Prayer For Hillary, Rape

I've been climbing out of sickness and depression last month, forcing myself to the post editor because I want to say a prayer for Hillary Clinton, may she heal and take a couple of years off to lay around the house and read some books... We are going to need Hillary during the next few years, not only because the presidency will be hers if she wants it, but because we need her for inspiration to get more women involved in politics and creating governmental policy... Of course, her enemies used her hospitalization as an excuse to dump one her, saying she was avoiding appearing before Congress to answer questions about the tragedy in Bengazi, Libya. They wouldn't listen to reason, and it reminded me of a Frank Zappa album cover, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, with Charles Krauthammer as the main weasel... hopefully, the State Dept will streamline their security, more responsive to requests for extra security than the typical beauracratic response of "No."

This kind of automatic denial is created by lawyers. It doesn't matter if the request will save lives or not, if it causes us to spend money, the answer is no... I remember my first experience with this attitude, when the transit district that I was working for hired a lawyer. Maybe she thought we wanted her to take over running the district, but she was making work rules without going through the committee process, and was a mean and vindictive person towards workers she deemed beneath her in the hierarchy of the company. Yes, myself included. Each month there was a list of items in the board packet that the public would ask the district to recompense them for property damaged while riding the bus. Every item was automatically denied by our lawyer. One item just bothered me, a young man who used the bus to attend special needs education classes, was thrown forward into the seat in front of him when the driver slammed on the brakes to avoid an accident. He was requesting $35 to replace his glasses frame, which he had to tape together with masking tape. I felt that granting the request would have created more goodwill, but it was denied. I wrote a critical article in our Union newsletter and was accused by her of sexual harassment in the workplace. So, I have witnessed what can happen when this mindset goes crazily out of control, though in our State Department's case, it resulted in the deaths of good men who were actually helping Libya...

It bothers me that sick conservatives are using Hillary's hospitalization for petty politics. She may never be greeted as a Nubian Princess with a butt you could bounce quarters off of, as Khadafi used to refer to Condoleeza Rice, but she has visited over 112 countries during her tenure, and probably has had more influence on world events than any other politician, helped deflated some rather hairy incidents that easily have escalated into another world war. She's killing herself for this country, and the response is juvenile sarcasm sprinkled with cynical frosting.he blood clot is still there, and they gave her blood thinners to dissolve it. It may or may not work, so she will be closely monitored for the next 6 months. The problem with drugs like this is you are taking them for the rest of your life. My father had to use blood thinners after his stroke, but they also aggravated a hiatal hernia that he had for years. So, he got to balance the risk of forming a blood clot that could affect the blood flow to his brain versus having some blood and fluids gathering in his lung area... Good luck Hillary, I pray you make good choices, this world still needs you.

Life could be worse, if you are a woman living in a Muslim country. Or any other patriarchic, misogynistic culture. Reported rape is on the rise throughout the world, from the campus of the Air Force Academy to the  over 600 rape cases in Delhi, India reported from 2012... According to Sonia Faleiro, writing in the NY Times, it is a culture that "believes that the worst aspect of rape is the defilement of the victim, who will no longer be able to find a man to marry her - and that the solution is to marry the rapist..." Because rape is so prevalent in India, the recent death of a young woman who was raped and beaten so bad that she died from organ failure prompted mass demonstrations by women all over the country.

The number of rapes that result in pregnancy is over 50%, I've read that here in the US it's 80%, but that seems scarily high to me. It's estimated that one in every five women will have been abused during their lifetime, and in places like Pakistan, India, and the Middle East, the incident rate is even higher and more horrific.

Of course, educating males is one option for solving the rape problem, but that doesn't address cultures that condone it, or male rage on a personal level. One of our institutions that has the highest amount of reported rapes are the military academies. We teach our young men to be aggressive and kill, yet we do not teach them how to flip the switch and turn that behavior off, mix it with 18 year old raging hormones, and the old men of the administration are shocked by the resulting behavior, and are left to cover it up for as long as they can, leaving many fine women with destroyed careers because they said yes, I'll go out with you... Personally, I have never understood how one person could rape another, and I've faced plenty of rejection in my life. The behavior seems left over from the time we were cavemen, though even back then it doesn't seem to much value, nothing to do with food, clothing, and shelter...

GOP's Problems, David Betrayus

"Mitt Romney was very gracious in his remarks in his concession speech. Shortly after Mitt Romney conceded, Paul Ryan was untied and set free." –David Letterman

"Congratulations to President Obama on being reelected president of the United States. Turns out it is not all bad news for the Republicans. It seems that depression is covered by Obamacare." – Jay Leno 

"Exit polls show that President Obama did well with women, beating Romney by 11 binders." – Jay Leno 

"Some more good news – the president announced today he is not going to raise taxes on the entire 1 percent, just Donald Trump." – Jay Leno

"I really think in all of what happened yesterday, the only person who should be considered a 'loser' is Donald Trump. I'll tell you why. He went on Twitter demanding a revolution. So far no one's listened to him — because he's Donald Trump! After that, Trump tweeted, 'The world is laughing at us.' I'm thinking, No, Donald. The world is laughing at you and this is why. It is because you're wearing an orange face and a crazy wig. This is the uniform the world over of a clown! Nobody laughs WITH the clown. They laugh AT the clown. Then when the clown gets angry, it is funnier." – Craig Ferguson

Now that the election is over, the time to point the blame for the GOP's failure begins. Karl Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal, pointing the finger in every direction but himself. Depending on how connected to organized crime Sheldon Adelson is, Karl may soon disappear from this earth some dark and gloomy night... When I saw Karl having his hissy fit on Fox Tuesday night, I first thought it was some kind of guerilla theater, especially when Megyn Kelly mentioned that they had rehearsed her walk to the back of the studio to the decision desk... I hope that Fox replaces brain-dead hosts like Steve Doocy and Sean Hannity with more classy and intelligent women like Megyn, after all, how much longer can she dumb it down every night?

It seems there are hundreds of reasons why the Republicans lost, the best ones come from letters to the editor, in this case these came from the NY Times:

"Perhaps their underlying problem is arrogance. Perhaps the problem is scorn for the common plight. Perhaps the problem is  the morality or nostalgic thinking trapped in a thankfully bygone era... But I think that the most likely reason of all is simply that the Republican heart has grown two sizes too small."

"... They are not talking about examining the core principles that turned off many voters... If they continue to be more interested in getting votes than in getting at the issues that are important to the changing face of America, they will continue to lose. And they will slide further towards irrelevance."

Unfortunately, among the crazy conservatives who want to drag the rest of us into the depths of their depressions, we get emails like this: "The bottom line is the revolution is nearing completion. We have lost our privacy, soon we will loose our right to self defense, and then The Bill of Rights will be no more. This is no longer the Republic we older people once knew. Re-electing this man is unforgivable. All of our descendants will curse us for betraying and mismanaging this beautiful idea that was once America. We have sentenced them to a life without personal rights, class mobility, or the joy of being truly free. Get ready for the era of Executive Orders, a european socialist form of government. We are now a nation of 350,000,000 dead men walking. Including the people who consider themselves liberal. What a joke on them."... I'm sorry you feel so negative about the election results my fellow old fart; I wonder where you got your doom and gloom philosophy... Maybe it would be better for all of us if you just went ahead and committed suicide... I may be grumpy, but I'm not a self-deluded idiot...

Err, forgive me, too much caffeine. But, by far my favorite letter is from Michael Lazare from Boise, Idaho: "I'm an old white guy (80). I've voted for every Democratic presidential candidate since Adlai Stephenson. My age allows me to be crotchety, so to all you newspapers, networks, pundits and pollsters, just one request: Stop categorizing me. I don't like it."

What impressed me the most about this election was the larger portion of citizens interested in policies, foreign policy, and economics, educating themselves so that all those years spent in college paid off... A smarter, more engaged electorate forced the news media to be more challenging to the candidates and the spin both campaigns gave to events. Hopefully, this trend will continue, but I do think that the energy we put into our national debate will not be as intense if Hillary decides to run.






The hot news today is the resignation of the Army's golden boy, David Petraeus. I had been wondering what he had been up to because he'd be keeping a low public profile once he became director of the CIA. That didn't stop Leon Panetta from making regular press releases when he was director, but David didn't speak out when Iran shot down a drone, or his listening post in Benghazi was attacked this last 9/11. Turns out he was too busy horn-dogging around, having an affair with the woman who was his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

Coincidentally, the FBI is investigating if Ms Broadwell could have had access to any private emails or military intelligence since David became the top spook, which may have defined the timing of his resignation, before the situation got ugly. Kiss your marriage of 37 years good-by champ...

What bothers me, and makes me want to call Mr Petraeus a coward, is the fact that the affair had been going on for several years, and it was called off only after it had been discovered by the FBI. If this hadn't happened, they could have continued the affair indefinitely.  It's always activites like these that reminds us that we are led by flawed human beings, so different from the people we put on their golden pedestals... Usually, the CIA takes care of their own investigations. The FBI would have to be invited to investigate within the CIA, so it looks like someone didn't get along with the head honcho very well... Revenge can be a bitch, sometimes...

Obama Is Elected, And It Wasn't Even Close...

"Mitt Romney is reminding everybody about changing your clocks. He's urging his voters, his constituents, and all Americans to turn your clocks back to 1954." – David Letterman

"Good news for the Republicans: Once the polls close on Tuesday, they’ll be able to bring out Paul Ryan again. He’s been hiding with Mitt Romney's tax returns." – David Letterman

"What happened is Romney had a rally where they bought $5,000 worth of canned goods from Wal-Mart, handed them out to their supporters, and then had their supporters pretend to be giving them to the victims for the cameras. Because that's what Mitt is all about -- people. People pretending to help people. Later on he gave blood, then stole it back and chugged it." – Bill Maher

The presidential election went just about how the statistics guys predicted, and Barack Obama won both the number of voters and the electoral college to win another four years. The only people in denial was Karl Rove on Fox News, who threw a hissy fit on camera, and the other newsreaders tried to accommodate him. He thought that it was premature to declare Ohio for Obama when there were some precincts that were historically voting Republican that had yet to report in.

Then, Fox News did something that resembled guerilla theater rather than a serious news program. They sent Megyn Kelly, with a camera following her, back through the studio to ask the "election desk" why they had decided against Mr Rove, who has spent over $300 million in super-pac money in commercials against Obama. ThinkProgress wrote: "With neither side backing down, senior producers had to find a way to split the difference. One idea was for two members of the decision team, Mishkin and Fox’s digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt, to go on camera with Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier to squelch the doubts over the call. But then it was decided that Kelly would walk through the office and interview the decision team in the conference room. “This is Fox News,” an insider said, “so anytime there’s a chance to show off Megyn Kelly’s legs they’ll go for it.” The decision desk were given a three-minute warning that Kelly would be showing up..." The Fox statistics guys basically said that Rove was blowing smoke out of his ass, said that the amount of votes outstanding was 140,000 in the Republican areas, and 750,000 outstanding from the Democratic areas, and there was no way that Romney would win in Ohio. The cameras cut back to Karl Rove, who stupidly repeated his argument and continued his red-faced fit. He also called the Romney campaign, causing a delay of two hours before they admitted defeat... Luckily for Fox, they went to commercials, and when they came back, Mr Rove had been removed from the spotlight...

Conservative pundits had all predicted a Romney landslide, despite all of the math against them. Peggy Noonan, Dick Morris, and Karl Rove all were living in their own la-la land, and Donald Trump, who is in the angry first stages of Alzheimer'ss, called for a revolution... It won't be much longer until he loses his television show, which helped feed his autocratic ego... Those same pundits are now calling for Obama to move further to the right, or as they call it, towards the middle, so that there can be bi-partisan solutions to our problems. As Lee Siegal in the NY Times put it: "It was startling to hear, on CNN, the assembled pundits almost unanimously agree that President Obama had to find the “middle ground,” move to “the center” and “build relationships” with Republicans. Where have they been for four years? Mr. Obama had been trying desperately to find the political center for his entire first term, only to be stymied by Republicans trying to recapture the White House by rejecting his every attempt at compromise and then blaming him for being unwilling to compromise."

Nine out of the ten swing states all went for Obama, and Mitt Romney's home state of Massachusetts went for Obama... Even the county where Paul Ryan makes his home in Janeville, Wisconsin, voted for Obama... The factors that went overwhelmingly for Obama were the Black vote, the Latino vote, young people under 30, and the female vote. Nationally, more women voted than men, resulting with a whole binder full of women elected to Congress. 20 were elected last night, including Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth, both whom I'm in awe of... The high turnout from these new strongholds will change the face of our future elections. For example, adios to Tod Aiken, Allen West, Joe Walsh, and Richard Mourdock, all tea party idealogues...

Here in my home state of Colorado, Obama won, twice in a row. His winning in 2008 caused the pundits to list Colorado as a swing state. One of our best kept secrets, now out in the open, is that even Conservatives enjoy getting stoned. Marijuana is a wonderful drug to ingest while spending time outdoors in the Rocky Mountains. Now, we even put it on the ballot, making it legal for anyone over 21 to buy a personal amount of marijuana, and it passed last night. In fact, marijuana got 50,000 more votes than Obama did... My brother-in-law and I were laughing at this, and I asked him if he would now try and buy some. He replied that no, he stopped smoking it years ago, but it's nice to know that the opportunity is there... I discovered that sometimes smoking a joint before going to sleep, it helped me on days that were very painful. I stopped when I moved to Colorado, never signed up for medical marijuana, and wouldn't know where to get it even though that may soon change. But my doctor has prescribed tramadol for the pain, and it works pretty well, so I doubt that I'll be searching out where my local distributor is located... When I was younger, I swore that I'd never let myself end up taking pills as I got older, yet here I am taking a small handful twice per day. Getting old sure sucks... Just like my religious and political beliefs, I may not be partaking in this social experiment, but I don't mind if others do... God Bless a Stoned America...

Nov 6th, 2012

As of Tuesday morning, Nate Silver, from the NY Times, makes the prediction that Barack Obama's chances of being re-elected are at 90.9%, making Mit's chances of winning at 9.1%. That's a larger margin than I would have given, but he is a lot smarter than I am, so I'll go with his numbers...

Unfortunately for the GOP, after their defeat a whole bunch of ugly old white guys will be saying that the problem is that they haven't found a candidate who is properly Conservative enough... But the primary candidates this season were all extremely right wing, and they made the race to the primary look like a carnival run by the clowns... And now the Dick Morris's, Joe Scarborough's, Bill Kristol's, and Sean Hannity's all look like they shared in taking some of Rush Limbaugh's Oxycontin... That leaves Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin as the standard bearers, to chew at each other like weasels during the next 4 years...

Mitt Romney

Barack Obama

225.0

-14.0 since Oct. 30

313.0

+14.0 since Oct. 30

Electoral
vote

270 to win

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

330

270

210

9.1%

-13.5 since Oct. 30

90.9%

+13.5 since Oct. 30

Chance of

My Vote, Putin's Reprisal

"Experts say the entire 2012 election could come down to just eight states. The states are: confusion, dismay, depression, apathy, shock, disbelief, despair, and anxiety. Those are the eight states." – Jay Leno

"Do you know who is endorsing Mitt Romney? Lindsay Lohan. It may seem silly to you but not to the Romney campaign. They're very excited. They said they have a chance now to get the shoplifter vote." – David Letterman

"A new poll found that 59 percent of Americans would rather eat a burger with President Obama while only 41 percent would eat one with Mitt Romney. While most Americans don't care who they're with, as long as they get that burger. " – Jimmy Fallon

I spent the weekend filling out my ballot, it's now ready to be mailed in. Actually, I don't trust the mails around here, so my brother-in-law will drop off our ballots on his way home from work. I think that just about everyone in America has already made up their mind who they will vote for, especially after the last debate. So, please let's outlaw political commercials on the television and on Youtube, from the last debate until November 6th... I find that most of the time that I end up yelling at the television is during one of these commercials made by a superpac, I get too wound up responding to the flat out lies they spout as if they were facts... Of course, we could have debates all the way up to election day, that could be entertaining. And just not candidate vs candidate, it could be debates that we choose who the debaters are, say, Bill Clinton versus Sara Palin!!! When Barack Obama was on the Jay Leno show the other night, he was asked how he felt now that the debates were over, and he replied that he felt like he was just warming up... On the other hand, Mitt romney's campaign is making sure that Mitt will not be giving interviews and speaking to reporters until after election day, to make sure that he doesn't say anything controversial or stupid, especially since the subject of rape came up on the national radar... Last year there were over 120,000 instances of rape reported, and 80,000 of them resulted in pregnancies. In an opinion piece in the NY Times on Sunday, Nicholas Kristoff also related that about 80% of the rape kits that have been done on suspects are sitting on shelves in evidence lockers in police depts, and have never been processed. I guess the world is still run by old, white men, nudge, nudge, wink, wink... Hell, I know for a fact that in California it's easier to get away with murder than it is to commit voter fraud...

Those who miss the debates can take solace in the daily poll reports. Just remember, as my father so often said to me, "There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics..." I often wonder if there's a correlation between those who put their faith in political polls and those who use statistics in the mental health field. I'm trying to bend this into an argument that most right wing conservatives are mentally ill, which is why we see so much crazy behavior from their candidates and spokespeople... After all, they can't all be using prescription anti-depressants...

What happens to the old, discarded heads of state once they are no longer in office? Here in the US, we let them found Foundations and let them wander all over the globe, while in places like South America, Africa, the Ukraine, and Italy, they charge them with corruption and put them in jail. Helluva retirement benefit... Silvio Berlesconi, Italy's richest man and who was Prime Minister for several years has just been sentenced to six years in jail for some silly thing trumped up as corruption. He has yet to face more serious charges of partying with prostitutes and paying an underage girl as a prostitute... In Russia you don't even have to have been elected before being put in jail; all you have to do is run against Vladimir Putin to have charges like treason and encouraging unlawful assembly brought against you... Maybe the Russian people will figure out how far out there, just how crazy Putin has gotten when he starts putting their heads on pikes in front of the Kremlin, then stands beside them shirtless for a photo op... Ahh, for the good old days when they all moved to the south of France...

Addendum To Previous Post

"Fox News is upset that empty headed puppets are trying to brainwash and indoctrinate Americans. Perhaps they could sue them for copyright infringement." - Jon Stewart 

"A new poll found that only 47 percent of voters find Mitt Romney to be trustworthy. Then Romney was like, 'Well, I hope it's not the same 47 percent I don't care about.'" –Jimmy Fallon

"Can you believe it's only another month until we start arguing about whether the election was stolen or not?" – Jay Leno

Not only is Iran's economy tanking, but their ability to print more money is at a critical point. Like many countries, Iran is dependent on European currency production companies to provide printing presses, engraving paper, and anti-counterfeiting technology in order to create the perfect rial. There are three main companies in Europe which are no longer doing business with Iran because of sanctions. If the conversion rate of the rial continues to plunge, and last week it was 36,000 rials to one US dollar, then we may see the economy implode real soon. This is a devastating dance to play over a silly match of pride and ego...

The weird part is that Iran used to be on friendlier terms with the US and Israel, though mostly through back-room deals while keeping a fierce public stance. It wasn't too long ago that Iran bought US arms through Israel in a deal brokered by agents of the Ronald Reagan administration, sending the cash to the right-wing Contras in Central America... Also, Iran has been heavily patrolling its border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, in order to catch drug smugglers. Yes, they've joined in the US's War On Drugs. Evidently, administrators in Tehran are worried that there are more young people addicted to drugs than there are those who volunteer as suicide bombers...

I live in Colorado, considered as one of the swing states in this year's presidential election. We are famous for the mass shootings of our citizens by college and high school students, then rewarding them by passing laws allowing the carrying of concealed weapons onto our colleges and state parks... My congressional district is famous for being one of the most conservative districts in the US, mainly thanks to all of the retired military personnel. The generals retire to estates in Virginia, while the grunts who are so good at following orders and not thinking for themselves retire in places like Colorado Springs. Our latest foray into the national spotlight was when a woman was filmed registering voters, but only allowing people to register as Republicans, while claiming that she was paid by the county clerk's office. Hint to understanding this: it is illegal to deny anyone who wishes to register to vote, no matter what party they want to belong to. Punishable by time spent in a federal jail...

The company that actually hired this girl and trained her in her illegal practices was one contracted by the GOP. It was started in Arizona by the local head of the GOP, and was involved in fraud back in 2004. Not only did it commit voter fraud here in Colorado, but it was also caught doing illegal acts in Florida, like throwing out registrations for the Democratic Party, and putting the names of dead people onto the rolls of registered Republicans. Ironic that everywhere else tea party groups like True the Vote couldn't really find examples of voter registration fraud, so they had to make it up themselves...


It will be interesting to see how the latest presidential debate is reported on Spanish language stations like Univision and Telemundo, since the Hispanic vote could very well carry the election... Romney tried to clarify what he meant by the phrase self-deportation. He's not going to round up 12 million people then process them back to their home countries, no, he's going to deny them driver's licenses, health care, and legal jobs until they feel there's no other options left but to leave. Obama, for his part, evaded the fact that he hasn't done anything concrete towards finalizing legislation like the Dream Act, so he has problems, too. At least neither candidate referred to the act of self-deportation as the order in Star Trek to "Beam me up, Scotty..."

Presidential Debates, Tehran Lottery

One of the health problems I have been dealing with has been a form of dementia. One side-effect has been that I had forgotten that I had a blog, and just recently remembered when I came out of my mental fog. One of the reasons I started this blog was to try and keep my mind sharp and not lose my sense of humor. I also forgot about my Facebook and other social media accounts, and tomorrow I will have to attack the 10,000 or so emails that have accrued... So, some of the things I say may seem a bit dated, at least until I catch up on current events. At least I subscribe to the paper edition of the New York Times, and I will have to renew my subscription to the Denver Post, but I still have the news to read with my morning cup of coffee...

A couple of weeks ago was the General Assembly of the United Nations, and the annual practice of walking out on the speech given by Iran's Mahmoud Achmadinejad. Ahmadinejad's 4 year term runs out this year, and he's not eligible for re-election, so this was the last time that Western diplomats would have to snub him in public. If it was up to the Iranian congress or the ayatollahs, Ahmadinejad wouldn't be allowed to leave the country, what with the guaranteed embarrassment he causes them. But, he is their president, so whatcha gonna do?

The Iranian economy is in the tank, it's on the verge of bankruptcy, thanks to the sanctions that cut off the central banks from the rest of the world. New sanctions from Europe began on Monday that will add to the crippling... A rial went from 24,000 rials per one US dollar, up to 36,000. People were desperately trying to change as many rials as possible into US dollars, and many companies were insisting on payments for goods in US dollars only, putting further stress on the banks, which could only get a limited amount of dollars from Europe, and dig deeply into the central banking reserves.

Ahmadinejad was able to bring along an entourage of over 140 lottery winners, who took advantage by spending their time shopping in New York, making a group trek to the Harlem COSTCO, loading up on foodstuffs, clothing, and computers to take back home. This story reminds me of the Russian concert pianist I met while in Thailand several years ago. He had a couple of palettes of blue jeans that he had bought on the black market, and was planning on smuggling them back into Moscow, where he could realize a profit selling them for over $200 per pair, top dollar if the labels read Levi's...

I just finished watching the second presidential debate, and the overwhelming emotion that I felt was that I wanted to punch that arrogant bully Mitt Romney in the face. It's obvious by his dismissal of the moderator, and the disrespect he showed to Obama, even where he told him to hold on, you'll get your turn... Besides whatever gobbledegook the candidates had to say about their policies, I was struck by how much I dislike Romney and his arrogant, mean-spirited personality. It makes me wonder about his wife, who has said how funny Mitt is, that he is always making her laugh. Either she has the same mean-spirited sense of humor, or she is so used to being demeaned and trivialized by Mitt, and her fostering such a co-dependent relationship... OK, Mitt isn't as bad as Fox News was after the Biden - Ryan debates, where they hired a doctor to wonder if all of Biden's smiling was because he was coming down with Alzheimer's... almost as much fun as a binder full of women...

When Obama was elected, I was happy that we finally had someone in charge that is smart enough to look at issues from all angles and not go running off making decisions without enough information, like George Bush seemed to. And I believe that Obama will win re-election because his opponent is a robot, who really doesn't care for you and the rest of the American people, and who still won't publish his economic plan and policies on his web site.Then, if we can drive the tea partyers, those mindless marching morons, back into the hinterlands, it will make the task of rebuilding the GOP a lot easier. But, somehow I doubt that will happen, and we'll witness them raging in the dying light, whining, bitching and moaning into that good night.