows the man will be very cranky, deprived as he is from his Ukrainian Nurse. Here's hoping that wherever he ends up, he can share with Hosni Mubarak...



Not much in the papers today, mostly rehash from the weekend. It's like everyone took an Oscar break to dish about who was wearing what on the red carpet before getting back to mistreating their citizens, because corruption never sleeps.  A few weeks ago the Iranian parliament broke out with cries to execute the opposition leaders, who kept on staging protest rallies, which angered the conservative religious folk who ran the government. Now, it looks like it may happen, as vans pulled up at the houses of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi around midnight and spirited them away along with their wives. They are being held where the sun don't shine, awaiting some kind of judgement without trial. Officially, the Iranian government supports the democratic uprisings, especially in Bahrain, and they see themselves as the inspiration and model for the uprisings, being too blind and mistaking shadows for reality from where they live in their caves...

My sister saw on the news a Libyan protester with a sign saying "We're with you Wisconsin."

I wonder who really planned to have the podunk Governor of Wisconsin take the lead on the war against the unions, as it seems to be backfiring. The governor's obstinacy seems to be the only glue holding things together. When I moved to Colorado from California, I was surprised at how shrill the voices were against unions, gays, and basic human rights. It was like I left the coast for a land of pod people, who took the talking points from the GOP as gospel truth, and not as a beginning place for rational debate. Now I find myself a Liberal Republican who was once a Union Goon, and proud of it. Yes, the unions on the national level are just as corrupt, and desperately need reforming so those fat cats at the top stop living off of our dues, but a union is only good if there are good guys running it at the local level.

Just as an aside, our local agreements with the transit district where I worked were all written in the  feminine gender, which I believe made labor history. And it's been my experience that when people go on strike, wages are the least important issue, and they mostly want to change a condescending or abusive attitude in the way they are treated by their management. Just like in the Middle East, basic human rights carry a powerful emotion. It's interesting that there is a coordinated, planned campaign to limit some of those rights in America at the same time that the rest of the world is becoming crucially aware and desirous of those same rights... I wonder which set of crossroads Scott Walker went to and made his deal...

Jane Russell RIP, the end of an era...