Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Driftglass Explains it All....

Thank the Gods for Drifty, who rose up from his hiding place in that toddling town, and once again nailed it on the head so exactly, so precisely, that not only is he talking about our...ahem...party problem, but about the bigger problem here; magical thinking that is really actually mental illness permeating the power hungry human psyche these days. Call it unrestrained id, if you must... until common sense is completely replaced with illogic, and smiling Terry McAulliffe is all that's left; nodding, smiling, nodding, smiling.....

Click the Guardian of Forever portal below, brought to you by Drifty's fantastic art department, to visit his world, where things start to connect and make sense... unfortunately, we are still lost, but at least we know why....


...and away we go:
The terrible moment when you are looked straight in the eye and lied to, and you realize that what makes the moment terrible isn't the lie, but that she damn well knows its a lie, damn well knows that you know, and just doesn't give a shit anymore.


snip...

Inventing absurd and/or wildly improbably scenarios in which your indefensible behavior is somehow vindicated. Even noble.


snip...

Not from the FoxNews transcript:

McAuliffe: Now that we have access to the “Guardian of Forever”, this thing is not over. In fact, it hasn’t even started yet!

Wallace: Meaning what…?

McAuliffe: Meaning that we’re Inevitable again! We’re gonna travel back in time to before Iowa, and dump 20 million dollars into that fucking state. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go back further and rewrite the party rules about caucuses and proportional representation.

Wallace: But that’s insane.

McAuliffe: You mean insanely…brilliant. We’ll stop ourselves from ever signing that stupid pledge about Florida and Michigan. If we have to, we’ll ring the god damned Bosnia airport with snipers ourselves! We’ll go back and suffocate that floozy Lewinski in her cradle!

Wallace: But that will destroy everything.

McAuliffe: Says who?

Wallace: Every physicist ever. Real and fictional. What you’re proposing would create an unsupportable temporal paradox that would collapse the time/space continuum and obliterate the Universe.

McAuliffe: Well, we feel that it would be worth it to insure that Every Vote Counts.

Wallace: Did you even hear what I just said?

McAuliffe: Well what do you expect from a bunch of elitist, woman-hating “scientists” who live only to thwart Our Gal's rightful destiny as the apotheosis of feminism!


And there it is...replace any part with any part and it still comes out the same...
its all magic unless you erase the numbers and start again...or, as Hillary says, something awful should happen.

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sunday Morning Nightmares...


Wait a minute...was that just unofficial, buddy-chum, adviser-but-not-really, in a friendly way, you understand, to John McCain, always-subpoenaed-but-never-interrogated criminal, Karl Rove, on my Tee Vee with George Snuffleupagus just now decrying the bad treatment of his man McCain after 50 years of service to this country?...was that real?

Who else in the world gets subpoenaed by the United States government and is immediately given a platform on national TV with which to stump for his own candidate...who was the very architect of the earlier smears against same candidate in this groundhog day-esque, stranger than fiction, circus, that is playing out slo-mo, while tornadoes rip the entire heart of the country out.

The only thing for sure here is that the catch-me-if-you-can Rovian above-the-law tour will likely continue today and on into this week...
Memorial Day...yeah...

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

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Sunday, May 04, 2008

John Hagee Says that the Roman Catholic Church Will be Devoured by the Anti-Christ and John McCain Happily Accepts his Endorsement: Frank Rich


Today Frank Rich covers the mind bending Reverend John Hagee and his ongoing endorsement of John McCain. The fact that this man can even find followers is a testament to the level of desperation out there in the search for meaning and the wasteland of American life. How low does one have to go to find oneself adhering to a life plan set forth by the likes of this twisted man preaching hate from a television screen, and getting rich doing it?



Watching this video makes one wonder how its possible that Presidential contender John McCain could not only welcome his endorsement but continue to welcome it, with little notice of whatever inflammatory statements he has made along the way. Jon Stewart weighed in on McCain...and if you really couldn't make this stuff up, why does it take Jon Stewart to deliver it?:



Today Chris Matthews chuckled with his panel about the other pastor in the M$M's religious endorsement wars being the crazy uncle in the attic who pops out to say odd things. The panelists discussed Obama's every action and reaction to the mistake that was the handling of the Jeremiah Wright debacle and unbelievably, thats it.... Its all just a little hard to watch, and honestly, Ive been turning it off lately; all of it. This primary is basically over. If its not for some reason, then I don't know what thats going to mean, because the truth is that this country has a huge emotional problem, and it may take some sort of huge disaster to get us back to some semblance of what were were supposed to be about.

Meanwhile, over at the Old Grey Lady, Frank Rich managed to lay out something that is so urgent and damaging to our country as to make Obama's passive pew/fence sitting during Wright's inflammatory,(if largely correct content-wise,) sermons, seem mild. The truth of McCain and Hagee is that McCain pursued the twisted fuck for his endorsement and that, even in light of having the possibility of standing on a stage next to the next possible President, Hagee consistently repeats his insane claims. And no matter how it has been approached on the kid-gloves-Sunday-shows, McCain refuses to acknowledge how insane the guy really is. Included in the morass of ideas by Hagee , are such gems as his belief that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God because of homosexuality in New Orleans, that a war in Iran should be started immediately as a "Holy War," and that the Catholic church is "The Great Whore," that is drinking Jewish blood. This is only part of the venom that this man spews regularly, and McCain is still happy to have his endorsement.

McCain claims that he does not accept "anti-anything" statements by Hagee, and dismisses any implication that there is a problem with Hagee's outrageous statements. Its unclear if McCain even is aware of what Hagee is saying, but he clearly seems to think that he can disassociate himself from some things that Hagee says and embrace the fact that the guy is religious at all. There has been incredibly little media coverage of McCain and his relationship to Hagee, but for some reason the media has seen fit to cover Obama and Wright ad nauseum, until watching political programming has become nearly impossible. As Rich notes:

I wonder if Mr. McCain would have given the same answer had Mr. Stephanopoulos confronted him with the graphic video of the pastor in full “Great Whore” glory. But Mr. McCain didn’t have to fear so rude a transgression. Mr. Hagee’s videos have never had the same circulation on television as Mr. Wright’s. A sonorous white preacher spouting venom just doesn’t have the telegenic zing of a theatrical black man.

And I would go further than that, in that what gets wall to wall coverage is transparently aimed at shaping the dialog in this country, and in fact to shape the race itself. Rich's point is that black transgressions get more air time and press than similar white transgressions. In support of this he notes Falwell and Robertson and their wacky take on the reasons for 9-11, and the Giuliani priest, among others. But is this merely a matter of racist coverage rather than pure favoritism towards a party, a candidate, or the status quo? Could it be just this simple, or maybe should we try to look at the fact that the outlets are all owned by large corporations that stand to benefit from the preservation of the status quo, represented by a Clinton or a McCain Presidency.

The press certainly loves McCain, and regularly accepts barbecue from him, which could be considered to be a bit of a conflict. There is a dearth of real reporting going on anymore, and the specter of Tim Russert or Matthews hosting another McCain lovefest is sickening. When does Rich call his colleagues in reporting on their behavior? Why is this as simple as a racial issue?

Obama sat for years in church and, if you believe his claims, he didn't much pay close attention to what was being said. That is not what anyone would call unusual in churchgoing Americans, though I would expect more of Obama, considering that he is a pretty deep and spiritual guy with a long term plan. John McCain was tickled to have Hagee endorse him over Huckabee, and continued to seek him out and welcome his endorsement even as the incredible sound bytes came out. ...and Obama is the one deserving of scrutiny? Perhaps that is racial, but there is also a programming angle to it that I see as having a much stronger influence on this thing than any white fear of the coming race war.

So, as much as I was happy to see Frank Rich cover this story, I wish he had gone deeper with it. Perhaps one can speculate about the racial thing easier than one can about actual entities making decisions. But this thing being driven by race would indicate that there are ratings being considered, just like when a blond girl goes missing in the Caribbean, and so doesn't that also indicate a decision by management? The question is, who is willing to take responsibility for what is going on? In the long run its easier to blame the ratings, the shareholders, and ultimately capitalism, than to own up to being part of the problem.

So, why is Obama still being questioned about Jeremiah Wright? Oh, its because crazy black preachers are much more Jerry Springer Show than white ones....right? In other words, its our fault.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast


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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Is This Idiot Still In Office?...Its Backwards Day and the World Has Gone Topsy ....


Wait a minute...did he just say what the regular people want? Did he just say tough times? Did he just blame everything on the congress?
Well, I guess that an uprising was in order; something akin to impeachment or at least some NO votes, as per the American people.So I could spread the blame around; theres plenty there for the blaming...no rationing, no lines....
According to the Sunday NY Times, Connecticut section, there was an article about how bread prices are about to go way up because flour's rising price. Add that to rice and corn rationing at Costco, and the 85% jump in the price of corn due to Ethanol production (or 15% as Bush says...take your pick...but which number would lead to rationing and rising prices?)
Just remember, its all congresses fault!
Is anyone else worried yet?...Why was it we were not taking action against this clown?


Eco Friendly, Ride Sharing, Gas Saving, Link o' the Day: NuRide
Check it out if you commute even a little!

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Free Style Back Stroke...

But anyway, we're not doing it....maybe in extreme circumstances like an imminent attack on the US....right?



As Olbermann said tonight, why are we even discussing the IF of this, when its a settled part of law and ethics? When do we look at what is being done in our names and take responsibility?

Oh yeah, he supports Rudy too!

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Friday, October 12, 2007

Coulters Cleaning House Again...Who's Next? Maron Hits NYC, Head First Into the Hurricane....



Last night at ComixNY, Marc Maron talked up a seamless 55 minute set of pain and insight and commentary about the human condition, but mostly his condition. As he said, the pain is so palpable that it rolls out onto the first couple of rows of the club and doesn't dissipate into the funny till around row 3. This show was intense, passionate, real, and political...and he didn't really address politics directly at all; but then, I find everything to be political or to fall into the political pattern, and the big feeling of despair that has descended over so many of us. This is basic stuff about having your foundation torn apart and your world tipped over. Its also about the decisions that we make and what its like to grow up in this delicate world.
From Scottish haggis as Soylent Green, complete with
Charlton Heston on top of a truck, to the impossibilities involved in relationships and forging on in this life, it was an hour packed with some sort of hilarious dismay and common understanding of being thoughtful in a world that is moving a little too fast these days.
I'm looking for the one man show and book coming out of this evolving set...he is honing something with new takes on old bits and newer new bits, and its only a matter of time before some smart producer backs an off-Broadway show, and at least, that we hear him back on the radio full time!

Don't miss Marc and Sam Seder on Tuesdays doing their Vod-cast Marc Vs. Sam Show live at 11AM EST at Sam's page....available as a Vod-cast after the fact too!





Anne Coulter and her ilk want to clean things up...

This story is not about a specific smear job perpetuated on a kid, or some failed attempt to ruin the career and life of a candidate. Its more about the M$M giving time over and over again to a cabal who want to use the "news" pulpit to disseminate false information in service to their own bank-books and a doctrine that is built on corrupted theory and clearly not the laws of this country. It is about actions that are so far outside of what is socially acceptable, even in this time of mind numbing cacophony of information and entertainment, that has dulled the senses and lowered our standards of what we put up with.
This is about about the putrid atmosphere that we are living in, where any pundit can do the equivalent of yelling fire in a movie theater and then claim that it was only their free speech talking. Its about harassing small children, sick people, and small sick children.

Our Constitutional rights take for granted that we are not animals. We are free to speak within reason, yes, but where does reason end? Clearly, there are certain things that, when said, can be so deeply disturbing and meant to hurt, and cause anguish to other people on enough levels as to neuter any sort of response or action, that they incite to action others who are the lowest form of racist, bottom-base of our kind; the low hanging fruit, to quote a philosopher dressed in a comic's threads.....who would keep the muck of their slime-pit for themselves in the way that a certain cretin whines "mine, mine" from the bottom of it's pit.
This is why its not freedom of speech to hang nooses from whites-only trees, and this is why libel laws protect people who are wrongfully smeared publicly. This is also why reporters used to want to have real sources before they put stories on the air and in the newspaper. When did that become the exception rather than the rule? When did the likes of Anne Coulter become a pseudo-intelligencia specialist reporter, rather than a hack who should be working for the News of the World's alien abduction section?



We live among animals who lack basic evolutionary movement beyond instinctual knee-jerk separation based on superficial aspects of each other which might have, at some point in the prehistoric days, served a Darwinian purpose for breeding and tribal safety, but in this time of creature comforts and education, mean nothing more than one's protection from the sun and what size of nose or texture of hair they have...
The bible assumes that all humans are as out of control and...bad...as these people are in their do as I say sitcom foibles in the government. Why is it that the ones spewing the most vile concepts and values, are the ones most in need of the rules from an unseen father in the sky who offers an unseen reward to a chosen few? Yet those few seem to live most outside of any basic tenants of kindness and giving ever preached by any faith. Its almost as if the label if believer is more a label of one who needs that much structure or they might spin out of control and do horrible things....and they do horrible things.

from the Greenwich girl, Anne Coulter, who seemingly has never lived up to what shes wanted so badly, or gotten what shes needed in life,(why else is someone so snobby, elitist and in need of citing their college and brand over and over; jealousy makes for an ugly disposition.)

How disappointed her friends and family must be to see what a monster their daughter, sister, friend has become; that is, if she is able to have relationships. There is a certain Barbara Bush things to her, where she talks down to the little people. Those who think they are her "fans" or "in" on her blog, think again; you are all the little people in her world. She hangs with the Palm Beach and Greenwich crowd...you will never approach her golden palace.
She sits like an unsteady reptile, on high stools for uber leg exposure, dressed like the art whores of the NYC Soho gallery scene of the 80's, or like a Robert Palmer robot girl with that shiny stiffness, Adams apple bobbing....she is on TV sets, under lights, flipping golden hair, with the mocking surety of the truly weak who try too hard to seem assured. She doles out "truths" that are mind-bendingly, numbingly, obviously, as untrue as they are hurtful in a way meant to shred and destroy the opponent. If asked about confirmation or any basic reporting, she shrugs it off as opinion or puts it off, as in this-story-is-about-to-break-you'll-see...and by then, shes gone...not that any of the softball flirty pundits who always wanted to be with a real man before, would follow up anyway. Those soft white dough boys ask silly follow-ups in all seriousness, like this is a person who should be taken seriously.

This hard woman, who might surprise us all if she is able to have human relationships at all, beyond her fag-hag retinue with BFF-Drudge and his ilk, plys her trade in pure pulp shock, and uses what will plainly translate into book sales and money, to create publicity and an aura around herself of ...talent?...No, real talent comes out of substance, real life, and a feeling for the world and those who survive here. This smirking cretin has no substance at all.

There is a certain pure place that we all strive for in our own way, and there is something, through age and experience, that settles in each of us where the battle is clearly fought, less by tearing down your perceived opponent than by accepting yourself and others and looking at your own footprint in this life, and how much air you take up in any room. Its giving up the fight in favor of the battle, and natural empathy which cannot be developed or bought; its just there.
The kind of badness that Coulter represents is not only negative to the world and our development as human beings, but hurtful to the specific individuals that she attacks. These include children, widows, and whole groups of people who have lived through enough persecution to know bullshit when they see it. Strange that the real man in this tale ends up to be Donny Deutsch, but there you have it. Yeah, watch her backpedal frantically, but, its not gonna work this time. You may be able to get away with alot, but the Jews don't fuck around, girlie. She is exactly the sort of Nazi that we're all on the lookout for these days, Jews, half-Jews like me, and every other American of any ilk with an ounce of smarts or feeling for where humanity is heading.

Clearly Coulter is some sort of Sociopath. She seems to lack boundaries regarding what is appropriate in social interaction. I can see her watching herself and mocking and snickering, while she chips away at the lives of others and spreads her own brand of pain, all the while counting the dollars pouring in because shock sells.
Its a shame and it takes away from any discourse that we might have been able to have.

I've noticed that alot of us have rage-fatigue, and are feeling really used up and limp lately. How many times can you be smacked in the face before you just stay down? Maybe the devolving of the Bush administration came in a little too clearly, a little too extensive and huge. We could've guessed this string of events, but on 9-10 no one would have believed any of this...I can't believe alot of it now, even as I would believe anything these days.

Driftglass, one of the best writers on these internets, brings it home for me:

"And it reminded me that when I pause and take the time to open that clench of anger and the snark that fuels a lot of what I write and look inside, there in the center I find grief.

A sadness around which I have girded cleverness and rage....
Because it’s absolutely no fun loathing your leaders -- Honestly don't understand how the Right can grow so fat feasting on such a thin, bilious gruel decade after decade.

It is, in fact, just terribly sad to look out at your country and see an insane asylum.

Terribly sad to see monsters and madmen smashing the finest, most precious heirlooms in your country’s treasure house to atoms. And to see their followers in their millions clap and dance in the ruins as they do it....
I, too, so very much miss being able to look across the political divide and see anyone on the other side who has not been bred to believe that selfishness, mercilessness and misanthropy are virtues.

And when we talk of tolerance?

We are told to fuck tolerance.

Step by unholy step, theirs has become a Party and a Movement that makes an outright sociopath like Ann Coulter their Goddess, and uses “tolerance” as a smirking, eye-rolling epithet....Hey, dickhead: tolerance doesn’t mean I have to love you or agree with you. It means that my vision of democratic civilization demands that I make allowances for people I do not love, and with whom I do not agree.

It means that some of my tax dollars will go towards paving and grading the roads that allow you to drive in safety and comfort from your doublewide in Swinefuck all the way to the Pixley Bijou so you can see “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” in Dolby on the Big Screen.

And it means that some of your taxes will go to pay for public defenders, health insurance, and a measure of security for the elderly, the weak, the poor and whole lot of other people you despise for various reasons....


The question is, how is it possible on the eve of the turnaround, that the network news and talk shows still have a spot for her and that O'Reilly and Limbaugh and Malkin and their ilk, still spew their filth daily?
Ratings be damned! Tucker Carlson has a tiny audience...too tiny to warrant his continued spot in the prime news-time of MSNBC early evenings interspersed with Chris Matthews...it reruns, 2 times, no less! and he is who invites his "great friend" Coulter onto our airwaves...He is who elevated the absolutely talentless Willie Giest from hack producer to television personality of the most base and frat boy extreme.

Ive been waiting for this change for so long...So, why is it so hard to get the programmers to at least cut out the wingnuttia? The American people turn on what is on. If we dont let the programmers know that we have had enough, how can we expect it to get better?
What information do we get from Coulter's book tour? What does anyone gain from Coulter getting on TV and calling all democrats stupid? The fact that there is a market for this indicates less that humans are into this sort of thing, and more that the education system is fucked in this country, and the media follows suit, so this is all that people have access to if there is no regulation...and then it sells, and around we go!
viewerservices@msnbc.com
Tucker@msnbc.com
Dan Abrams stays out of the contact whirl over at the home ship at MSNBC, but Im sure that Viewer Services gets to him...these are his decisions after all.





Drifty is a gift...and I hope that he realizes that there are people out there of the same mind...even though I myself have been planning my semi-retreat from the grid with my chickens and some plans of solar panels and my healthy-so-far Artesian well. When I see the cruelness of human discourse these days I go limp...when I see how hard people in the real world are struggling, I cant find my breath....I don't understand why things happen the way they do, but I do know that alot of what is going on is manipulated and planned. I don't mean that in a tin foil hat sort of way, but in a deliberate, blatant, we-are-doing-this-to-you-and-you-have-no-way-out, sort of way.

Its kindly grandpa Reagan standing there reading his cards saying"why would corporations need regulation? They have ethics, They can police themselves."
Like, yeah, we are all grownups here, no one is reaching under the stall of anyones potty in this place... Then come to find that just about everyone has one hand or another under the stall door somewhere for something.... But the die is cast and we cant go back....

Yeah, there is plenty to worry about..plenty...
as long as Condi Rice is scouring the planet for more feathers to ruffle. I don't know what to say about it anymore, except, enjoy the ride. Its gonna be nothing if not interesting.

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Sunday, June 17, 2007

Brilliance (at Breakfast...)


Well, Yeah...I don't even eat breakfast most days and I'm only on cup 2 of coffee so far, having literally fallen asleep while publishing the post below last night.
I woke this morning in a panic that I couldn't remember what the fuck I wrote, and that maybe I said what I REALLY thought and my facade of a world had fallen apart as I slept; a waking nightmare...or a sleeping dream...but no...
It made sense and it is, in fact, me, such as I am, with the sinus still in a vice and the lung chunks getting ready to explode...doing laundry and cleaning....Just need to remind myself that I am still in here every once in a while.
So, here I am with McLaughlin (...and Eleanor is just screaming...like, is she gonna have a heart attack or something?...someone help this woman out a little!)...and I've been reading the blogs...

Here is a little something for youse all tough guyz , on this father's day: Jill , in talking about the Chris Matthews to Fred Thompson fake tough guy act, by the likes of our very President, in what she hilariously calls "wingnuttia" (which may be available for a fee to the Colbert writers if they approach her gently,) speaks from the gut and the heart about what these guys are really made of in the face of actual heros who go to war and survive!...It would be one thing if the people getting us into these messes were those who were actual vets...or even who knew a vet.
But no....even McCain seems to have forgotten what it was about in the rush to power.
Lets keep this in mind when we are choosing leaders and judging what leaders do in the future: Its not what you say, its what you do....Though both are pretty well lacking in this gang:

Good luck getting a plan in action in place -- and funded -- by this bunch. This country is led by a guy who couldn't even lay off the blow long enough to show up for his cushy stateside National Guard assignment and a guy with a bum ticker who "had other priorities" when it was his time to serve, and who thinks doing the quail equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel makes him a tough guy. These guys are cheerled by a wizened little Jewish man whose idea of being in combat is to pump his fist at the screen and shout "Yeah!" and "All right!" while watching a fictional portrayal of American troops in Bosnia and a cadre of talk show heads not one of whom has ever served.

In the faux machismo world of these chickenshit politicians and the pundits who worship them, PTSD is a sign of weakness -- and flies in the face of the myth of the American soldier. Military training may be designed to turn human beings into killing machines, but when even those killing machines have what remains of their souls after the military tries to pry them out of them ripped from their bodies, we owe it to them to try to help -- and to speak out against those who would continue to worship the kind of dick-waving bullshit that brought them to this state.

Thanks Jill...we all have to keep speaking out until these suckers are out of power and all of our soldiers are home and cared for...and then beyond that so that this doesn't happen again....
What a mess!

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