Reprint Heaven: Conservative Youths Rage Against The Machine

Tacky Peasants; Serve Us Our Drinks!

Elena Kagan; First Day Of Confirmation Hearings (Photo: AP)

[PREDICTION: This picture will be pulled by Google/Picasa]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- At the U.S. Capitol yesterday, some fifty self-described D.C. "youth conservatives" protested against the nomination of Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court.

"We're, like, just very upset that this kind of person is, like, going to be on the Supreme Court?" said Britney Hollingsworth, 20, a student at Georgetown University and president of its local chapter of Campus Young Republicans. "I mean, oh-kay; Hell-o?? I mean just, like, you know, look at this person. She's just won't do, at all."

Some Of Fifty Young Conservatives, At The Capitol

"Most of these, uh, kind of people, you know?" added Caroline Wilksberry, a 19-year-old Freshman at Brown University, "They just don't represent us, you know, mainstream Americans? I had my driver bring me down here today, you know? Because I saw her [Kagan] on television and just thought, you know, 'Ugh'. I mean, she's so tacky. Plus, she's part of a liberal conspiracy to make us all, just-- " Wilksberry waved one hand in the air -- "like, peasants!"

"Rully, rully true," Hollingsworth said. "I mean, I don't want this Kagan person on my Supreme Court. Let's just, you know, like -- put it right out there, you know? Let's just 'speak truth to power', okay? She's, like, not like Chief Justice Roberts, or Justice Kennedy, or even Justice Scalia or Justice Alito. I mean, they're Catholics and all, but they're on the right side. Kagan's just not, you know, 'batting for the team'."

Britney And Caroline At George Will's House In Georgetown

For The Protest After-Party (Photo: YoureNotOurCrowd.kom)

"Not the actual girls' team, added Wilkesberry.

Were the protesters implying that Kagan was homosexual? "Oh, dear; I wouldn't know about that," Hollingsworth responded. "I think Carrie -- and don't let me, like, put words in your mouth, or anything -- what she means is that Kagan's, like, you know -- like, 'not mainstream'."

Then, were they commenting on the fact that Kagan, 50, is Jewish? Both young women responded in the negative. "That's just so unfair, you know? What an awful question," Hollingsworth said. "We, like, have tons of Jewish friends and stuff. My father's accountant is Jewish; I mean, they're like, fine, okay? I've even been to that thing they have at Easter, which isn't Easter. I was in Tel Aviv -- okay, just to change planes; but, I mean, still."

"Me too," added Wilksberry. "I've changed planes there."

"Was that when you and Kiki went to Davos?" Hollingsworth asked.

Other Youth Conservatives Relax In New York City

"No, that was that 'Spring Arab Thing'," Wilksberry responded with a giggle. "Anyway -- we just think Kagan is a tacky socalist. They need a lot more spa days -- and Kagan could stand some exercise -- 'Boot camp for you, girl!' And she was the legal-something for Harvard; I know, but it wasn't like she went there, but because they hired her, okay? Hell-o? And she denied the military to do its constitutional duty to serve and protect, you know; or whatever that scandal was that she did. Plus -- oh! oh! Here's something --"

"I so totally know what you're gonna say!" Hollingsworth added.

"Totally," Wilksberry said. "Okay. Okay -- I know, okay; I know a guy at Yale whose family's groundskeeper was, like, some Communist? Or who went to some twelve-step program they have for Communism, or something? And he told this guy I know that he had seen Kagan in, like, Nicaragua or Cuba or someplace, in 1970!!" Wilksberry paused, smiling. "I mean, there you are!"

"They should, like, be asking her about that in there," Hollingsworth said, pointing in the general direction of the Capitol.

Steven Prescott Kingsford III, Near The National Mall

When it was pointed out that Kagan would have been nine years old in 1970, the two women, and a number of other Youth Conservatives in earshot, gave hoots of derision.

"Hoot! Hoot! That's the liberal media for you," said Steven Prescott Kingsford III, a Sophomore at Princeton. "If you do an analysis of every legal interpretation Kagan has ever made, you can see she quotes radical extremists and Communists. And if things go much further this way in America, I guess we'll just have to hire a bunch of these fundamentalists to run things for a while and get people like Kagan off our backs."

"Hoot!" added Edward Biddle Barrows, who accompanied Kingsford from Princeton, where both are on the university's Lacrosse team. "The ladies here," Barrows said, gesturing at Hollingsworth and Wilksberry, "Are perhaps too polite to say; but, Kagan just doesn't measure up to service on the high court. Not in any way."

Barrows, And Friends, In George Will's Basement At The

Protest After-Party: Lacrosse High Five

"It's like promoting your cook to become your business manager," Hollingsworth said. "Not that such people like that can't, you know -- whip up one hell of a meal on short notice. But to do an investment analysis, or make a decision involving, like, you know -- big stuff? Well, they're just not up to it." Flipping her blonde hair fetchingly, Hollingsworth smiled. "Kagan should just realize her limitations."

"When you have to hire persons," Kingsford added, "they have to be adequately trained; have some seasoning. They have to be -- the right sort. Kagan isn't; not trained, not seasoned, and not right."

"That is so right on," Wilkesberry said. "I'm not going to stand by and watch the interests of people who matter in this country be compromised by a woman who dresses like a Sunday school teacher in Bar Harbor."

Decide Between Buying 200,000 Forested Acres In Western 

Canada, And Investing In Bonds? Above Her Pay Grade!"

"Sweetie, she couldn't teach Sunday school," Holligsworth responded, and the party of Youth Conservatives laughed before going off, as they noted, "for cocktails". A protest after-party was held at George Will's Georgetown home, where the Youth mingled with the likes of Will, Red State's Erik Erikson, newly-married Megan McArdle (trailed by son, Megalon, and his wranglers), and a special-surprise guest appearance by Charles Krauthammer's hair colorist.

Kagan completed her questioning by Senators as to her qualifications for a position in helping to shape the legal basis for American society. Red State later claimed Kagan had been seen buying a book on Marxist political theory in the "Gay and Lesbian" interest section of a local McBorders.

In fairness, it should be pointed out that Red State also believes Jonah Goldberg's tome, Liberal Fascism, is as important a book as Rand's The Fountainhead, or the two metric tons of Ezra Pound's unpublished anti-Semitic writings.

---

You've Made Your Bed

Wie Lange Noch?

...Ein Mensch ist kein Tier!

Denn wie man sich bettet, so liegt man
Es deckt einen da keiner zu
Und wenn einer tritt, dann bin ich es
Und wird einer getreten, dann bist’s du.

...A human being is not an animal!

For as you make your bed, you must lie in it,
and no one there will tuck you in
And if anyone does the kicking, it will be me
and if anyone gets kicked, it will be you.

-- Brecht/Weill, "Dann Wie Man Sich Bettet"
(Then As You Make Your Bed)

Barry Ritholz posted about a long piece which appeared in The Washington Post, "Breakaway Wealth" (paragraphing added for emphasis):

There is a huge Washington Post special report on Breakaway Wealth in the US. More than most other industrialized nations, the US has seen the top 0.1% compensated in vastly disproportionate numbers versus the rest of the populace.

There are at least several reasons to be concerned about this, beyond basic fairness:

• 1) Nations that have extremes wealth disparities tend towards social unrest. Usually, its banana republics and dictatorships, but it could happen in a corporate-owned quasi democracy as well.
• 2) CEOs and other company insiders have been engaging in a massive grab of shareholders wealth for decades. Its gotten appreciably worse in the 2000s.
• 3) Management is now trying to hide their compensation from the business owners — the firm’s shareholders.

The Post article noted, "Here’s one financial figure some big U.S. companies would rather keep secret: how much more their chief executive makes than the typical worker. Now a group backed by 81 major companies — including McDonald’s, Lowe’s, General Dynamics, American Airlines, IBM and General Mills — is lobbying [Congress] against new rules that would force disclosure of that comparison."

Ritholz said, "Legalized theft of shareholder assets, approved by a corrupt Congress. What little respect I had left for the GOP is now completely gone. This is not 'business friendly' — its [sic] utterly corrupt theft of shareholders."

The Post also provided a photo gallery of the twenty richest individuals in the United States in 2011, according to Forbes magazine.

Ritholtz included the following charts from the WaPo article; click on them to make them larger and more readable. It's easy and fun!

The Gap Between Rich And Poor:
The United States Compared With Other Nations

(Graphic: The Washington Post)

What Professions Are The Top One-Tenth
Of One Percent Of United States Earners?

(Graphic: The Washington Post)

A Growing Inequality:
The Top Get Richer; The Rest, Poorer

(Graphic: The Washington Post)

The most interesting thing about all of this isn't even so much that it's happening -- it's that everyone knows it; for years, now, what's left of an independent media not owned by Little Rupert or Comcast or General Electric has reported on it. And apparently nobody gives a damn, and no one in a position to affect this situation will do anything to stop it.

And when London-style underclass riots begin to happen in this country, people will say, "I just don't understand why this is happening", and demand the rioting miscreants be put in labor camps to clean up toxic spill sites, until they've sufficiently received enough Jesus, or something.

But, I'm only a dog, and no one listens to me.

---

A Nation Of Laws

Corporate Police Are People, Too

I am pissed off here. The family hired a private prosecutor -- unacceptable! They conducted a private search!

Now, if we let them get away with that, rich people won't go to the cops any more. You know what they're going to do? They're going to get their own lawyers to collect evidence -- and then they are going to choose which evidence they feel like passing on to the DA!

And the next victim isn't going to be rich, like von Bülow; it's going to be some poor schnook in Detroit who can't afford, or who can't find, a decent lawyer.

-- Ron Silver As Alan Dershowitz In Reversal Of Fortune (1990)

SF Weekly recently reported that in July of this year, employees of Apple Computers had impersonated San Francisco Police Department officers in order to gain access to, and conduct a search of, a home in the city's Bernal Heights neighborhood for a new prototype iPhone that had been lost by an Apple employee at a bar in San Francisco's Mission District.

As chronicled by Carl Franzen of TPM ("SFPD: We Stood Outside When Apple's Investigators Tossed Man's Home"), a man living in the house, 22-year-old Sergio Calderon, initially told SF Weekly that six persons, wearing badges and identifying themselves as SFPD, rifled through his belongings and computer and "threatened" him over the missing phone. Calderon told the "investigators" that he had been at the bar where the phone was lost, but did not have the device and knew nothing about it.

In an update with the Weekly, Calderon later clarified that only two of the six "SFPD" who appeared that night entered his home, while the other four waited outside. The two persons who entered the home also asked Calderon if everyone living in the house - including multiple family members of his family - were American citizens. Calderon told SF Weekly all occupants of his house are in the U.S. legally.

One of two persons searching the home, a man who called himself "Tony," provided Caldeon with a phone number. SF Weekly called it and spoke with Anthony Colon, who admitted being a former San Jose police officer, and said he now works at Apple as a "senior investigator" but refused further comment.

The SFPD issued this statement:

After speaking with Apple representatives, [SFPD was] given information which helped us determine what occurred. It was discovered that Apple employees called Mission Police station directly, wanting assistance in tracking down a lost item. Apple had tracked the lost item to a house located in the 500 block of Anderson Street.

Because the address was in the Ingleside Police district Apple employees were referred to Officers in the Ingleside district. Four SFPD Officers accompanied Apple employees to the Anderson street home. The two Apple employees met with the resident and then went into the house to look for the lost item. The Apple employees did not find the lost item and left the house.

The Apple employees did not want to make an official report of the lost item.

As TPM's Franzen continued, "it remains to be established exactly why SFPD officers didn't file an official report and why the department allowed them to escort Apple's private investigators on a search of a man's home... also, more troublingly, it raises the question of whether SFPD has assisted Apple before, off-the-books, how many times, and in what capacities."

All of this begs the questions -- whether America is what it claims to be, a nation of laws which ensure equality and to protect The People by limiting the excesses of greed or power by the state, or private interests.

And, as our Republic appears to sink slowly in the west (which the ancient Egyptians associated with the Land of the Dead) and the fabric of our culture loosens even further ... whether the idea of a nation of laws has ever, really, been true.

And whether, as experience seems to show, the power of the state can be bought like any other commodity, in furtherance of private and corporate interests.

---

2012

Watch The Skies

Tea Partei's Le Gouvenour Perry Lovin' Him Some Freedom™

Herr Obama is set to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress within a week, about the economy and "job creation". Two days ago, he showed clearly how disconnected and in confusion his White House is lost yet another PR battle with the Rethugs, by seeming not to care if they were upset he asked to address Congress on the same night as a Rethug/Tea Partei Prestidential teevee debate in Teh Carolinas -- and then caving in to President Boner and rescheduling his speech, after Boner threatened to cry and not drink his Viagra-laced Bourbon milk.

If you're a thinking Dog, I would pay very close attention to what Herr Obama says in this address. The speech will be a re-election kick-off in all but name, and (because this time it really is about the Economy, stupid) all the major themes of his 2012 campaign will be laid out in that speech.

The reason I would pay attention to the broad themes he presents in this particular speech is, we'll know immediately whether Obama will change course, admit that continuing down the cut-deficits-without-new-taxes road is suicidal for America (particularly in light of the most recent NFP report from yesterday, and reports from Europe on the effects of Die Neue Austeritie), send out a call to arms that the Democratic Party needs to be a Progressive party and mean it; or, if he is going to "stay the course" and continue to Fluff The Banksters And The Rich.

(Image: ©2011 Mr Fish)

Herr Obama's domestic performance has been dismal, almost nonexistent. So many voices are clamoring for the U.S. government to start spending our way out of this crisis, because interest rates on loans it would take for a massive public works program a la the NRA - WPA (for example) would be close to zero.

They are also saying that to cut spending at this time will drive the economy from a Recession into a Depression -- that all the talk of 'bond vigilantes' and 'the Confidence Fairy' (last seen being gang-banged by Larry Summers, "Timmeh!" Geithner and "Little Capo" Blankfein) is counterproductive to the nation as a whole, and essentially bullshit.

If Mr. Obama appears before Congress and, uh, "declines" to stand up to Rethug blackmail and abuse; if he continues to treat America as a center-right country instead of one that will respect and follow strong leadership in a time of real crisis; and delivers a speech full of payroll cuts and strengthening patent rights, and free and open navigation of all international inland waterways or some such crap as the road to prosperity... well, we should just turn the country over to the nazis and go home -- and remember, church attendance in the New America will be mandatory.

Sadly, that's what seems set to happen. Today's NYT:

People familiar with the White House’s planning say Mr. Obama will focus in his speech on the specifics of his immediate job-creation plans, but leave the details of his longer-term deficit reduction program for later. They say he does not want to dilute the political impact of his jobs message with controversies, especially with his Democratic base, over deficit-reduction ideas like raising the eligibility age for future Medicare recipients.

The signals from the White House suggest that Mr. Obama’s agenda will not be so bold as to satisfy many liberals clamoring for New Deal-style programs... Expected ... is an extension for another year of the payroll tax cut for workers that Mr. Obama and Republicans agreed to last December... Mr. Obama has been considering whether to seek an expansion of the payroll tax cut for employers. And he is expected to propose a separate tax credit for employers who increase their payrolls.

The total cost could reach several hundred billion dollars. But the White House figures that tax cuts have the best chance of Republican support...

Yet Republicans say they oppose another round of stimulus measures, a stance consistent with their argument that Mr. Obama’s original $800 billion stimulus package was a failure...

"Does not want to dilute the political impact of his jobs message with controversies". Yeah; why stand up for your principles when it's simpler to compromise?

Herr Obama has chosen to follow someone's advice in these matters, and cave in to the Rethugs and the Tea Partei -- who are the only ones demanding that the government follow their policies, do what they say, or else they'll shut down the government. Whenever they want. They're stupid, greedy and self-serving bullies, and need to be taught a lesson so severe that at the end of it, they'll wish they'd never heard of Democracy (not that they don't wish that now).

An observation -- the Rethugs, the Tea Partei, the right-wing blogs; Lard Boy and Mikey Wiener and Little Eric Cantor and the Koch Brothers and the rest of them... they say they don't like liberals -- people who hold specific viewpoints antithetical to their own.

They don't like the people -- they've demonized the Left through Little Rupert's sewage factory for nearly twenty years; a friend of mine said in conversation that "the Right uses the word 'Liberal' the same way the Germans used 'Jew' in the thirties", and I don't disagree with the basic sentiment behind that observation.

(Image: ©2011 Mr Fish)

To the pugnacious, gun-totin' American Right, Liberals are second-class citizens; the Right believes that they are the victims in a liberal-controlled world. Ultimately, using the imagery of patriots fighting tyranny (or cunning, Free White People fighting a "Zionist occupation government"), in the minds of the Right it will be fine to do anything to the hated liberals that they want.

It isn't about divergent points of view, with notions of mutual respect; they don't like the people -- and see nothing wrong with that.

They listen to the shrieking of a Mikey Wiener, or the sanctimonious blubbering of Lard Boy; or the endless droning of Bill-O on the Goebbels Little Rupert Network, and think to themselves yeah; yeah, ain't that th' truth ; yeah, we gonna get those motherfuckers, some day, man... someday... -- and see nothing wrong with the violence inherent in that point of view.

Ninety per cent of any historical revolutions have been about dehumanizing the enemy, to the degree that you can seize their property, restrict their ability to work, imprison them and eventually take their lives. But it begins with language, and it ends with a line of bodies in a muddy ditch.

(COMEDY RELIEF / UPDATE: TPM reports that just before Sarah Palin (parent of a child with Down Syndrome) made a much-anticipated speech in Iowa this past week, a Los Angles-based right-wing comedian named Eric Golub told a joke that compared left-leaning political ideology to "special needs children."

After praising Little Sarah on raising her son, Trig, while continuing a political career, Golub said, "For that reason alone, the left should worship Sarah Palin and adopt her as one of their own. Because the leftist 'haters' are an entire political ideology of special needs children.")

However, we keep waiting in vain for a champion; Obama certainly isn't FDR, and he isn't going to fight back against the Thugs.

He's already proven that, many times. And yes, I'll hold my nose and vote for him when the time comes -- but only because he will probably be running against Le Gouvenour Placard, Mssr. Rick Perry, Dumber Than A Bag Of Hammers, who if made President wouldn't stop until at least two guns, and Jesus, is in every American garage and school and courtroom and bedroom.

So, we'll watch with mounting horror as Herr Obama bends over for the Right, yet again. But we will none of us be surprised.

---

Mehr: Yes, indeed. We elected someone for whom 'The Art Of The Deal' is looked upon as a virtue -- only, that requires you succeed in getting something for your side in the negotiations.

Remind me, please: Why did we elect this person? And, we're only going to re-elect him because the alternative is worse? And exactly why is this in any way good?

Just wanted to get that clear.

• NYT, 9/2/11: John M. Broder, "Obama Administration Abandons Stricter Air-Quality Rules"
• Rolling Stone, 8/24/11: Matt Taibbi, "Obama Goes All Out For Dirty Banker Deal"
• The Great Curmudegon 9/2/11: "Infrastructure"
• UK Guardian, 9/5/11: Ewan MacAskil, "Obama Criticized For Civil Rights Violations"

---

It Comes As No Surprise

Only A Little More Sophisticated

I had been out of High School Madness less than a year when I ran into a person who had graduated two years ahead of me, and had taken some pleasure in making my life difficult (not all that hard to do, particularly in Der Hochschule).

For whatever reason, I was talking about how people changed after high school, or didn't. This person replied, "You're wrong; people still run the same numbers they did in high school. They only get more sophisticated at it."

At the time, I thought No, you're wrong. In the many, many years since that conversation, however, I have begun to doubt the We-Can-All-Change-Yes-We-Can spirit from which I parted from HS Madness, more in favor of plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (and after you, my Dear Alphonse).

Later on, I remember reading a character in someone's novel (and I think it was one of Stephen King's), explaining to another character that "there are two versions of history -- 'conspiracy', or 'fuck-up'. Which one do you believe in?" I'm reminded quite often of the timeliness of that observation.

Particularly, when I read something like this: David (thereisnospoon) Atkins at Digby quoted writer Michael Lewis, in his book about credit-default swaps magnifying the impact and disaster that was The Real Estate Bubble, The Big Short.

By way of saying there was no conspiracy in The Great Bubble Game (only a massive, Black-Swan, Perfect-Storm series of fuck-ups), and no shortage of gifted, intelligent people sounding the alarm, Atkins quoted Lewis as he recounted a story of Michael Burry, legendary hedge fund manager.

Burry, thirty-something founder of a hedge fund, Scion Capital LLC, looked with some alarm at the trading in Credit Default Swaps (or CDS's), an exotic investment vehicle that had only been allowed with changes pushed through Congress under "Lil' Boots" Bush -- never contested by a compliant SEC (in the same way that the ratio of leveraged dollars to assets among investment and banking firms was allowed, without question, to go up to 40:1).

Burry 'saw the whole board' -- from inflated real estate prices, to mortgage loans with bad terms and no due diligence; to over-leveraged banks and trading houses; and finally, the 'side bets' of Credit Default Swaps, which he believed made a domino-effect crash of the Bubble that much more likely.

Burry wasn't entirely a saint -- he thought he might make money for his clients and himself by betting that the Bubble was going to burst and that the Crash would occur (Goldman-Sachs did, too -- and kept pushing toxic, securitized mortgage pool investments to their clients at the same time).

If everything fell apart, Burry and Scion would make a fortune -- and did; after the Crash, Burry had earned a personal profit of $100 million, and a profit for his investors of more than $700 million. By comparison, most other hedge funds, and their clients, lost heavily.

In 2005, Burry contacted five major Wall Street firms and banks, and asked questions to test how they were investing in Credit Default Swaps; and were they interested in doing business around CDS's with his hedge fund? The answer was that "only Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs had any real interest in continuing the conversation. No one on Wall Street, as far as [Burry] could tell, saw what he was seeing." They were trading in CDS's without understanding the risk.

David Atkins continues:

No one could see what he was seeing. This is in 2005 -- fairly late in the bubble game. And still no one could see what he was seeing. Later on in the book Michael Lewis tells of the crucial moments when Wall St. first started to really realize that credit default swaps were going to bring the whole system down and stopped selling them. It was a like a spooked herd of cattle stampeding for the exits all at once.

And as the book chronicles, most of Michael Burry's wealthiest clients were furious with his market-shorting investment strategy for years, often pulling their money out of his firm in protest because they all wanted in on the big money mortgage derivative game all the rest of the big boys were playing.

One of the biggest lessons one can learn in life is that no matter how far up one rises or doesn't rise, the world is still populated by the same sort of morons we met in high school. It never gets better. The people at the top of the economic [sic] are just as greedy, impulsive, reckless, shortsighted and petty as everyone who annoys us in our everyday lives.

... It's idiots, all the way up the chain. Idiots like Thomas Friedman and Alan Greenspan, neither of whom can prognosticate two feet in front of their noses, but whose words are taken as gospel by all the rest of collective fools who think they're the smartest guys in the room. Which makes it all the more important that the idiots at the highest levels of government, whether they sport a fancy meaningless Ivy League degree or not, start listening to the actual smart people who did see it coming. Accurate prognostication is how policy makers can actually tell the smart people from the idiots.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

---

Hurricane Irene Slows, Loses Power

Le Gouvernor Perry Still Says Global Warming A Con Job

At Seawall, Battery Park, Staten Island, New York City, On
Sunday Morning (Photo: Michael Appelton)

Hurricane Irene has torn across the East Coast of the United States, from it's initial landfall at North Carolina on Friday, leaving a trail of wreckage as it made its way north. Nine people have died in storm-related incidents, and the cost of property damage, and overtime pay for essential service workers in at least twelve states, is likely to be high.

4 million people are without power, hundreds of flights have been rerouted or cancelled, and flooding is a serious issue. Two hundred trees were blown over in Washington D.C. alone.

Waves Crashing Into The Shoreline At Bay Shore, Long Island, NYC;
Greatest Concerns About Irene Are Heavy Rains, High Winds, And
Ocean Water Driven Inland (Photo: Charles Krupa, AP)

Meanwhile, Irene has now been classified as a Tropical Storm as it travels across the U.S. - Canadian border, after which major American news outlets will more or less ignore it.

Soon, she will be a Tropical Depression, receiving counseling and antidepressant medication, which of course is much cheaper in Canada.

---

Mehr: Crazy Lady Grand TurtleBear Michele Bachmann visited the state of Florida over the weekend. In an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Crazy Lady said:

She hailed the tea party as being common-sense Americans who understand government shouldn't spend more than it takes in, know they're taxed enough already and want government to abide by the Constitution.

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' "

And, in the Paper Of Record this morning, Ross Douthat scolds Americans for thinking there could ever be such a thing as a Theocracy in America. What a silly, silly thing. It is, after all, America, and everyone should grow up and be tubby and acerbic and out of touch, and make stuff up. Just like Ross.

Silly America!

---

Noch Einmal, Mit Schwein: Now, Crazy Lady says she was just foolin' in her comment that god was visiting earthquakes and hurricanes upon America to wake up 'overspending politicians'. "Obviously she was saying it in jest," said Grand TurtleBear campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart.

Oh, obviously.

And, in other news, Le Governour Placard, Mssr. Perry, referred to Social Security as "a monstrous lie". Digby has videos, and worth-reading commentary:

Last week, Perry's campaign spokesperson took to the Wall Street Journal to help back Perry off the less election-friendly sections of his book, Fed Up!. That includes Perry's suggestion that Social Security is an unconstitutional scheme which should be privatized post-haste.

Over the weekend, Perry walked all that back and fired off some more fiery rhetoric about the perils of the entitlement program that most Americans do not want to see changed.

"It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people," Perry said in Iowa, mimicking his pre-presidential campaign language on the subject of Social Security.

"The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie," Perry added. "It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them."

---

As True Today As It Was In The Old Times

As I said before:

If alien civilizations are able to pick these broadcasts up, in deciphering our culture they will not know whether to give more weight to [episodes of Family Guy], or FDR's First Inauguration ("Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself") speech.

Any episode where Stewie tries to take over the Earth could mean the difference between aliens who decide to annihilate us just to end The threat of this tiny pink creature with the huge braincase, and aliens who think he's someone they could cut a deal with.

Problems could occur if they arrive and demand to speak with him. Alternatively, we could have problems if they appear and demand to speak with FDR.

Just Sayin'.

---

For First-Time Viewers

The Funny Stuff is way farther back.

I'd try going here, or looking at this. Or, check this out.

And this is good, too.

---

Lybian Capital Of Tripoli Falling

Quaddafi Duck Cooked

Man Places Libyan Rebel Flag (Bob Strong / Reuters / NYT)

Rebels who have been fighting against the regime of Muammar el-Qaddafi for months, with the assistance of NATO air and advisory assets, surged into Libya's capital on Sunday night, meeting only sporadic resistance from troops loyal to Qaddafi Duck's government, and reportedly taking three of his sons into custody.

ABC news reported (and showed on ABC Nightly News) that as Rebel forces pushed into the outskirts of the capital, Qaddafi's troops not only retreated in disorder, but stripped off their uniforms and left them in the streets.

Meanwhile, The Duck was still spouting threats at the Rebels and entreaties for resistance from that fabled Undisclosed Location where tyrants and Whack Jobs™ tend to hang out. The Duck's official media spokesman, Musa Ibraham, claimed "Tripoli is well-protected. We have thousands and thousands of professional soldiers".

Per the New York Times,

The rebel leadership announced that insurgents had captured two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, including Seif al-Islam, his heir apparent. The leadership also announced that the elite presidential guard protecting the Libyan leader had surrendered and that they controlled many parts of the city, not including Colonel Qaddafi’s leadership compound.

Officials loyal to Qaddafi insisted that the fight was not over and there were clashes between rebels and government troops early Monday morning [Sunday night in the United States]. But NATO and American officials said that the Qaddafi’s [sic] regime’s control of Tripoli, which had been its final stronghold, was now in doubt.

“Clearly the offensive for Tripoli is underway,” the State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement. The statement said “Qaddafi’s days are numbered” and urged the rebel leadership to prepare for a transfer of power and “maintain broad outreach across all segments of Libyan society and to plan for a post-Qaddafi Libya.”

Western journalists are staying in their rooms at a hotel in downtown Tripoli, wearing body armor and hearing heavy fighting taking place in the streets below them.

Libyans loyal to Qaddafi are in a state of panic, the reporters say, because they believe when the Rebels enter Triploi in force, there will be bloody revenge taken -- on a clan vs. clan, and individual level -- for the Rebel's losses over the past six months of warfare. Alex Crawford of Britain's SkyTV told CBS News that the Rebels rejected calls by the Qaddafi forces for a cease-fire and are "in no mood for compromise... they can smell victory."

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Mehr: Libyan state television abruptly went off the air at approximately 3:45AM PDST on Monday. CBS News had shown a clip last night of a heavy female news announcer, wearing a green sash (Green being the color of Qaddafi loyalists) and waving a heavy-caliber pistol around, saying to viewers that she was prepared to die defending the station against the Rebels, to "be a martyr".

Not sure how that worked out, but my guess is that her posturing was just additional theatre, and that in all likelihood she is only out of a job. I'd hope that's the case. But, it's a revolution, and denn Der Scheiss kommt.

Meanwhile, in America, it's interesting to see various Rethugs who gave The Duck good press, when it suited them, and now that the wind is blowing the other way are cheering on his downfall. The Great Curmudgeon quotes Senator Old Man as saying on August 15, 2009:

Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his "ranch" in Libya - interesting meeting with an interesting man.

And, Senator Old Man today:

Looking ahead to a possible rebel victory in the civil war, John McCain said it will be very difficult to build a united democratic government there, due to the tribal rivalries.

"We've seen the difficulties with other countries who made this transition, but we will be rid of a guy who has the blood of Americans on his hands. We will be rid of a guy who has practiced the worst kind of brutalities. And now it's going to be up to us and the Europeans."

Do you get the sense, reading this quote, that Senator Old Man doesn't have the first clue about the significance of what's happened across North Africa and in the Middle East -- in fact, is still going on in Syria?

That the reason for revolt and civil disobedience is reaction to foreign-dominated, brutal leaders and corupt political systems? And that part of whatever governments develop will be to avoid allowing European or American influence to affect their development as independent countries trying to serve their people?

Senator Old Man seems to be living in a world where American dominance was unquestioned. That's not the case any longer (please observe this, as the world is meant to).

Of course, if The Muslim Brotherhood suddenly starts running things, all bets are off.

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Idiot Wind

They Got Nothin'

Crazy Lady Sings Hymns; Promises $2 Gas; Death To Unbelievers

Monsieur Le Gouverneur Placard: "He Just Looks Like A Leader"

Idiot wind
Blowing like a circle around my skull;
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.
Idiot wind; blowing every time you move your teeth
You're an idiot, babe;
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe

Bob Dylan, "Idiot Wind" (Blood On The Tracks, 1975)

It's been quite a week for the Dominionist christian wannabe-candidates, who (if chosen to run against Herr Obama) will complete the transformation of America's Republican Party into an organization dominated by Taliban evangelicals.

Even if Crazy Lady or Mssr. Le Gouverneur Placard lost the race, the GOP would be forced to face the Taliban on their terms: You used us to 'get Out The Vote' for the GOP for years; you said you'd institute the social agenda we want, but you lied. Now we're gonna run things. Get right with Jesus or join the fags and liberals in the camps when we finally take back this country for our god, you blasphemin' Northern types.

It will no longer be a party run by the Old Boys In Washington, as it has been since the turn of the last century. It will be run by Old Southern Boys from their megachurches.

Anyway, until That Great Day comes, we can watch the antics of Crazy Lady and Mssr. Le Gouverneur Placard, and despair: Every nation gets the leaders it deserves. I wouldn't feel this way, except we don't seem to have much by way of leadership at present; no one on the Left seems willing to stand up to these Lumpenhunde; the MSM is either dominated by Little Rupert, or frightened of its own shadow.

An example is Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times, appearing on Friday, August 19th, on PBS News Hour's spinoff, 'Washington Week'. Zeleny noted that Le Governour Perry had made his comments about Bernanke (and the next day, Zeleny claimed, "stayed on script" and took no press questions at all), but that voters in South Carolina (presumably, Republicans) "were saying, '[Perry] looks like a leader'. " And, Zeleny simply let the remark he reported hang there.

Zeleny didn't contrast his reported view of Perry as 'looking like a leader', against Perry's remarks about Global Warming, or his clear cheap shot at Obama's patriotism.

No one in the alleged Mainstream Media wants to criticize the Right for fear of appearing 'too partisan'. Fox/News Corp, and Right Wing Hate Radio, pump out lies and misinformation, 24 X 7; it's been documented and reported by those dirty hippie bloggers -- but no one in the MSM will recognize it... for fear of being labelled "partisan"?

So the obvious manipulations of the Right are allowed to go unchallenged, repeated again and again by the Wingnut Echo Chamber, and finally become accepted as 'fact'. Way to go, Jeffy.

All of this, taken together, might be a place to begin a discussion whether the Democrats and the Rethugs, and the Mainstream Media, are simply different parts of a machine that really serves a thin crust of wealth ... but, that's not a conversation anyone considers seriously in America. More's the Pity for that.

• On Tuesday, August 16, Crazy Lady told a crowd in Spartanburg, S.C.:
  

  Before we get started, let's all say 'Happy Birthday' to Elvis Presley today. We played you a little bit of 'Promised Land' when we pulled up. You can't do better than Elvis Presley and we thought we would celebrate his birthday as we get started to celebrating [the] 'Take Our Country Back' tour.

  As every true American knows, The King died on August 16th. Perhaps Crazy Lady is a foreign-type, and ain't our kind; but this is the same person who celebrated John Wayne Gacy rather than John Wayne, and continually treats facts as inconvenient -- 'Oh, everyone knew what I meant to say'. And you want this witless [redacted] as a Presidential candidate? Seriously?
• On Sunday, August 14, Mssr. Le Gouverneur Placard said to a crowd in response to a question about the economy:
  

  If this guy [i.e. Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke] prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa -- we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. I mean, printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous -- uh, treasonous; in my opinion.

• A Bit Later, Le Gouverneur Placard walked away from another public appearance and was asked if President Obama 'loved his country'. "You'd have to ask him," said Mssr. Le Gouverneur with a smile.
• On Wedensday, August 17, Le Gouverneur Placard was asked at yet another public appearance about assertions in his book, Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America From Washington, that deal with Global Warming, and responded:
  

  I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. I think we're seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.

• On Wednesday, August 17, Crazy Lady told another crowd in South Carolina:
  

  "What people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward.

• On Thursday, August 18, Crazy Lady told yet another crowd in South Carolina that "President Bachmann" would deliver gasoline at "2 dollars a gallon... It's going to happen."
  
  While gasoline was at a national average of $1.79 a gallon when Obama took office in January, 2009, Crazy Lady's remark would be nearly impossible to acheive. The world's shrinking petroleum reserves; even all the Drill, Baby, Drill that Senator Old Man and Crazy Moose Lady wanted to do couldn't keep pace with America's demand for oil; and, even if U.S. oil production soared, OPEC would cut back their own production and intervene in the markets to keep oil prices at the level they want to see. 'President' Crazy Lady would have little power to influence that.
• On Thursday, August 18, Le Gouverneur Placard was speaking about job creation and the economy at a 'Politics and Eggs' breakfast in New Hampshire; after, Perry was approached by James Mahoney, Director of Public Policy for BankAmerica Corporation, who could be seen on a C-SPAN video offering Le Gouvernor his hand, saying, "Bank of America. We'll help you out".
  
  Bank of America spokesperson Lawrence Di Rita (formerly the press spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) later issued this statement:
  

  Bank of America does not endorse Presidential candidates. The reference was about following up on the substance of the speech about job creation and economic growth. Discussing policy issues that affect our company and our customers is something we do with policymakers of both parties routinely at the local, state, and Federal levels.

  Right.

Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Blog Rant

The responses to much of this were relatively swift. Fat Karl Rove, proud owner of a new, fourth chin, called Mssr. Le Governour Perry's remarkes about Fed Chair Bernanke "un-presidential". Ronald Reagan's former domestic policy adviser , Bruce Bartlett, (Saint Ronald The Dim! Everyone Genuflect!) said to CNN, Rick Perry's an idiot, and I don't think anyone would disagree with that.

At the same time, Bartlett remarked -- accurately -- about Obama that "He has had open seats on the Fed [since 2009, which are to be filled by Presidential appointment], and I think that this sends a signal that he just doesn't care very much about what the Fed does".

Given how Herr Obama has Fluffed the Banksters since taking office, it's little surprise that he hasn't made any appointments to the Federal Reserve board; and, any such appointments would meet with Rethug opposition in Congress, which would drain political resources and "detract" attention from the President's true agenda -- only, he'd have to have an actual agenda first, wouldn't he?

The media have duly reported all this, and my Dog nose tells me that as the Party Of Jesus continues its parade through America, there will be huge piles of something left in its wake. We can smell it already.

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