I’m smarter than President Obama!  Really.  It’s true.

I’ll bet he can’t write beat poetry worth shit.

He has not memorized every single story in Nathan Ausubel’s “Jewish Wit & Wisdom.”  And let me tell you, that’s a LOT of stories, like hundreds and hundreds of them!

Yeah, I’m smarter than President Obama.

I’ll bet he doesn’t have a clue as to how the internet has expanded the political consciousness of certain DFH’s and activists of all kinds who have leaped into the new paradigms like fearless parachute divers.

Come to think of it, THEY’RE smarter than President Obama, too!

All right, I don’t fully grok what a DFH is in political terms.  I only learned what those letters actually meant around 5 months ago.

But still.

No offense to anyone, but all the “do _____ to make Teddy proud!” touched something off in me.

I have to laugh (in sort of a double-entendre-like fashion) to think of what folks would tell others to do in my memory if I kicked the bucket.  All this talk about Ted put me in a Tom Sawyer’s funeral kind of mood, you see.

Ok, want to read something insufferably pompous to a DFH like me?

Ted Kennedy was a flawed human being.

Well, who gets to judge that?  The human being who has no flaws?  And who might that be?

Sure wouldn’t be me.  Can’t touch that, as MC Hammer once said.

Really.  Fuck that shit.  Seriously.

Me, I’d be happy for someone like … oh, Peter Guralnick, who wrote a two-volume biography of Elvis Presley — to write about Ted Kennedy’s life without that shit about being a flawed human being and moralizing.

His bio of Elvis was the kind of bio where you don’t judge at all because you’re so amazed by the story itself, and Guralnick doesn’t get in the way of that.

Anyway, barring some really talented biographer who actually knows the craft of biography, I’m not going to judge Ted Kennedy’s morality or personal life.

Not that I’m not curious … I’m as susceptible to gossip as anyone.  Heh.

What a brilliant screen he was, though, for a certain generation of us to project our highest aspirations and watch them turn into mandalas of golden light.

(“Did you get a hit?”)

Maybe this isn’t a DFH eulogy, maybe it’s my attempt as a female to do a gonzo eulogy.  Now that would be a laugh.

From emptywheel over at Firedoglake:

(Today is CIA IG Report day. While we wait, I’m re-posting two posts I did in June describing what we already know is in the report.)

In this post, I reviewed the known contents of the CIA IG Report’s 6-page section on torture for those who seem to forget we’ve seen substantive bits from that in the Bradbury memos. In this post, I’ll look at what else shows up in the Bradbury memos. In a follow-up post, I’ll look at what IG Report contents we haven’t seen (and therefore are all but guaranteed not to see).

From what we can reconstruct, the report appears to include the following:

Intro and summary

A history of CIA’s involvement in torture

A description of the development of the torture techniques as if they were developed for use for Abu Zubaydah

A review of the legal authorization for the program, with the critique that doctors were not involved in the pre-authorization review and, probably, a description of the ways that torture as practiced exceeded the guidelines included in Bybee Two  

An erroneous claim that everyone who should have been briefed was briefed

Apparently a general review of how the program was implemented, including a description of the close involvement of medical personnel, and a description of what was done to which High Value Detainees

A description of the decision to videotape and apparent reviews of what a review of the videotapes and cables revealed about whether the torture was what it was claimed to be

Forty pages of completely redacted material

The Effectiveness section

A policy section that notes that the program includes many of the same techniques as the State Department qualifies as abusive

Three pages of recommendations

A number of Appendices–the CIA appears to be hiding the very existence of about five of these and most of the contents of the rest of them

This Report has been delayed over and over again, and we can expect a lot of it to be redacted.

And in a related story, the New York Times reports Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases, to-wit:

The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended reversing the Bush administration and reopening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases, potentially exposing Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors to prosecution for brutal treatment of terrorism suspects, according to a person officially briefed on the matter.

I have a whole lot of questions about all this.  I have to wonder, during the time of the very long delay before releasing the CIA IG report, whether those who are the most vulnerable to prosecution were allowed to lobby for much of the report to be redacted.  I recall reading somewhere that this was the case — so if anyone can offer a link, I’d be grateful.

The New York Times story weasles out of using the word “torture,” by the way.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Here is the link to the report — 122 pages.

There’s been a lot of back and forth about President Obama’s style.  I’ve heard some outlandish proclamations that he will not change his style, this is how he’s ALWAYS been, we must adapt to him, he’s not a drama queen, on and on.

I read an article today in the Times-Picayune and the title sort of captures my feelings on this subject:  “Obama keeps close tabs on New Orleans recovery — from a distance.”

It’s not a great article, that’s for sure.  It too often quotes Republicans and “experts” I’m not terribly impressed by.  It touts the fact that Mary Landrieu, she of the “oh I’m not sure I’ll vote for the public option” mentality as saying:

With “federal agencies finally working as partners and not adversaries, ” Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA, said, “in its first seven months, the Obama Administration has made significant progress toward making the Gulf Coast recovery effort quicker and more efficient.”

I have no reason to disbelieve that the Obama Administsration is trying to work as a partner and not an adversary.  I think, though, that’s setting the bar a wee bit low.  But that could just be me.  Well hell, who cares, this is my Op-Ed so of COURSE it’s just my opinion!  Jaysus.

Eventually our sages in government will legislate something on health care and it will either be written into law or go down in flames, once again a failure of government to serve its people.  Even amid all the turbulence, though, I feel fairly optimistic we will get a bill President Obama can sign into law and it’ll be something we don’t hate too much.

We’ve been told the next thing our country should turn its mind to is immigration reform.

I have to laugh.  I really do.  I’ve heard more than once that one of the reasons we shouldn’t prosecute torturers is that it would cause such a terrible uproar, the Repubs would think we were revenging ourselves on the Clinton impeachment, it would “tear the country apart.”  Like it’s real woven together right now?  Like we have great cohesion and unity?  Anyway, that’s not where I’m going with this essay.

Immigration reform.

NOLA BLOGGERS ANNUAL RISING TIDE 4 CONFERENCE ART FOR 2009 (t-shirts available):

NAKED SOUL PLEA

Show us you got some soul and come to New Orleans for the Katrina Anniversary, show us you understand and know how to gain strength from us so that everyone else will know they can also gain strength from us we are a part of America.

Not just to remember but to remember in the way New Orleans should be remembered, deserves to be remembered, deserves to be remembered, deserves to be remembered, as you would remember someone you loved being wronged and because you loved them you’d need to help them heal, help them heal, and it would heal you too

America’s soul is locked up by some big ogre, like fairy tale princess chained to rocks with big orcs and one eyed monsters and she cries out so the hero must break those chains, America’s soul cries out and we are the heroes who will break those chains if you only remember us, remember us as we deserve to be remembered, as a loved one, as part of your family.

Remember the dead, remember the living, remember the kindness and the cruelty, the joy and pain, remember the great city of New Orleans and care as she rises up again with every fiber of her being, not just a geography of land and water but a people and a culture and not let her be invisible from the rest of her neighbors, remember the family crying around the world for the great city of New Orleans, remember her as she deserves to be remembered.

That’s what an anniversary is for.  Come to New Orleans, please.  It would be good for all our souls.

The deathers are all worried about how old folks will be treated under Democratic health care legislation.

Perhaps they have forgotten how old folks were treated under Republican rule:

How many old folks died because our federal government saw no role to play in protecting and caring for its citizens?

See, the trouble with not looking back is that we don’t remember what we ought to remember.

Katrina is something to remember.  Always.  The federal flood, they call it on the NOLA blogs.  The federal flood because the Army Corps of Engineers cut corners and didn’t make the levees right.  The federal flood because heckuva job Brownie and Bush’s happy cronies didn’t give a shit about the folks suffering but only cared about going to the cash register to hear the “ca-ching” that meant their usual profit off of human suffering.  Blackwater profited.  Halliburton profited.  A whole lot of Republicans profited.

The only way to view the political circus nowadays is to put your shades on first.

Seriously!

Don’t want anyone to recognize me!

My mama told me to stay out of places like that.

And it’s worse than she said!

All I can say is it’s a damned good thing we didn’t get health care legislation passed before the August break!  Look what we would have missed!

How can something so utterly serious be impossible to take seriously?

The circus has come to town ………………………… hall.

My political commentary for the week.  It’s fucking Friday and I’m gonna put on my cool shades and go prowling down some particularly fine back alleys.  Hope all is well with Dharmaniacs everywhere and Happy Weekend!

Some music to prowl by …

… it’s coming up to that time of year again.

From YouTuber maedgen’s notes on this tune:

Filmed in mid-2005, this is a glimpse into life on the French Quarter’s lower Decatur Street before Hurricane Katrina.

Originally written by Ray Davies of the Kinks, this track is performed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band featuring Clint Maedgen on vocals with a guest appearance by the New Orleans Bingo! Show in the video.

(Simulposted at the Orange)

I have literally lost track of the amount of comments that respond to analyses of Obama’s actions with “why are you surprised?” and “what did you expect?”

But I have to say the latest is downright hilarious.

Most of us already know the latest story about how the pharmaceutical companies, via their lobbyist, former Congressional Rep Billy Tauzin, publicized a deal they supposedly made with the White House which they claimed promised there would be no fooling around with negotiating (i.e., lowering) drug prices in health care legislation in return for a hefty investment in advertising and an $80 billion investment in the plan itself.

Caught between a pivotal industry ally and the protests of Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration on Friday backed away from what drug industry lobbyists had said this week was a firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare.

We were promised transparency in these negotiations.  Of course, politial promises don’t count.  Why are we surprised?  What did we expect?

“Not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN,” Obama explained in a Democratic debate in Los Angeles in January 2008, in language similar to many of his campaign stops.

However, the two biggest deals so far – industry agreements to cut drug and hospital costs – were reached in secret.

So now we see who has a seat at the table,  not because the Obama Administration was open and transparent, but because Billy Tauzin and the pharmaceutical companies panicked when they thought Congressional Dems were going to mess up their deal and demanded assurances from the White House.

So I’m watching the health care “debate” in this country with my eyes half-screwed shut because some of the foolishness is downright painful to witness — aside from the real pain of knowing too many folks aren’t getting the medicine and medical treatment they need.

Hard to make a decision when politics exists nowadays simply to muddy the waters.  And while the circus goes on in the foreground, so does the power game in the back room.

President Obama has chosen to use his power cautiously in this “debate,” so that will limit the choices we will make when it comes to health care.  There are endless arguments of what could and couldn’t be on the table as far as single-payer and the watered down version of the public option (which gets more watered down every day), and those arguments try so hard to be definitive, as though there are no alternatives to what Obama has chosen to do (if you are an Obama supporter) or that Obama is simply a corporate tool (if you are among those who have had it with half-measures).

The past eight years in particular have seen each and every one of our political institutions debased and sold to the highest bidder.  And because we are not shining a bright light on the crimes of the Bush/Cheney misAdministration, we are seeing the effects of that in each and every political decision voted upon by Congress and signed into law (with or without signing statements) by the Executive Branch.

As far as health care is concerned, my view is that if there is anything at all that Obama can sign into law, he should.  I don’t think for one moment that we’ll get a real public option — but we’ll get our foot in the door when it comes to incremental change — and although I am NOT in favor of incremental change, that is the only thing that’s being offered from our government.

So I don’t look towards Obama or our government for my deliverance, big surprise.

I look towards myself and my fellow citizens of like mind.  In that, I have a great deal of faith.  The word “incremental” doesn’t even figure into our work, nor should it.