May 12, 2009 archive

No Drama Obama.

Great.

Great for government maybe, great for the nation and great for the world, sure….

But who is thinking of the children bloggers?

Let’s face it. A big part of political blogging is complaining criticism. Criticism of policy, criticism of outrageous statements, criticism of strategy. And while Obama is far from perfect, the things to complain about are, relatively speaking, minor compared to the daily outrages of the Bush Administration that thrilled us so and gave us more fodder than a field full of spring clover scattered with republican bullshit.

Yeah sure he is continuing American Imperialism in the Middle East and Asia, but any responsible president would have to do that. Yeah he is not starting torture prosecutions, but, to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t either at this point. Which brings us to the real reason he is so boring.

“When your enemy is destroying himself, the best thing you can do is stay out of the way.”

And boy are they( Thanks Dick and Liz!) destroying themselves!

Look around at the blogs!!! You can read every goddam liberal blog today and barely experience a spike in your blood pressure, and where is the fun in that???

All we are left with is the traditional nagging liberal anxiety that tells us that SOMETHING must be wrong, because there is always something wrong.

Yeah, he is far from perfect, but…..dammit….he could be doing FAR worse.

And if he really cared about the blogs, he would be!

“And the banks – hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created – are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,” Durbin said.

But as I said yesterday in the first installment of this series, it is not just the banks that own Congress. Yes, the banks have bought our government in order to use our government, a government that is supposed to be By The People, Of The People and FOR The People to legislate to give more of The People’s tax money to the Banking Corporations…and to keep banks deregulated, and to do all they can to subvert legislation on credit cards after making us all dependent on credit cards….and to generally screw The People…. and the world economy.

And yes you can bet that Big Pharma, Big Med, and the Insurance industry Corporations are going to do their best to but as much of Congress to shape legislation of Health Care to screw The People so that they can continue to make bucketloads of money as We The People grow sick and die for lack of affordable Health Care.

But today, let’s talk about the Corporations and industries that are directly working to buy our Congress….in order to kill as many of We The People as possible by defeating or subverting any progress on Climate Change.

Because if they succeed in getting our Congress to defeat legislation that will keep the sea levels from rising, wiping out vast areas of agricultural production, creating millions of Climate refugees and ultimately making the planet uninhabitable, nothing else really matters.

As most of you know, I have been concentrating on torture so I am not as up to speed as possible on this. But the great part of having a blogosphere is that someone else is! In this case, Brad Johnson over at Think Progresses Wonk Room. Please click through and read his excellent piece.

He spells out how the Corporations most involved in killing our planet are buying our Congress to keep killing the planet so that they can commit Climaticide in the interest of short term profits. He spells it out beautifully and ….graphically!

Average lifetime contributions from the automotive, steel & chemical, oil & gas, and mining & utility sectors to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Energy & Environment Subcommittee (Center for Responsive Politics). Position on Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act estimated by E&E News. Chart by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Carbon-sector contributions to members of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce.

Click through to get the enlarged versions.

Subtle, isn’t it?

For some strange reason, while the United Nation’s formal rebuke of Israel several days ago does appear in the New York Times, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s speech yesterday on the 60th Anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel did not quite make it past the editors. Hold on to your hats…

Few people know that Israel is the only state to be given a conditional admission. Under General Assembly Resolution 273, Israel was admitted on the condition that it grant all Palestinians the right to return to their homes and receive compensation for lost or damaged property, according to General Assembly Resolution 194, paragraph 11. Suffice to say, Israel has never lived up to these terms, and never intended to.

The past cannot be undone, but the future can change. As its newly elected Secretary-General, I promise that the UN will no longer be a passive enabler of genocide. Therefore, I will ask the General Assembly to meet in special session at the earliest possible time to strip Israel of its membership.

Ordinarily, a motion to expel a member nation would have to come at the recommendation of the Security Council, but this is not an ordinary motion. Because Israel is in violation of its terms of admission, it is not a member in good standing, so the UN has every right to declare General Assembly Resolution 273 null and void. Since Israel’s membership depends on adherence to that resolution, its expulsion is automatic.

Essentially, the unavoidable, lamentable truth of the last six decades is that the UN has been a moral and political failure because it has refused to enforce its own rules and defend the Charter. Nothing the UN does can have any value as long as this illegitimate member occupies a place in the General Assembly. I want the UN to have value.

Link to the .pdf file of the entire transcript.

What Republicans need is a mutiny

^{The party establishment is out to sea, so conservatives need to start rocking the boat.}

By Richard A. Viguerie, The Los Angeles Times

May 10, 2009

(T)he public’s image of the GOP is that it is incompetent (think Hurricane Katrina), corrupt (think Jack Abramoff, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, etc.) and without principles (think wild spending, bailouts, earmarks and a lack of a true conservative vision). Republicans can try smoke and mirrors, but they really need new leaders who will reverse the big-government policies of Bush 43 and congressional Republicans and articulate and move a conservative agenda forward.

Democrats have nothing to fear from today’s Republican Party leaders.

…

Conservatives should no longer look to Republican politicians for leadership and should assume the role of leading the opposition to Obama and the Democrats. We believe we have a party and a country to save, and the GOP establishment is in our way. Let the rebellion begin.

Richard A. Viguerie is the author of “Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.”

I wake up late the morning after Olivia’s party, and am almost immediately hit with the full force of approaching armageddon. Worrying about Roy all night had kept me conscious until an absolutely satanic hour, and now after lurching through the bathroom-kitchen-closet routine at a sloppy pace, I blearily step into the end of the world when leaving for school. The air is thick and dry with smoke when I walk out the door, making me hack and spit involuntarily-but in between fits I look west toward the source and shudder. A massive ash cloud is blacking out Aliso Peak, slowly descending from what looks like somewhere in Laguna, blanketing all points east in fine flakes of carbonized snow. Trees, cars, sidewalks, streetlights, signs, and cheap Halloween decorations stand silent, all looking like they need to be dusted. It’s almost peaceful, until I realize that’s what’s left of someone’s home on the Volvo. Their house on our car.

I pull my shirt collar up to cover my nose and mouth, walking the other way into a rising red sun. I can stare directly at it-the light is filtering through as weak as if it’s already ebbed to afternoon strength. I get down the ramp and as far as the park before my eyes start to water, but I keep going anyway-I’ve got to get Alan to pull his head out of his ass and help me find out if my brother made it back to school in one piece. I’ll need backup when I find Liv today, but relying on Alan’s ability to detach himself from Nadia’s rebounding grip is probably asking too much. As I squelch through the park’s semi-irrigated grass, I try to think through every possible way my best friend could weasel out on me, but then I notice a girl dart out of a house up ahead on Santiago and begin her own dazed trek to school.