Well, Crap

I think I'm done now.  I've been holding on to whatever slim straw I could feel, hoping Obama would come out of the fog (or at least give me a tiny bit better inkling that he's got something up his sleeve other than a sweaty armpit).  But he won't move on DADT; he's caving on the Bush tax cuts; he's shorting the payments he promised to make to people who most need some help fighting foreclosure; and the list goes on.  It just doesn't look like he knows how to get out of his own way.

So I'm done with him - at least for now.  Right now, the only thing that gets me back is if he mounts an unbelievably effective comeback.  The kind of campaign where he takes everything the Repubs say, he turns it around, and beats the crap out of 'em with it.  Every day for the next 2 years.  But he won't.

I hope I'm wrong.  I hope he actually has the greatness I thought I saw in him 2 years ago.  But I'm not, and he doesn't.  This really sucks.

Send an email to Obama.

Blair v Hitchens On Religion

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8

Makin' Whoopee

Me thinks Ms Jones might be just a touch loaded in this one.

This Won't End Well

If you like the way things have worked in Iraq and Afghanistan with outfits like CACI and Blackwater, then you're just gonna love what happens over time with pay-to-play cops.

Your tax cuts at work.  And you can see a much clearer connection now between the push for more tax cuts and the growing trend towards more privatization from the Free-Marketeers and the Adam Smith-ers.

This particular development is alarming to me because a private police force fits neatly into a private prison system.  Where before the Corrections Industry had to rely on expensive lobbying efforts to influence policy that would keep the prisons full, now they can kinda cut out the middle man and be almost assured a steady stream of revenue simply by helping to supply the means of investigation and arrest.

Activist Post

The Freeman

Washington Post (archives 2007)

Brand Spankin' New

I just stumbled on what was supposed to be my very first post (it was stuck in Drafts Limbo).


09-09-09

My name's Mike, and I'll be your blogger for your trip thru this part of the web.

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now, but like most things for me, I think about it a lot and fantasize about it a lot and then nothing happens - and then at some point down the road, I'd think, "Gee, if I'd actually done what I thought about doing, I'd have quite a bit done by now." I hope this is how it is with lots of people so I won't feel too ridiculous when I go back and read all this junk later on.

My only tho't right now was to get it started - but also I needed to have some space on the web to put stuff so I could be less of a pain in the butt to everybody on FaceBook.

I'll try to get back soon and post something that makes some kind of sense about what I hope to make this thing into.

Security Theater

This week's episode: "The Portland Bomber"

From OregonLive.com:

The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city's annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon. 

A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it. 

However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaintsigned Friday night by U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta.

The FBI got a tip from the accused bomber's parents.  They set up a sting, telling the kid to buy all the materials, mail everything to them, and they'd build the thing for him.

Here's the take over at The Agonist.

Keep an eye on this one.

I'll Be Your Man

From The Black Keys. Basic, 3-guy blues.

Waiting On The World To Change

Boomers have a lot of criticism for the passive stance of "the younger generation"; wondering when they'll step up and at least try to make the changes they seem to be calling for.

The Return To Serfdom

I've been worried for a while that we're heading back to the 18th century, when everything was owned by an aristocracy, and there was practically no such thing as a middle class.

Turns out we're probably a lot farther down that road than I thought.

Here's an excerpt from Matt Taibbi's Griftopia:

Here's yet another diabolic cycle for ordinary Americans, engineered by the grifter class. A Pennsylvanian like Robert Lukens sees his business decline thanks to soaring oil prices that have been jacked up by a handful of banks that paid off a few politicians to hand them the right to manipulate the market. Lukens has no say in this; he pays what he has to pay. Some of that money of his goes into the pockets of the banks that disenfranchise him politically, and the rest of it goes increasingly into the pockets of Middle Eastern oil companies. And since he's making less money now, Lukens is paying less in taxes to the state of Pennsylvania, leaving the state in a budget shortfall. Next thing you know, Governor Ed Rendell is traveling to the Middle East, trying to sell the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the same oil states who've been pocketing Bob Lukens's gas dollars. It's an almost frictionless machine for stripping wealth out of the heart of the country, one that perfectly encapsulates where we are as a nation.

We are so fucked.

Security Theater

Here's the solution to the security hassle at airports.

We just need a booth that you can step into that will not x-ray you, but will apply a new kind of energy emission that does two things: 1) it detects the tiniest amounts of residue from explosives, and 2) detonates any explosive material you have on your person at the time.

This is a win-win, and there'd be none of this crap about racial profiling; plus it eliminates the need for long expensive legal proceedings.  Justice would be quick and sure.

Just imagine - you're in line waiting for the scan; you hear the muffled sound of an explosion, followed by two messages on the PA system.
"Wet clean up on concourse B"
-and-
"Attention standby passengers:  We now have a seat available on flight 63 to Boston..."

(hat tip to Doug Z)