Saturday, September 29, 2012
if you tell them we have to kill you
It's nice for our leaders to come out and admit what the standard operating procedure is.
The Racecourse
Despite evidence that the Republicans are doing everything possible to tamper with the vote, not only in swing states, but in any Republican-controlled state like Michigan, you still get relatively confident Democratic opinion pieces based on the polling data that show Obama with a wide and widening margin of victory.
In any fair world, why, Mr. Blow would be right on target, and things like mismanagement would matter in an electoral race. But let's get real.
The people supporting Mr. Romney, not just in the United States, are the same people who back the economic policy known as Austerity. We should give these people even less credit that Dr. Krugman does for intellectual honesty. These are people willing to pauperize entire nations, entire civilizations, to protect their money and power.
In the United States, such wealthy energy barons and political NeoCons want to wage and expand wars that have, and will continue, to kill millions. They will do their best to turn this presidential election into a photo-finish, whether it really is or not. Once it's in the courts, it will head to the Supremes, just as it did in 2000. And once it's there? Exactly how is it going to be any different than Bush vs. Gore?
In any fair world, why, Mr. Blow would be right on target, and things like mismanagement would matter in an electoral race. But let's get real.
The people supporting Mr. Romney, not just in the United States, are the same people who back the economic policy known as Austerity. We should give these people even less credit that Dr. Krugman does for intellectual honesty. These are people willing to pauperize entire nations, entire civilizations, to protect their money and power.
In the United States, such wealthy energy barons and political NeoCons want to wage and expand wars that have, and will continue, to kill millions. They will do their best to turn this presidential election into a photo-finish, whether it really is or not. Once it's in the courts, it will head to the Supremes, just as it did in 2000. And once it's there? Exactly how is it going to be any different than Bush vs. Gore?
Sunday, September 23, 2012
"miasma of misinformation"
It's not just about climate change, either.
The NY Times notes it:
The Washington Post notes it. The Koch Bros. and their Halliburton friends want you to think we have no choices other than to level the Appalachians, frack the Midwest, and drill for oil in the Great Lakes.
And buried in the back pages of the major news sites, people are noticing it. In fact, chances are, you are seeing more ads for Clean Frackin' Energy than for Mittens himself. Like everything else funded by the Kochs, its pretty much a self-serving lie- but it's a very well presented lie, usually by young minorities and women.
The NY Times notes it:
The Washington Post notes it. The Koch Bros. and their Halliburton friends want you to think we have no choices other than to level the Appalachians, frack the Midwest, and drill for oil in the Great Lakes.
And buried in the back pages of the major news sites, people are noticing it. In fact, chances are, you are seeing more ads for Clean Frackin' Energy than for Mittens himself. Like everything else funded by the Kochs, its pretty much a self-serving lie- but it's a very well presented lie, usually by young minorities and women.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
the right hand's need to know status
So much for communication at the top.
This increasingly looks like Viet Nam in the lead-up to Tet. You know, a clueless administration and Pentagon that honestly believes the stories it forces its lower officers to tell their commanders about the situation on the ground. We'll officially have the enemy on the run right up to the point at which they take over.
Of course, if the neocons have their way, Afghanistan will probably end up a series of mines and gas installations run by energy consortiums stripping the earth of all its resources, patrolled by hunter-killer drones shooting all unauthorized life forms.
You know, kinda like how the Koch brothers envision things after they start to frack all Appalachia.
This increasingly looks like Viet Nam in the lead-up to Tet. You know, a clueless administration and Pentagon that honestly believes the stories it forces its lower officers to tell their commanders about the situation on the ground. We'll officially have the enemy on the run right up to the point at which they take over.
Of course, if the neocons have their way, Afghanistan will probably end up a series of mines and gas installations run by energy consortiums stripping the earth of all its resources, patrolled by hunter-killer drones shooting all unauthorized life forms.
You know, kinda like how the Koch brothers envision things after they start to frack all Appalachia.
Monday, September 17, 2012
slippin' back to our same old used to be
With Big Time Dick Cheney as elder statesman to a Romney administration.
Anyone remember Iran resisting negotiations with Carter and surrendering hostages to Reagan minutes after inauguration? Or Ollie North selling weapons to Iran in exchange for money for "secret" wars in South America?
I though not.
MoDo has one thing wrong, though. This isn't about idiocy in foreign policy. It's a effort to continue making hundreds of billions of dollars by a machine for endless war for endless profit.
Anyone remember Iran resisting negotiations with Carter and surrendering hostages to Reagan minutes after inauguration? Or Ollie North selling weapons to Iran in exchange for money for "secret" wars in South America?
I though not.
MoDo has one thing wrong, though. This isn't about idiocy in foreign policy. It's a effort to continue making hundreds of billions of dollars by a machine for endless war for endless profit.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Pay No Attention to the Curtain Behind this Man
So Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the producer of the movie roiling the Middle East, was convicted for bank fraud, arrested for making PCP and methamphetamine, and avoided prison as an FBI snitch.
But when he's not playing his own real life "Breaking Bad," this Patriotic Voice of Freedom probably has no connection to the Romney campaign, right?
But when he's not playing his own real life "Breaking Bad," this Patriotic Voice of Freedom probably has no connection to the Romney campaign, right?
insufficient funds
Apparently someone forgot to include someone on the payroll.
The bank$ters are gangsters? Little Jamie Dimon is clutching his pearls somewhere.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
full circle fraud
The New York Pravda speaks of the smokescreen behind the video that's embroiling the Middle East and the great American dream machine, but it gets better, apparently.
It seems the Pentagon asked Mr. Jones not to disseminate it, and he claims he didn't, but his site got hacked and it was plastered all over the 'tubes anyway.
Now according to the Guardian the financial backers and Hollywood assemblers of the video weren't a secretive Jewish group at all- there is no Sam Bacile- but fundamentalist Christians. The actors and production crew had no idea it was about Islam and Mohammed at all, that was apparently dubbed in afterwards.
This whole thing smells Tea Party-ish and Bain Capital-ish to me.
It seems the Pentagon asked Mr. Jones not to disseminate it, and he claims he didn't, but his site got hacked and it was plastered all over the 'tubes anyway.
Now according to the Guardian the financial backers and Hollywood assemblers of the video weren't a secretive Jewish group at all- there is no Sam Bacile- but fundamentalist Christians. The actors and production crew had no idea it was about Islam and Mohammed at all, that was apparently dubbed in afterwards.
This whole thing smells Tea Party-ish and Bain Capital-ish to me.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Not an Unintended Consequence
The Tea Party has discovered the concept of the "October Surprise".
Perhaps what the government should do is release Mr. Bacile and Mr. Jones on the streets of Cairo or Benghazi, with the video of the Good News they want to spread in hand, and let nature take its course
Perhaps what the government should do is release Mr. Bacile and Mr. Jones on the streets of Cairo or Benghazi, with the video of the Good News they want to spread in hand, and let nature take its course
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
pre-October Surprises
Or not.
For your consideration, a lot seems to be hitting the fan coincident with the Obama bounce, and the Romney lack thereof.
For your consideration, a lot seems to be hitting the fan coincident with the Obama bounce, and the Romney lack thereof.
it's like they never heard the sound
What sound does 11 years of unwarranted war make if nobody listens?
The talking heads are all speaking like it's a great revelation that the Cheney administration knew 9/11 was coming ahead of time but planned on the Iraq war anyway. Excuse me? How much money did they make off it?
Then there's those Afghani futures.
The talking heads are all speaking like it's a great revelation that the Cheney administration knew 9/11 was coming ahead of time but planned on the Iraq war anyway. Excuse me? How much money did they make off it?
Then there's those Afghani futures.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Monday, September 03, 2012
shooting the virtual bullet into your own cyber feet
Incorrectly programmed copyright 'bots destroy the live feed of Sci-fi's Hugo awards, because the promotional videos were copyrighted material. So the companies that control these awards couldn't even play their own advertisements.
This is also known as cyber justice. Those that live by the 'bot, get deleted by the 'bot.
This is also known as cyber justice. Those that live by the 'bot, get deleted by the 'bot.
Friday, August 31, 2012
They Built That
Matt Taibbi tells you exactly what it is they've built:
"...The critics couldn't be more wrong. Mitt Romney is no tissue-paper man. He's closer to being a revolutionary, a backward-world version of Che or Trotsky, with tweezed nostrils instead of a beard, a half-Windsor instead of a leather jerkin. His legendary flip-flops aren't the lies of a bumbling opportunist – they're the confident prevarications of a man untroubled by misleading the nonbeliever in pursuit of a single, all-consuming goal. Romney has a vision, and he's trying for something big: We've just been too slow to sort out what it is, just as we've been slow to grasp the roots of the radical economic changes that have swept the country in the last generation..."
"...The critics couldn't be more wrong. Mitt Romney is no tissue-paper man. He's closer to being a revolutionary, a backward-world version of Che or Trotsky, with tweezed nostrils instead of a beard, a half-Windsor instead of a leather jerkin. His legendary flip-flops aren't the lies of a bumbling opportunist – they're the confident prevarications of a man untroubled by misleading the nonbeliever in pursuit of a single, all-consuming goal. Romney has a vision, and he's trying for something big: We've just been too slow to sort out what it is, just as we've been slow to grasp the roots of the radical economic changes that have swept the country in the last generation..."
four more wars
I knew there was a good reason not to bother listening to Kindasleezy Rice and Jingo John McCain this week.
the Force has a strong influence on the weak-minded
From foreign policy to national security to medicare to education to just about every thing that comes out of every mouth at the Reptilian Republican National Convention, Truthiness rules over fact.
Sometimes delivered in misty-eyed crocodile tear tones of regret.
Its about what you'd expect. It's not stupid. It's an attempt to modify the world-view of the misinformed.
Of course, it hasn't helped that Obama has played the game by their rulebook from the beginning.
When you agree to use Company methods, you have to expect Company methods to be used against you.
Sometimes delivered in misty-eyed crocodile tear tones of regret.
Its about what you'd expect. It's not stupid. It's an attempt to modify the world-view of the misinformed.
Of course, it hasn't helped that Obama has played the game by their rulebook from the beginning.
When you agree to use Company methods, you have to expect Company methods to be used against you.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
same planet, different worlds
Michael Cohen at the Guardian thinks they're in a different universe altogether:
...Democratic partisans were busy tweeting out the fact that Obama has signed multiple pieces of legislation providing tax breaks for small businesses, but such "facts" simply bounce harmlessly off the GOP's protective truth shield. Indeed, if there is one overarching takeaway, not only from the sessions so far at the Republican convention, but also from the last year of political campaigning, it is that Republicans not only toil in their own narrowly and misleadingly constructed world, but really are just making stuff up.
There were plenty of instances on display last night, beyond the "you didn't build it" meme. The most pernicious and racially-coded example is the oft-repeated claim by the Romney campaign that Obama, by granting waivers to states, has gutted the work requirement of the welfare reform bill (passed more than 15 years ago). The charge has become a crucial element of Romney's attacks on the president, even though, as many independent fact-checkers have pointed out, it simply isn't true. It's another lie; and yet, it was repeated last night by former Democratic Congressman Artur Davis, and again, by failed presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who went a step further and accused Obama of creating a "nightmare of dependency".
These are the big lies; but there are so many other ones that it's almost impossible to keep track. For example, speaker after speaker denounced Obama for running up $5tn in debt. While budget deficits that have increased the national debt have occurred during Obama's presidency, only someone who believes history began on 20 January 2009 (when Obama took office) can think he is fully responsible...
Like all writers of fantastic fiction, the leading Republic spinmasters know fully well what the real story is. But their avid fandom? It's pretty clear they haven't got a clue.
...Democratic partisans were busy tweeting out the fact that Obama has signed multiple pieces of legislation providing tax breaks for small businesses, but such "facts" simply bounce harmlessly off the GOP's protective truth shield. Indeed, if there is one overarching takeaway, not only from the sessions so far at the Republican convention, but also from the last year of political campaigning, it is that Republicans not only toil in their own narrowly and misleadingly constructed world, but really are just making stuff up.
There were plenty of instances on display last night, beyond the "you didn't build it" meme. The most pernicious and racially-coded example is the oft-repeated claim by the Romney campaign that Obama, by granting waivers to states, has gutted the work requirement of the welfare reform bill (passed more than 15 years ago). The charge has become a crucial element of Romney's attacks on the president, even though, as many independent fact-checkers have pointed out, it simply isn't true. It's another lie; and yet, it was repeated last night by former Democratic Congressman Artur Davis, and again, by failed presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who went a step further and accused Obama of creating a "nightmare of dependency".
These are the big lies; but there are so many other ones that it's almost impossible to keep track. For example, speaker after speaker denounced Obama for running up $5tn in debt. While budget deficits that have increased the national debt have occurred during Obama's presidency, only someone who believes history began on 20 January 2009 (when Obama took office) can think he is fully responsible...
Like all writers of fantastic fiction, the leading Republic spinmasters know fully well what the real story is. But their avid fandom? It's pretty clear they haven't got a clue.
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