Why? Something happen while I was out of the room?
New York Times, 1/29/11: CAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt struggled to maintain a tenuous hold on power on Saturday as the police withdrew from the major cities and the military did nothing to hold back tens of thousands of demonstrators defying a curfew to call for an end to his nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule.
Now do you understand why I suggested you watch what was happening over there?
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
More Random Randoming
ABC's Nightly News, and the New York Times online, report that one of the principal methods used by anti-government protesters in countries across (primarily Northern) Africa are "social networking sites" -- i.e., the ubiquitous Facebook.
I suggest you pay attention to what has been happening recently in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and other countries at the edges of the Islamic world. These are nations with secular, generally corrupt, family-owned franchise governments, with whom the United States and Europe have fair to good relations. And there are rising anti-government movements and large demonstrations occurring, right now, in all these countries (most visibly, Tunisia and Yemen).
And, using a speed-of-the-Net, real-time communications tool to organize can create a positive feedback loop between popular uprisings in multiple countries -- Hey! They've taken the government buildings in Otheristan! Everybody get into the streets! Converge on the government TV station!
Their populations are desperately poor, and unemployment is the rule. They're breeding grounds for Islamist extremist organizations that are part of another franchise -- Al-Qaeda.
Here's my random bark: One way of quelling a popular uprising that uses Facebook would be to restrict use of the site, with or without Facebook's cooperation: Think of the restrictions of Google in China as an example.
However -- remember, one of the first things Lil' Boots did after being appointed President in January, 2001, was to begin a massive data-mining operation of internet and phone communications, ultimately used by the U.S. Intelligence community.
(In fact, discussions to initiate this program between Bush's 'transition team' and major American telecommunications providers had begun in December of 2000, before Bush v. Gore had even been adjudicated.)
The program has never stopped. Our current President believes it should continue, unabated and unmentioned, despite the precedent it sets, and any violations of the Constitution which may occur, in the name of National Security.
From the perspective of an NSA intelligence analyst, if you have access to everything about Facebook accounts; if you can see IP address and other information of 'Friends' posting to any account; then you want Facebook, and its data feed from the Arab world, to continue flowing freely for your use.
Meanwhile, protesters can still use the site, and events have a way of happening more quickly than intelligence analysis can affect them.
There's a war going on in cyberspace, involving the U.S., China, Russia; European nations; Al-Qaeda and Hamas and others; Israel; Iran. It bears some resemblance to the Ultra and Magic intercepts, the Funkspiele between the Allies and the Germans, of the Second World War -- but to play you need to be able to see communications to decrypt and analyze them.
Riding the Tiger is a two-edged sword.
I suggest you pay attention to what has been happening recently in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and other countries at the edges of the Islamic world. These are nations with secular, generally corrupt, family-owned franchise governments, with whom the United States and Europe have fair to good relations. And there are rising anti-government movements and large demonstrations occurring, right now, in all these countries (most visibly, Tunisia and Yemen).
And, using a speed-of-the-Net, real-time communications tool to organize can create a positive feedback loop between popular uprisings in multiple countries -- Hey! They've taken the government buildings in Otheristan! Everybody get into the streets! Converge on the government TV station!
Their populations are desperately poor, and unemployment is the rule. They're breeding grounds for Islamist extremist organizations that are part of another franchise -- Al-Qaeda.
Here's my random bark: One way of quelling a popular uprising that uses Facebook would be to restrict use of the site, with or without Facebook's cooperation: Think of the restrictions of Google in China as an example.
However -- remember, one of the first things Lil' Boots did after being appointed President in January, 2001, was to begin a massive data-mining operation of internet and phone communications, ultimately used by the U.S. Intelligence community.
(In fact, discussions to initiate this program between Bush's 'transition team' and major American telecommunications providers had begun in December of 2000, before Bush v. Gore had even been adjudicated.)
The program has never stopped. Our current President believes it should continue, unabated and unmentioned, despite the precedent it sets, and any violations of the Constitution which may occur, in the name of National Security.
From the perspective of an NSA intelligence analyst, if you have access to everything about Facebook accounts; if you can see IP address and other information of 'Friends' posting to any account; then you want Facebook, and its data feed from the Arab world, to continue flowing freely for your use.
Meanwhile, protesters can still use the site, and events have a way of happening more quickly than intelligence analysis can affect them.
There's a war going on in cyberspace, involving the U.S., China, Russia; European nations; Al-Qaeda and Hamas and others; Israel; Iran. It bears some resemblance to the Ultra and Magic intercepts, the Funkspiele between the Allies and the Germans, of the Second World War -- but to play you need to be able to see communications to decrypt and analyze them.
Riding the Tiger is a two-edged sword.
Whatever It Was, It's Just Fun Now
Random Barking
Someone -- an author's character in one of their novels, I think (and probably Robert Anton Wilson's) -- observed that human affairs are either explained as "conspiracy, or fuck-up".
With all that's been going on in This Great Land Of Ours™ for perhaps the past quarter-century, it would seem there's been an all-out attempt by a wealthy core of people to simply grab whatever they can, as much as they can, and right now. As if the top were about to blow off the circus tent at any moment.
The number of fish or bird deaths with no discernible cause does seem to have just increased for no reason. Did you know some two million dead fish had recently washed up on the shores of Chesapeake Bay? Me neither. Oh, and Kieth Olbermann parted ways with a Soon-To-Be-Comcast-Property cable channel.
(Graphic: UK Daily Mail, January 2011 -- Click To Enlarge Fun!)
From a certain point of view, it does feel a little like the orgy at Pompeii the night before All The Fun Started (© Mt. Vesuvius, 79 AD). Depending upon what you believe to be possible, a scenario where Those Who Have are saved, while Those Who Don't Shall Lose (Caution: Don't believe everything you see on the Intertubes).
I'm not suggesting that's plausible, but I've barked about this before: What do they know that we don't? Or, is it just a predictable response to the result of thousands of years of human nature?
Conspiracy? Or Fuck-up? You choose.
Bark Bark. Bark Bark Bark Bark.
Someone -- an author's character in one of their novels, I think (and probably Robert Anton Wilson's) -- observed that human affairs are either explained as "conspiracy, or fuck-up".
With all that's been going on in This Great Land Of Ours™ for perhaps the past quarter-century, it would seem there's been an all-out attempt by a wealthy core of people to simply grab whatever they can, as much as they can, and right now. As if the top were about to blow off the circus tent at any moment.
The number of fish or bird deaths with no discernible cause does seem to have just increased for no reason. Did you know some two million dead fish had recently washed up on the shores of Chesapeake Bay? Me neither. Oh, and Kieth Olbermann parted ways with a Soon-To-Be-Comcast-Property cable channel.
(Graphic: UK Daily Mail, January 2011 -- Click To Enlarge Fun!)
From a certain point of view, it does feel a little like the orgy at Pompeii the night before All The Fun Started (© Mt. Vesuvius, 79 AD). Depending upon what you believe to be possible, a scenario where Those Who Have are saved, while Those Who Don't Shall Lose (Caution: Don't believe everything you see on the Intertubes).
I'm not suggesting that's plausible, but I've barked about this before: What do they know that we don't? Or, is it just a predictable response to the result of thousands of years of human nature?
Conspiracy? Or Fuck-up? You choose.
Bark Bark. Bark Bark Bark Bark.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Nielsen Neener Neener Neener
The Nielsen Comapny's Online And Teevee Mediaverse, 2011
(Click For Bigger Graphic -- Easy ! Fun!)
If you're a Dog of a certain age (referred to as Useless Boomers by dogs of another age and breed), you'll remember when the name of the Nielsen Company popped into the national consciousness. References to the Nielsens weren't about some fictional teevee family like the Cleavers, or the Pietries.
In the early 1950's, Nielsen (a business that gathered data about customer likes, dislikes, and habits, and selling the data to advertising firms to shape ad campaigns and develop markets) merged with a competitor and expanded its services into the newest media market: Television.
The idea was to choose "average" teevee viewers across the country, based on demographics, asking them to record their viewing habits and choices in a booklet, along with brief comments, and mail them in to the Nielsen Company every week.
Being chosen as a "Nielsen Family" was a bit of a cachet, once upon a time -- it was some official seal of approval that you were considered 'normal', a regular American demographic unit, at a time when general conformity and regular behavior was being sold to the country along with tires, Chevrolets, gasoline, corn flakes and Alka-Seltzer.
Nielsen has been at it ever since. The gingnormous graphic above shows current data involving teevee viewing versus online media: More chartporn for you.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Bzzzzzzzz!
Where Have All The Flowers Gone
Daily Infographic is a terrific site; if you don't know it, you should. It's a treat for someone like me, who enjoys seeing the graphic representation of information. They try, daily, to present something worth knowing about, in a format worth looking at.
For some people, Powerpoint and Excel are the heights of presenting data to an audience. Infographic shows that there are many ways to put skin on a set of numbers to provide a new perspective, a wider appreciation of how important (or, not) the data you're looking at may be.
Unfortunately, their graphic today is about bees. Or, more precisely, their vanishing due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), an apian disease we still haven't been able to isolate, or find a cure for.
No bees, no pollination. No pollination, and a variety of plants which depend on bees to complete a cycle of producing fruit and vegetables simply ends. Crops decline; prices for certain good skyrocket (I'll bet Goldman-Sachs is just waiting for that); people go hungry. So far, even with a terrific effort on the part of scientists and entomologists world-wide, they have no idea what causes CCD or how to treat and prevent it.
And pollination by hand has been proven far less effective than a pollen delivery system developed through millions of years of Evolution. It's a labor-intensive process, too: Who, in These Modern Times, will you hire to do it? what will you pay them? Will they have health care and 401(k)s, or will they beundocumented and exploited workers picked up on a streetcorner from Mexico and Central America?
Science is not the panacea we were taught as children in the 50's and 60's: We can send men into space! We got rid of Polio and Smallpox! Science will solve all our problems!
However, Science wasn't pure. It always seemed (to me, anyway) connected to particularly corporate notions of that Future Life we were all being promised was just over the hill -- the world as pictured in the GE Carousel Of Progress at Disneyland.
And, Progress invariably meant Bringing The American Way Of Life to people in Darkest Otheristan, before the Commies showed up and started talking about communal farming and the Dialectic Of Struggle™. And Progress often has to be protected by advanced weaponry and military advisers, and Coca-Cola.
Anyway, the data about CCD is there, and it's not pretty. The presentation is, though -- and to see it at a large enough size to be readable, go here.
© Daily Infographics 2010 (Click For Really Big Graphic! It's Fun!)
Daily Infographic is a terrific site; if you don't know it, you should. It's a treat for someone like me, who enjoys seeing the graphic representation of information. They try, daily, to present something worth knowing about, in a format worth looking at.
For some people, Powerpoint and Excel are the heights of presenting data to an audience. Infographic shows that there are many ways to put skin on a set of numbers to provide a new perspective, a wider appreciation of how important (or, not) the data you're looking at may be.
Unfortunately, their graphic today is about bees. Or, more precisely, their vanishing due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), an apian disease we still haven't been able to isolate, or find a cure for.
No bees, no pollination. No pollination, and a variety of plants which depend on bees to complete a cycle of producing fruit and vegetables simply ends. Crops decline; prices for certain good skyrocket (I'll bet Goldman-Sachs is just waiting for that); people go hungry. So far, even with a terrific effort on the part of scientists and entomologists world-wide, they have no idea what causes CCD or how to treat and prevent it.
And pollination by hand has been proven far less effective than a pollen delivery system developed through millions of years of Evolution. It's a labor-intensive process, too: Who, in These Modern Times, will you hire to do it? what will you pay them? Will they have health care and 401(k)s, or will they be
Science is not the panacea we were taught as children in the 50's and 60's: We can send men into space! We got rid of Polio and Smallpox! Science will solve all our problems!
However, Science wasn't pure. It always seemed (to me, anyway) connected to particularly corporate notions of that Future Life we were all being promised was just over the hill -- the world as pictured in the GE Carousel Of Progress at Disneyland.
And, Progress invariably meant Bringing The American Way Of Life to people in Darkest Otheristan, before the Commies showed up and started talking about communal farming and the Dialectic Of Struggle™. And Progress often has to be protected by advanced weaponry and military advisers, and Coca-Cola.
Anyway, the data about CCD is there, and it's not pretty. The presentation is, though -- and to see it at a large enough size to be readable, go here.
© Daily Infographics 2010 (Click For Really Big Graphic! It's Fun!)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Vocabulary Of Dog
Dog Is Listening
The Classic: Gary Larson's The Far Side, 1980's
Interesting Dog Category: The always indefatigably charming New York Times online reports that 82-year-old Dr. John W. Pilley, a retired psychologist and university professor in South Carolina, had read a report in Science magazine about Rico, a Border Collie whose German owners had taught him to recognize 200 items, mostly toys and balls.
Dr. Pilley decided to repeat the experiment with his own adopted Border Collie, named Chaser, and recently published his findings in the current issue of the journal Behavioural Processes.
Chaser And Dr. Pilley (Photo: HWT Image Library)
He bought Chaser as a puppy in 2004 from a local breeder (the Times reported), and started to train her for four to five hours a day. He would show her an object, say its name up to 40 times, then hide it and ask her to find it, while repeating the name all the time. She was taught one or two new names a day, with monthly revisions and reinforcement for any names she had forgotten.
One of the goals was to see if he could teach Chaser a larger vocabulary than the 200 words Rico had acquired. But that vocabulary is based on physical objects that must be given a name the dog can recognize.
Who Has The Larger Vocabulary Here? It's A Tossup.
Pilley said that most border collies, with special training, could reach Chaser's level of comprehension. When Chaser’s dog breeder was told of the experiment, he expressed no surprise about the dog’s ability, "just that I had had the patience to teach her,” Dr. Pilley said.
"Chaser proved to be a diligent student," sadi the Times. Unlike human children, she seems to love her drills and tests and is always asking for more. 'She still demands four to five hours a day,' Dr. Pilley said. 'I’m 82, and I have to go to bed to get away from her.'
Chaser, With Dr. Pilley (At Rear On Right)
Anyone who's spent time around a Border Collie will know their almost inexhaustible capacity to, you know -- do stuff. All the time. Personally, I consider that breed obsessive-compulsive show-offs, but what do I know.
Anyway: We're Listening. Wonder why we don't do more than Bark? When humans say anything that actually makes sense, we'll reply; we just haven't heard it yet.
The Classic: Gary Larson's The Far Side, 1980's
Interesting Dog Category: The always indefatigably charming New York Times online reports that 82-year-old Dr. John W. Pilley, a retired psychologist and university professor in South Carolina, had read a report in Science magazine about Rico, a Border Collie whose German owners had taught him to recognize 200 items, mostly toys and balls.
Dr. Pilley decided to repeat the experiment with his own adopted Border Collie, named Chaser, and recently published his findings in the current issue of the journal Behavioural Processes.
Chaser And Dr. Pilley (Photo: HWT Image Library)
He bought Chaser as a puppy in 2004 from a local breeder (the Times reported), and started to train her for four to five hours a day. He would show her an object, say its name up to 40 times, then hide it and ask her to find it, while repeating the name all the time. She was taught one or two new names a day, with monthly revisions and reinforcement for any names she had forgotten.
One of the goals was to see if he could teach Chaser a larger vocabulary than the 200 words Rico had acquired. But that vocabulary is based on physical objects that must be given a name the dog can recognize.
Who Has The Larger Vocabulary Here? It's A Tossup.
Pilley said that most border collies, with special training, could reach Chaser's level of comprehension. When Chaser’s dog breeder was told of the experiment, he expressed no surprise about the dog’s ability, "just that I had had the patience to teach her,” Dr. Pilley said.
"Chaser proved to be a diligent student," sadi the Times. Unlike human children, she seems to love her drills and tests and is always asking for more. 'She still demands four to five hours a day,' Dr. Pilley said. 'I’m 82, and I have to go to bed to get away from her.'
Chaser, With Dr. Pilley (At Rear On Right)
Anyone who's spent time around a Border Collie will know their almost inexhaustible capacity to, you know -- do stuff. All the time. Personally, I consider that breed obsessive-compulsive show-offs, but what do I know.
Anyway: We're Listening. Wonder why we don't do more than Bark? When humans say anything that actually makes sense, we'll reply; we just haven't heard it yet.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Self-Knowledge: Stuff About Us
As an infoporn Geek, I solemnly believe the New York Times online edition has some of the most dependable, coolest graphic displays of information on the Intertubes. They pioneered the use of, and have published a huge number of Basic Interactive Maps to present statistical information -- mostly, relating to life in These United States.
NYT, 12/14/10: Map Of American Counties And Median Income
And, they simply have a consistent, recognizable style in the design of their graphic presentations: You can look at one and (without viewing the banner at the top of the page) generally recognize it as being created by the KoolKidz at the NYT.
(NYT, 12/1/10; Click To Enlarge. It's Easy And Fun!)
Below is a graphic from Jennifer Daniel (part of a larger story on the Statistical Abstract Of The United States, the annual report of the U.S. Census Bureau), showing "America By The Numbers".
You'll learn a great deal about yourself. And, you'll have something to talk about when Life hands you an awkward pause in conversation. Tell people on the bus that we drink much more wine and eat less vegetables; or mention to your significant other that only 5.6% of the continental U.S. is considered 'developed land'!
It'll help in boosting your self-confidence, and in forgetting the really awkward fact that we know absolutely nothing about the nature of Reality, what we're doing here, or why anything is. At all. Enjoy:
(NYT, 1/7/11. Click For Larger Graphic; More Fun For YOU!)
NYT, 12/14/10: Map Of American Counties And Median Income
And, they simply have a consistent, recognizable style in the design of their graphic presentations: You can look at one and (without viewing the banner at the top of the page) generally recognize it as being created by the KoolKidz at the NYT.
(NYT, 12/1/10; Click To Enlarge. It's Easy And Fun!)
Below is a graphic from Jennifer Daniel (part of a larger story on the Statistical Abstract Of The United States, the annual report of the U.S. Census Bureau), showing "America By The Numbers".
You'll learn a great deal about yourself. And, you'll have something to talk about when Life hands you an awkward pause in conversation. Tell people on the bus that we drink much more wine and eat less vegetables; or mention to your significant other that only 5.6% of the continental U.S. is considered 'developed land'!
It'll help in boosting your self-confidence, and in forgetting the really awkward fact that we know absolutely nothing about the nature of Reality, what we're doing here, or why anything is. At all. Enjoy:
(NYT, 1/7/11. Click For Larger Graphic; More Fun For YOU!)
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Future Crazy Rising
The Echo Chamber Rules
"We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us":
Person Carrying Assault Rifle At Event In Phoenix, Arizona,
Where President Obama Touted Health Care Reform, 2009
David Kurtz writes at TPM that for newly-elected members of the House of Representatives, "their first week on the job will forever be marked by the attack on Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)". That another line had been crossed with that event, and how the new House reacts to it is anyone's guess.
"Beginning in August 2009 [Kurtz writes], when the tea party movement began disrupting congressional town halls in districts across the country", Democrats experienced a sudden, in-your-face attack by people with no anger management skills and every intent to intimidate the Democratic politician being 'targeted'.
I remember news coverage of various Democratic Senators and Representatives, in video clips showing them standing, trying to talk reasonably with people who had been sent to Town Hall meetings to be angry -- to "shout out", disrupt and dominate, any of the Democrat's Town Halls with the Righteous Anger of True American Patriots: the so-called tea party movement.
It was to provide a focus for Nightly News video, which everyone knows follows the loudest noise or shiniest object. Television news viewers across America and the world saw clips of angry people, shouting at a Democratic politician (on some occasions, even inches away from their face, as happened to Senator Arlen Specter), publicly accusing them of being a "Socialist" with "Washington's Socialist Agenda" for "Socialist Health Care".
'Rocking The Town Hall', 2009; Shown By Fox As Just "Concerned
Americans", Only Exercising Their First Amendment Freedoms
Spread out in the hall... towards the front, stated an organizing memo, "Rocking The Town Hall", written by one of the 'founders' of the Tea Party movement, Bob MacGuffie. The objective is to put the rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up... The The rep should be made to feel that a majority... [of the] audience opposes the socialist agenda of Washington... The goal is to rattle him, move him off his prepared goal and statements... stand up and shout out... Look for opportunities...
This wasn't about promoting actual discussion of an important issue at the community level. It was a beer-hall tactic, to derail discussion and provide images to be spun over and over on television. It was to give an impression that a majority of people in America were angry over a "Socialist" Health Care reform plan. It was about silencing, not promoting, constructive debate.
(Right Principles PAC memo by Bob MacGuffie, a founder of the Tea
Party Nation, June 2009. Photo/Text: HistoryCommons.org)
Most people sighed, watching such clips (rebroadcast over, and over on CNN and the Little Rupert channel, which was exactly what the Rightist PACs wanted), and shrugged... it's all getting so crazy; but, what're ya gonna do....
At that same time in 2009, the number of violent threats against Democratic House members rose sharply. "Despite Republican claims that Democrats were milking the threats and exaggerating them for political gain," Kurtz writes, "the threats were deeply troubling to Democrats privately. They were forced to rethink holding town halls and to recalibrate the risks associated with being a public official."
Unlike the House leadership, regular Members do not receive security details -- and from that perspective, Democratic Representatives were shaken by the tea party crazies. They saw Rising Crazy on the Right as leading to some kind of an incident, where they were were targets vulnerable to physical harm.
"But things had calmed down for the most part since the passage of health care in the first part of 2010. As the ...midterm campaigns heated up, the political tenor grew sharply more volatile again," Kurtz wrote.
Little Sarah, Plain And Tall, With A Treasured Friend
During the Health Care Reform debate in 2010, if an attack on a Democratic House member had occurred, Kurtz stated, "or [in] the run up to the elections, no one would have been shocked. But [after the midterm election] the heat of the moment seemed to have dissipated."
Kurtz noted that the kind of community meeting which Representative Giffords held yesterday in Tuscon is the "bread and butter" of a Member of the House when they are away from Washington. It's considered essential, a duty of elected office. However, the entire House of Representatives (including the 94 newly-elected Members) now knows from their first week on the job that unless they pay for their own security, they are vulnerable to The Crazy.That in the future, any one of them, or their staff, could be a target.
No one knows whether what happened in Tuscon will make Representatives without security less likely to meet, up close and personal, with their constituents in future -- and whether that makes the political process more, not less, centered on the insular little riverside village where America concentrates its politics.
Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old gunman apprehended at the Tuscon shooting yesterday (indicted on charges of assault, murder, and attempted nurder today), is already being described in the Rightist blogosphere as a Leftist crazy -- primarily because the Tea Party wants to put as much distance between themselves and Loughner as possible.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee made an unsolicited comment to the press today, saying, "What we know about [Loughner] is that he was reading Karl Marx, and reading Hitler, and burning the American flag. That's not the profile of a typical tea party member if that's the inference that's being made."
(It's a theme on the Right, by the way, that Hitler was a leftist -- that 'Mein Kampf' was a 'Socialist' tract, and that the National Socialist German Workers' Party was a leftist movement. It's true; they really want to believe that.)
Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Blog Rant
With all this a prologue, my prediction is, after some kind of interval (not necessarily decent) following yesterday's shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, that there will suddenly be a rise in announcements by Republican House Members -- all talking about threats against themselves and their families... from Leftist crazies.
It'll be the same type of claim the Right has made, falsely, for two decades: That the mainstream media is owned and dominated by liberals and the Left.
As if to prove that old claim a lie, Little Rupert's Fox will pick up this talk of New Threat From The Left, and broadcast it; spin, and repeat... Broadcast; spin, and repeat. Broadcast; spin, and repeat; the claim that the Right is more threatened by the possibility of an armed Left. And, it'll be picked up by Lard Boy, Bill-O, Drudge, Little Glen Beck, and the rest of the Echo Chamber: Broadcast; spin, and repeat. Broadcast; spin, and repeat.
By the Autumn of this year, Gabrielle Giffords will have become the new Rethug poster child for fears of violence -- from the Left, when none exists. It will be just another step in the Echo Chambers' process of demonizing anything Liberal or Progressive, confusing public understanding of the realities we're facing, and further polarizing American society when we can least afford it.
But as I've said, Little Rupert and the rest of the Echo Chamber could care less for all the harm they're doing by fabricating and escalating conflict and division. It's all about money and profit, for them; nothing more.
So; what're ya gonna do. Sometimes I think that as Americans, we deserve everything we're all going to end up getting. Collectively, we're that stupid.
But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.
"We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us":
Person Carrying Assault Rifle At Event In Phoenix, Arizona,
Where President Obama Touted Health Care Reform, 2009
David Kurtz writes at TPM that for newly-elected members of the House of Representatives, "their first week on the job will forever be marked by the attack on Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)". That another line had been crossed with that event, and how the new House reacts to it is anyone's guess.
"Beginning in August 2009 [Kurtz writes], when the tea party movement began disrupting congressional town halls in districts across the country", Democrats experienced a sudden, in-your-face attack by people with no anger management skills and every intent to intimidate the Democratic politician being 'targeted'.
I remember news coverage of various Democratic Senators and Representatives, in video clips showing them standing, trying to talk reasonably with people who had been sent to Town Hall meetings to be angry -- to "shout out", disrupt and dominate, any of the Democrat's Town Halls with the Righteous Anger of True American Patriots: the so-called tea party movement.
It was to provide a focus for Nightly News video, which everyone knows follows the loudest noise or shiniest object. Television news viewers across America and the world saw clips of angry people, shouting at a Democratic politician (on some occasions, even inches away from their face, as happened to Senator Arlen Specter), publicly accusing them of being a "Socialist" with "Washington's Socialist Agenda" for "Socialist Health Care".
'Rocking The Town Hall', 2009; Shown By Fox As Just "Concerned
Americans", Only Exercising Their First Amendment Freedoms
Spread out in the hall... towards the front, stated an organizing memo, "Rocking The Town Hall", written by one of the 'founders' of the Tea Party movement, Bob MacGuffie. The objective is to put the rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up... The The rep should be made to feel that a majority... [of the] audience opposes the socialist agenda of Washington... The goal is to rattle him, move him off his prepared goal and statements... stand up and shout out... Look for opportunities...
This wasn't about promoting actual discussion of an important issue at the community level. It was a beer-hall tactic, to derail discussion and provide images to be spun over and over on television. It was to give an impression that a majority of people in America were angry over a "Socialist" Health Care reform plan. It was about silencing, not promoting, constructive debate.
(Right Principles PAC memo by Bob MacGuffie, a founder of the Tea
Party Nation, June 2009. Photo/Text: HistoryCommons.org)
Most people sighed, watching such clips (rebroadcast over, and over on CNN and the Little Rupert channel, which was exactly what the Rightist PACs wanted), and shrugged... it's all getting so crazy; but, what're ya gonna do....
At that same time in 2009, the number of violent threats against Democratic House members rose sharply. "Despite Republican claims that Democrats were milking the threats and exaggerating them for political gain," Kurtz writes, "the threats were deeply troubling to Democrats privately. They were forced to rethink holding town halls and to recalibrate the risks associated with being a public official."
Unlike the House leadership, regular Members do not receive security details -- and from that perspective, Democratic Representatives were shaken by the tea party crazies. They saw Rising Crazy on the Right as leading to some kind of an incident, where they were were targets vulnerable to physical harm.
"But things had calmed down for the most part since the passage of health care in the first part of 2010. As the ...midterm campaigns heated up, the political tenor grew sharply more volatile again," Kurtz wrote.
Little Sarah, Plain And Tall, With A Treasured Friend
During the Health Care Reform debate in 2010, if an attack on a Democratic House member had occurred, Kurtz stated, "or [in] the run up to the elections, no one would have been shocked. But [after the midterm election] the heat of the moment seemed to have dissipated."
Kurtz noted that the kind of community meeting which Representative Giffords held yesterday in Tuscon is the "bread and butter" of a Member of the House when they are away from Washington. It's considered essential, a duty of elected office. However, the entire House of Representatives (including the 94 newly-elected Members) now knows from their first week on the job that unless they pay for their own security, they are vulnerable to The Crazy.That in the future, any one of them, or their staff, could be a target.
No one knows whether what happened in Tuscon will make Representatives without security less likely to meet, up close and personal, with their constituents in future -- and whether that makes the political process more, not less, centered on the insular little riverside village where America concentrates its politics.
Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old gunman apprehended at the Tuscon shooting yesterday (indicted on charges of assault, murder, and attempted nurder today), is already being described in the Rightist blogosphere as a Leftist crazy -- primarily because the Tea Party wants to put as much distance between themselves and Loughner as possible.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee made an unsolicited comment to the press today, saying, "What we know about [Loughner] is that he was reading Karl Marx, and reading Hitler, and burning the American flag. That's not the profile of a typical tea party member if that's the inference that's being made."
(It's a theme on the Right, by the way, that Hitler was a leftist -- that 'Mein Kampf' was a 'Socialist' tract, and that the National Socialist German Workers' Party was a leftist movement. It's true; they really want to believe that.)
Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Blog Rant
With all this a prologue, my prediction is, after some kind of interval (not necessarily decent) following yesterday's shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, that there will suddenly be a rise in announcements by Republican House Members -- all talking about threats against themselves and their families... from Leftist crazies.
It'll be the same type of claim the Right has made, falsely, for two decades: That the mainstream media is owned and dominated by liberals and the Left.
As if to prove that old claim a lie, Little Rupert's Fox will pick up this talk of New Threat From The Left, and broadcast it; spin, and repeat... Broadcast; spin, and repeat. Broadcast; spin, and repeat; the claim that the Right is more threatened by the possibility of an armed Left. And, it'll be picked up by Lard Boy, Bill-O, Drudge, Little Glen Beck, and the rest of the Echo Chamber: Broadcast; spin, and repeat. Broadcast; spin, and repeat.
By the Autumn of this year, Gabrielle Giffords will have become the new Rethug poster child for fears of violence -- from the Left, when none exists. It will be just another step in the Echo Chambers' process of demonizing anything Liberal or Progressive, confusing public understanding of the realities we're facing, and further polarizing American society when we can least afford it.
But as I've said, Little Rupert and the rest of the Echo Chamber could care less for all the harm they're doing by fabricating and escalating conflict and division. It's all about money and profit, for them; nothing more.
So; what're ya gonna do. Sometimes I think that as Americans, we deserve everything we're all going to end up getting. Collectively, we're that stupid.
But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Crazy
New York Times January 8, 2011, By MARC LACEY and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and 18 other people were shot just north of Tucson on Saturday morning when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket where Ms. Giffords was meeting with constituents for a “Congress on Your Corner” event.
Ms. Giffords, 40, was described as being in very critical condition at the University Medical Center in Tucson, where she was operated on by a team of neurosurgeons. Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital’s trauma and critical care unit, said that she had been shot once in the head, “through and through,” with the bullet going through her brain.
“I can tell you at this time, I am very optimistic about her recovery,” Dr. Rhee said in a news conference. “We cannot tell what kind of recovery but I’m as optimistic as it can get in this kind of situation.”
Truly shocking; a tragedy; a nine-year-old girl and a Federal Judge killed. Which, of course, the floating scum of the Rightist echo chamber will remind us, could not have been foreseen, and for which no one (aside from the gunman and any co-conspirators) can be blamed.
Commentary By Gummo At The Great Curmudgeon
At a press conference, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said that
(NOTE: I originally thought ABC had reported that Gifford's husband, U.S. Navy Captain and Astronaut, Mark Kelley, had replied to a reporter's question that the Tea Party was to blame for the attack on his wife. That's what I believed I'd heard; I tried to find transcripts for both the ABC World News and CBS Evening News, but they haven't yet been released for today's broadcasts. After watching clips of both programs, I believe the reference was actually to the Pima County Sheriff.)
Unfortunately, Speaker Boner, President Sessions and President Cantor won't blame any of this, or of the increasingly violent rhetoric and acts in America, on the Rethug hate machine: Like Little Glenny Beck, Lard Boy; Bill-O; Little Mikey Weiner; Little Rupert, and Little Annie Coulter; I've written about it before.
Individually and collectively, for nearly twenty years, they and others who mimic them have all made a great deal of money by demonizing the Left, creating a public vomatorium of hatred -- because it sells (Lard Boy himself admitted that the controversy he creates with his hate speech "allows me to charge confiscatory ad[vertising] rates").
"Second Amendment solutions" "Tea Party Justice" "We didn't bring guns -- this time" [Handmade signs from photos of tea party rallies]; "Why don't [terrorists car-bomb] the New York Times" [Coulter]; "We are at war with this president" [Limbaugh]; "The Revolution is Now" [Beck]; "You fags should get AIDS and die" "Only ...resistance to this baby dictator, Barack Hussein Obama, can prevent the Khmer Rouge from appearing in this country" [Weiner]; "At what point do the people march down to their state legislator's house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp?" [Erik Erikson, Red State]
Map Of Democratic 'Targets', From SARAHPAC Website, 2010
(Giffords' is third in the Arizona map, on the lower right)
Like the crosshairs on Little Sarah Palin's website map of Democrats "targeted" in the midterm elections. Giffords herself told CBS News in an interview (replayed on the CBS Evening News tonight) during the 2010 elections that Palin's use of "crosshairs... looks harmless, but can have real consequences".
Little Sarah, Plain and Tall, posted a brief comment on her Facebook site, My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona... we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.
Peace? No. Like a person who provides the weapon, The Little Sarahs of the world thrive on fear and conflict to make a profit. When someone uses the weapon for a violent attack, the Little Sarahs and Glennys, Lard Boys and Mikey Weiners say Hey; we're not responsible for what some nut case does!
Justice? No. They won't be blamed.
A commentator at The Great Curmudgeon's site noted that in Weimar Germany, violent right-wing rhetoric, and actual violence including political assassination defined that pre-Hitler era, adding, "What we're seeing is nothing new".
The Right in this country -- like the Right in Europe of the 20's and 30's -- can't be divorced from its pustulent rhetoric. They rely on it to define themselves; by contrast, the Left in America doesn't respond in kind. And violent words lead to progressively more violent acts. Only a fool will refuse to see that.
Only a fool believes that currents in history never repeat themselves. But the Right, which eagerly laps up the vomit of the Becks and Limbaughs and O'Reillys, aren't much concerned with History. And ignoring the past is to walk down an incline which is almost impossible to climb up again, without paying a heavy price. Ask the Germans. Ask the Spanish.
But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.
TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and 18 other people were shot just north of Tucson on Saturday morning when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket where Ms. Giffords was meeting with constituents for a “Congress on Your Corner” event.
Ms. Giffords, 40, was described as being in very critical condition at the University Medical Center in Tucson, where she was operated on by a team of neurosurgeons. Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital’s trauma and critical care unit, said that she had been shot once in the head, “through and through,” with the bullet going through her brain.
“I can tell you at this time, I am very optimistic about her recovery,” Dr. Rhee said in a news conference. “We cannot tell what kind of recovery but I’m as optimistic as it can get in this kind of situation.”
Truly shocking; a tragedy; a nine-year-old girl and a Federal Judge killed. Which, of course, the floating scum of the Rightist echo chamber will remind us, could not have been foreseen, and for which no one (aside from the gunman and any co-conspirators) can be blamed.
Commentary By Gummo At The Great Curmudgeon
At a press conference, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said that
When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government -- The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the Capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry... vitriol might be free speech, but it's not without consequences.
(NOTE: I originally thought ABC had reported that Gifford's husband, U.S. Navy Captain and Astronaut, Mark Kelley, had replied to a reporter's question that the Tea Party was to blame for the attack on his wife. That's what I believed I'd heard; I tried to find transcripts for both the ABC World News and CBS Evening News, but they haven't yet been released for today's broadcasts. After watching clips of both programs, I believe the reference was actually to the Pima County Sheriff.)
Unfortunately, Speaker Boner, President Sessions and President Cantor won't blame any of this, or of the increasingly violent rhetoric and acts in America, on the Rethug hate machine: Like Little Glenny Beck, Lard Boy; Bill-O; Little Mikey Weiner; Little Rupert, and Little Annie Coulter; I've written about it before.
Individually and collectively, for nearly twenty years, they and others who mimic them have all made a great deal of money by demonizing the Left, creating a public vomatorium of hatred -- because it sells (Lard Boy himself admitted that the controversy he creates with his hate speech "allows me to charge confiscatory ad[vertising] rates").
"Second Amendment solutions" "Tea Party Justice" "We didn't bring guns -- this time" [Handmade signs from photos of tea party rallies]; "Why don't [terrorists car-bomb] the New York Times" [Coulter]; "We are at war with this president" [Limbaugh]; "The Revolution is Now" [Beck]; "You fags should get AIDS and die" "Only ...resistance to this baby dictator, Barack Hussein Obama, can prevent the Khmer Rouge from appearing in this country" [Weiner]; "At what point do the people march down to their state legislator's house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp?" [Erik Erikson, Red State]
Map Of Democratic 'Targets', From SARAHPAC Website, 2010
(Giffords' is third in the Arizona map, on the lower right)
Like the crosshairs on Little Sarah Palin's website map of Democrats "targeted" in the midterm elections. Giffords herself told CBS News in an interview (replayed on the CBS Evening News tonight) during the 2010 elections that Palin's use of "crosshairs... looks harmless, but can have real consequences".
Little Sarah, Plain and Tall, posted a brief comment on her Facebook site, My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona... we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.
Peace? No. Like a person who provides the weapon, The Little Sarahs of the world thrive on fear and conflict to make a profit. When someone uses the weapon for a violent attack, the Little Sarahs and Glennys, Lard Boys and Mikey Weiners say Hey; we're not responsible for what some nut case does!
Justice? No. They won't be blamed.
A commentator at The Great Curmudgeon's site noted that in Weimar Germany, violent right-wing rhetoric, and actual violence including political assassination defined that pre-Hitler era, adding, "What we're seeing is nothing new".
The Right in this country -- like the Right in Europe of the 20's and 30's -- can't be divorced from its pustulent rhetoric. They rely on it to define themselves; by contrast, the Left in America doesn't respond in kind. And violent words lead to progressively more violent acts. Only a fool will refuse to see that.
Only a fool believes that currents in history never repeat themselves. But the Right, which eagerly laps up the vomit of the Becks and Limbaughs and O'Reillys, aren't much concerned with History. And ignoring the past is to walk down an incline which is almost impossible to climb up again, without paying a heavy price. Ask the Germans. Ask the Spanish.
But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Dog Dominance
More Random Barking: Friday Edition
I'm not sure what Neil Genzlinger is, other than desperate for a topic with which to fill the virtual space of his column as television critic for the New York Times online.
Today's frothy concoction was, "There’s a Canine Conspiracy! Television Reveals It!", wherein we learn that dogs in America are depicted on various cable programs (The Dog Whisperer; It's Me Or The Dog; and Petkeeping With Marc Morrone) as "a collection of neurotic, insecure, bitchy, bullying creatures".
Neil claims, all tongue-in-cheek, aber natürlich, that the causes for so many problem dogs, as shown on these teevee programs, are (1) The Media; (2) Liberal Democrats; and (3) Overregulation.
My opinion? Neil just didn't know what to write about when he got up this morning, after doing Shots from that Exmass gift bottle of Tres Generations, with the person in his life who allows him sexual access, last night.
As his submission deadline approached, he had nothin'. All he could do was slump, poleaxed and semi-comatose, on his sofa, watching whatever he surfed across on his 42" LCD-screen teevee device. Lookit all these shows about dogs, he thought -- though it took a while for the images of dogs to be recognized by his pre-frontal cortex as dogs, and not as, say, home appliances or his third-grade teacher.
And then, he stumbled across Family Guy:
Frankly, Having This Dog, Running The Country, Might
Not Be A Bad Thing At This Point (Photo: Intertubes)
Hey... Brian the Dog. Yeah; that's what I can write about, he thought. Simple; ties in wit' cable teevee... I'll use the Winger argument that it's all because of liberal permissiveness; little snarky ironic social comment, there... yeah, they'll take it. Sure.
He also still had a sufficiently high blood alcohol level to believe that this idea wouldn't be perceived as an act of desperation -- but of bloody genius; total Shakespear, man. Awesome.
Do I know if any of this is actually true? No. Did I indulge my taste for satire to make a point (that the column sucked)? Well, yes. Do I believe, as Neil claims, that there's a Canine Conspiracy; that dogs have it in for humans? No.
No, Neil. Not true. We just have it in for you.
I'm not sure what Neil Genzlinger is, other than desperate for a topic with which to fill the virtual space of his column as television critic for the New York Times online.
Today's frothy concoction was, "There’s a Canine Conspiracy! Television Reveals It!", wherein we learn that dogs in America are depicted on various cable programs (The Dog Whisperer; It's Me Or The Dog; and Petkeeping With Marc Morrone) as "a collection of neurotic, insecure, bitchy, bullying creatures".
Neil claims, all tongue-in-cheek, aber natürlich, that the causes for so many problem dogs, as shown on these teevee programs, are (1) The Media; (2) Liberal Democrats; and (3) Overregulation.
My opinion? Neil just didn't know what to write about when he got up this morning, after doing Shots from that Exmass gift bottle of Tres Generations, with the person in his life who allows him sexual access, last night.
As his submission deadline approached, he had nothin'. All he could do was slump, poleaxed and semi-comatose, on his sofa, watching whatever he surfed across on his 42" LCD-screen teevee device. Lookit all these shows about dogs, he thought -- though it took a while for the images of dogs to be recognized by his pre-frontal cortex as dogs, and not as, say, home appliances or his third-grade teacher.
And then, he stumbled across Family Guy:
Then came the slobbery “Beethoven” movies... and the even more slobbery “Turner & Hooch... And now there’s Brian, the more-human-than-the-humans dog on “Family Guy.” It’s no wonder your postmodern mutt, after spending hours watching this kind of stuff, thinks there are no rules.
Frankly, Having This Dog, Running The Country, Might
Not Be A Bad Thing At This Point (Photo: Intertubes)
Hey... Brian the Dog. Yeah; that's what I can write about, he thought. Simple; ties in wit' cable teevee... I'll use the Winger argument that it's all because of liberal permissiveness; little snarky ironic social comment, there... yeah, they'll take it. Sure.
He also still had a sufficiently high blood alcohol level to believe that this idea wouldn't be perceived as an act of desperation -- but of bloody genius; total Shakespear, man. Awesome.
Do I know if any of this is actually true? No. Did I indulge my taste for satire to make a point (that the column sucked)? Well, yes. Do I believe, as Neil claims, that there's a Canine Conspiracy; that dogs have it in for humans? No.
No, Neil. Not true. We just have it in for you.
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