Ground Control to Major Rahm . . .

Ground Control to Major Rahm . . .

Take your profane pills and put your helmet on,

Commencing countdown, engines on . . .

The White House has the bill it really always wanted.  They have their deals with PhRMA, AHIP, and the Hospitals more or less unbroken . . . they have their real goal in sight.  

The White House has their individual mandate–a law that will require those without coverage to buy from private health insurers under pain of penalty enforced by the IRS–they have their restrictions on drug reciprocation and direct drug price negotiation intact, and they have kept their word on the handshake deal that they made last spring with the medical industrial complex: no public option.

This is Ground Control,

to Major Rahm,

You’ve really made the grade . . .

In hiring Emanuel, Obama avoided the mistakes of his Democratic predecessors, who first gave the chief of staff job to besotted loyalists. Obama’s first year fell apart in large part because he didn’t follow his chief of staff’s advice on crucial matters.  Arguably, Emanuel is the only person keeping Obama from becoming Jimmy Carter.  Obama’s greatest mistake was failing to listen to Emanuel on health care.  He opposed the public option as a needless distraction. Had it gone Emanuel’s way, a politically popular health-care bill would have passed long ago, leaving plenty of time for other attractive priorities.

Like awarding Dana Milbank a Medal of Freedom, for example.  

The plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty used to say, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Now it says, “Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here.”

Why did everything go to Hell so fast?    

driftglass knows why, we ll know why . . .

We got the Bush Regime, arguably the most incompetent, corrupt and outright-treasonous Administration in American history. A regime so reckless, savage and gleefully bestial that it made the career-Nixon-hating Hunter Thompson actually pine for the good old days of Tricky Dick: “I miss Nixon.  Compared to these Nazis we have in the White House now, Richard Nixon was a flaming liberal.”

And, like Nixon, it is more than likely that not a single one of the smirking traitors who nearly wrecked this country will ever spend a day in jail.  Instead they remain lodged in our flesh like so many ricin pellets, oozing their poison into our national bloodstream, waddle from one fawning audience to another, worming their way into major media outlets, or dispatching their degenerate children and underlings out into the world the keep their poison pumping.

They soiled our good name, bankrupted the country, shredded the Constitution and kicked the crutches out from under the global economy on their way out the door, and while it is sometimes hard to focus on them through the flames of the world they set on fire, we must.

America could have had justice.

But America didn’t get justice.  

America got Hopey McChange, who said he wants to look forward, not backward.  Who said there must be no “retribution”, no “vengeance”, no “payback”, who said the era of “divisive partisanship” must end.  

Four score and twenty betrayals ago, when Barack Obama was posturing as a transformational leader, when he was promising government of the people, by the people, and for the people, he spoke of the core values progressives have always believed in as the solution to America’s problems . . .  

That spirit of looking out for one another, that core value that says I am my brothers keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, that spirit is most evident during times of great hardship, but that spirit can’t just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe.  Because as I stand here and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there’s some folks who are going through their own quiet storms.

Hurricane Ike had just hit the gulf coast of Texas, Wall Street was about to implode, the foundations of the economy were crumbling, Americans everywhere were losing their jobs, their homes, their last remnants of trust in the government . . .

All across America there are quiet storms taking place.  There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help.  Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we’re an independent people.  We don’t like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves, but you know what we understand is that every once in awhile, somebody’s going to get knocked down.

Every once in awhile . . .

Yes, and every once in awhile, the sun comes up.  Then, every once in awhile, it goes down again.  

Low income Americans get knocked down every day, middle class Americans get knocked down every day, seniors on fixed incomes get knocked down every day.  Republicans knocked them down for 30 years, and now Barack Obama and that gang of corporate enforcers that used to be the Democratic Party are doing it.  A punch in the face is a punch in the face.  Analyze that, Beltway Republicrats.  When Americans are flat on their back all the time, they don’t give a damn whether the fist that knocked them down was a Republican fist or a Democratic fist.  A corporate fist is a corporate fist.  Whistle past that graveyard, Obamabots.  Have an “ideologue” diary contest, fill that wreck list of yours with “ideologue” ravings and let’s all see who can clap the loudest.

Over at Daily Salem Witch Trials, where Jane Hamsher has been burned at the stake so many times they’ve run out of stakes, someone set their torch down long enough to deliver a sermon about the dangers of fire . . .

Obama Warns Progressives We Will Go Down In Flames . .

President Obama told progressives that if this healthcare bill fails, not only will the democrats go down in flames but his presidency. I think those who are not satisfied with this bill need a come to jesus moment. We democrats need to realize that we can’t get everything we want.

I’ll have a come to Jesus moment if you stop sniffing glue.   While drinking a case of beer. While posting a diary from a rabbit hole somewhere deep beneath the surface of Obamabot Land.  

Someone needs to understand the basic difference between flying and never getting off the ground.  You can’t go down in flames when you never even got the damn plane into the air.   It didn’t even make it to the runway, because there aren’t any runways.  It’s still in the hangar.  At the No We Can’t International Airport.  Where there’s no runways, where there’s no control tower, where there’s no departure gate because nothing ever departs, where the only thing in the air is Rahm’s middle finger.    

Did I mention the plane doesn’t even have a pilot?  No?  Well then I’d better mention that.

THE DAMN PLANE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A PILOT.

Hopey McChange talks about flying, he talks about it all the time, he talks about soaring high up into that Sky of Change, soaring high above the status quo, high above those red states and blue states, way up into that Heaven of Bipartisanship, where the Centrist Angels play their harps and halos glow above every Republican head.  

He talks so much the wind never stops blowing . . .  

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth . . .

Blowing down the backroads heading south.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,

You’re an idiot, babe, it’s a wonder,

That you still know how to breathe.

The historic Conclave at Blair Castle has finally ended, the illustrious personages in attendance have shared their wisdom with us, and I have humbly transcribed their words, so serfs everywhere will be able to sleep well tonight knowing that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well . . .    

READ EVERY WORD OF IT.

From Joe Stack, an American . . .

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?  

From a distant vantage point on a blog far, far away, an epic traveler through cyberspace who likes to mock and ridicule “purists” posted a story about a land where cynicism and hypocrisy are completely unknown, a land where for some bizarre reason, idealism is honored and respected . . .  

Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.

With immense satisfaction, that blogger informed “purists” that they don’t live in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land, he told them they need to grow the fuck up.    

I have news for Tbogg.  We grew up long ago.  We know where we live.  

This is where we live  . . .

In 2009, one out of five U.S. households didn’t have enough money to buy food.  In households with children, this number rose to 24 percent, as the hunger rate among U.S. citizens has now reached an all-time high.  Over 50 million people need to use food stamps to eat, and a stunning 50 percent of U.S. children will use food stamps to eat at some point in their childhoods.  Approximately 20,000 people are added to this total every day.  

1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2008. Americans have lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings since the economic crisis began and $13 trillion in the value of their homes.  Personal debt has risen from 65 percent of income in 1980 to 125 percent today.  Over five million U.S. families have already lost their homes, in total 13 million U.S. families are expected to lose their home by 2014.

And what are these Americans being told?   Keep drinking that Two-Party-System Kool Aid, that’s what they’re being told.   By the politicians.  By the corporate media.  By the “progressive” leaders of the Netroots.   That’s their solution.  Keep drinking that Two-Party-System Kool Aid.  

Change we can believe in is on the march in America.

Security Guards Do Nothing as 15-Year-Old Girl Is Beaten . . .

The 15-year-old girl thought the three security guards in the Seattle bus tunnel would protect her from attack.  She was wrong.  The guards watched and did nothing as the girl was punched, thrown to the ground, kicked repeatedly in the face and then robbed.  The Seattle Times published an editorial shortly after a video of the beating was released Wednesday condemning the inaction of the guards and questioning the multibillion-dollar contract the transit authority has with private security firms.  The editorial asked, what are the taxpayers paying for?

Private security guards doing nothing, that’s what they’re paying for.  Congressmen and Senators doing nothing, that’s what they’re paying for.  A President doing nothing, that’s what they’re paying for.  Middle class Americans thought their government would protect them, but for 30 years, they’ve been punched, thrown to the ground, kicked repeatedly in the face and then robbed.

It’s called the Two Party System.

It’s the sacred foundation of modern American “democracy” and demonstrates for all the world to see that except for the systemic failure of every institution in America, we live in the most stable and enlightened society on earth.

In Here There Be Monsters, William Rivers Pitt warns about the systemic failure of public school administrators to protect children from beatings and bullying in America’s public schools.  . . .

A fact underscored by a recent story out of my home state of Massachusetts. A 15-year-old girl named Phoebe Prince was mercilessly bullied and tormented by her classmates, until she finally snapped and took her own life.  Hundreds of angry parents, worried teachers and even terrorized kids are reporting ugly episodes of brutal bullying at schools across Massachusetts as the heart-wrenching case of Phoebe Prince continues to expose a painful nerve.  It’s a toxic cauldron of abuse that parents fear could land their children in the same no-win corner as Phoebe Prince.

And, in a constant refrain, they all say nobody in power cares.  “Nobody listens. It seems like you’re talking to the wall unless you have $1 million,” said a Cohasset dad who said his boy is picked on constantly. “Put that on the front page.”  

NOBODY IN POWER CARES.  That banner headline should be on the front page of every newspaper in America.  It should be the lead story in every newscast, the only story in every newscast.  NOBODY IN POWER CARES.  That says it all, the rest is just gory details.

Can you remember who I was?  Can you remember what I once stood for?  

I gave America the New Deal, I gave America Social Security, I gave America the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and Medicare.  I had vision, I had courage, I had integrity.  I was the Democratic Party. I stood there boldly, sweating in the sun, felt like a million, felt like number one.  

The height of summer, I’d never felt that strong . . .

Like a rock.

I was the party of working Americans, the party of the middle class, the party  of social justice.  Long ago, before Baucus and Conrad, before Landreau and Nelson, before NAFTA and Blue Dogs and Harold Fucking Ford, I was the Democratic Party.

My hands were steady,

My eyes were clear and bright.

My walk had purpose,

My steps were quick and light.

And I held firmly to what I felt was right . . .

Like a rock.

In the days of your parents, in the days of your grandparents, in the days of FDR and Truman and JFK, I was the Democratic Party.  I led America through the Great Depression, I led America and her Allies to victory over Fascism, I rebuilt the shattered nations of Europe with the Marshall Plan, I defended the Constitution, I upheld the rule of law, I hauled Richard Nixon’s thugs into the Watergate Hearings and shut down that freak show he called a Presidency.    

I was the Democratic Party.

I was strong as I could be.

Nothing ever got to me.

You wouldn’t know it now . . .

But I was something to see.

In “Illiteracy: The Downfall of American Society”, Education Portal reports that 50 percent of adults in America cannot read a book written at an 8th grade level.  20 percent of Americans are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level.  42 million American adults can’t read at all.  The number of American adults classified as functionally illiterate increases by about 2.25 million each year.

Many of those people are Teabaggers . . .

Yeah.  That’ll help.  

Finding America on a map is also a problem.  According to National Geographic News, 11 percent of young Americans can’t locate the United States on a map. The location of the Pacific Ocean is a mystery to 29 percent, 58 percent don’t know where Japan is, 65 percent don’t know where France is, 69 percent don’t know where the United Kingdom is.

Knowledge of current issues and historical events is just as abysmal. Saul Friedman notes that 34 percent of Americans still think Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, nearly one-third of Republicans don’t believe Obama was born in the United States, more than two-thirds don’t know what’s in Roe v. Wade, 24 percent could not name the country we fought in the Revolutionary War.

Many of these people vote, with predictably appalling results.  According to Freedom Daily . . .

Political scientist Michael Carpini analyzed thousands of voter surveys and found that there was “virtually no relationship” between the political issues that low-knowledge voters said “matter most to them and the positions of the candidates they voted for on those issues.  It was as if their vote was random.  

Low knowledge voters comprise 36 percent of the electorate and provide the deciding margins in almost all contested congressional and presidential elections.  Here in the 21st century, with multiple crises facing us, with the worst crisis of all–global warming–steadily intensifying, we have little if any chance of dealing with any of these crises through the political system, because our elections are not decided by the well-informed voters who make rational decisions in the voting booth, they’re decided by the voters who have no fucking idea what’s going on.  

If Dr. King hadn’t been assassinated for speaking truth to power, if he was here today, if he was at the Lincoln Memorial again, looking out at that corporate capital of deceit and corruption, what would he say, what would he ask us to do?

He’d ask us to overcome our fear, he’d call for mass protests and civil disobedience, he’d explain why it’s necessary, just as he did in 1968 . . .  

If you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you would die for it, then you are not fit to live.  You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day some great crisis arises and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause, but you refuse to take a stand because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer.  Or you’re afraid that you will lose your job, or that you will be criticized, or that you will lose your popularity.  So you refuse to take a stand.  Well you may go on and live until you’re 90, but you are just as dead at 38 as you will be at 90.   And when you take your last breath, it will only be the belated announcement of the earlier death of your spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.

Can you understand that, “leaders” of the Netroots?  Can you understand that, Markos Moulitsas?  Can you understand that, Obamacrats?  Tap your TR trigger fingers on the lid of that coffin you call a blog if you do.  Can you understand that, MoveOn.org?  Can you understand that, Josh Marshall?  John Amato? Digby?  Jane Hamsher?  If you do, explain it to TBogg, that Mighty Slayer of “Purists.”  How about you, Madame Proprietor of the Huff and Puff Post?  Can you understand that?  Can any of you understand that???

None of you have called for mass protests or civil disobedience.  In the streets of Washington D.C. or anywhere else.  You refuse to because you’re afraid.  Well go ahead, keep on blogging until you’re 90, it won’t matter, you’re just as dead right now as you will be then.  

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.

Welcome to Netroots Nation  . . .

Enjoy your stay.

I have some news for those nonstop typers.  Typing isn’t standing up for right, truth, justice, or anything else.  It’s just typing.  

This is the Democrats’ story.  It’s a story of consequences, it’s a story of tragedy, it’s a story ripped from the pages of history and stained with the blood of the innocent.  

There are no characters in it and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces.

No We Can’t has been a recurring theme of this story.  When Obama got elected, No We Won’t replaced it.  We haven’t seen any change, change has been consumed in a firestorm of corruption.

Enjoy your stay in Dresden.

Welcome to Hell.

Greetings from Slaughterhouse Five . . .