A Chicken Is Not Pillage

'He Made Sure We're Screwed'

Forrest Gump:  "Stupid is as stupid does."

Forrest Gimp: 

I don’t care about the outcome of the Obamacare bill. Without it we’re screwed, but he (Obama) made sure that with it we’re screwed as well.

~sigh~  Obama didn't put Scalia or Thomas on the SCOTUS.  He didn't even have a chance to vote for or against them.  But it's somehow his fault that these two ethically challenged assholes are on the court ruling against the people.

Yes, stupid is as stupid does.  Blaming a person in whatever position for screwing you over when they had no say in the screwing is doing the stupid.  Thanks, Mark.

Nailed It!

One of the best blog posts I've read in quite some time:

The Problem We All Live With ...

Relief, Joy, Sadness, Humor? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

I didn't discover that Osama bin Laden had been killed until I pulled the rubber bands off the newspaper this morning.  Since I don't obsess over TV, it came as a surprise to me.  Yes, sometimes bloggers still learn things from the fish-wrap.  It's really all I thought about on the way to work, and many hours after I got there.  8 years since Chimpy McWorthless told us all that the mission was accomplished, with Osama bin Laden still roaming free.  9 years since our leaders were obviously lying us into a war against a nation that had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11.  Almost a decade since our great national commitment to invade Afghanistan, depose the Taliban, destroy Al Qaeda and capture or kill Osama bin Laden.  Whatever I felt this morning or feel now was a long time coming.  A very long time.  And now it's here.  Osama bin Laden is dead.

I thought a great deal, on that short/long ride to work, about what the reactions would be online.  The reaction from the right was a given.  Joy without acknowledgment of what it took to bring them happiness in destruction,  complete avoidance that anything significant had happened, distrust that a Soschulust could have accomplished such a feat.  Oh, and Go Warriors (WOLVERINES!)  I expected the reaction from the left would be mixed, some subdued and celebratory, some condescending and dismissive, some questioning the morality of what had happened and some pointing in any direction away from a rather significant event.  (I'd provide link examples to all of these reactions, right and left, but I'm just not that enamored of getting into arguments with fools at this point.  People react in different ways.  Just take that as a given.)  The one thing I knew for certain would be the reaction from the tinfoil hat crowd.

Conspiracy theorists, right or left, react in pretty much the same way to contrary information.  A very rare few of them will, never admitting they're wrong, change their minds and go their way.  The vast majority of this remarkable minority will simply double down on the claims of conspiracy.  Which leads us to Mark Tokarski.

Osama is dead, says Obama.

Osama bin Laden probably died in late 2001 in the early bombing of Afghanistan. His images over the years have varied. He’s gotten younger, worn jewelry, a changed his dominant hand. Who it is that has been manipulating his image we cannot know. I presume it is the Americans, as his face was a valuable commodity. In propaganda terms, he was the focal point for our hatred, a way to manipulate us into supporting our own terrorism.

Right.  Bin Laden has been dead for a decade, and now the Kenyon in chief pulls his corpse out to manipulate us with alien brain control.   I'm not going to link his BS, but then there is likely not a person reading this who doesn't know where to find it.  What Mark is saying is this.  Osama has been kept as a boogey man to manipulate the ideas of the public, and that knowledge was shared between the Bush administration and the Obama administration.

When Obama was elected, I thought perhaps they would “kill” Osama, indicating that there really had been regime change here. When they did not kill him, when Obama signaled to the world that there had been no change by leaving Gates at at the Pentagon, I knew that we were in for four more years.

So, Dumbya willingly shared this info for ... why? Oh yeah, to keep power in the hands of ... who again?  Gates?  Get real.  This info would have been far better used by McCain.  Let's track on back to our good friend Occam, who posited that when faced by contrary alternatives, the one most likely to be true is probably the one to choose.  Osama's death would have far better served the legacy of Bush than it would the control of Obama, unless one really is committed to idea of our Illuminati overlords.  Bush handed Obama the ultimate trump card (all pun intended) and Obama squandered it for no reason anyone can really see.  Or, as Occam would have it, Osama bin Laden was still alive and our Commander in Chief just terminated his terrorist ass.  I know which of those is more likely, and it sure ain't the former.

Still, MarkT is not without his sycophants supporters.  Ladybug writes:

Why today? Because tornados messed up the sync with the 2012 2nd-term roll-out? Or is something else happening we shouldn’t see? No body, no evidence, no witnesses, but a blockbuster movie for sure.

Hmm, so true.  So prescient.  So full of shit.

There is no body, but there is DNA.  There is no evidence, except that there are pictures which may not be released to 'her' sorry ass.  There are, of course, the reports from Navy seal unit 6, but we aren't likely to be privvy to those either.  But, considering that the Pakistani government cooperated, they already have been released to them.  Eventually you will get your terror porn, ladybug.  No witnesses?   How about the well known Pakistani twitterer who tweeted the raid in real time, without any knowledge of what was actually happening?  Surely a government plant.  Tinfoil, dear.  Wrap it about your cranium and then the chemtrails won't get you ...

 

Staring Into The Crystal Ball

I hope that you have a taste for reading, because this is some very toothsome fare.

I'm not seeing much that will avoid the future as it can be seen.  America will collapse.

Despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. So delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed: just a year for Portugal, two years for the Soviet Union, eight years for France, 11 years for the Ottomans, 17 years for Great Britain, and, in all likelihood, 22 years for the United States, counting from the crucial year 2003.

...

But have no doubt: when Washington's global dominion finally ends, there will be painful daily reminders of what such a loss of power means for Americans in every walk of life. As a half-dozen European nations have discovered, imperial decline tends to have a remarkably demoralizing impact on a society, regularly bringing at least a generation of economic privation. As the economy cools, political temperatures rise, often sparking serious domestic unrest.

America's end as THE world power?  Why that's unthinkable!  No, it's really not, and in fact is the very message that the right is promoting this very fricking moment.   I don't joke when I suggest that the right is employing a "scorched Earth" policy.  That is exactly what they are doing, and they are finding large support for such.

The problem that blew a hole in health care reform and the Obama Agenda this year wasn't "death panels": it was that there are millions of Americans who are stupid enough to believe that wingnut fictions like "death panels" are real.

The problem with President Barack Obama is not that he is a socialist or a communist or a secret radical or a Muslim or Kenyan Usurper: it is that there are millions of Americans who are racist enough to swallow this bilge and ask for seconds.

The problem with Fox and Hate Radio and Regnery Press and all the think tanks and all the websites is not that they churn out utterly toxic lies 24 hours a day: it is that there are millions of Americans who are too weak and too cowardly to stop listening to their Siren's song

And the problem with America is not that we have these vast numbers of stupid, frightened and racist people scattered in our midst: the problem with America is that -- at great expense -- they have all been methodically gathered into the same political party, and they are pointed like a gun at our heads.

I love and adore driftglass's parable.  I've used his tactic of failure to achieve many times.  So has anyone who's worked in technology for any length.  I refer to it as parenting.  I knew a young man once who kept breaking his glasses (cars, whatever) who was parented by shame.  Every loss was met by lesser gift.  He now refers to the glases he was forced to wear as "birth control spectacles".  Funny.  He couldn't break those.   Still, we have a broken Presidency, and we have a President that we haven't broken. 

Barack Obama is the most hated man in America. He has a wife and two young daughters, and death threats against him are reportedly 400% greater than those faced by his predecessor. If it's all theater and he's just faking it, isn't there an easier, less punishing, less threatening way for him to do that? Couldn't he simply stop arguing for policies that stir up hate in the heartland? Couldn't he become more like Ben Nelson or Harold Ford? Wouldn't that be easier -- and safer -- while leading to similar results?

The argument is that he's the political equivalent of the Washington Generals -- the team that exists solely to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters, while maintaining the illusion that the Trotters have an opponent. But when was the last time you heard of a Washington Generals player being viciously fouled? How much punishment do the Globetrotters dish out to the Generals? How angry does play get? That's theater disguised as competition. If Obama vs. the GOP is all Kabuki, why isn't it like that?

Oh, crap.  We haven't forced the issue.  Let's disregard that we might not know the issue.   Let's just primary this asshole and then things will be better:

♦  Forcing Obama to move to the Left will cause Republicans to lose heart, support Pelosi, abandon the filibuster and resolutely embrace single-payer Medicare-for-All.

...

Join the “Get Some Unhinged Jackwagon/Human Sacrifice to Primary Obama” (GSUJ/HSPO) bandwagon, today! It’s the New Age Dance Craze that’s sweeping the nation…here, here and here. Plus, if Dick Morris says it’s likely, you know it’s money in the bank!

~sigh~  There are definately times that your friends are not your friends.

It started off with a few oh-so-hilarious references to “Chocolate Carter” and “Mr. Presnint.” It moved on to “Dayum, I thought Obama was gonna be a gangster!” and “we elected a brother so he could bust some caps in whitey’s ass, not sell out to the man.” Now, the left is wholeheartedly embracing right-wing Rovian/Fox News race-baiting tactics:

There may be no point to the continuing struggle.  We may have already lost before Obama ever stepped up. But for fuck's sake, people.  If you have a suggestion for forward movement then make it.  Make it, now!  Don't just bitch about what you want.  State what you want and tell us how to get there?  Some asshole I know keeps talking smack abourt "organizing".  How, when, where?  This is the end game, folks.  We don't get do overs, from this point on.  The right has taken their blood and flesh.  We have nothing left to give.  There isn't a future for 'Murka.  What do you propose that we have left in the tank for the future of America?

Quotes of the Days

Tengrain:

Obama Appoints Record Number of Gays – Less than halfway through his first term, President Barack Obama has appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history. “And none of them have any rights either, so quit whining,” Obama did not say. (AP)

Blue Texan:

You know that woman who goaded those brownshirts patriotic, Teabagger supporters of Rand Paul into stomping on her head? She’s an unhinged, left-wing, MoveOn eco-moonbat.

Bitch had it coming.

And do read the quotes from the noble right ...

Driftglass:

"If you want a picture of the Teabaggers, imagine a boot that was paid for by Medicare stomping on a human face -- forever." -- George Orwell v 2.0

The graphic is priceless.

Mistermix:

I assume the reason Rand Paul supporters literally kicked this woman to the curb and stomped her head was because she had a Muslim appearance and made them nervous. I’m not discounting the theory that this was simply a harmless fraternity prank that was misunderstood, nor the possibility that the bitch ran her big mouth and got what she deserved.

Dougj:

What I’ve learned over the past few days is that both sides do it. Whether it’s a left-leaning writer using the phrase “curb-stomping” or an angry mob of conservatives actually performing a curb-stomping, whether it’s a liberal drawing a Hitler mustache on George W. Bush or a right-wing militia member blowing up a federal building, whether it’s two black guys in berets standing outside a polling station or a hundred years of Jim Crow laws. It’s all the same stuff and we should just admit it.

Kyle-Anne Shiver:

From where I’m sitting, all of these seemingly coordinated efforts by Democrats and their press minions to label Party dissidents as “insane” are not only creepy, they smack of tactics widely used by the most repressive, most brutal tyrannies the world has ever known.

They smack of Soviet-style, scientific tyranny in the worst way imaginable.

Really?  Stomping a woman's head into concrete is sane?

Barbara Morrill:

Now we know why Rand Paul spent the past twelve or so hours blaming the vicious assault of Lauren Valle by his supporters on "both sides" and a "daze of lights flashing" -- because one of the assailants is Tim Profitt, the Bourbon County coordinator for Paul's campaign.

According to Mr. Profitt:

... the camera angle made the scuffle Monday night appear worse that it was.

Tammy Webber, AP:

Gay voters angry at Democrats could sway election*

Across the country, activists say gay voters are angry — at the lack of progress on issues from eliminating employment discrimination to uncertainty over serving in the military to the economy — and some are choosing to sit out this election or look for other candidates.

Y'know, just once, I'd like to see a story from the press about how people, (Gay, Het, Poly, White, Black, Red, Yellow, Male, Female, Rich and Not) are going to swing this election because they're tired of the damned stupidity, extremism, violence (physical, verbal and virtual) and bullshit coming from the "Tea Party" who want to take back America from the overwhelming majority of Americans to whatever goddamned fantasy they live in.

 

*Don't even start with the "You're blaming the gays for a vote that isn't in!" shit.  I'm not.  If you actually start to think about it for a second, Tammy Webber just invited one to do so.  But she offers no proof that the GBLT vote has that kind of sway in swing districts.  The press, having been willing accomplices to Tea Party excess, is now in CYA mode.  And what handier scapegoat could they offer than the Gay voter who doesn't vote.  Other than Obama, of course ...

UPDATE:  And like cockroaches, the vermin keep returning.

UPDATE 2:  I said, ~hrumph~, like cockroaches, the vermin keep returning.

 

 

Splitters

I seem to recall some dumbass saying "We are the change we have been waiting for!"  Apparently, not.

Barack Hussien Obama hasn't gibbed us all we want, so let's not vote.  ~sigh~

Don't get me wrong, here.  I think most bloggers will vote.  But I'm damned tired of them giving others reason not to because progressive fee fees are hurt.  This is a midterm election, and it should be about us.  It shouldn't be about the President who is a handy excuse for not being what he called us to be.  WE are the change WE have been waiting for, unless we can blame that asshole over there in the white howse.

Proper Use Of The Word

Why, yes.  It is a Big Fucking Deal.

Obama Gonna Take Yer Guns ... No, Wait

Seriously, I'm loving the idiocy we see all around us.  It makes life interesting in the extreme.  It seems that folks just can't get enough of shucking their responsibilities onto the President, and acting stupid in accordance with that.

Bill Schneider at New West has an article up that reads rather tongue-in-cheek to me.  He does ask a pertinent question:

Has any President ever gotten the lowest possible grade from both the pro-gun and anti-gun lobbies?

The answer to that is simple.  Of course not.  No President has ever attracted blind expectation as much as this one.  On the one side, you have the NRA which expects Chicago gangland thuggery on every dark street corner and holds the equally idiotic belief that the Kenyon cause of the thuggery will take away yer white-folk guns such that ya' cain't defend 'gainst them thugs when they wants yer white women.  On the other side, you have the rabid anti-gunners whining in their soy meal soup that Obama promised, HE PROMISED!, to do away with gun violence in one short year.  Neither claim is even remotely based in reality.

Obama said in campaign that within the law he would sign any rational gun restrictions that cross his desk.  Has Congress sent him any?  No?  Have they been a little distracted with the lame tasks of health care, and renewing a failed economy?  One might think, if they were thinking.  Have gun rights actually expanded under Obama?  Yes, they have.  And the silence from the NRA is deafening.

There's a part of me that believes that Obama brought this on himself with all the talk of Hope And Change.  See, those words mean very different things to many people, and most expect a magic pill.  Look at Helmke's damning complaint:

Helmke went through a list of violent crimes and then strongly criticized the White House for staying silent in the aftermath of each. “The biggest disappointment was his failure to speak out,” he said.

Obama has failed because he didn't talk enough.  Excuse me Mr. Helmke, but Obama didn't tuck your sorry ass in at night and read you fairy stories either.  What a colossal failure you must think him.  From Health Care Reform to Gun Control/Rights to embracing gays to single-handedly strangling every human who ever thinks of committing terror against America, Obama is a huge failure.  Gosh, I really wish we had Reagan and W back as co-Presidents with Palin as media adviser, Rambo as Secretary of War, Brownie running HUD and Rush Limbaugh as Secretary of State.  Then we'd all be happy, right?

A Heritage Ruined

In shear defiance of those gits who think all political discourse must be high-brow and deathly serious, I present Gawker presenting:

Americana That Barack Obama Has Made Un-American.

Just Too Perfect

I have been waiting for days to finally watch this, and it was better than I imagined.  While the debate has raged for a week over whether or not the 9/12 TeaBagger Cumtogether was 70.000 people or 2 million, this video begs for a more prescient debate:   How many of those protesters were deeply ignorant manipulated fools?  The numbnuts holding a "Joe Wilson for President" sign who doesn't actually support Joe Wilson for President, nor knows anything about him except that the sign carrier supports Wilson's poor impulse control?  Maybe the people outraged over Czargate?  How 'bout the baby dodos doing exactly as a FOX news producer tells them to during this "grass roots" event?  This is the deeply stupid in action.

Republicans, if you have any pretensions of actually serving America, perhaps these idiots shouldn't be your base.  If this was a subtle plan to steer these loud and uninformed masses to the Constitutional party, then I support your efforts.   Please make more.

Tea Baggers Being ... whatever