not if they see us coming first

...so just don't get your hopes up, homey.

They only way we'll have First Contact is if they want to buy Manhattan Island for something like glass beads.

Hell, if they sold eternal life to the Koch brothers they might buy most the United States government. The Supreme Court, anyway.

not for the uncool

The United States spends $20.2 billion annually on air conditioning for troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan — more than NASA's entire budget, NPR reported.

In fact, the same amount of money that keeps soldiers cool is the amount the G-8 has committed to helping the fledgling democracies in Tunisia and Egypt...

"Soldiers", huh? So Joe Private gets to kick back on the base and pound brewskis while while the drone handlers, the mercs private contractors and Cheneyburton are out there sweating the real work?

too big to fail

If you were energy tycoon kind of bank$ter, and you wanted to make really sure you got the chance to rape and pillage the entire countryside, you just might want to create an investment bubble that ensured endless depredation.

Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States.



But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.

In the e-mails, energy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves. Many of these e-mails also suggest a view that is in stark contrast to more bullish public comments made by the industry, in much the same way that insiders have raised doubts about previous financial bubbles...

It worked for Wall Street once. It shouldn't be surprising they're trying it again with the assistance of the same kind of people we've come to associate with Cheneyburton. Who wants to argue with the needs of 'Merika in a time of War?

an error in critical thinking

...With the possible exception of Jon Huntsman, the Republican presidential field is weak on candidates who could appeal to centrist swing voters, including moderate Republicans. But there is one 2012 prospect who has a proven track record of pursuing policies that owe a great deal to the moderate Republican tradition and who could potentially shake up the race for the GOP presidential nomination: President Barack Obama.

If Obama chose to run for reelection not as a Democrat but as a moderate Republican, he could bring about two healthy transformations in the American political system. The moderate wing of the Republican Party could be restored. And the Democratic presidential nomination might be opened up to politicians from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party...

It's too late, Mr. Lind. The moderate Republicans already own the DINOcratic Party.
(via Avedon)

it's not just stranger than you imagine

it's stranger than you can imagine

who's on first?

What is this problem of which you speak?

Jedi Master Krugman can not understand why the Serious do not address the problems with their economic models when they keep on being wrong, the Fed doesn't see why they need to do anything because, you know, happy days are here again, and Petraeus Caesar wants you to know ending the Long War is not His idea.

Those who would rule us see no "dis" in dysfunctional, it works quite nicely for them, thank you, and suggest strongly you get with their program.

The Force has a strong influence on the weak minded, and if you apply enough of it, those who like to use it think almost anyone can be overcome.

When you are a just a hammer the world is your nail.

succeeding right out of a job

Vivek Wadwa over at The Company Post:

Vivek Kundra’s resignation last week from his post as the nation’s Chief Information Officer is an ominous event.

Kundra’s goal was to set government data free via an expansive Internet effort called Data.gov, and encourage innovation with government-collected data through the Open Government Initiative. He had hoped to slash tens of billions of dollars from the government information technology (I.T.) budget by democratizing who and which types of companies can deliver I.T. solutions to the government...

The program was off to a great start, with hundreds of thousands of data sets becoming available, and entrepreneurs building thousands of innovative applications. Then the ill-considered race to slash the Federal deficit started. The Obama Administration agreed to cut e-government initiative funding from $35 million to $8 million. Never mind that Kundra’s programs had already saved taxpayers $3 billion over the past two years.

Not surprisingly, Kundra resigned...

We may live in the richest nation on Earth, but most government agencies and large corporations still process their mission-critical transactions on ’60s-era legacy systems that were designed for machines with less processing power than an iPhone. And they’re more expensive. The I.T. systems for these mainframes typically took years to build and cost millions of dollars — and that doesn’t include the hundreds of millions more we spend to maintain them.

Today, software developers can churn out more sophisticated applications for thousands – not millions – of dollars. So, while grandma flips through photo albums on her iPad and watches streaming videos from Netflix, our government relies on cumbersome web-based systems that function by tricking mainframes into thinking that they are connected to cathode ray tube (CRT) terminals.

The problem is catching very prominent attention. When President Obama could not get a late-model Blackberry, he complained that the U.S. government was 30 years behind when it comes to technology...

What Mr. Kundra was fighting is the Company Standard. I'm sure hundreds of thousands of those hundreds of millions spent on outdated systems run by private contractors (think Raytheon, think IBM) got funneled to the best lobbyists and Congresscritters money could buy, ensuring an Austerity encounter.

fairly unbalanced

what if you held a war and nobody came?

The war hawks are already wringing their wings.

WASHINGTON — On Afghanistan’s battlefields, the most significant effect of President Obama’s latest orders will be felt at this time next year, when as many as 23,000 American troops who would have been on missions at the peak of the summer fighting season will instead be packing for home.

Saving the lives of many American soldiers and Afghani civilians, doubtless.

...This will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for commanders to carry out one of the military’s major goals for next year.

Senior officers said their military campaign plan for 2012 envisioned building on security gains earned by troops who had already flowed into Afghanistan’s south and southwest, with plans to turn some of those areas over to local forces. This would have freed American troops to pivot toward the fight in the volatile east, along the vulnerable border with Pakistan...

You know, along the border with our enemy ally Pakistan.

The Pentagon- and all its contractors- envisioned a rolling Endless War Surge, while the Laureate makes a minor- but commendable- move towards what he actually got the Prize for (not to mention elected to do for us).

shut up and enjoy it

Your Betters think you should be quiet:

...Beyond the desire to render democratic opinion irrelevant, there is another, more specific reason why war advocates so frequently insist that critics should "shut up": because the policies they are implementing are so ludicrous and indefensible and redound to the benefit of a tiny sliver of the population. They can't be sustained if there is debate and examination over them...

geriatric gerrymandering

The Company has learned that if you are opposed by any powerful special interest group, the best way to eliminate the opposition is to simply take it over, one way or the other.

So if AARP puts up organized resistance to Wall Street's desire to own everyone's Social Security accounts, they know how to handle that.

looking for the fruited plain

It's not Democracy, religion, or revolutionary zeal driving the Arab spring biz, although you can bet there are Company handlers out there trying to make the best of it.

Try hunger on for size as a global motivation for unrest and insurrection.

simple answers

Do any of our political leaders realize that kissing rich peoples' asses won't magically restore prosperity?

Yes.

But it will increase the prosperity of said political leaders, which is why they indulge in it.

Weinerstock Nation

Pretty small stuff to worry about.

useful idiots and war pigs in sheep's clothing

For your consideration, The Editors at The New York Pravda, and some of their columnists.

This tripe is designed to appeal to the NeoLibs and the DINOcrat Hawks. The military has to function with certain socialist tendencies, because they're the only way for people to work together. Corporations do the same thing, which does not mean Wall Street is anything but an aggregate of enterprising pirates.

Traditionally this has been okay to obtain the plunder and maintain the Empire even if the neo liberal hawks wince when you use that word outside the restroom.

we haven't nuked 'em for their oil

Yet.

The White House, pushing hard against criticism in Congress over the deepening air war in Libya, asserted Wednesday that President Obama had the authority to continue the military campaign without Congressional approval because American involvement fell short of full-blown hostilities...

You can be sure full-blown hostilities are one of the cards on the table in the Company's economic plan for prosperity.

Theirs, of course.

if they didn't exist, someone would invent them

The Westboro Baptist Church evokes such an intense response, no one questions the real need to have poor kids die in a war for oil.

It's a perfect psychological operation.

"...there's no plates like chrome"

When the going gets weird, the weird look Presidential.

But it doesn't mean they have to talk about the real issues at all.

Lyndon Baines Obama

Except you can bet it's not remorse for the kids he's killed that might keep him from running.

Can you say "cash in your chips"?

I knew you could!