Shamefully Sad and Long Live King Obama ...

National Pride:

It is difficult to articulate exactly why, but there is something very significant about a nation that so continuously finds purpose and joy in the corpses its government produces, while finding it in so little else.

Long Live King Obama (as well as his predecessor, King Bush). We keep our lives only at his prerogative.

... The President is not just entitled to kill anyone he wants in multiple countries around the world — with no oversight, transparency or accountability, no evidence presented, no obligation to capture or try them, no need to even explain the principles that guide these killings — but is to be celebated for doing so. And the piles of corpses of innocent people produced by this onslaught — of teenagers, infants, innocent women and men — are simply to be ignored.

A most appropriate quote ...

... via digby.

"The top 1 per cent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn't seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 per cent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 per cent eventually do learn.

Too Late."

--- Joseph Stiglitz

Funny that ...

Not light-hearted funny ...

In a mailing from

Barbara Boxer
Democratic Headquarters

was included a sticker stating

I am the
FIREWALL
STOP THE HARD RIGHT IN
2012

Well, if I'm the firewall then they've handed out all the passwords.

After all the democrats have done to make us irrelevant they think they can scare me into giving them money. I have to hand it to the ReThugs: they will just legislate that all monies goes to thru the hands Rich Robber Barons of the 21st Century who will then pass on what they think we may have should they not be needing a new yacht or gold enameled ballroom that week.

Ya' don't say ...

"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. ..."

And Obama has only helped in perpetuating an economic climate that will fuel the anger that is needed feed this type of movement.

Oh well, some 200 years could be called a pretty good run ...

Basically, these folks are way overcompensated, provide little or no value to the real economy, are ruining the country's ability to govern and even harming the ability of their own precious markets to remain healthy. Most of all, while they may have great number-crunching skills and domineering social intelligences, they're really, really stupid when it comes to seeing the big picture consequences of their actions, which is ultimately the most important kind of intelligence there is.

And just consider that Obama --the constitutional law professor-- considered it his responsibility to help them take down the country.

Obama's comedy act ...

Obama: We’ll Get Those Revenues Next Time

Don't hold your breath ....

Grijalva's double-dealing ...

I, for one, will not vote for Raul Grijalva again.

Grijalva Statement Opposing the Bill He Voted For Yesterday

Fooled again. There's obviously no point in supporting any of these creeps.

Obama's pirouettes ...

I keep reading how Obama is trying to appear the adult. But does secret deals, whining and complaining make one look adult?

To me Obama is looking quite immature and very much the fool. A cowardly fool at that.

At this point if the Rethugs could find an outwardly credible candidate to run for President I don't think Obama will have much chance. Once upon a time, in the days of hope, Obama was outwardly credible himself.

And who can really say that such a situation would be worse that what we have now with Obama-the-destroyer-of-Social-Security.

One of the best reviews ...

... of the negotiation style --if one can call it that-- of our disfunctional President.

The Return of Barack Obama and the Art of Negotiation

Isn't is amazing that Obama is sinking the US further than even Bush did. At least Democrats would fight Bush once in a while, but now with a Democrat, at least in name, in the White House Democrats have apparently deliberately reduced themselves to a pack of losers.

For those who seem to think that this is better than having a Republican in the White House all I can say is, perhaps, you should remove those blinders.

Obama had the opportunity but he chose to follow Bush's lead instead and continued on a path that leads the US over a cliff. The 'smart' man chose to follow the lead of the 'stupid' man. Go figure ...

My respect for Bill Clinton continues his decline ...

Bill Clinton Hopes Democrats Don’t Use NY-26 Win “As an Excuse to Do Nothing” on Deficit

I was impressed with Clinton for refusing to let the ReThugs drive him from office and at the time I thought he wasn't a bad President. But I've changed my mind. It's clear now that Clinton did a lot of damage. As with Obama, Clinton is just so entrenched in the corporate/political corruption destroying this country that it's difficult to imagine there's even one uncorrupted brain cell in his head.

State of the Nation ...

From: ThinkFast: May 13, 2011

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee killed an amendment by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) that would have closed the so-called “terror gap” — preventing firearm sales to suspected terrorists. GOP members want to protect the right of people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list to purchase firearms, arguing that preventing sales would “steal the Second Amendment rights of those placed on the list by mistake.”

All Republicans as far as I can tell, and way too many Democrats, appear to have no real problem with the no-fly list.

No problem that is until it's a question of prohibiting someone on the list from buying guns. To a Republican, and apparently to some Democrats, that is just absurd. Prohibit a terrorist from obtaining firearms? That just won't do! It's their Constitutional Right, after all to have weapons. Like many people on this freedom-protecting list, they might not be terrorists anyway, as there's no control of who gets on the list nor any mechanism to get the innocent off the list. In general, the no-fly list appears to be a generalized US Government I-don't-like-you list. The Republicans, of course, highly approve of this means of government control and punishment. Just think of the fun they had putting Senator Kennedy on the list.

Am I giving Republicans too much credit when I assume that they don't think most of the people on the list are terrorists? And that's the reason they don't want the ability to purchase guns to be tied to such an embarrassing fiasco as the US No Fly list?

Until further proof of their perfidy I will assume that the inaccuracy of the list is the reason they don't wish to tie gun purchasing ability to the list and not that they actually want terrorists to have guns.

9/11 First Responders To Be Run Through FBI Terrorism Watch List Before Getting Health Care Benefits

Definitely, let us keep the sick from benefits because the US Government has decided to target them. Who cares what beneficial service they may have provided in the past that earned them such a benefit. They are now on THE list. That's all that matters. No health care but they can still get a gun.

------------------------
About the state of our nation: What can I say that I haven't said before? Just notice that all the wrangling is about what membership on this list will effect. Nothing that I've seen addresses the use and abuse of this list. Nothing that I've seen attempts to put some control on how someone gets added to this list. Nothing that I've seen provides a mechanism to get off the list. The draconian nature of this list appears to concern no one in the political sphere nor the justice sphere.

What else can I say about the state of our nation that this example doesn't elucidate?

Newt is becoming as pathetic at McCain did during his Presidential bid for fame, glory and power ...

Gingrich: I Totally Would Have Voted For Paul Ryan's Budget

Gingrich Apologizes To Ryan, Begs Dems Not To Use His Quotes In Ads

The American Way?

Is it my imagination that the goal of US Politicians is to make our society as complicated and illogical as possible?

Florida Bill Would Bar Doctors From Asking Patients About Guns

So a pediatrician asks a parent about gun ownership and then refuses care because the parent refuses to answer such a question.

Now, of course, all those touchy NRA types want to prohibit a pediatrician from asking such a question.

I think the concern here should be that this pediatrician refused care BECAUSE the parent refused to answer the question. Perhaps some parents would be perfectly amenable to a discussion about gun safety around kids (or pool safety, or food safety or car safety or airplane safety or potential danger from terrorists or ...).

But this is one creepy pediatrician who won't care for a child because the parent wont state whether they own a gun.

IF a new law is needed, and I'm not suggesting that is the case, perhaps a law limiting the reasons that physicians can deny care would be more appropriate.

Physicians are NOT our moral guides. They are neither trained to be such and most of them are not equipped for such a role. From most of them the best we can expect is that their own prejudices don't interfere with how they do their job. They have training, skills and knowledge. And we can hope they have integrity and empathy and the ability to communicate effectively with us when we need their skills.

I wish we were 'a nation of laws' ...

Isn't this backwards?

"There was no indication" that Osama bin Laden wanted to surrender to U.S. forces who killed him on Sunday night, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

No indication? What, do we now automatically shoot everyone in the head who doesn't indicate they wish capture over death? I don't personally know what bin Laden's preference might have been but unless he was armed and threatening his captors/killers I would think at that point it would not be his choice but the choice of those with the guns who were apparently in a position to capture him alive.

Why do politicians and the military, apparently always, lie first and then try to contain the fallout as the facts start to emerge?

I wish we were 'a nation of laws' and that we had captured bin Laden alive and had put him on trial (a real trial, not our current Kangaroo Courts for Islamic Peoples).

I certainly understand that a real effort to capture bin Laden alive might have failed and that they would kill him rather than allowing him to endager themselves but so far the information I've read seems to indicate that this was an execution squad.

I do think we, as a nation, have done somewhat better in the past. To have a self described 'Constitutional Law Professor' imitate an imitation Cowboy in lack of principle and outright criminality is devastating. Perhaps Obama isn't imitating Bush. Could he be competing with Bush to see who is the most despicable?