Bad American

Peggy Noonan’s idiotic column in the Wall Street Journal

Who taught her how to write?

In any case, you can plow through the treacly garbage about the forlorn people at Gate 14 in Lubbock where she has this gem:

Gate 14 doesn’t think any one of the candidates is going to make their lives better. Gate 14 will vote anyway, because they know they are the grownups of America and must play the role and do the job.

But what about the people who see no real candidate that they can believe in? Are they not ‘grown up’ enough to put their imprimaturs on the hopelessly rigged and fixed fiasco of our elections? Are they unpatriotic? Fuck you Peggy.

But then you get to her impugning of Barack Obama’s patriotism:

Main thought. Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama’s problem. America is Mr. Obama’s problem. He has been tagged as a snooty lefty, as the glamorous, ambivalent candidate from Men’s Vogue, the candidate who loves America because of the great progress it has made in terms of racial fairness. Fine, good. But has he ever gotten misty-eyed over . . . the Wright Brothers and what kind of country allowed them to go off on their own and change everything? How about D-Day, or George Washington, or Henry Ford, or the losers and brigands who flocked to Sutter’s Mill, who pushed their way west because there was gold in them thar hills? There’s gold in that history.

This is, of course, the Official American History version, the lies we teach to our children. There’s so much here, I fear I must take this in chronological order to keep some semblance of cohesion in the critique:

The Wright Brothers - there were many countries the Wright Brothers could have invented the airplane in, like Canada, for instance (Americans always forget about Canada except for hockey). It was their inherent genius of the two men, not the country they lived in, that resulted in the first successful airplane launch. After all, Werner Von Braun developed the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany (and was later impressed to work on the US rocket program). Do we credit the Nazi state for his inventiveness? Does Peggy ever think about these things?

D-Day - the landings on Normandy AFTER the Soviet Union had already broken the back of the Wehrmacht. Of course Americans always believed they beat the Germans almost singlehandedly.

Washington - the plantation slave owner.

Henry Ford - the fascist anti-Semite who aided Hitler (see the photo on the top of my blog). Oh Peggy, really, you SHOULD know better but then most Americans should know better - and don’t. Ignorance is not merely bliss, it’s part of our national character.

Sutters Mill - the greed for gold and the accompanying misery it caused is hardly a cause for historical rejoicing although it is very telling to our national character in a de tocqueville sort of way.

John McCain carries it in his bones. Mr. McCain learned it in school, in the Naval Academy, and, literally, at grandpa’s knee. Mrs. Clinton learned at least its importance in her long slog through Arkansas, circa 1977-92.

Heh, where did McCain finish in his West Point class? (894 of 899). And what did his fellow cadets think of him, eh? And what REALLY happened on the USS Forrestal?

Mr. Obama? What does he think about all that history? Which is another way of saying: What does he think of America? That’s why people talk about the flag pin absent from the lapel. They wonder if it means something. Not that the presence of the pin proves love of country – any cynic can wear a pin, and many cynics do. But what about Obama and America? Who would have taught him to love it, and what did he learn was loveable, and what does he think about it all?

I can’t read Barack Obama’s mind, but I do know what he wrote in his book The Audacity of Hope:

I think America has more often been a force for good than for ill in the world; I carry few illusions about our enemies, and revere the courage and competence of our military. I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP.

But for right wing neofascist flag wavers like Noonan, what matters is continued public expressions of fealty toward the kind of America people like her envision. This is done in almost as quasi religious manner as was done in Nazi Germany - a constant knee jerk reflex to salute colored cloths or put hands over hearts but most of all - remain colossally and willfully ignorant of American history. That can be cured by a careful reading of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

Another challenge. Snooty lefties get angry when you ask them to talk about these things. They get resentful. Who are you to question my patriotism? But no one is questioning his patriotism, they’re questioning its content, its fullness. Gate 14 has a right to hear this. They’d lean forward to hear.

Bullshit liar - you are questioning his patriotism and you know it. Content and fullness my ass. Here’s a snooty liberal telling people like Noonan to shove it. As long as the fascist right defines patriotism, no progressive will ever be good enough to live in ‘their America.’ So it’s a game not worth playing.

As nutty as Noonan is there are Kool Aid drinking true believers out there, the hard core 20 percent, who still believe Bush is excelling at pile driving the country into a Depression. Click on the Opinion Journal comments section (or here) at the bottom of the page and read the drivel from Mark Horstman. People like that are even scarier than Bush.

McKay in Huffpo

I like his anger but he’s too easy on us Americans:

McCain called his wife the C word in public. It’s in Cliff Schecter’s new book The Real McCain. And three reporters verified the incident. Here’s an excerpt:

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain’s intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, “You’re getting a little thin up there.” McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.” McCain’s excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

Hold on, let me drop the facetious tone I was using for the front part of this piece. John McCain called his wife the C-word (or for people from England: cunt) in front of a bunch of people?!!!!! And we’re talking about Obama’s preacher? McCain dropped a C-bomb and we’re spending hours on Hillary exaggerating a trip to Bosnia?!!!

Okay, I get it. We let all Republicans and most Democrats off the hook because they will roll over for the companies that own the media and in McCain’s case literally get blown by lobbyists, but come on! Are we not even remotely pretending anymore?

George W. Bush was a silver spoon dolt with no record to speak of other than bankruptcy and selling tropical plants and we let him sail into the White House but Barack talks about religious fundamentalism and guns being prevalent in poor areas and we roast him for weeks?

That isn’t just a bias, that’s deranged. Big money has seriously warped us. When there is a school shooting the news doesn’t talk about basic gun control they talk about video games and their influence on kids. When we learn that the Vice President planted false news stories to take us to war we get outraged about Simon being too mean to contestants on fucking American Idol. And why? Because big money has log jammed our voice and we know it’s too hard to do anything about it. So the dollar drops, the insane war continues, polar bears drown, school shootings continue, the trade deficit soars, gas prices go through the roof and this country fades as quietly as someone falling asleep in front of the TV.

We’re not a stupid country, we’re comfortable and afraid. Afraid to hear the truth. Our leaders talk to us like a parent avoiding the subject of sex with an eight-year-old and we eat it up. And when someone like Obama talks to us like grown-ups we vet him. And vet him.

Um, first of all Adam, we ARE a STUPID country - and getting dumber all the time. You can’t write the material you’ve just written and just chalk it up to beong comfortable and afraid - yeah, we’re those things too but we are very, very stupid. In fact, our stupidity has made us the laughingstock of Western nations.

Not that Americans care. We’re still Number One because we have NASCAR, the NFL, country music, bigSUVs and Big Macs baby - whoo hooo!

Now on to the issue at hand - why is McCain getting the pass for having called his wife a cunt in public?

Easy.

First, you’re absolutely right about the media being in the hands of corporate right wingers who want a McCain presidency to ensure their continued dominance of the airwaves. And, most media barons, like Murdoch, are right wingers themselves. They see themselves in McCain - old, greedy, inarticulate, with a great trophy wife, etc. They love the guy. Hillary reminds them of their first wives and Obama, well, do we have to SAY it? It’s bad enough they might have to run into OJ on the golf course but to have one of them in The White House!? Perish the thought.

Now the men who support McCain secretly LOVE him for calling his wife a cunt. Yes, it’s true! Most of them have been calling women that in derision since the second grade and, since misogyny and patriarchy are the building blocks of the conservative mind, they probably high five each other whenever the subject of McCain’s insult comes up. “Yeah man! That’ll teach the bitch to keep her trap shut!”

And many of the men who secretly think this ALSO work in the news business.

Now for the women, well, again, we’re talking about the peculiar breed known as conservative women here. They probably side with their men, horrified that the trollop had the temerity to make a joke about hubby’s receding hairline! After all, most Republican women, in the Marybel Morgan mold, make their man feel like the king of the castle every time he comes home. In fact, many of them probably would have understood completely if McCain had slapped Cindy in the puss for such a comment. After all, the Bible commands women to be subservient to their men, so there.

See now why this doesn’t work, Adam? This is America, not Denmark. We’re a land poisoned by so much violent misogyny masquerading as religious faith that such comments are hardly startling to millions of American women. And while the Democratic women are fighting the Hillary-Obama wars, the good Christian Republican woman will be voting in a great big block for their strong, masculine Christian ‘war hero’ John McCain. Along with their strong, masculine, take-no-shit-from-any-broad men.

And they won’t even have to sacrifice their sons for McCain’s future wars! The lower classes will bleed for them! How cool is that?

This man has the power to harm the psyches of a billion Chinese! Wow!

Buncha babies

Hollywood reporter

Huffpo

A Chinese primary school teacher and a beautician have filed a suit against CNN in New York over remarks they say insulted the Chinese people and are seeking $1.3 billion in compensation — $1 per person in China, a Hong Kong newspaper reported.
The case against the Atlanta-based cable channel, its parent company Turner Broadcasting and Jack Cafferty, the offending commentator, comes after 14 lawyers launched a similar suit in Beijing alleging that Cafferty’s remarks earlier this month violated the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people….

In New York, Liang Shubing, the beautician, and Li Lilan, a Beijing-based elementary school instructor, claimed Cafferty’s words insulted all Chinese people and “intentionally caused mental harm” to the plaintiffs, the Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported on Thursday.

Mental harm?

Please. Talk about being thin skinned in Beijing - isn’t it enough that the Chinese have such a stranglehold on the US economy and financial system (due to greedy traitorous actions by US business and financial concerns)?

Now they want us to say nice things about them? Screw that.

Cafferty was right in the first place - same old goons and thugs they’ve been for 50 years.

And remarkably thin skinned goons and thugs as well.

“. . . do you hear that sound Mr. Anderson. . . that is the sound of . . . inevitability.”

Food riots - coming here soon?

Wall Street Journal

Associated Press - UN Secy Gen’l says its an emergency

To paraphrase Charlie Daniels - didja ever think it could happen in America again? This time, no World War II as an excuse either.

As Brett Arends writes:

I don’t want to alarm anybody, but maybe it’s time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

Here’s the solid economic rationale:

Stocking up on food may not replace your long-term investments, but it may make a sensible home for some of your shorter-term cash. Do the math. If you keep your standby cash in a money-market fund you’ll be lucky to get a 2.5% interest rate. Even the best one-year certificate of deposit you can find is only going to pay you about 4.1%, according to Bankrate.com. And those yields are before tax.

Meanwhile the most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year.

And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They’re all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.

These are trends that have been in place for some time.

And if you are hoping they will pass, here’s the bad news: They may actually accelerate.

The reason? The prices of many underlying raw materials have risen much more quickly still. Wheat prices, for example, have roughly tripled in the past three years.

And the suggestions on what to buy:

You can’t easily stock up on perishables like eggs or milk. But other products will keep. Among them: Dried pasta, rice, cereals, and cans of everything from tuna fish to fruit and vegetables. The kicker: You should also save money by buying them in bulk.

If this seems a stretch, ponder this: The emerging bull market in agricultural products is following in the footsteps of oil. A few years ago, many Americans hoped $2 gas was a temporary spike. Now it’s the rosy memory of a bygone age.

The rosy memory of a bygone age.

If you have children, now would be a good time to sit them down and give them “the talk.”

No, not the talk about sex although you need to give them that too so they don’t make the mistake of having children that will grow up in want the likes of which we can only dimly imagine but will become very real in the near future.

No you need to have the talk about how our generation and the two behind it, screwed their world into a death spiral through greed and predatory market capitalism.

And now, we’re all going to pay a dear price for that greed and the world they enjoyed as a child will not resemble the world they will know as adults. For our kids, still ensconced in the merry world of violent video games and facebook rituals, this shock will only be psychologically greater if we don’t prepare them NOW.

Perhaps, as a hard gift, you might want to give them James Howard Kunstler’s new book A World Made By Hand and tell them there’s perhaps more truth than fiction inside it.

I know this will be hard, but you owe it to them.

And I’ll see you at Sam’s Club.

Occasionally, Rush’s call screener fails to let only inarticulate liberals on the air and someone who is more than a match for the Mouthpiece of Fascism gets through.

From Crooks and Liars:

This jerk is asking for violence in the streets and the blood to flow. Responding to this lunacy today—Rush Limbaugh had to cut off the phone on caller Lisa after she slammed him over his racist and hateful comments that he made about hoping for “riots” in America.

During today’s show (4/23) Rush made the statement that he is dreaming/hoping for riots after the Dems convention if they choose Hillary over Obama. He even sang his statment to the “I’m Dreaming of a “WHITE” Christmas” tune. It appears to me that he is hoping African-Americans will revolt if Obama doesn’t win and in his dreams we would riot and wipe each other out so that he can indeed have a “white” Christmas/country.

And he said this also: “Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don’t elect Democrats,” Limbaugh said during Wednesday’s radio broadcast. He then went on to say that’s the best thing that could happen to the country.

Here’s the audio of caller Lisa really pouncing on Mr. Viagra: (it’s a rough transcript)

Download | Play

Lisa: You were saying that you were hoping for a White Christmas if the Democrats choose Hillary over Obama and you even kind of sang your statement to the tune of White Christmas or did you mean a white country? What exactly did you mean by that statement yesterday?

Rush: Ho ho ho.

Lisa: Because I feel like all Americans, the American people want is what’s best for this country.

Rush: No, they don’t.

Lisa: Why does this have to be a hate-filled comment from you and other radio hosts?

Rush: Lisa, there’s nothing but love for people, care and concern for people.

Lisa: It didn’t sound that way yesterday.

Rush: Well, you’re picking a selective moment. How often do you listen to the show?

Lisa: I listen almost every day.

Rush: You do?

Lisa: Yes I do. So I was a bit surprised should I say shocked that you were so blatant with that comment.

Rush: I’ve made the comment before.

Lisa: Who wishes for riots, who wants that to happen in this country?

Rush: Who wishes for riots? I didn’t get the ball rolling, it is Democrats like Al Sharpton that there will be….

Lisa: Rush.

Rush: You need to be calling Rev. Sharpton…

Lisa: I’m calling the gentlemen who made the comment yesterday and sang to the tune of I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas. What, what was that about?

Rush: It was about nothing. You are, you are taking…

Lisa: You are an intelligent man and I don’t think anything you do is about nothing…

Rush: Lisa.

Lisa: Everything you say and do on your radio show has a purpose. I’ve been listening long enough to pick up on that, Rush.

Rush: What’s happening here is that your own racism and your own projection of racism is forcing you..

Lisa: I have never wished for riots in my country.

Rush: You are reading my mind. Between the two of us, you are the racist

Lisa: I’m tired of gas prices, I’m tired of truck drivers not being able to get to deliver goods. I’m tired of people getting kicked out of their homes. I’m tired. I just want what’s best for this country for everybody–white—black–Chinese—and I NEVER wished for riots.

Rush: I see Americans, you see colors and races…

Lisa: I didn’t say White Christmas or white country, which one?

<laughter>

Lisa: I wish you would take your comments back and just really start from scratch. Republicans, Democrats, we need to do away with both parties and what think what’s best for this country and all that would do is put Rush out of business with his hate filled discussions every day…

Rush: We need to put liberals out of business, Lisa. We need to put mush minds out of business like you.

Lisa: Why am I a mush mind? Why are you resulting to name calling, sir?

He had enough and ended the call. She forced him to blame Al Sharpton and then called her a “mush mind.” That’s real intelligent discussion, folks. I was waiting for him to call her a poopy head or something. See, he got caught making a fool of himself and knew it, so he stumbled through that call.

Sure, it’s all the liberals fault that this country is so screwed up. Heck, we’ve had the White House since 2000…Oh, sorry, I forgot that Limbaugh and his conservative cronies have run the country into the ground and never lifted a finger to do anything to stop it. Rush and BushCo. only ushered in and then enabled its demise. And he was the head cheerleader of the conservative meltdown. At least he helped expose the country to the destructive principles and practices we receive as a nation led by Conservatives.

Well said Mr. Amato, well said.

Nice to see Limbaugh getting his lunch handed to him every now and then. Anyone with half a brain could eviscerate him in a straight up debate, but then we could say that about any conservative.

Everywhere big Pharma and big Med executives must be chuckling.

What was it President Lyndon Johnson was so fond of saying: “got his pecker in my pocket?”

In this case, Big Med and Big Pharma have Charles Schumer and the rest of the spineless bought and paid for Democrats peckers in their pockets.

From The Hill:

Congressional Democrats are backing away from healthcare reform promises made by their two presidential candidates, saying that even if their party controls the White House and Congress, sweeping change will be difficult.

It is still seven months before Election Day, but already senior Democrats are maneuvering to lower public expectations on the key policy issue.

In the back of their minds is the damage done to President Bush’s second term by his failed attempts to change the nation’s Social Security policy.

Excuse me? So we’re equating Bush’s planned EVISCERATION of Social Security with a movement to try and PROVIDE MORE OF A SAFETY NET to Americans? Does this line of reasoning make any fucking sense? Of course not - it’s a red herring.

For some senators, the promises made by Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) outside of Washington may not match the political reality on Capitol Hill.

“We all know there is not enough money to do all this stuff,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a Finance Committee member and an Obama supporter, referring to the presidential candidates’ healthcare plans. “What they are doing is … laying out their ambitions.”

But of course there is PLENTY OF GODDAMN MONEY FOR THE FUCKING WAR YOU SHITHEADS VOTED FOR. Jay Rockefeller, like Chuckie Schumer (the Thing from AIPAC), is one of the biggest assholes among Democrats in Congress but noting his background of privilege, nothing he does on the side of the military-industrial plutocracy should come as a surprise. Like Schumer and Pelosi, he is a TOTAL SELL OUT.

For instance from yesterday’s Boston Globe:

By month’s end, House Democrats plan to produce a major supplemental spending bill - totaling as much as $170 billion - to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into the next presidency, channel more federal money to the ailing domestic economy, and set policies they hope will begin to move US troops out of the Middle East.

Yeah, enough money to “do all this stuff.” AMAZING isn’t it what you DO find money for, isn’t it Jay you sack of shit.

The Democratic candidates say their plans would cover the 47 million uninsured people living in the United States, except for millions of illegal immigrants. Their push for universal healthcare has sparked sharp exchanges over who would do more to cover the uninsured. A recent Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 58 percent of Americans say healthcare costs are an “important” part of their economic concerns.

But veterans on Capitol Hill say that getting a sprawling piece of legislation requires broad compromise from both parties and outside groups.

Translation: the health care companies who fund our campaigns won’t like it. We work for the highest bidders not the American people.

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), a member of Senate Democratic leadership and a key Hillary Clinton ally who also sits on the Finance Committee, said he is “not sure we have the big plan on healthcare.”

“Healthcare I feel strongly about, but I am not sure that we’re ready for a major national healthcare plan,” Schumer said.

Schumer said he would focus “on prevention above all and cost cutting until we can get a national healthcare plan.”

Schumer is, as he always been, a complete dog, a coward, a sniveling little shit who has sucked the hindquarters of ever big money special interest in Washington. What the hell makes him so sure we’re not ready for a major national healthcare plan?

Most likely his big money donors don’t like it, of course. Schumer is NOT on the side of the American people and never has been. Like Pelosi, he’s a typical champagne and caviar Democrat who enjoys the perks and privileges of his cushy job more than he appreciates nor cares for the struggles of average Americans.

But the fault ALSO lies in US - the stupids who keep voting for shits like these (not that we have much of a choice EVER - I’ll grant you). Of course, ONE candidate running for President would have pushed for a true single payer national health care plan - Dennis Kucinich - and almost everyone ridiculed the guy. Being tough about slaughtering brown skinned people around the world means far more to the average dimwit American than decent affordable health care. Well, I suppose we’re just going to continue to get what we deserve as long as we are unwilling to break the back of corporatism in this country. Send some more crumbs down from the rich massa’s table, please!

Making sweeping changes to healthcare issues often takes several Congresses to work through. For instance, a bill to create a drug benefit under Medicare passed the House in 2000 and 2002, but didn’t land on Bush’s desk until late 2003.

“You don’t want to rush and do something and do it incorrectly,” said former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), who helped negotiate the Medicare law.

Breaux is another phony progressive from the birthplace of political chicanery, Louisiana. What he’s offering is an excuse to do nothing.

Congressional Democrats have set smaller goals on healthcare next year, like an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has been repeatedly vetoed by President Bush. But passing broader proposals aimed at insuring greater numbers will more than likely have to wait, they say.

Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), a Clinton supporter who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, said “the money is not necessarily there right now” to enact the plans and said calls to end the war in Iraq might consume Washington’s attention. The healthcare proposals are a “really good start,” he said, but any promises that the next Congress would enact the healthcare plans “at even the beginning of next year to mid-next year would really be political talk at this point.

“I hear on the campaign trail, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ as if there is not a Congress here with feelings and experience on this issue,” Meek said. “I think it’s important that everyone takes that into consideration and that this is not a kingdom, this is a democracy.”

You know what’s so goddamn stupid about Meek’s quote? The REPUBLICANS NEVER consider that once they’re in power they have anything other than a mandate to ram through whatever the hell they please. But the Democrats, even if they have control of the White House and Congress, are still too cowardly to do the bidding of the people because they are more inclined to do the bidding of corporations. Meek’s patently idiotic reasoning is again, another lie, another smokescreen for inaction. They know what side their bread is buttered on and it’s not the American people.

DAVID SIROTA in Huffpo comments:

First and foremost, to those in Washington who say the nation should just wait for Washington to act on health care and wait for Democrats to win control of Congress and the presidency, this story exposes the glaring failure of that strategy - especially as states move forward into the breach. Health care reform has to be a dual effort - at the federal level and at the state level. And most likely, real reform is going to start in the states - in part, because Democrats in Washington are so afraid of their own shadow and bought off by Big Money interests that they are now acknowledging that they are no serious about fulfilling their health care promises.

Second, you’ll notice the right-wing arguments being made by Democrats in this piece. Schumer, like a reliable Fox News anchor, tells us that America isn’t “ready” for national health care plan, despite polls over the last decade showing strong support for such a concept. Likewise, Meek - playing right into the Grover Norquist “drown it in the bathtub” mantra, claims the federal government doesn’t have the cash to pay for a health care overhaul - even as Congress continues writing blank checks to fund the Iraq War.

Finally, this reminds us of the need for progressives to focus on building a social movement, rather than exclusively on winning elections. Democrats are effectively saying that no matter how many elections are won, they will not move forward on the most pressing domestic issue. That’s because there isn’t yet a powerful social movement putting constant pressure on both parties - and instilling fear in both parties. The infrastructure that has been built in recent years is largely partisan rather than movement-oriented - that is, aimed at buttressing the Democratic Party, regardless of what it does. If we are to get health care reform, it will require a movement - not a party.

What? What powerful social movement will get Democrats to do anything? Seriously David, when you have people working 50+ hours a week and living paycheck to paycheck, how the hell do you propose they form some kind of social movement for health care? In my mind, burning down the corporate offices of health care companies might be a good start since in this country, power never concedes anything without brute force anymore - it’s the only language they understand. Perhaps, like the movie John Q, we should come armed to doctor’s offices and make the bastards treat our children. Again, America, especially the plutocracy, only fears raw force.

But since the sheeple won’t behave like South Americans (like it or not, their violent protests actually gets things done), I suppose there’s nothing left for average Americans to do but grumble about losing their homes and businesses after operations and pleading with assholes like Schumer and the rest of the spineless corporate butt sucking Democrats in Congress to do the right thing.

These are the times I honestly wish I lived somewhere civilized.

So why bother voting at all in this upcoming elections? If the health care bloviations of both Democratic candidates mean absolutely nothing than why bother?

You can say, well they’ll some other things. Like what - end the goddamn war? We elected a Democratic Congress in 2006 and did they do ONE SINGLE THING to end the goddamn war? Hell no. Bought and paid for. Craven Cowards.

James Boyce writes about the phenomena in HuffPo today - good reading and it also backs up what I’m saying here in a nutshell:

Democrats, especially the subset of the species that lives in Washington, DC are nothing more than spineless, clueless eunuchs.

It’s true - outside of a Second American Revolution, I’m of the opinion that absolutely nothing will change in this country. So why bother voting when, no matter who you vote for, big corporations and the moneyed class will win every time?

And so is Robyn Blumner in the St. Petersburg Times:

Barack Obama may have been a little too blunt in his now infamous quip about how the economic insecurities gripping small-town America manifest themselves, but the word “bitter” perfectly sums up my feelings these days.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve watched my country get hijacked by a group of self-serving incompetents who have little conscience about sending young men and women to die in an unnecessary war, while putting the bill on a credit card for the next generation.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve seen some of the greatest moral handiwork of modern civilization — the Geneva Conventions — get treated as if it were the naive ramblings of out-of-touch do-gooders. I’ve watched the founding principles of our nation — the inalienable right of due process of law and the checks and balances of three co-equal branches of government — treated as a copse to be mowed down en route to the unitary executive.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve stood by as the wealth of our nation has been concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite while the middle class struggles to financially tread water. I’ve seen our tax policies shift to benefit this small group, starving our national treasury of needed resources and making it far less possible to prepare for the future by investing in infrastructure, education and shoring up Social Security and Medicare.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve watched a macabre health care system become even more dysfunctional, so that a single accident or illness can destroy the economic security of a family. I’ve seen Big Pharma use its lobbying muscle to keep Medicare from negotiating better drug prices. I’ve observed as health insurance companies with their inflated middle-man profits add immeasurably to the cost of care while trying to deny coverage and services to their customers. I’ve heard our leaders whine about “socialized medicine” any time a comprehensive fix is suggested.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve seen industry insiders put in charge of regulatory agencies so that worker safety and environmental protection are eroded in the name of increased profits. I’ve watched as science is subverted to ideology. Where facts on global climate change are ignored or manipulated to fit a politically driven script. I’ve seen the Department of Justice transform into the legal arm of the Republican Party.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve watched the dismantling of the wall of separation between church and state, allowing billions of tax dollars to flow to religiously affiliated groups that peddle their own brand of faith as part of the government-funded service. I’ve seen Christian fundamentalism defeat funding for international family planning and constrain the distribution of condoms in places where HIV/AIDS has decimated the population.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve stood by as the national debt nearly doubled in the last seven years due to irresponsible tax cuts and spending on such folly as an endless pre-emptive war that may end up costing three trillion dollars. I’ve observed the privatization of core government functions, such as the handling of security assignments in Iraq by the unaccountable Blackwater. I’ve seen billions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction money wasted and lost to a system of endemic corruption.

You bet I’m bitter.

I’ve watched our nation get less secure thanks to the counterproductive policies of the neocons in charge. I’ve seen the populations of otherwise friendly nations turn against the United States, seeing us as the world’s biggest bully and hypocrite rather than its greatest beacon of liberty, justice and opportunity. I’ve observed that our willingness to abuse prisoners has become a recruiting tool for our enemies, making us masters of our own demise.

You bet I’m bitter. And when more than 80 percent of Americans think we’re on the wrong track, I’m not the only one. Obama chose the right word. The only question is, how long this bad taste will last and how to get rid of it?

Well, again, I hate to be a supreme pessimist, but 80 percent of the country can say we’re on the wrong track but enough of them will be frightened enough by the coming campaign to vote for McCain. Americans are a grumbly, yet very malleable bunch as has been proven time and again.

McCain’s victory strategy will be simple and effective:

1. The Democrats aid America’s enemies putting your children at risk from terrorists

2. The Democrats secretly hate America and Blame America First

3. The Democrats will raise your taxes.

4. The Democrats are the party of the big intrusive Federal government (don’t laugh, I guarantee you it WILL work again despite all evidence to the contrary).

5. The Democrats are the party of minorites and special interests that seek to destroy American society through pluralism, affirmative action, homosexuality, atheism and welfare hand outs.

Game set and match. It always works.

Nothing really. Nothing we didn’t already know prior to the Pennsylvania primary.

But the implications are clear.

This nomination is going to the convention and I’m really glad I’m not Howard Dean.

And I think, in the end, Hillary may just nail it down in the smoke filled rooms, so to speak.

In any case, I think, barring a heart attack or some other unforeseen death, that John McCain will be the next US president.

Simply put, neither Clinton nor Obama is going to be able to win a general election now. Clinton won’t for all the obvious reasons having to do with sex and her and Bill’s personal and political history and Obama for the obvious reasons having to do with race and this country’s political history.

The results from Pennsylvania cemented those observations. Older bra burning feminists and desperate out of work factory types carried the day for Hillary. Blacks and the white liberal cognitive elite joined forces in a losing effort for Obama.

In the general election, the while middle and upper classes go for McCain and either Clinton or Obama’s core support largely stay home, cinching the election.

It’s spitting at a hurricane force win to blame this on Clinton. You can’t reason with a true sociopath who believes that not only does she have some kind of birthright to the office but that power is its own justification. If she had retired gracefully and worked for Obama he might (but only might) have been able to overcome America’s racial divisions and become President.

That is all over now. She will bite claw and scratch all the way to the convention and if she doesn’t win it, she will have weakened Obama to such a degree that he will indeed be toast in November. And then it’s Hillary in ‘12. If you don’t think that’s her fall back plan, you don’t know the Clintons very well.

So I would start preparing for a McCain presidency now. Either pick a country you want to emigrate to or start digging in. A long night beckons for this country in any case but in a McCain presidency, the slide into hell will be that much faster.

Of particular importance in all of this will be McCain’s VP choice. That person will undoubtedly play a Dick Cheney-ish role in the new administration either as heir apparent (if McCain croaks or needs to be committed) or as the power behind the scenes. The pedigree should be deeply CFR/Trilateralist and should also have deep tentacles into world finance.

It won’t be Condoleezza Rice, sorry. Such a gesture, thanks to the implosion of the Democratic Party, will not be necessary. Other than that, I wouldn’t speculate at this time. In any case, the decision will not be McCain’s but of the same handlers that ran a grotesquely improbably Shrub into the White House in 2000. And 2004.

Look, you can rail at me all you want for these predictions. But after 35 years of observing this country, its people and its political system, I feel pretty confident in McCain winning. After all Bush did it in 2004 and Nixon in 1968 and 1972. The capitalist elite get who they want in the end, regardless and they will again this time - a doddering yet strangely unhinged old man who will perform the tasks he is given and obey the same people Bush has obeyed all these years.

So enjoy the show. Just don’t think, for the Democrats, it means anything but destruction. In that sense, everything is going to plan.

If you read nothing else today, read these two stories:

New York Sun:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.

“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”

snip

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.

“It’s sporadic. It’s not every store, but it’s becoming more commonplace,” the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. “The number of reports I’ve been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I’d say in the last three to five weeks.”

snip

Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales.

“I’m surprised the Bush administration hasn’t slapped export controls on wheat,” Mr. Rawles said. “The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat.” Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.

“There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don’t realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short,” Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. “Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.”

Saudis Finally Fess Up (sort of)

Financial Times

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, has put on hold plans to increase long-term production capacity from its vast oil fields beyond existing proposals, its most powerful policymakers have said.

In a series of statements, including one by the king himself, the kingdom has warned consumers it does not reckon there is a need for further expansion beyond 12.5m barrels a day, an assumption disputed by the world’s biggest developed countries.

The realisation Saudi Arabia will not increase production to 15m barrels a day as quickly as important consumers and the markets had assumed could put further pressure on oil prices, which touched fresh records last week.

snip

Abdullah Jum’ah, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s oil company, said in a closed door meeting with oil ministers and executives in Rome on Sunday that market signals were ’imperfect’ and that there were uncertainties created by the move away from oil, the world’s worsening economic outlook and the recent turbulance in the financial markets, according to one person who took notes at the discussions. This has impacted Saudi Arabia’s view on the profitability of investing billions of additional dollars into its industry at this point, Gulf sources said.

In a recent interview with Argus, an industry newsletter, Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, made clear Saudi Arabia had “no plans” to embark on its next phase of expansion. “We are idling at around 9m bpd and we will reach capacity of 12.5m bpd by 2009.”

He added: “That is substantial spare capacity. As far as I know, all the latest projections, at least up to 2020, do not require anything higher than that.”

Forecasts by the International Energy Agency, the watchdog of the main consuming countries and an important participant in the forum, reach a different conclusion.

Most recently the group calculated that, even if all the policies to increase renewable fuels and to use oil more efficiently were to be enacted on Tuesday, the world would still need Opec’s daily production to increase by 11.5m barrels by 2030, the bulk of which would have to come from its biggest members, such as Saudi Arabia.

That is a tall order. It is more than 50 per cent more than Opec has managed to increase output during 1980 to 2006.

Recent announcements will harden the view of those sceptics who argue the kingdom is unable to boost production because of the high decline rates at its fields – a view that is still in the minority among those in the industry and one Riyadh emphatically rejects.

Sorry, it’s the truth and I’ve been saying and writing it for several years now. If you’ve been watching what the Saudis SAY they’re going to do in terms of boosting production and what they have ACTUALLY DONE you see the disconnect.

And now this - a virtual admission, cloaked in bullshit-speak, that the Saudis won’t increase their capacity.

BECAUSE THEY CAN’T.

And if THEY can’t neither can anyone else.

Peak Oil is real, it is here and it is starting to eat our collective lunch.

And the Bush administration AND the current crop of candidates AND the government in general WILL NOT admit it to the American people.

But people seem to be starting to understand the age of oil is coming to a close.

The war in Iraq was all about access to what was left of the world’s largest reserves of crude. It didn’t work out the way Washington had hoped for and neither will bellicosity with Iran.

I have written about all of this until my fingers figuratively bled and I’m tired of reciting this. This story should end all doubts.

Coming next for the American consumer - spot shortages of gasoline, probably by the end of the year if not sooner. And over $4 a gallon gas - easily.

The Bush administration and the American establishment have always been playing for time on this issue, but time is now running out. Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy summit in 2001 was all about this issue and that’s what led eventually to the invasion of Iraq. You can’t keep lying about things and talking about ‘energy independence,’ ‘biofuels’ and other pie in the sky lies for too much longer.

Of course, Bush would have had the full throated support of the American people had he told them we were invading Iraq to preserve our way of life vis a vis oil. But Wall Street would have tanked. He tried to have it both ways by lying and now the chickens are about to come home to roost.

Surprise - Food Rationing!

In a spectacular one-two punch the New York Sun now talks about the rationing of rice (and soon other staples like corn) in the USA. It’s sporadic and here and there now, but just wait. I wrote about the rice riots on this blog earlier and now, thanks to the global economy, Americans are now discovering that what happens in Indonesia can affect us as well. Foreign countries are now cutting back on food exports to feed their own people and we will feel the effects of that.

And now we’re cashiering our food crop of corn to put it in our gas tanks causing the price of that staple to start soaring not just here but all over the world.

Are you beginning to get the picture America?

Have you notice the skyrocketing price of food to go with those gas prices?

Worried a little? You should be.

It’s that other little time bomb that the right doesn’t want you to believe in called global climate change AND ecological catastrophe.

By the way, the bees are still dying.

You may say they’ll pry my non-negotiable American lifestyle from my cold dead hands but rest assured - that’s exactly what mother Earth is doing right now. You could have sacrificed before the deluge and changed your ways but now change will be thrust upon you and it will not care whether you are a conservative or liberal, Christian or no.

And as long as Obama, Clinton and the media keep their eyes on who wears the fucking flag lapel pin or puts their hand over their heart for the anthem, we will get exactly what we deserve - and good and hard.

But there’s more to this. . .

James Howard Kunstler, in his latest missive, cries to high heaven for the restoration of America’s passenger rail system:

Now get this: we are sleepwalking into a transportation crisis. As I already said, the airline industry is dying. The price of petroleum-based aviation fuel is killing it. And forget the fantasies about running it on bio-diesel or used french-fry oil. Driving cars will not be an adequate substitute, either. It’s imperative that this country gets serious about restoring the passenger rail system. We can’t not talk about it for another year. We must demand that the candidates for president speak to this issue. If you who are reading this are active reporters or editors in the news media, you’ve got to raise your voices behind this issue.

I like Kunstler: he’s one of my heroes. But he’s missing something here. There is a very good reason why no one in government or politics is discussing revitalizing the American passenger rail system.

To understand that, let me ask a dark little question:

If you are going to have to control a population where oil and gas as well as food and even water are going to have to be rationed, how are you going to do it?

Will you facilitate the transport of the hungry masses of say, New York City, to the sylvan haunts, of, oh, I don’t know, Saratoga Springs, New York?

Or would it be best to be able to keep that population right where it is by any means necessary?

Think about it.

If the shit is truly going to hit the fan in the coming years, the LAST thing the government in charge is going to want is a mobile population. It’s why cutting off transportation of ordinary people is part of the plot line of every futuristic, apocalyptic and sci-fi movie dealing with the issue.

You know you can call me insane or a fear monger. But the writing is now clearly on the wall for all who have eyes to see. In fact, both the food and the oil stories were linked to The Drudge Report.

If I’m wrong, I’ll admit it. But I’ll also, in the future, will be the one to say I told you so. And as far as I’m concerned, if I’m going to blog about important things, I have to say what I have to say. Someone has to.

So if you think there’s any truth behind what I’ve said to the above links and stories you might, just might, want to start preparing you and your loved ones for the future NOW.

Just in case you haven’t read it, here’s the full printable version of the weekend story in the New York Times.

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

So let’s recap - it’s all about eternal war and eternal profits and to hell with anything that America once supposedly stood for like truth and justice. If we can make a buck pimping the death machine, well, that’s the American Dream, baby! There are summer homes and Lexus convertibles to be bought!

Many of the comments on the story in HuffPo,

despair and rightfully so, in my opinion, that anything will come from this. It won’t because the American people have made the conscious or subconscious decision that they are powerless to stop it. Who is going to go up to a four star hero, retired or no, and call him a liar to his face? That’s far more moral courage than any American, whether in the media or not, is capable of drumming up these days. After all, we are taught that anyone in uniform is a “hero” regardless of what they do and say. Many American still consider Lt. William Calley a true American hero and patriot even to this day. After all, all he did was kill gooks. What’s the problem with that?

So the Pentagon sends retired generals with a financial stake in the death machine to lie to Americans on the idiot tube. What else is new?

We get and will get, exactly what we deserve.